Northernlands 3 - Speakers

Northernlands 3 is a special 2-day ONLINE event that will build on the success of the first and second Northernlands events whilst exploring new topics and challenges that have risen from the pandemic. Here are the currently confirmed speakers for the day:

• Alex Craven

  Co-founder of The Data City

  

  GovTech & MarTech Founder, Ex Agency Founder, Non Executive Director, 20 years experience in marketing, digital and specialist in applications of AI/ML.

  My main focus is on our start up thedatacity.com where we're building ‘the best list builder in the world’ focussed on M&A/Corporate Finance and GovTech data applications.

  I'm also helping agency owners and tech startups with their growth and exit plans and available for a limited number of NED roles.

• Astrid Boeijen

  CEO, Brightlands Smart Services Campus

  

  Dr Astrid Boeijen is CEO of the Brightlands Smart Services Campus, a triple helix innovation campus in the field of data science and AI in Heerlen, in the South of the Netherlands. The Brightlands Smarts Services Campus was founded in 2016 by Maastricht University, the Province of Limburg and pension provider APG. It boasts an ecosystem of over 80 companies, startups, governments and knowledge institutions, of which 30 on-site. Dr Boeijen made the transit to the Brightlands Smarts Services Campus in 2020; in the five years before, she was member of the Board of Directors of Statistics Netherlands, where she was responsible for Data Services, Research and Innovation and led a 600 employee strong division. In addition, she was director of the Heerlen branch of Statistics Netherlands. In her years at Statistics Netherlands, she was responsible for among others the realization of a nationwide system of Urban and Provincial Data Centers and for the foundation of the Center for Big Data Statistics of Statistics Netherlands. Before Statistics Netherlands, dr Boeijen worked at Maastricht University, among others as Director Academic Affairs and Director of the Students Services Center. Dr Boeijen studied Chemistry at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (cum laude) and holds a PhD in Combinatorial Chemistry (Utrecht University, 2000).

• Ben Goldacre

  Author, campaigner, broadcaster, doctor

  

  Ben Goldacre is a doctor, best-selling author, academic and campaigner. His work focuses on uses and misuses of science and statistics by journalists, politicians, drug companies and quacks. His book Bad Science reached #1 in the UK non-fiction charts and has sold over half a million copies worldwide. He has published extensively in all major newspapers and various academic journals, and appears regularly on radio and TV from Newsnight to QI. He has written government papers and reports on evidence based policy, founded a successful global campaign for research transparency, and currently works as an academic in the University of Oxford, where he runs the EBMdataLab building live data tools to make science and medicine better, like OpenPrescribing and OpenTrials. His blog is at www.badscience.net and he is @bengoldacre on twitter.

• Benno Schwarz

  Co-founder & CEO of hello energy

  

  Benno Schwarz is the CEO and Co-founder of hello energy. For over ten years, he’s been consulting real estate owners to create positive environmental impact and leading sustainable tech companies into the next phase from startup to scaleup success. After living in London, New York, and The Netherlands he’s built a long track record building different ventures.

  His long-lasting mission to challenge the status quo in the real estate sector, lead him to establish a new sustainable software company called ‘hello energy’, together with co-founder Kees van Alphen. hello energy is a SaaS solution that enables real estate owners to engage tenants and stakeholders to connect and create energy-positive buildings.

• Caroline Gorski

  Group Director, R2 Data Labs

  

  Caroline Gorski is Group Director of R2 Data Labs, charged with developing the strategy and implementation of data innovation technologies and capabilities for Rolls-Royce that lead to new insights, new solutions and new business models, generating substantial value for the Group. R2 Data Labs was formed in 2017 to be a catalyst and accelerator for Rolls-Royce data innovation.

  R2 Data Labs works across the Rolls-Royce Group as federated community of practice. Working collaboratively with Business Units, we identify, test, prove and accelerate new technologies and business models that best position Rolls-Royce to adopt, deploy and industrialise market-leading data innovation, creating change and positive disruption. We develop and mature the new data innovation expertise capabilities and digital first culture needed to achieve Rolls-Royce’s digital strategy.

  R2 Data Labs are specialist practitioners, who create vibrant communities of practice in the pioneering capabilities and tools that are critical to accelerate data innovation and raising Rolls-Royce’s digital readiness levels,

  • AI, machine learning & data engineering emerging technologies
  • Ecosystem-led open innovation & venturing
  • Business model disruption
  • Building digital skills and culture
  • Data innovation best practice, methodologies and operating models

  Having graduated from Oxford University with an MA, Caroline has spent 25 years analysing, advising and managing strategic change at the leading edge of technology development, including as Head of IoT and Digital Manufacturing for Digital Catapult, part of the UK Government’s innovation support network. Currently, she holds NED and Board Advisory positions for CENSIS and Sensing Feeling as well as roles advising and supporting regional and national governments around the world in Digital Strategy development.

• Danielle Knight

  Collaboration Partner at the College of Design, Creative & Digital Industries at the University of Westminster

  

  Danielle Knight is a Collaboration Partner at the College of Design, Creative & Digital Industries at the University of Westminster. She develops research and innovation projects alongside academics and external partners. Open access is an ethical research principle which the University is committed to making research data ‘as open as possible and as restricted as necessary’.

  Open data has been key to driving leading research at Westminster into Sustainable Cities and the Urban Environment; Health Innovation; Cyber Security, and Computer Vision & Imaging research.

• Dennis Dokter

  Relationship Officer at Nexus, the University of Leeds’ innovation hub

  

  Dennis is the Relationship Officer at Nexus, the University of Leeds’ innovation hub. Nexus connects businesses to world-class research and expertise across the University, providing bespoke support that delivers real commercial impact and accelerates growth. Prior to this, Dennis worked at Statistics Netherlands (CBS) as Grant Development Manager, acquiring funds for research, particularly for Big Data research as well as teaching data ethics and the role of research within society. With a strong background in Philosophy and Ethics of Society Science & Technology, Dennis’ specialties are dealing with questions on data and research methodology.

• Gary Butterfield

  Co-founder and executive director at Everyday Juice Limited

  

  Gary is based in Leeds, part of the glorious county of Yorkshire.

  With years of experience within the fitness industry and HR, he has worked with some of the UK’s leading public and private sector organisations to create remarkable places to work with healthy and happy people. Gary’s key driver for his work is foster greater connections between colleagues and organisations, believing that social wellbeing is the glue that holds every other element of wellbeing together.

  Outside of the EJL, Gary is a keen cyclist, runner, hill walker, and photographer. He’s also co-founder of Leeds Digital Makers, an informal group of hobbyists who support each other to ship their own side project services.

• Gea Mikic

  Programme Manager, Icebreaker One

  

  Gea leads projects focused on systems-level interventions that reduce vulnerability to disasters and protect livelihoods from climate change through changing the cultural mechanics of data sharing. She has a background in disasters, urban resilience and languages with a particular interest in how we view and communicate risk.

• George Konstantakopoulos

  Business Innovation Lead, FutureEverything

  

  George is our Business Innovation Lead at FutureEverything, creating collaborations and facilitating workshops between the Arts, industry and academia to expand the spectrum and reach of our propositions. Also, using his event management and facilitation skills, George is designing and delivering “Innovation Labs” for a number of organisations like The University of Manchester, the Doctoral Training Partnership and more as well as crafting customer proposals.

  George, originally joined our team to lead the Service Innovation WP(3) for GROW Observatory, a Research and Innovation H2020 European Project creating a continental scale land survey (one-of-a-kind) gathering citizens’ soil moisture data with low-cost sensors which achieved to validate satellite products in collaboration with the European Space Agency, work he presented at World Soils 2019.

  George has worked within different industries with a variety of responsibilities and roles and has a diverse background ranging from Marketing, Communications and Business Development to Social Innovation and Technology Startups/Product Development. He holds a Master’s research degree in Social Entrepreneurship which inspired him to launch “Manchester Social Entrepreneurs” a community with a purpose to grow the Social Entrepreneurship movement. He is also part of the Greater Manchester Social Enterprise Advisor board to GM Mayor Andy Burnsham.

• Herko Coomans

  International Digital Health Coordinator, Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport of The Netherlands

  

  Herko Coomans is a digital health policy officer who builds international alliances and partnerships at the Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport in The Hague. He is an advocate of less talk and more action, challenging himself and those around him to go outside their comfort zone.

  Between 2013 and 2017 he co-created and enabled the National Health Information Council, the “whole system in the room” public-private governance council setting the course for patient access, interoperability, and health information exchange in The Netherlands. He has 15 years of experience with e-government development but has found his heart is in digital health and innovation.

• James Maddison

  Consultant, ODI HQ

  

  James works across a number of different areas at the ODI, ranging from public sector support to engineering consultancy. He is primarily focused on supporting the public sector to create value with data, through better service design and greater stakeholder collaboration.

• Jeni Tennison

  Vice President and Chief Strategy Advisor, Open Data Institute

  

  Jeni Tennison is the Vice President and Chief Strategy Advisor of the Open Data Institute. She gained a PhD in Artificial Intelligence, then worked as an independent consultant specialising in open data publishing and consumption. She was the Technical Architect and Lead Developer for legislation.gov.uk before joining the ODI as Technical Director in 2012, becoming CEO in 2016, and Vice President in 2019.

  Jeni sits on the UK's Open Standards Board; the Advisory Board for the Open Contracting Partnership; the Board of Ada, the UK's National College for Digital Skills; the Co-operative’s Digital Advisory Board; and the Board of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.

• Jet Berndsen

  Project Manager, Smart Mobility at the CTO of the City of Amsterdam

  

  Jet Berndsen works as a project manager Smart Mobility at the CTO of the City of Amsterdam. Here she works on various innovation tracks, focused on smart mobility solutions. Through different projects she bridges the gap between new (digital) mobility concepts and actual uptake, while working closely together with businesses, (local) government, universities and public. Currently, she works on the European Interreg NWE project eHUBS and EIT Urban’s Mobility Smarthubs project to help Amsterdam’s reach its goals in becoming a more safe, accessible and smarter city in the future.

• Jordan Appleson

  CEO, Hark Systems

  

  Jordan Appleson, the CEO and co-founder of Hark Systems, brings his vision of a connected world to life through the ground-breaking use of IoT technology. Jordan helps supermarkets, life science organisations and industrial businesses with large facilities meet their net zero targets, saving them money and reducing energy consumption. The reduction of waste and the increasing of efficiency is a big part of Jordan’s ethos and is firmly cemented into Hark’s mission to “increase the way the world performs”, and this has been recognised in the renewables sector, resulting in Hark’s work being recently awarded as Highly Commended by the British Renewables Association

• Julian Tait

  Co-founder and CEO of Open Data Manchester CIC

  

  Julian is co-founder and CEO of Open Data Manchester CIC, an organisation that seeks to help cities, organisations and communities understand the power of data. He is passionate advocate for digital technologies that can help build more resilient communities, develop new forms of economic activity and give people a stake in the process of governance. This has lead to research into mutual data ownership models such as data cooperatives and the development of the Declaration for Responsible and Intelligent Data Practice for Greater Manchester. He has been involved in developing projects and advocating for open and accessible data infrastructure, through engaging and building communities of practice within cities since 2009. He co-developed the Open Data Cities programme in Manchester, UK, DataGM - The Greater Manchester Datastore, GMDSP and has had involvement with many other local, national and international open data and Smart City initiatives. He was also a contributor to the Open Data Handbook, The Open Book and other papers. He has spoken locally and internationally on subjects related to Open Data Manchester’s work.

• Karel van Oosterom

  The Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

  

  Mr Karel van Oosterom is ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland since 2020.

• Kersten England

  CEO Bradford City Council and Business Lead on Innovation & Growth at West Yorkshire Combined Authority

  

  My eclectic career path includes work within the public private and voluntary sectors and periods of formal employment within organisations and self employment. I am driven by a belief in individual and organisational capabilities and potential. My role as a chief executive through a period of deep economic recession and significant redefinition of the policy and fiscal landscape for local government has been to keep the organisation focussed on core purpose - the creation of prosperity for the place and its people, now and for the future.

• Leonard Carey

  CEO and Founder of Aware Technologies

  

  Since 2015 Leonard has been on a mission to develop ultra-small environmental monitoring technology that is intelligent enough to provide assistance at the edge and has data privacy and user agency at the heart. His driving principle is how to make responsible data a reality where individuals choose what they share and with whom and get a better understanding and confidence about how their data can help them live healthier lives.

  Innovation has been part of Leonard’s career since 1998 working in big data analytics, IoT and communications working for EDS (now HP), Orange, AT&T and Arqiva in Europe and the US. He has created a team that reflects that experience and embraces new thinking; AI and Machine Learning academics and newbies, electronics engineers, mechanical designers, software engineers and UX researchers/designers who put community centred design first.

  The team is creating the sensors and user-centric applications that can gather the large volumes of data needed to drive new models of housing performance, that in turn provide the insights and agency that make people want to engage with.

  ‘We are a diverse group with experiences spanning over 30 years, and we are driven by empathy, curiosity and the desire to make things simple’.

  Aware Technologies is a startup and have recently won a significant 12-month contract with Leeds City Council Social Housing through the UK Government Govtech program. It is an ambitious project to help Leeds City Council and their Social Housing Tenants co-create a solution that helps them to predict and fix issues with housing faster and helps tenants to understand their home better.

  ‘We want to create a new trust and confidence in data so communities can work together to improve the condition of homes and the health and wellbeing of households. We are looking forward to working with any organisation that shares our mission’.

• Marc Farr

  Founder, Beautiful Information

  

  On leaving the management consultancy Experian Marc joined UCL’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis as a senior research fellow. It was there that he made initial contact with Dr Foster, analysing the relationship between geodemography and health outcomes. They were looking at the use of postcode level statistics to standardise hospital mortality rates alongside variables such as age, sex and diagnosis to enable hospitals to be compared with one another.

  In 2004 Marc joined Dr Foster as Director of Product Development where he oversaw the company’s development of tools across clinical benchmarking, financial management and health needs mapping. In 2007 Marc was made Honorary Professor at UCL in the field of Geomatic and Civil Engineering. In 2010 he joined East Kent University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust where he is Director of Information responsible for informatics, coding and clinical systems. Marc is a graduate of the King’s Fund future leaders course and was named in the HSJ Top 50 Innovators in Health 2013.

• Matt Blakeley

  Head of Sales and Marketing, Ludimos

  

  An experienced marketing and business development specialist, Matt began his career working in Commercial and Corporate Banking in Leeds. Following work in Inward Investment for the City Region and roles at Bond Dickinson and PwC Matt joined the ECB delivering a national growth programme to grow and develop the grassroots of the sport. After a 4-year spell where he oversaw a regional team delivering numerous projects in the sports development space, he decided to step out on his own working as a consultant in the sports sector. In this capacity Matt has been working with Ludimos since October 2020 on their Sales and Marketing activity and strategy.

• Matt Clancy

  Economist, Iowa State University

  

  Matthew Clancy is an economist working on the economics of innovation, currently at Iowa State University and formerly at the United States Department of Agriculture. He is the author of The Case for Remote Work, published by The Entrepreneur Network, and a co-author of The Case for a More Distributed Federal Workforce, published by the Progressive Policy Institute. Though he currently lives in the American Midwest, he lived in the United Kingdom for several years, working and studying.

• Paul Connell

  Founder, ODI Leeds

  

  Paul is an entrepreneur and specialist in innovation, his experience and knowledge means that he has developed a unique skill-set in the field Open Innovation, Data & Smart & Future Cities.

  He founded ODI Leeds in November 2013 and DataCity in 2016.

  ODI Leeds is a pioneer node of the Open Data Institute. It was created to explore and deliver the potential of open innovation with data at city scale. It works to improve lives, help people and create value.

  DataCity is a Data as a Service (DaaS) company that is using Big Data and AI to understand the economy in real time.

• Rikkert Paping

  Head of Financial Solutions, LOGEX

  

  LOGEX is leading the way in healthcare analytics. We empower stakeholders at every level of the healthcare system by bringing clarity to decisions that result into the best possible healthcare. Our solutions transform data into actionable insights, showing exactly where to take strategic action that leads to the best possible outcome at lowest possible cost.

• Rory Canavan

  Associate at Ove Arup & Partners Ltd

  

  Rory Canavan leads the Arup Ecology and Biodiversity team in Yorkshire & Northwest England. His role entails responding to directly to the biodiversity agenda and the wider interrelationship with the climate emergency. He is more broadly responsible for the development of ecological and biological sciences within Arup. Leading on innovation and foresight, e.g. regenerative design, urban biodiversity, and horizon scanning. He has a direct focus on rapidly emerging agendas; e.g. member of the design committee for Science Based Targets for nature for Cities and an appointed member of the Scientific and Expert Committee for Infrastructure and Ecology Network Europe (IENE).

• Ruben Nieuwenhuis

  Managing Director, TechConnect

  

  Ruben is an entrepreneur and now an Entrepreneur in Residence acting as the Managing Director TechConnect, a program spearheaded by the Amsterdam Economic Board.

  He was the former director of StartupAmsterdam and a driving force in connecting and strengthening tech-ecosystems around the world.

  In 2018 his focus shifted from ‘strengthening the startup & tech ecosystem’ to —“something that I've been passionate about for years”— equality & inclusiveness via Talent Development & Education.

  Roles include:

  • Managing Director TechConnect — Tech Talent program to activate, re- and upskill and attract 50K tech talents in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in the coming 4 years.
  • Educating Cities to grow as a Tech hub — advisory roles to cities Cologne, Ukraine and others.
  • Board Roles in Educational Initiatives — Codam, FutureNL, Chair Entrepreneurship Minor UvA/VU, and Growth Tribe Academy.

  Nieuwenhuis was involved in various startups and innovation projects: i.e. DutchBasecamp (founder), CodeUur (co-founder, now FutureNL), FellowForce (co-founder & CEO), StBC (founder & CEO), Amsterdam Capital Week, Startup in Residence, SCALE network, Growth Tribe Academy, Dutch Student Investment Fund, TechMeUp Fund, TechGrounds (co-founder) & TekkieWorden (co-founder).

  Co-author of the book StartupCity. StartupCity is designed to provide civil servants and public-private initiatives the guidance on how they can think and work as a startup. It gives a comprehensive look at how the public sector can boost their startup ecosystem and nurture the city as a breeding ground for innovation and job growth.

• Sharena Lee Satti

  Independent spoken word artist, and Poet from Bradford, West Yorkshire UK

  

  Her work is published by the Verve poetry press. Her book titled "SHE" was released on November 2020.

  She is a very passionate poet who writes poetry about her own personal life, current environmental issues, social stigmas, homelessness, poverty and discrimination? She speaks openly about her past and the struggles she had to endure. She found her voice and encourages others to find theirs through poetry and self-expression.

  She shares her love of spoken word through performance art and has contributed immensely over the past years, she is an influential, uplifting voice in Bradford, spreading her empathy and love of poetry in her local community. Which also lead Sharena to be selected as a Bradford community champion. An education influencer. Sharena has been nominated for the British Indian awards 2020, Media arts and culture and has recently being associated with The Verve poetry Press, Chelping, Red Bull amaphiko, Film and Photographer Tim Smith and Balbir Dance, Kala Sangam (The artist takeover) Bradford Festival, Bradford Literature Festival, and BBC radio, NHS

  The south square arts centre, Mend, Bradford producing hub, Saltaire festival, Ilkley Lit festival, Bradford Libraries, Leeds Lieder, BBC Leeds, Drystone radio, Bcb Radio, BBC radio 4,

  She has facilitated Spoken word events and has worked closely with schools delivering Poetry workshops. You can book Sharena.

• Shiv Malik

  Head of Growth, Streamr

  

  Shiv Malik is a broadcaster, author, technologist, former Guardian investigative journalist, and co-founder of the Intergenerational Foundation think tank. He is currently head of growth for Streamr where he evanglises about a new decentralised data economy and is psyched about bringing Data Unions to the world.

• Stuart Sherman

  Founder & CEO, IMC

  

  Stuart runs one of the most innovative AI companies in the world, pioneering two new classes of AI, “Behavioural AI”, an “Simulation AI”. This isn’t exactly surprising based on his history. Having studied Managerial Sciences in university, specifically the aspects of Managerial Accounting relating to Behavioural Economics, and Organisational Behaviour. Stuart went on to start an early Management Information Services company which, in the late 1980’s, ran a private network for mail and file transfer between Toronto, New York and Mexico City. Selling that company, Stuart founded one of Canada’s first Digital Agencies – before the Internet was a household thing! That company was sold in 1999 to WPP and Stuart transitioned into Finance, creating an innovative sub-prime lender, which built a substantial automotive loan portfolio which he sold shortly before the financial crisis of 2007. Stuart’s business maintained other lines of lending and he was named the Canadian Lease and Finance Association Member of the Year 2010. As the business evolved, Stuart once again got interested in Technology, and specifically the early stages of AI. Today you will find him working with some of the worlds’ largest companies, designing and implementing AI solutions designed to change the way they understand their Big Data.

  Awards & recognition:

  • 2010 - Canadian Lease and Finance Association- Member of the year award
  • 2018 - Finalist of the CEO of the year at the European AI Awards
  • 2018 - Won The Best AI Global Startup at the AI Awards

• Thimo Sommer

  COO of Toogethr

  

  Al lot of employees are currently working from home, but this is not something temporary. We expect that working from home will remain popular, even post-pandemic. The office function is changing - employees have other needs and wishes, which means that as a company you have to be flexible, sustainable and get insights on who and when your employees are getting to the office.

  Toogethr empowers the new generation of travellers with smart software to elevate the experience and reduce the impact of the commute by turning it from mindless into thoughtful. Our mission is making commuting more comfortable, more efficient, and more sustainable. With over 40 employees and active in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany we simplify mobility Toogethr! My name is Thimo Sommer - COO of Toogethr - responsible for our (international) growth and I will tell you how our services will get your organization ready for the Future of the Workplace.

• Zandra Moore

  CEO, Panintelligence

  

  Panintelligence is a leading business intelligence and analytics software developer. Their CEO and joint-founder Zandra Moore has over 20 years’ experience of working in the technology sector, and her passion for enabling businesses to drive performance through data insights and analytics is highly infectious. Prior to working for Panintelligence, Zandra ran her own software solutions consultancy business and has founded a range of local B2B networking organisations, including LeanIn Leeds – a network of over 550 professional women, holding regular monthly events. She is particularly proactive in promoting Northern tech and women in tech and regularly gives talks and participates in panel discussions aimed at furthering these causes (eg. speaking for FinTech North at events across the Northern Powerhouse). Zandra is on a mission to make the industry accessible for everyone. In a sector that continues to suffer a gender imbalance, inclusivity is at the core of Panintelligence, from gender to disability. Its aim is to make sure everyone enjoys the same opportunities. In 2018 Zandra was recognised as the female CEO of the Year in the English Women’s Awards, North.