Meet the Fellows

The Innovation Fellowship grants industry leaders in innovation the chance to build networks with like-minded experts and develop new strategies.

Fellows are leaders in corporate innovation, who are passionate about driving innovation that is open, effective and inclusive.

Through the programme, the Fellows are enabled to develop their own open innovation strategies informed and validated by industry experts in a collaborative, transparent environment.

The network connects corporate innovators to equivalents across sectors and provides them with peer-to-peer support groups, allowing them to unlock their organisation's innovation potential, share best practice and discuss lessons learnt in open innovation practice.

The Innovation Fellowship is London’s leading cross-industry innovation community and provides peer-to-peer connections that could take decades to build without taking part in the programme.

Fellows

Find out more about some of the Fellows in our network:

  • Gráinne Allen

    Gráinne Allen

    Director of Food & Innovation, McDonald's UK
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    Gráinne Allen

    Gráinne Allen

    Director of Food & Innovation
    McDonald's UK

    Gráinne has been Director of Food and Innovation at McDonald’s since January 2021. She has more than 30 years in the food industry and has a unique level of experience in all aspects of the food industry, particularly in the fields of innovation, strategy and change, having run many multimillion-pound product strategies in retail, manufacturing, food service and brand. 

  • Adam Weir

    Adam Weir

    Senior Director of Innovation and Materials, New Balance
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    Adam Weir

    Adam Weir

    Senior Director of Innovation and Materials
    New Balance

    Adam is a creative leader with more than 20 years in the fashion and consumer goods business. He has a global outlook, having worked in many countries around the world. Adam leads a team of project managers, engineers and designers focused on creating innovative products for New Balance Apparel.

  • Sol Enenmoh

    Sol Enenmoh

    Director, Group Digitalisation, HSBC
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    Sol Enenmoh

    Sol Enenmoh

    Director, Group Digitalisation
    HSBC

    Sol Enenmoh helps organisations become better by encouraging new ways of thinking. He joined HSBC in 2022 to promote innovative methods and encourage group-level digitalisation at scale globally. Previous roles include EY, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Vanquis Bank, Hastings Direct, Vhi and BP (retail and payments).

  • Sonal Lakhani

    Sonal Lakhani

    Head of Programmes and Strategic Initiatives, Barclays UK
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    Sonal Lakhani

    Sonal Lakhani

    Head of Programmes and Strategic Initiatives
    Barclays UK

    Sonal is a senior leader of the Barclays Innovation team, where she heads up programmes and strategic partnerships. Sonal focuses on creating meaningful initiatives and programmes for the team. The purpose of these is to help build the supply of fintechs to the ecosystem, supporting companies to grow and scale as the clients of tomorrow; identifying early signals from startups and VCs for new markets beginning to emerge or accelerate; identifying and validating early-stage investment opportunities and venture investments creating an informational flow between the open innovation ecosystem and Barclays. She leads the global flagship programme, Barclays Accelerator powered by Techstars, and Female Founder initiatives as part of her portfolio of work. Prior to working in Barclays Innovation, Sonal worked in capital markets with a focus on trading platform sales working with some of the largest asset managers, hedge funds and banks across Europe and the UK.

  • Jonathan Lewis

    Jonathan Lewis

    Head, Commercial Innovation, Channel 4
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    Jonathan Lewis

    Jonathan Lewis

    Head, Commercial Innovation
    Channel 4

    Jonathan joined Channel 4 in the autumn of 2012 and has performed a number of roles within Channel 4’s commercial team over the last nine years, previously leading Digital Advertising sales and strategy. Recently, he has expanded his responsibility, driving growth and innovation across all areas of Channel 4's commercial business, building upon existing successful innovations in areas such as digital and social (4Studio) and linear addressable advertising. He is also developing new revenue streams to deliver Channel 4's Future4 strategy. Jonathan is a multi-faceted commercial leader with experience delivering transformational results for both digital and broadcaster businesses.

  • Tracy Walker

    Tracy Walker

    Director of Technology and Innovation, Unilever
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    Tracy Walker

    Tracy Walker

    Director of Technology and Innovation
    Unilever

    Tracy leads a global innovation team focused on engaging with innovation technologists, exploring technology trends and executing solutions that transform the business landscape. She is a believer of transformative, collaborative partnerships, and creating open and productive coalitions to solve the bigger issues. Passionate about planet and society and determined that technology has a pivotal role to play in tackling the climate emergency, Tracy and her team are also responsible for architecting Unilever’s overall sustainability technology strategy.

  • Jennifer Sheldon

    Jennifer Sheldon

    Head of Core Innovation, LEGO
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    Jennifer Sheldon

    Jennifer Sheldon

    Head of Core Innovation
    LEGO

    As Head of Core Innovation at the LEGO Group’s Creative Play Lab, Jennifer is working to create opportunities for children to reach their potential through play. Prior to her role at the LEGO Group in London, Jennifer spent nearly two decades in San Francisco’s Bay Area building innovative products designed to educate, entertain and inform. She also guest lectured on Product Management & Innovation at the Product School and Product Events, launched a mentorship program for Sony Interactive Entertainment, and lead the San Francisco Chapter of Women@ PlayStation.

  • Chetan Kotur

    Chetan Kotur

    Head of Technology and Innovation, Europe, Laing O’Rourke
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    Chetan Kotur

    Chetan Kotur

    Head of Technology and Innovation, Europe
    Laing O’Rourke

    Prior to joining Laing O’Rourke in 2022, Chetan was instrumental in starting up and launching globally Polestar, the high-performance electric car brand headquartered in Sweden. Most recently, he was Head of Products for Asia Pacific, based in Shanghai. At Laing O’Rourke, Chetan leads the team developing transformative innovations focused on improving productivity, safety and sustainability for complex buildings and infrastructure projects. Chetan has a first-class degree in Automotive Engineering from Loughborough University and was named Young Engineer of the Year in 2018 by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

  • Jonathan Munday

    Jonathan Munday

    Executive Director, Strategy, Sustainability and Innovation, NatWest
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    Jonathan Munday

    Jonathan Munday

    Executive Director, Strategy, Sustainability and Innovation
    NatWest

    Jon is an Executive Director at Coutts and serves primarily as a Strategy, Sustainability and Innovation Lead for Coutts and the NatWest Group Wealth Businesses. He has been with the NatWest Group for eight years, the majority of which has been spent with Coutts. Jon holds a BA degree from the University of York, a master's from Hult International Business School and a Postgraduate Certificate from the University of Cambridge. He is a keen runner and has taken part in events all over the world including the Marathon des Sables.

  • Mariama Boumanjal

    Mariama Boumanjal

    Senior Startup Partner Manager, Google
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    Mariama Boumanjal

    Mariama Boumanjal

    Senior Startup Partner Manager
    Google

    The Lead for Google for Startups UK, Mariama manages the programmes and portfolios of more than 200 startups from the UK and across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Since 2020, Mariama has also managed the Black Founders Fund, having provided $35m to more than 400 Black Founders across Europe, Africa, North America and Brazil, with founders securing more than $400m in follow-up funding.

  • Nichola Bates

    Nichola Bates

    Head of Global Accelerators and Innovation Programs, Boeing
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    Nichola Bates

    Nichola Bates

    Head of Global Accelerators and Innovation Programs
    Boeing

    Nichola joined Boeing in 2017, where in her role as Managing Partner for Aerospace Xelerated, she invests in and supports startups using AI and autonomous technologies to the benefit of the aerospace sector and related industries. Prior to Boeing, Nichola worked with early stage and scaling startups, where she championed the role of the SME to government, particularly in the security and resilience sector. Nichola has extensive experience of international business development and fundraising for growth, from strategy through to execution, and a wide network across governments and industry. Since working with one of the world’s largest corporations, Nichola has become even more passionate about the benefits of collaboration between startups and corporates.

  • Gerard Kelly

    Gerard Kelly

    Director, UK Innovation, National Grid
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    Gerard Kelly

    Gerard Kelly

    Director, UK Innovation
    National Grid

    Gerard leads the UK Innovation team at National Grid Partners. He’s passionate about sustainability and is motivated to be part of the drive to net zero by developing the innovative technologies and impactful business models to help his company get there. Gerard has more than 10 years’ experience in the energy sector leading multi-disciplinary teams in startup and corporate environments. Gerard is a Chartered Engineer, holding an MBA from INSEAD and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Limerick, Ireland.

  • Andy Doyle

    Andy Doyle

    Innovation Director, Grosvenor Property UK, Grosvenor
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    Andy Doyle

    Andy Doyle

    Innovation Director, Grosvenor Property UK
    Grosvenor

    Andy Doyle is a senior professional with more than 20 years of industry and professional services experience in major public and private sector organisations. He has extensive track records of leading teams on complex business transformations, real estate projects and programmes, investment, and operational management. Working as the Innovation Director for Grosvenor's UK property business (£5bn property portfolio), Andy leads the Innovation programme and Alternative Investment Portfolio.

  • Claire Hadden

    Claire Hadden

    Director, Brand and Innovation, Greene King
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    Claire Hadden

    Claire Hadden

    Director, Brand and Innovation
    Greene King

    As the Brand Director for Innovation and the Premium, Urban and Ventures division at Greene King, Claire is establishing an innovation function, with ownership of the creation of all new concepts within the portfolio. The remit is to identify and drive execution of transformational ideas, products and business models that will achieve sustainable growth and differentiation, future-proofing the Greene King business. Innovation at Greene King will include new pub and hotel propositions, ideas, methods, sales channels and ways of working. Previously, Claire spent 17 years at Diageo across North America and Europe in the Brand Marketing and Innovation functions.

  • Dan Francis

    Dan Francis

    Innovation and Digital Director, BDO UK
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    Dan Francis

    Dan Francis

    Innovation and Digital Director
    BDO UK

    Dan is the Director of Innovation and Digital for BDO UK. His previous experience extends across digital products and propositions, change, strategy and innovation in large and small companies, for brands such as American Express, BP, Sainsbury's, Barclays and Google.

  • Rachel Kneen

    Rachel Kneen

    Strategy & Innovation Lead, Just Eat
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    Rachel Kneen

    Rachel Kneen

    Strategy & Innovation Lead
    Just Eat

    Rachel has been working in marketing for 14 years. For the last six years, she has worked at Just Eat, the UK's biggest online food delivery marketplace. Having spent most of her career in social media and strategy, she has been appointed as Just Eat's first Strategy and Innovation Lead, tasked with taking the UK business into the next stage of growth.

  • Edward Manning

    Edward Manning

    Commercial Innovation Director, Dentsu
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    Edward Manning

    Edward Manning

    Commercial Innovation Director
    Dentsu

    Edward Manning is a media professional with more than 12 years of experience, currently charged with developing new, diverse and innovative revenue streams to protect the future of Dentsu International. He has a keen interest in generating value between the margins, as well as using adjacency to become relevant in new sectors. He's passionate that Dentsu has much to learn from other industries, and that operational transformation will be required.

  • Dan Hufton

    Dan Hufton

    Head of Technology Innovation, AstraZeneca
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    Dan Hufton

    Dan Hufton

    Head of Technology Innovation
    AstraZeneca

    Dan leads a global innovation team focused on the identification, rapid assessment, implementation and adoption of emerging technologies and novel ideas to create business benefit, aiming to influence and transform the business and taking a strategic three to five year viewpoint. He is an ambassador for diversity and inclusivity and plays a leading role in driving change and ensuring AstraZeneca is a great place to work for everyone.

  • Joana Santos

    Joana Santos

    Head of Strategy UKI, Amazon Web Services
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    Joana Santos

    Joana Santos

    Head of Strategy UKI
    Amazon Web Services

    Joana Santos leads Strategy for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Amazon Web Services (AWS). This organisation helps companies from startups to the largest enterprises accelerate their customer-centric digital business transformation and help them realise new forms of customer value, leveraging AWS Cloud. Before this role, Joana led Sales Strategy and Operations for LATAM at LinkedIn’s digital advertising business and worked in strategy consulting at EY-Parthenon across Europe, the US, South America and Africa. Her previous experience includes working in the African technology start-up M-KOPA, American investment bank Citigroup and the UK Parliament.

  • Tom Winstanley

    Tom Winstanley

    CTO, Head of New Ventures, NTT DATA
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    Tom Winstanley

    Tom Winstanley

    CTO, Head of New Ventures
    NTT DATA

    Tom has worked on the interface between business, experience and technology for more than 20 years in a range of industries and customer-facing business and technology roles with clients across Europe, APAC and North America. He enjoys the variety (and similarity) of challenges their clients face and building innovative solutions with his teams across the NTT DATA Group and wider NTT Group R&D community. Twice Tom has been a founding member of a digital practice, heading consulting and supporting the scale out of the organisation to deliver differently. He considers himself an information junkie and an honorary lecturer in University College London's computer science department.

  • Tara Waters

    Tara Waters

    Partner, Head of Ashurst Advance Digital, Ashurst
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    Tara Waters

    Tara Waters

    Partner, Head of Ashurst Advance Digital
    Ashurst

    Tara is a technologist turned lawyer working at Ashurst LLP. After beginning her first career in technology at the height of the dot-com boom, Tara transitioned into law and relocated to London. Her legal practice focuses on advising startups and institutions on emerging technologies, business strategies and digital transformation. She also leads Ashurst's digital products and services team, responsible all aspects of the firm's technology-enabled services delivery. Tara is co-leading an initiative to articulate the firm's digital strategy.

  • Oriana Medlicott

    Oriana Medlicott

    Technology and Innovation Strategy, Fujitsu
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    Oriana Medlicott

    Oriana Medlicott

    Technology and Innovation Strategy
    Fujitsu

    Oriana leads AI Ethics in the Technology Strategy Unit at Fujitsu. In her role, she focuses on AI Ethics strategy and, alongside startups, leading POC's across Fujitsu's technology areas. She is co-host of the Let’s Chat Ethics podcast, Strategic Partnerships Lead for Diverse AI and on the advisory board of The AI Ethics Journal at UCLA. Prior to Fujitsu, Oriana worked as an AI Ethics consultant with startups, think tanks and academia across North America and Europe. Oriana also guest lectures the Introduction to AI Ethics in Industry module at Nottingham Trent University.

  • Jim Johnson

    Jim Johnson

    Director, UKIMEA Region Board Member and Digital Leader, ARUP
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    Jim Johnson

    Jim Johnson

    Director, UKIMEA Region Board Member and Digital Leader
    ARUP

    Jim is the board director responsible for providing strategy and direction for the digital transformation of the business in UKIMEA. He leads and support work to develop improved and new service offerings using digital and data-driven innovation across multiple business sectors and locations. He joined Arup in 1986 as a civil engineer. Between 2007 and 2011, he led Arup Geotechnics, Arup's specialist ground engineering consultancy practice working worldwide across all their market sectors. He subsequently went on to lead large teams for a variety of clients delivering major infrastructure projects and was also the leader of its Leeds office.

  • Aaron Smith

    Aaron Smith

    Head of Innovation Ecosystems, Fidelity
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    Aaron Smith

    Aaron Smith

    Head of Innovation Ecosystems
    Fidelity

    A passionate disruptor, an obsessive innovator, an inquisitive researcher and a recovering technologist. With 20+ years experience across the technology and financial services industries, Aaron has an inherent desire to uncover "unknown unknowns" and to help those looking to change the future for the better.

  • Vikram Seth

    Vikram Seth

    Blockchain and Web3 Innovation Manager, Shell
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    Vikram Seth

    Vikram Seth

    Blockchain and Web3 Innovation Manager
    Shell

    Vikram is a passionate innovator with more than a decade of experience in the energy sector, working with industry-leading organizsations such as Shell. With expertise in sustainable development, systems thinking, and digital innovation, Vikram is focused on Web3 technology and its transformative potential to shape the future of the energy sector.

  • Mayowa Odusote

    Mayowa Odusote

    Senior Design Lead – Radical Change, DLA Piper
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    Mayowa Odusote

    Mayowa Odusote

    Senior Design Lead – Radical Change
    DLA Piper

    Mayowa is the Senior Design Lead and part of the Radical Change team at DLA Piper, helping to shift mindsets by delivering impactful client engagements and interactions using design thinking. Passionate about empowering people to create change, prior to joining DLA Piper, Mayowa worked at EY as Deputy Innovation Lead for the People Advisory Practice. She has more than eight years’ experience in management consultancy.

  • Jess Bonner

    Jess Bonner

    Director, Capita
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    Jess Bonner

    Jess Bonner

    Director
    Capita

    Jess Bonner is a Director at Capita Scaling Partner (CSP), the strategic investment team for the Capita Group, and helps to bridge the gap between large enterprise/public sector and tech SMEs. With a commercial background, Jess started her career in finance and qualified as a corporate solicitor before moving into the world of tech. At CSP she is responsible for strategic partnership origination, investment exits and CSP operations, as well as working with colleagues across Capita on a company-wide partnership strategy.

  • Iryna Chekanava

    Iryna Chekanava

    Senior Manager, Innovation and Partnerships, Lloyd's
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    Iryna Chekanava

    Iryna Chekanava

    Senior Manager, Innovation and Partnerships
    Lloyd's

    Iryna has more than 10 years of experience working in the technology sector with a focus on insurtech. Before working at Lloyd's, she ran her consulting agency that specialised in building and scaling innovation communities and startups. Iryna holds a bachelor's degree in Media and Communications (with distinction), and a naster's of Social Sciences in Political Science and Public Policy.

  • Oliver Latham

    Oliver Latham

    VP Strategy and Growth – Workforce Skills, Pearson
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    Oliver Latham

    Oliver Latham

    VP Strategy and Growth – Workforce Skills
    Pearson

    An experienced consulting, sales, commercial and strategy professional, Oliver is building the Workforce Skills Division as VP Strategy and Growth at Pearson. Prior to this, Oliver led a team of 40 sales and commercial professionals across the UK and Ireland in the Higher Education market. Oliver has worked in major global organisations, and was a strategy and management consultant at EY for 11 years. He has led companies and governments in different countries and built his own startup business.

  • Svetlana Jefimova

    Svetlana Jefimova

    Senior Innovation Manager, De Beers
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    Svetlana Jefimova

    Svetlana Jefimova

    Senior Innovation Manager
    De Beers

    With more than a decade of diverse and cross-functional experience, Svetlana works as Senior Innovation Manager at De Beers Group, where she is responsible for designing, testing, launching, and scaling new business models, products and services in various markets (UK, USA, Asia and Southern Africa). Svetlana's previous experience includes strategic and consulting projects in oil and gas, financial services, utilities, government, retail, quantum computers, events and sustainability. Svetlana holds a BSc in Economics and Business from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, an MSc in Economics and Business from the Norwegian School of Economics, and a CEMS Masters in International Management.

  • William Pryke

    William Pryke

    Head of Open Innovation & Tech Scouting, Openreach
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    William Pryke

    William Pryke

    Head of Open Innovation & Tech Scouting
    Openreach

    Will works in technology scouting and innovation for Openreach to accelerate its Open Innovation programme. An experienced executive and Open Innovation specialist, William has more than 20 years of experience exploiting disruptive technologies and delivering new solutions. Most recently, he was responsible for the establishment of the University of Suffolk – DigiTech Centre, supporting academic collaboration with entrepreneurs, business and government. Formally, William was Head of the BT Infinity Lab, a group wide accelerator programme supporting consumers and business, which delivered a number of startup collaborations.

  • Neel Patel

    Neel Patel

    Group Manager, Public-Private Innovation, Venture Innovation, Citi Ventures
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    Neel Patel

    Neel Patel

    Group Manager, Public-Private Innovation, Venture Innovation
    Citi Ventures

    Neel leads Citi Venture’s global public-private innovation initiatives. He is responsible for developing partnerships that leverage Citi’s expertise to help clients meet their policy goals in the areas of sustainable economic development, social equity, inclusion and fluency with emerging financial technology. Since 2005, Neel has held a variety of senior finance roles at Citi across London, Budapest, Dublin and New York. Prior to Citi, he worked in professional services and industry, with roles at Andersen, Deloitte and International Power. Neel is a chartered accountant and holds a BSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics.

  • Ana Maria Norbury

    Ana Maria Norbury

    Director, Global Service Design, Baker McKenzie
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    Ana Maria Norbury

    Ana Maria Norbury

    Director, Global Service Design
    Baker McKenzie

    Ana Maria leads the global service design team and plays an instrumental role in leading Reinvent, Baker McKenzie's innovation programme. The service design team uses design thinking methodologies to design and implement innovative solutions that continuously improve the client experience and to grow a culture of innovation across the firm.

  • Mike Daley

    Mike Daley

    Group Director, Strategy and Innovation, PageGroup
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    Mike Daley

    Mike Daley

    Group Director, Strategy and Innovation
    PageGroup

    Mike is passionate about the value people and technology create when they work together. Having built successful teams in fields from the arts to civil aviation, he has led them to identify and deliver innovative solutions to drive growth and competitiveness. Now at PageGroup, a specialist global recruiter, Mike is responsible for bringing external insight and perspective to the organisation, ensuring Page remains an industry leader in the innovative application of technology and supporting clients in their talent missions.

  • Greg Baker

    Greg Baker

    Global Head of Practice Innovation, Linklaters
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    Greg Baker

    Greg Baker

    Global Head of Practice Innovation
    Linklaters

    As Global Head of Practice Innovation at Linklaters, Greg heads up a team of practice-embedded innovation lawyers and a multi-disciplinary innovation delivery team. Greg is a qualified lawyer with more than 10 years of practicing experience and is also a committed legal technologist.

  • Manish Naik

    Manish Naik

    Principal, Digital Innovation, BP
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    Manish Naik

    Manish Naik

    Principal, Digital Innovation
    BP

    Manish is an MBA professional with 12 years’ experience in operations, consulting, innovation and programme management across various industry sectors. He is a quick learner with keen business acumen and strong analytical abilities. Manish has a proven track record in leading cross-functional and multicultural teams, across the US, UK, Europe and India. His current role is focused on scanning and evangelising digital innovations in the oil and gas sector.

  • Scott Heath

    Scott Heath

    Head of Innovation, Thales
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    Scott Heath

    Scott Heath

    Head of Innovation
    Thales

    Scott has worked in the rail transportation sector for nearly 10 years, initially joining Network Rail after completing an MSc in Programme and Project Management with a specialism in Innovation. He moved to Thales in 2019 to help manage its European Commission co-funded R&D as well as delivering the innovation roadmap. From 2021, he has assumed the responsibilities of the former Head of Innovation, leading an R&D and Technology team based in London.

  • Verena Tse

    Verena Tse

    Innovation and Strategy Manager, KFC
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    Verena Tse

    Verena Tse

    Innovation and Strategy Manager
    KFC

    Verena is Innovation and Strategy Manager at KFC UK & Ireland. Currently, she is leading the automations and robotics pillar, hoping to change the way the in-restaurant teams work. As part of the Tech Innovation team, she also partakes in defining KFC UK & Ireland's innovation roadmap and breeding the innovation culture in other teams. Before KFC, Verena was with Uber and Gousto.

  • Chris Kelsey

    Chris Kelsey

    Vice President, Global Delivery Innovation, Salesforce
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    Chris Kelsey

    Chris Kelsey

    Vice President, Global Delivery Innovation
    Salesforce

    Chris is the Vice President of Global Delivery Innovation. Building on a career utilising technology to drive business outcomes, Chris leads Delivery Innovation across the Global Professional Services organisation at Salesforce, capturing and leveraging the innovation that occurs across the organisation for the benefit of all. He lives in south London with his wife and twin boys.

  • Gursheel Mendhir

    Gursheel Mendhir

    Head of Innovation and Emerging Products, Virgin Media O2
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    Gursheel Mendhir

    Gursheel Mendhir

    Head of Innovation and Emerging Products
    Virgin Media O2

    Gursheel spearheads Virgin Media O2’s move beyond commoditised telecommunications products, to fulfil the ambition of being a complete digital experience provider. Her team imagines and creates the future of telecommunications via their cross-functional incubator focused on launching ambitious digital products in entirely new markets. They experiment with disruptive technologies and potential partnerships with startups and other companies to enable product launches.

  • Nick Passey

    Nick Passey

    Head of Commercial Digital & IT, International & Japan, AstraZeneca
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    Nick Passey

    Nick Passey

    Head of Commercial Digital & IT, International & Japan
    AstraZeneca

    Nick is responsible for digital and IT across AstraZeneca’s emerging markets (International) and Japan (Commercial) – covering Asia, Middle East, Africa, Russia, Eurasia and Latin America. Nick is a member of the International Region leadership team and Global IT leadership team at AstraZeneca. Nick focuses on enabling new patient experiences and outcomes through exploiting innovative digital solutions, which includes addressing challenges in the end-to-end patient journey.

  • Ashleigh Monagle

    Ashleigh Monagle

    Digital Advisory – Head of Digital & Data Advisory, Mott MacDonald
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    Ashleigh Monagle

    Ashleigh Monagle

    Digital Advisory – Head of Digital & Data Advisory
    Mott MacDonald

    As a Digital Consultant, Ashleigh leads organisations through transformation with disruptive innovation that delivers positive outcomes. Often acting as an anchor for cross-functional teams, she provides both stability and connectivity when change is inevitable. These attributes have enabled fast execution and early benefits realisation for commercial success in more than 20 projects, including a 120% decrease in internal overhead cost. Ashleigh's distinctive approach to working combines being direct, collaborative and empathetic to develop fresh and innovative insight. She believes the best solutions and teams are grown in this way, providing the perfect environment for competitive advantage to flourish.

  • Nicholas McQuire

    Nicholas McQuire

    Director, Enterprise AI and Innovation, Microsoft
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    Nicholas McQuire

    Nicholas McQuire

    Director, Enterprise AI and Innovation
    Microsoft

    Nicholas is a globally recognised thought leader and former 20+ year technology analyst with a passion for artificial intelligence and enterprise innovation. He was named among the top technology analysts in the world in 2019 and 2020 by the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations. Moreover, Nicholas is a board member with entrepreneurial and corporate experience and a proven track record advising C-level executives and enterprise IT strategists. He is also a member of the CIO100 and Next CIO judging panels which recognise the most transformational CIOs and next generation of IT leaders in the UK each year.

  • Sam Dover

    Sam Dover

    Global D&A AI Assurance & Strategy lead, Unilever
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    Sam Dover

    Sam Dover

    Global D&A AI Assurance & Strategy lead
    Unilever

    A tech professional with a demonstrated history of working in the consumer goods industry, Sam has experience in digital strategy, open innovation, artificial intelligence, enterprise architecture, metaverse, product management, digital marketing, eCommerce (DTC and B2B), collaboration technology, sustainable sourcing, global change management, data and AI ethics. Sam was a graduate of Unilever’s Future Leader Programme and holds a BSc (Hons) Biology from the University of Manchester.

  • Katie Mills

    Katie Mills

    Head of Zeigo Power, Schneider Electric
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    Katie Mills

    Katie Mills

    Head of Zeigo Power
    Schneider Electric

    Katie is Head of Zeigo Power recently acquired by Schneider Electric. Prior to this Katie led innovation and investment for Schneider Electric UK and Ireland, helping to identify market gaps and potential investment opportunities for Schneider Electric, and to position Schneider Electric as a key part of the UK innovation ecosystem. Katie has spent the last 10 years working in the early stage tech community, working with startups in renewable energy tech through to cyber security innovations. She has invested in more than 30 startups as an angel investor and sits on multiple boards as a strategic advisor to startup teams

  • Rupert Cryer

    Rupert Cryer

    Head, Engagement (National Resilience), Cabinet Office
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    Rupert Cryer

    Rupert Cryer

    Head, Engagement (National Resilience)
    Cabinet Office

    Rupert recently applied innovation best practice as part of the COVID-19 Task Force. He has also worked at Wayra (Telefonica’s startup accelerator) and Policy Lab, won EY’s Dragons’ Den for the Civil Service, co-founded Policy School and took SKYroom's innovation spaces from idea to implementation. Rupert was a main stage speaker at Adaptive Path’s Service Experience Conference in San Francisco and is a Policy Fellow at University of Cambridge, specialising in innovation and entrepreneurship.

  • Lucy Eaton

    Lucy Eaton

    Head of Strategy and Business Development - Regional, The Crown Estate
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    Lucy Eaton

    Lucy Eaton

    Head of Strategy and Business Development - Regional
    The Crown Estate

    Lucy is a specialist in the commercial property sector with more than 10 years’ experience as a lawyer. In 2018, she joined the Regional Team at The Crown Estate to help devise a transformation strategy to support the creation of broader value for the benefit of all end-users of their buildings and places, now and into the future. Lucy’s dynamic and commercial style and commitment to excellence in service delivery and project management, provides the perfect platform for strategy work, including how to bring innovation to the centre of what they do and how they do it.

  • Paul Taylor

    Paul Taylor

    Sustainability Innovation Manager, Hitachi
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    Paul Taylor

    Paul Taylor

    Sustainability Innovation Manager
    Hitachi

    Paul is an experienced sustainability and innovation professional currently working within Hitachi Europe Research and Development on new technologies. He creates IP and policy recommendations and forges collaborative partnerships, such as the Hitachi-Imperial Centre for Decarbonisation and Natural Climate Solutions at Imperial College London. His previous roles span multiple sectors, including electric vehicles, fast-moving consumer goods, mining and agriculture.

  • Danielle Roberts

    Danielle Roberts

    Innovation and Project Lead, Cancer Research
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    Danielle Roberts

    Danielle Roberts

    Innovation and Project Lead
    Cancer Research

    Danielle works in innovation and product development for Cancer Research UK. A product development expert, she has more than 15 years of experience building product and brand value and launching new propositions for global clients. She has experience working in the tech, financial services, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), pharma and healthcare sectors. She is skilled in designing and executing qualitative and quantitative user research, product management, agile project management, coaching and embedding insight and innovation skills within organisations.

  • Laura Goldwyn

    Laura Goldwyn

    Head of New Ventures, Mandarin Oriental
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    Laura Goldwyn

    Laura Goldwyn

    Head of New Ventures
    Mandarin Oriental

  • Anna Browne

    Anna Browne

    Head of Innovation and Legal Technology, Trowers & Hamlins
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    Anna Browne

    Anna Browne

    Head of Innovation and Legal Technology
    Trowers & Hamlins

    Anna Browne leads the Trowers & Hamlins Innovation and Legal Technology team. She is responsible for the firm’s international innovation strategy, internal technology efficiencies, use of legal technology in the business and client solutions. Anna is a qualified lawyer with a background in real estate finance. Anna trained at a city law firm and prior to working in innovation, Anna was an Associate at Trowers & Hamlins.

  • Julene Aguirre

    Julene Aguirre

    Director, Research and Design Strategy, Capital One
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    Julene Aguirre

    Julene Aguirre

    Director, Research and Design Strategy
    Capital One

    Julene Aguirre is a designer, researcher and strategist. Her work focuses on applying design thinking methodologies to help businesses innovate and solve problems through empathy and creativity. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and an MSc from Imperial College London in Innovation Design Engineering, as well as a BA in Product Design from HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd. Having worked in agencies, academia, startups and independently on projects for a variety of industries, Julene currently leads a team of researchers and strategists developing new financial products, services and experiences at Capital One.

  • Georgios Kolovos

    Georgios Kolovos

    Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Ecosystem Development, PayPal
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    Georgios Kolovos

    Georgios Kolovos

    Global Head of Strategic Partnerships and Ecosystem Development
    PayPal

    A results-orientated and entrepreneurial-minded executive, Georgios has experience in building and strengthening businesses by creating strategic alliances and partnerships and developing new distribution channels for new markets and segments. A leader with an intercultural background, Georgios has worked with partners and customers globally and managed growth agendas at country, regional and global levels.

  • Inara Khan

    Inara Khan

    Head of Delivery Innovation, NHSX
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    Inara Khan

    Inara Khan

    Head of Delivery Innovation
    NHSX

    Inara is the Head of Innovation Delivery at NHSX, creating cutting edge digital pathway transformation and strategy through understanding what technology works and how her team builds the evidence base to scale this. Prior to this, at NHS England and NHS Improvement, Inara led the work on the faster diagnosis of cancer in the Cancer Team, and worked on the implementation of national innovation programmes in the genomics team and strategy team. She previously worked in local government and as a Broadcast Journalist for the BBC, having graduated with a Masters degree in International Peace and Security and a degree in War Studies.

  • Sarah Balachandran

    Sarah Balachandran

    Head of CX and Innovation, Capgemini
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    Sarah Balachandran

    Sarah Balachandran

    Head of CX and Innovation
    Capgemini

    Sarah runs the UK’s largest public sector specialist UX agency within Capgemini. Her relentless focus on user needs through user centre design, and her interest in utilising diversity and seeking out innovation, led her to support startup social enterprises.

  • Fiona Dolman

    Fiona Dolman

    Director for Transformation, London Fire Brigade
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    Fiona Dolman

    Fiona Dolman

    Director for Transformation
    London Fire Brigade

    Director for Transformation with the London Fire Brigade, Fiona’s diverse career and operational and transformational leadership experience has involved functional to enterprise level business change delivery. She has demonstrated drive and energy that has created a pattern of marked service improvements. A strong advocate of good governance, programme controls and assurance, with a focus on people centred business change, Fiona has excellent collaborative working skills, is able to simplify complexity, influence decision makers and build strong stakeholder relationships.

  • Grant Dall

    Grant Dall

    Head of Transformation – EMEA, Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
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    Grant Dall

    Grant Dall

    Head of Transformation – EMEA
    Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

    Head of Transformation for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, Grant has more than a decade of product management and business development experience in the ICT space – in both B2B and B2C. Grant has experience in mobile broadband, carrier-grade and consumer wifi, incubation, site acquisition, IoT, satellite networks and alliance management. A creative at heart, Grant believes in a healthy disregard for the same old, same old. Throughout his career, he has helped people and businesses think differently so they can make positive change – for the organisation and for themselves.

  • Richard West

    Richard West

    Partner and Global Head Client Innovation, Global Head Liability Defence, Kennedys
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    Richard West

    Richard West

    Partner and Global Head Client Innovation, Global Head Liability Defence
    Kennedys

    Richard is a director of Kennedys IQ, a partner at Kennedys, Divisional Head of Liability, Global Strategy Board member and Head of the Kennedys’ Innovation Group. As leader of the Kennedys’ Liability Division, Richard has an interest in how technology can impact the legal and insurtech sector. He sponsors Kennedys’ global Ideas Lab, designed to give everybody at Kennedys the chance to develop innovative solutions to solve client challenges. Richard and his team have won several legal/tech and innovation awards, including the “FT Innovative Lawyers 2019: Innovation in the business of law – new products and services” award. He was named by the FT as one of the top 10 Innovative Individuals, who are “Leaders of revolutions in legal practice” in Europe.

  • Dr David Leeney

    Dr David Leeney

    Deputy Portfolio Director, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)
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    Dr David Leeney

    Dr David Leeney

    Deputy Portfolio Director
    His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)

  • Darren Smith

    Darren Smith

    Managing Director. Europe, Hackman Capital Partners
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    Darren Smith

    Darren Smith

    Managing Director. Europe
    Hackman Capital Partners

    As Managing Director of The MBS Group Europe, Darren is responsible for the management, development and growth of the company in one of the world’s most important production destinations. With a career spanning more than 20 years, Darren has a wealth of experience and in-depth industry knowledge in the provision of professional equipment and support services, and studio operations and real estate solutions, to the film, television and media production industry. 

  • Tom Williamson

    Tom Williamson

    Head of Innovation, Scottish Power
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    Tom Williamson

    Tom Williamson

    Head of Innovation
    Scottish Power

    As Head of Innovation, Tom coordinates and leads on innovation policy and initiatives across the ScottishPower group. Tom has been at ScottishPower since 2009, previously working on Westminster political and parliamentary relations across the SP/Iberdrola group’s interests in the UK. Prior to joining the company, he spent five years working in Parliament, latterly as Director of the Parliamentary Resources Unit in the House of Commons.

  • Rikesh Shah

    Rikesh Shah

    Head of Open Innovation, TfL
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    Rikesh Shah

    Rikesh Shah

    Head of Open Innovation
    TfL

    Rikesh leads Transport for London’s (TfL) award-winning market innovation activity to create new value for London by working with startups, corporates, academia, accelerators and venture capitalists. He set up TfL’s first Innovation Hub to help solve existing city challenges through new technologies.

    Rikesh was previously responsible for TfL’s world-leading open data programme which has 17,000 registered users and 700 apps powered by TfL data used by 42% of Londoners. An independent review valued the programme's worth to London at £130m per annum.

    Rikesh also sits on the Smart London Board to deliver the Mayor of London’s vision to make London the smartest city in the world, as well as on the Advisory Boards for Doteveryone, focusing on Tech for Good, and Citytech Collaborative in Chicago.

  • Tanveer Mohammed Aziz

    Tanveer Mohammed Aziz

    Client Executive & Head of Innovation, UST Global
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    Tanveer Mohammed Aziz

    Tanveer Mohammed Aziz

    Client Executive & Head of Innovation
    UST Global

    Tanveer heads up the Innovation Practice at UST Global, where he works on emerging technology across fintech, retech and healthcare sectors throughout the UK. He splits his time talking to various stakeholders across a variety of clients and technology experts across UST – bringing them together to accelerate innovation.

  • Amrit Mehrotra

    Amrit Mehrotra

    General Manager & Cluster Head (Banking & Capital Markets), Wipro
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    Amrit Mehrotra

    Amrit Mehrotra

    General Manager & Cluster Head (Banking & Capital Markets)
    Wipro

    Amit is a senior business executive with more than 20 years’ experience in global IT Services for financial services clients. Amit heads the Banking Financial Services and Insurance Business Unit for Wipro in Continental Europe. Energetic, passionate and self-driven, Amit has a track record of sales leadership in building and growing IT services business. Amit has an extensive experience across large deals, digital transformation, outsourcing, execution and alliances and partnerships.

  • Adrian McGrath

    Adrian McGrath

    Client Partner and Digital Transformation Lead, UST
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    Adrian McGrath

    Adrian McGrath

    Client Partner and Digital Transformation Lead
    UST

    Adrian is a highly experienced Digital Strategist and Digital Transformation Leader with more than 28 years in the design and delivery of innovative, customer focused technology solutions across a diverse set of industries and for more than 50 clients. With a strong technology background, Adrian is passionate about innovation and helping companies to transform into a true digital business, which continually innovates and adapts in response to change. Adrian pioneered the development of a world first breakthrough prototype to visualise cloth movement and fit of 3D clothes on 3D avatars, running in real-time within the browser.

  • Claire Holden

    Claire Holden

    Chief Innovation Officer, Hill + Knowlton
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    Claire Holden

    Claire Holden

    Chief Innovation Officer
    Hill + Knowlton

    Claire is focused on how Hill+Knowlton (H+K) and its clients adapt to an ever-changing world, creating new communication strategies and ideas that set the agenda as well as react to it. Claire looks at how brands connect to culture and communities, apply trends and technology, and evolve to be distinctive and future proofed. Claire is responsible for H+K’s Futures Council.

    Alongside her agency-wide role, Claire leads the Adidas account at H+K, which includes global communication strategy and campaigns, as well as local execution for its London newsroom. Claire has worked with several other London-centric clients including Westfield and the London Eye.

  • Cynthia Vega

    Cynthia Vega

    Global Lead, iLab and Global Product Lead, Dx Analytics, Kantar
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    Cynthia Vega

    Cynthia Vega

    Global Lead, iLab and Global Product Lead, Dx Analytics
    Kantar

    Cynthia leads the global product for Dx (Digital Analytics) and the global Innovation Lab at Kantar Analytics. Using the latest in human and artificial intelligence, her team helps clients accelerate the launch of new innovations and create strategies for better communications through the use of data, tech and analytics. An intrapreneur and social entrepreneur based in London, she connects entrepreneurs from across countries and mobilises members of diaspora communities.

  • Ronnie Menassa

    Ronnie Menassa

    Group Head of Innovation, IQ-EQ
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    Ronnie Menassa

    Ronnie Menassa

    Group Head of Innovation
    IQ-EQ

    Ronnie has more than 20 years of experience helping a range of companies with technology solutions, implementing strategies and ideas, and enhancing productivity while driving innovation through technology. With a strong entrepreneurial and management background, and a passion for emerging technologies including blockchain, Ronnie is an approachable and pragmatic thinker, looking at ways to deliver innovative, dynamic, long-term solutions to solve problems and overcome challenges.

The Fellowship offers a much-needed human-to-human interaction and network of senior innovation leaders, which allows me to source solutions to the problems and create new innovations every day.
Sonal Lakhani 
Global Head of Programmes and Strategic Initiatives, Barclays UK

Become a Fellow

Apply now or speak to a member of the Innovation Fellowship team for more information.

Find out more

Apply to the programme