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Cyber incident that closed British Museum was inside job

A disgruntled insider appears to have been behind a security incident at the British Museum, which forced the 270-year-old institution to partially close its doors over the weekend of 25 and 26 January following disruption to core IT systems.

The incident shuttered two of the museum’s ongoing special exhibitions, one on the history of the ancient Silk Road trading network connecting Asia and Europe, and one on the prints of Pablo Picasso, after key systems including the museum’s ticketing platform were disrupted.

“An IT contractor who was dismissed last week trespassed into the museum and shut down several of our systems,” a spokesperson for the museum said. “Police attended and he was arrested at the scene.

“With regret, our temporary exhibitions were closed over the weekend – ticket holders were alerted and refunds offered.”

The British Museum told Computer Weekly that all of its exhibitions and facilities have now reopened.

London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed its officers attended the museum on the evening of Thursday 23 January and arrested an unnamed man in his 50s on suspicion of burglary and criminal damage. The individual has since been released on bail.

Since the cyber incident did not appear to involve any element of cyber criminal hacking or malware, its long-term impact is unlikely to be as significant as similar attacks against other cultural institutions, such as the autumn 2022 Rhysida ransomware attack on the British Library – from which it’s still recovering.

In this instance, the British Museum appears to have experienced minimal impact, with the disruption apparently limited merely to that caused by unscheduled downtime

Nevertheless, it behoves all organisations to pay close attention to the potential for IT disruption arising from insider actions as their impacts can be wide-ranging, and costly.

Indeed, according to IBM’s 2024 Cost of a data breach report, when compared against other cyber attack vectors, attacks by malicious insiders tend to result in higher recovery costs, close to $5m (£4m) on average, although such attacks represented only 7% of the total seen in the report data.

Risk management

It’s also important to factor insider threats into cyber risk planning activities as such incidents can be very difficult to detect. This is because malicious insiders often look like ordinary users and typically do not reveal themselves until the minute they carry out their attack, at which point the damage is done.

This is in contrast to ransomware attacks, for example, in which organisations with appropriate threat-hunting measures and network monitoring in place can sometimes detect the warning signs of an impending incident, and take steps to thwart them.

“Cyber security arrangements must be agile and constantly updated to keep up with the evolving threat landscape,” said SonicWall executive EMEA vice-president Spencer Starkey.

“This requires a proactive and flexible approach to cyber security, which includes regular security assessments, threat intelligence, vulnerability management, and incident response planning,” he said.

“It also requires ongoing training and awareness programmes to ensure that employees are aware of the latest threats and best practices for cyber security,” said Starkey.

“By maintaining agile and up-to-date cyber security arrangements, companies can minimise their risk exposure, detect and respond to threats more effectively, and maintain the trust and confidence of their customers and stakeholders.”

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Software AG shrinks with sale of Alfabet and Cumulocity

The Software AG group started the new year with a slew of changes, announcing the close of the sale of its Alfabet enterprise architecture and strategic portfolio management product and of its IoT platform Cumulocity, the departure of CEO Sanjay Brahmawar, and the relaunch of its Adabas & Natural [A&N] and Aris product sets as standalone businesses.

The identity of the buyers of Alfabet and Cumulocity have yet to be disclosed, according to a Software AG spokesperson.

A&N provides non-relational transactional database software, which includes its own programming language, and processes billions of transactions for business processes across platforms including mainframe, Linux and the cloud.

Aris is business process mining and management software, focused on SaaS systems for enterprises. Its process modelling and process mining software is said to be geared towards enabling its customers to manage the entire process lifecycle.

These moves follow the announcement of the sale of Software AG’s “Super iPaaS” business to IBM in December 2023 for €2.1bn, only six months after US private equity group Silver Lake had acquired Software AG for €2.6bn.

The firm has been owned by SilverLake since May 2023. Software AG has long been known as second only to SAP as a German IT supplier, and it was founded in 1969.

As the holding entity of the Software AG group, Software GmbH [limited liability company], it recently announced that it has closed the sales of Alfabet and Cumulocity, following the divestments of the webMethods, StreamSets and [industrial analytics software] TrendMiner businesses in July 2024. TrendMiner was sold to a German industrial analytics specialist provider Proemion in April 2024.

Sanjay Brahmawar has also departed as group CEO. The changes are being presented as part of a strategy to operate Adabas & Natural (A&N) and ARIS as standalone businesses, each led by their own management teams.

In a statement, the holding company described Brahmawar as “instrumental in evolving Software AG from a legacy software company to a modern, subscription and SaaS business, focused on ARR [Annual Recurring Revenue] growth. He drove the acquisition of StreamSets which, combined with webMethods, was later recognised in the market as Super-iPaaS, culminating in the business being acquired by IBM in July 2024. Brahmawar was also integral to the carve-out and divestments of the TrendMiner, Cumulocity and Alfabet businesses.”

Brahmawar said: “It has been a privilege to lead such a well-respected company through many significant moments in its recent history, and to have worked with such a talented and committed team of professionals”.

Silver Lake has appointed Martin Biegel, Martin Clemm, Robin Colman and Toktam Khatibzadeh to lead Software GmbH, which will operate Software AG’s central functions, as well as being the holding company for ARIS, and Adabas & Natural (A&N).

Software AG has an active user groups community worldwide, with European country groups in the UK, the Nordics and the Netherlands, as well as in the German-speaking countries. It has user communities for Alfabet, Cumulocity and webMethods, as well as for Aris, and Adabas & Natural.

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Top 10 women in tech and diversity in tech stories of 2024

This year signalled a worrying time for diversity, equity and inclusion in the technology sector as many firms began rolling back their initiatives and efforts.

This lack of commitment led many notable diversity organisations to dial back their own efforts, not wanting to contribute to allowing firms to pretend to be making a difference rather than actually turning the dial.

As the year bows out, many questions still remain about how the diversity landscape will look next year in the UK’s tech sector.

At the beginning of the year, women in the technology and finance sectors mobilised to reverse a government decisions which threatened to cause a diversity rift for startup funding.

Following a consultation, HM Treasury decided to change the criteria for what defines a “high-net-worth individual”, making it more difficult for women to become angel investors.

MP Caroline Dinenage backed the investHER campaign, which called for a change in the new law, and eventually the decision was reversed.

Research from BCS, expanding on the organisation’s study from before the pandemic, found that growth of diversity in the UK’s tech sector has been slow in the past five years.

Using women in tech as an example, the research found the number of women who make up UK tech professionals was 20% in 2022, only a 4% increase since 2018.

There is lots of debate about what exactly prevents people from underrepresented groups choosing a tech sector career.

The Institute of Coding claimed in some research that people aren’t fully sure what a role in the technology sector involved, and this misunderstanding, alongside the lack of representation of the UK’s general population among those in tech roles, is a huge barrier for those considering a career in tech.

In the summer of 2024, network for women in business, Everywoman, announced the winners of this year’s technology awards, in partnership with Bupa.

‘Empower. Transform. Thrive’ was the theme this year, with much of the conversation surrounding the importance of increasing the visibility and accessibility of female role models in the tech sector to encourage others into tech.

Each year, Computer Weekly, alongside its partner Harvey Nash, hosts a diversity in technology event to discuss subjects relating to the topic and to announce its list of the most influential women in UK technology.

The writeup from the 2023 event was released this year, including advice from tech experts on how to promote diversity and inclusion in tech businesses and why everyone needs to be involved where diversity, equity and inclusion is involved.

As part of ServiceNow’s Knowledge24 event, actress Viola Davis spoke on her career, on women in tech, and on the importance of supporting those around you both in your career and in your life.

Stating that you “can’t go it alone” in life, Davis explained how mentorship and help from others massively helped her through her career, mirroring the conversation in the technology sector surrounding the importance of role models for encouraging others to pursue a tech role.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly important in both life and business, leaving many concerned about the diversity of the teams who are developing it.

Research from IBM found that business leaders in the UK believe that making sure women are in decision-making positions in the technology sector will be vital for ensuring AI and other technologies are developed with everyone in mind.

After its annual report found that the tech industry is dialling back on diversity initiatives, the Tech Talent Charter announced it would be disbanding after nearly 10 years in operation.

As it closed its doors, it issued a call to action to the industry not to go backwards in its efforts to improve the industry, giving advice on what to do next.

The industry’s concern that not having women involved in the development of technologies such as AI would have a detrimental affect on some user groups was confirmed by research from Code First Girls and Tech Talent Charter.

Job automation is 40% more likely to affect women than men, according to the joint research, though this could be improved with ongoing training.

In 2024, Sheridan Ash, co-CEO of technology education charity Tech She Can, became the 13th person to be named Computer Weekly’s most influential woman in UK tech.

The announcement was made alongside the rest of the top 50, as well as Computer Weekly’s 2024 Rising Stars, and the list of women in tech Hall of Famers.

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Interview: Wendy Redshaw, chief digital information officer, NatWest Retail Bank

Wendy Redshaw, chief digital information officer (CDIO) at NatWest Retail Bank, has had a distinguished career leading technology-led change in some of the world’s biggest financial services organisations. Now, she’s using that experience to drive even more innovation.

After four years as CIO for collaborative technology solutions with Deutsche Bank, Redshaw says she was eager to work for a UK finance house. In late 2018, she found the perfect home at NatWest as head of technology and digital distribution for the personal bank.

“The opportunity was interesting because NatWest was ready for digital transformation but wasn’t naturally sitting in a leadership position at that time,” she says. “The role allowed me to land and think about what to do. I found an organisation that was fundamentally focused on its customers and perhaps had less digital experience in-house.”

After working with her team to deliver technological improvements across the personal bank offline and online, Redshaw moved into the CDIO position in February 2020. “It wasn’t just because I wanted a longer acronym than most technologists,” she jokes.

“We created the role so we could sew together business and technology because, as with many organisations, technology had historically been something that happened over there, and the business did their thing, and then they would give the technologists something to work on. We wanted better integration.”

Embracing digital change

Redshaw says the creation of her CDIO role in 2020 was a public statement that NatWest wanted to create a partnership approach to technology and business: “This is a digital bank in the making, and hopefully, with the results that we’ve seen, we’ve achieved our aims.”

The technological transformation in banking services that Redshaw oversees at NatWest today differs greatly from the finance industry she joined as a software engineer in 1987.

“We didn’t call it digital then,” she says. “I remember the focus was on, ‘How do we use technology to make things quicker, simpler and more secure for our customers?’” She points to work on a security module for the London Stock Exchange and the beginning of the settlement systems CHAPS and Euroclear.

“There was a lot of change where technology was being brought in, but it was more for the underpinning services than for the consumer-facing areas,” she says, before fast-forwarding to the present-day bank. “Over that time, we’ve seen that digital is now in the hands of our retail customers.”

Redshaw says the shift in technological focus also helped prompt her switch to the retail side of banking. After a career driving behind-the-scenes IT changes in major firms, such as Lloyds TSB, Barclays Capital and Royal Bank of Scotland, her current role at NatWest is focused on delivering innovative customer services.

“That’s where the exciting stuff is happening. Yes, of course, we use AI across several areas of the organisation – something like 17% of our models are AI-based now, such as for controlling fraud, financial crime and so on,” she says.

“However, in terms of affecting human beings, digital services are at our customers’ fingertips. If you think about my driver for going into the CDIO role, the customer is where I thought I’d have the most impact.”

Delivering pioneering innovations

As CDIO, Readshaw is directly accountable to the group CIO and retail banking CEO. Responsible for digital operations leadership, she manages 4,500 people across four locations globally and leads the delivery of retail banking technology for Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank North.

Redshaw’s team is digitalising services to make life easier for the group’s customers. Their work is supported by a planned investment of £3.5bn from 2023 to 2025, with more than 70% of spending targeted at data and technology.

NatWest has 10.9 million digitally active retail and business banking customers and 3.5 million use online banking platforms. The hard work continues apace. In 2024, Redshaw led the launch of a retail banking app on Apple’s Vision Pro virtual reality headset.

One of her proudest achievements is the introduction of generative AI (GenAI) into the bank’s conversational assistant, Cora. She says the bank made an early move into chatbots. Cora was introduced in 2017. The technology could answer basic questions, but Redshaw wanted it to do more.

“When I joined in 2018, I realised it was quite a good channel to do something with,” she says. “I had some grand ambitions for her – things like digital avatars having a voice, and all these engaging ways of doing things. I said, ‘Look, I see this particular technology being something we could get moving on’.”

Redshaw saw that, while machine learning technology was progressing at pace, it wasn’t quite ready for the giant leap in digital experiences she envisioned. However, the public release of generative AI models in late 2022 helped turn theory into a practical reality. Working with experts from IBM’s client engineering team to develop the initial proof of concept, NatWest launched its next-generation assistant, Cora+, in June 2024.

Cora+ is a multichannel platform that securely accesses data from multiple sources, including products, services and banking information. The virtual assistant technology is powered by IBM’s Watsonx Assistantand built on IBM Cloud. Estimates suggest the technology is creating a 150% improvement in satisfaction for some customer queries.

“It was the perfect example of an interest in technology, an interest in people, and an interest in delivering business value,” she says. “I feel very excited about how we’ve taken something that just answered questions and moved into generative AI at scale for millions of customers. And it’s only the first step. I’ve got big ambitions for what I want to do with that technology.”

Building strong partnerships

Cora+ uses ChatGPT 3.5 alongside an unnamed GPT large language model (LLM). The second model is trained to judge the output of the first model. While the GPT models play an important role in NatWest’s digital strategy, the organisation is eager to keep an open approach to AI and innovation.

Redshaw says the group wants to avoid being locked into a specific LLM. She wants the capability to swap from large to small language models (SLMs). Organisations can use SLMs to derive outputs from constrained amounts of data that require less computing power, which is important for a big business like NatWest that wants to meet sustainability targets.

“As a result, it was a case of, ‘OK IBM, we like working with you, but we want to be able to switch the language models in and out depending on the business requirement’,” she says. “And they were like, ‘Absolutely’. So, that’s great. We have the same mindset around using the best of everything to get value for our customers safely.”

Wendy Redshaw, Natwest

“This is a digital bank in the making, and hopefully, with the results that we’ve seen, we’ve achieved our aims”

Wendy Redshaw, NatWest Retail Bank

In addition to the work on Cora+, Redshaw and her colleagues are analysing how AI can boost customer experiences in other areas. NatWest has worked with IBM to develop a digital legal assistant powered by GenAI. This tool streamlines contract management and enhances accessibility, especially for neurodivergent users. The tool supports colleagues with compliance checks, producing 20% efficiency gains.

More generally, Redshaw is proud her team completes thousands of releases annually. The department’s focus on micro-projects is as important as delivering large-scale initiatives and helps NatWest hit tight transformation deadlines. Across all projects, IBM acts as a key technology partner, with Redshaw suggesting the nature of the long-term working relationship with the tech giant is like interacting with people on the internal team.

John Duigenan, distinguished engineer and general manager of the global financial services industry at IBM, says shifting to constant innovation, experimentation, and learning is typical of the work his company sees in its most pioneering clients. “We got to work with a trusted partner, and we got to learn together,” he said, referring to IBM’s relationship with NatWest.

“It’s great we co-create approaches to using technology and collaborate on innovation. Our teams blend incredibly well, and we deliver together in new ways. We have an approach that says, ‘We know why this work will matter for all of us because we can measure the impact’.”

Providing new experiences

Redshaw reflects on achievements during the past few years. While the benefits of the digital transformation she’s enacted at NatWest are clear, there’s always an opportunity to do more.

She says the rapid pace of transformation makes it difficult to predict with any degree of certainty what will happen next: “What will the success metrics be in three years? We won’t be judged on the same metrics because digital banking is changing quickly.”

However, she expects to see developments in some key areas. “In the AI space, I expect to see more voice,” she says. “At the moment, Cora listens to our telephony and sends a text, a deep link, or something else that’s required. In the future, I think it’ll probably answer the phone and deal with questions.”

Redshaw also expects progress in text-based answering. Her bank’s research suggests people in financial difficulties often prefer having a guilt-free conversation with a bot rather than a human. “I would expect something in that financial health and support space that uses natural language,” she says.

There’s even the potential for advances in unexpected areas. Redshaw says she’s keen to add Cora to ATMs, something that she was previously told was impossible.

“I’ve now spoken to some innovation engineers, and they’ve said they think it might be possible,” she says. “So, I suspect we will see something like a digital point of presence.”

Finally, Redshaw expects the bank to continue honing its approach to mobile. “People now have their bank in their pocket,” she says. “I imagine we will give more richness and engagement through these devices. Even though our mobile strategy is great, I think it will lean towards more engagement and personalisation during the next 24 months.”

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AMD pushes GPU advantage with HPC top spot

The AMD-powered El Capitan supercomputer, housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), is now ranked as the world’s fastest supercomputer.

Built by HPE, the supercomputer uses AMD Instinct MI300A accelerated processing units (APUs). It achieved a High-Performance Linpack (HPL) score of 1.742 exaflops based on the latest Top500 list. 

The LLNL is using the supercomputer for nuclear security. El Capitan is the first exascale-class machine for the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and will be used to advance scientific discovery and national security, providing what AMD says is “the computational power necessary to ensure the safety, security and reliability of the nation’s nuclear deterrent without testing”.

It is being used for modelling and simulation capabilities to support NNSA’s Stockpile Stewardship Programme, which certifies the ageing nuclear stockpile and other critical nuclear security missions, such as non-proliferation and counter terrorism. 

“El Capitan is crucial to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s core mission and significantly bolsters our ability to perform large ensembles of high-fidelity 3D simulations that address the intricate scientific challenges facing the mission,” said Rob Neely, director of LLNL’s advanced simulation and computing programme.  

LLNL and the other NNSA at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories are also using El Capitan and its companion system, Tuolumne, to drive artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-assisted data analysis. El Capitan will apply AI to high energy density problems such as inertial confinement fusion research, while Tuolumne will be used for unclassified open science applications including climate modelling, biosecurity/drug discovery and earthquake modelling.

Bronis R de Supinski, LLNL’s chief technology officer for Livermore Computing, said: “With AI becoming increasingly prevalent in our field, El Capitan allows us to integrate AI with our traditional simulation and modelling workloads, opening new avenues for discovery across various scientific disciplines.”

AMD said its Instinct MI300X and MI325X accelerators provide AI performance and memory capabilities, while the AMD Instinct MI300A APU puts central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU) cores and stacked memory together into a single package, enabling “new levels of efficiency and performance” for high-performance computing (HPC) and AI workloads.  

Its EPYC processors and Instinct accelerators are also being used to power many new supercomputing and AI projects and deployments, including Italian energy company Eni, whose HPC 6 supercomputer is powered by AMD EPYC processors and AMD Instinct GPUs. The University of Paderborn is also set to take delivery of a new supercomputer powered by the latest fifth-generation AMD Epyc technology.
   
Separately, IBM and AMD have announced a collaboration to deploy AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators as a service on IBM Cloud. The new service, available in the first half of 2025, will target performance and power efficiency for generative AI models. Through the collaboration, support for AMD Instinct MI300X accelerators is being made available within IBM’s Watsonx AI and data platform, as well as through the Red Hat Enterprise Linux AI inferencing platform. 

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Computer Weekly announces the Most Influential Women in UK Tech 2024

Sheridan Ash, founder and co-CEO of Tech She Can, has become the 13th person to be named Computer Weekly’s Most Influential Woman in UK Tech.

Launched in 2012, the Computer Weekly list of the 50 Most Influential Women in UK Tech started as a list of 25, expanding to 50 in 2015, and now seeing hundreds of nominations each year.

The list was originally created to showcase the amazing women in the technology industry, shining a light on the sector’s role models who may inspire the next generation of women in tech.

As well as the 2024 longlist of more than 700 nominated women, and our list of Rising Stars, there are also new entrants to our Hall of Fame, launched to acknowledge those who have made a lifetime contribution to the UK’s technology sector.

This year’s winner, Sheridan Ash, launched Tech She Can to teach girls and young women about technology careers and subjects to inspire them to choose this path in the future.

Until 2023, Ash led technology innovation at PwC UK, and is currently co-CEO and founder of the charity Tech She Can. She was a board member of the Institute of Coding for four years and, in 2020, received an MBE for services to young girls and women through technology.

Tech She Can is an award-winning charity with more than 240 member organisations, which together work with industry, government and schools to improve the ratio of women in technology roles. It provides initiatives and pathways into tech careers across all the different stages of girls’ and women’s lives.

At PwC, Ash led change in the technology workforce, pioneering initiatives that saw the percentage of women in tech more than double to reach 32%.

Timperley is a freelance consultant and co-founder of Tech North Advocates, a private sector-led collection of tech experts who champion the technology sector in the north of England.

In 2021, she co-founded advisory firm Growth Strategy Innovation, which helps to grow startup and scaleup organisations. She is now innovation director for Oxford Innovation, which helps organisations develop ecosystems for entrepreneurs and innovators, in turn boosting local areas.

Timperley was named a Computer Weekly Women in Tech Rising Star in 2017 when, until 2021, she was a board member of FutureEverything. She previously co-founded Enterprise Lab.

Turner founded Angel Academe, a pro-women and pro-diversity angel investment group focused on technology, and is currently CEO of the group.

Until 2023, Turner was also an advisory board member of tech recruiter Spinks, and in 2007 co-founded consultancy Turner Hopkins, which helps businesses create digital strategies.

Previously, Turner was an external board member and chair of the investment committee for venture capital fund the Low Carbon Innovation Fund and a board member of the UK Business Angels Association, the trade association for early-stage investment.

Hunter founded Coding Black Females in 2017 to help black female software developers meet each other and network. Alongside her work at Coding Black Females, Hunter is a software developer.

She is an advisory board industry representative in the University of Essex Online’s computing department, technical director at SAM Software Solutions, and technical director at full-stack and front-end training organisation Black CodHer Bootcamp.

Previously, Hunter was lead software engineer at Made Tech, and held roles such as senior software developer, lead Java developer, app developer and technical consultant at various firms. She was named a Computer Weekly Women in UK Tech Rising Star in 2020.

Before her time as an MP, Niblett had a long career in technology, having roles such as industry sales leader at DXC Technology and head of alliances, channel and ecosystem in EMEA at 1E.

Now, alongside her role as an MP, she’s founder of the Labour: Women in Tech group, which campaigns to reach equal gender opportunities in the technology industry. She’s also the co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on FinTech and the Parliamentary Internet, Communications and Technology Forum (PICTFOR), as well as the chair for the Interparliamentary Forum on Emerging Technologies and a member of the Women and Equalities Select Committee.

An entrepreneur and co-founder, Brailsford joined Code First Girls as CEO in 2019, where she works to encourage more women into the tech sector by providing software development skills and education.

Prior to her work at Code First Girls, she co-founded and was CEO of performance management firm Frisbee, which was part of venture capital fund Founders Factory. Until summer 2024, she was was a board member for the Institute of Coding, where she focused specifically on diversity and inclusion. She is also a self-employed commercial and strategy consultant.

As part of her role as partner and head of digital for Europe at Oliver Wyman, O’Neill leads digital transformation and new proposition launches at companies all over the world.

Alongside this, she is also a strategic partner at FutureDotNow, a board trustee for Girlguiding and special adviser to the founder at The Youth Group.

Sillem worked for the Royal Academy of Engineering for 12 years before being appointed its CEO in 2018. Previous roles at the academy include deputy CEO and director of strategy, director of programmes and fellowship, and head of international activities.

As well as her work for the academy, Sillem is a trustee of EngineeringUK and the Foundation for Science and Technology, and CEO of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

Lakhani founded Century Tech as a teaching and learning platform focused on subjects such as artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive neuroscience, big data analytics and blockchain, where she is also CEO.

A frequent public speaker, she has previously been a member of the UK’s AI Council, a board member for the Foundation for Education Development, a board member for Unboxed 2022, and a non-executive director for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

She is a digital patron for Cottesmore School, and has appeared on the BBC’s AI Decoded news segment. She was awarded an OBE in 2014.

Mary McKenna is a huge supporter of entrepreneurship and startups, holding several roles as an adviser and investor. Her social enterprise, AwakenHub, where she is co-founder, is focused on building a community of female founders in Ireland.

As well as being an expert adviser for the European Commission, she is an entrepreneurship expert with the Entrepreneurship Centre at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School, and a trustee for CAST, among many other board memberships and non-executive directorships.

Thorne is co-CEO of Tech She Can, a charity aimed at increasing the number of women in the technology sector, as well as a venture partner at Deep Science Ventures and a diversity and inclusion advisory board member for the Institute of Coding.

She has a background in the education sector, previously holding roles as director of innovation strategy for the University of Surrey and executive officer to the vice-president (innovation) at Imperial College London.

Williams is CEO of inclusion campaign FutureDotNow, which aims to ensure people are not left behind by the growing skills gap caused by digital adoption. She is a member of the UK government’s Digital Skills Council, and chair of the Good Things Foundation.

Prior to her current work, Williams spent more than 20 years at BT in a number of different roles, including programme director for sustainable business, director of tech literacy and education programmes, and director of digital society. Until 2024, she was a member of the board of trustees for Transport for London.

With a background in law surrounding telecoms, the internet and media, Wright now uses her expertise as director of not-for-profit The Institute of AI, as well as partner at Harbottle & Lewis, heading up the tech, data and digital group.

She has worked in the tech sector for over 20 years. Her team at Harbottle & Lewis is comprised of 66% female and 66% ethnic minority members.

During 2023, she worked with the OECD, WEF and the ITU to build a reputation in relation to the regulation of AI. She is also working with the Ditchley Foundation, considering whether the collaborative approach in relation to telecoms can work for AI regulation.

In her 30 years at KPMG, Mehta has had many responsibilities, including building the firm’s focus on trade and investment, and helping scaleup clients to access financial support.

She is now chair of the organisation, and in 2022 was awarded an MBE for services to UK trade and investment and supporting female entrepreneurs.

An expert in diversity, inclusion and community building, Farooq co-founded Muslamic Makers in 2016 as a networking group for Muslims in tech, design and development.

As well as a freelance diversity and inclusion consultant, Farooq is a scout for Ada Ventures with special interest in edtech, healthtech and fintech, and until March 2024 was a community manager for Big Society Capital.

She has an extensive background in digital and AI in both the private and public sectors.

Taylor co-founded TechReturners, where she is currently CEO, to give skilled individuals who have had a career break the opportunity to connect with firms and help them back into mid-level to senior-level tech roles.

She is also co-founder of The Confidence Community, which aims to provide resources, training information and events to give people more career confidence. Taylor is co-founder of community WIT North and co-founder of ReframeWIT.

She recently founded community platform Voices in Tech to help connect speakers with event opportunities.

Dawes has headed up Ofcom since 2020 following her previous role as permanent secretary at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as many other roles across the Civil Service.

She has previously been a trustee at Patchwork Foundation, which aims to encourage under-represented young people to participate in democracy, and a non-executive director of consumer group Which?.

Award-winning entrepreneur Avril Chester is currently the CTO of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, her most recent in a series of roles heading up technology in organisations. In 2018, she founded technology charity platform Cancer Central to help support people with cancer.

Martin has a history of working as a test consultant at firms such as Barclays, Sony, the UK Home Office, Shazam and Sky, and is currently a startup adviser and founder of her own coaching and consultancy firm.

Prior to this, she was head of quality at Adarga and is currently chair for the BCS Special Interest Group in Software Testing, and until January 2023 was the vice-chair of the BCS LGBTQIA+ tech specialist group.

Amanda Brock’s role at OpenUK sees her leading the sustainable and ethical development of open technologies in the UK, including technology such as open source software, hardware and data.

She also sits on the boards of both the Cabinet Office Open Standards Board and US cyber security firm Mimoto, is an advisory board member of several firms, as well as acting as a judge for the CIO 100 Awards.

Moore has been at Apps for Good since 2019, originally as director of education, products and events, then as chief operating officer (COO), before becoming CEO in 2021.

Her career background has been heavily weighted towards education, having been international education programme coordinator for London 2012, and volunteering as governor at the Harris Academy Ockendon and Sixth Form.

Tanaka is currently part of the programme team for All4Health&Care, a community launched during the pandemic to connect digital healthcare providers with the public sector. She is also the head of the CMO Office for NHS Black Country ICB, and is on the community support committee for BCS.

Previously, she has been a fellow, independent audit for AI systems for ForHumanity, and BCS Women membership secretary.

Calista has a history in both technology and the public sector.

Alongside her role at Labour Digital, she is head of policy and public affairs at UK scaleup Vorboss, and she co-founded network Women in Tech Policy.

She volunteers as an adviser for digital citizenship charity Glitch, and is a policy board member for OpenUK.

With experience in cloud at companies such as Salesforce and IBM, Kelisky started her role at Google in 2022 well-equipped with the skills needed to run its cloud division.

Alongside this, Kelisky is on the board of directors for Calnex Solutions, and is a member of the board of directors for the Women in Telecoms and Technology networking group.

Lila Ibrahim became Google DeepMind’s first COO in 2018, looking after teams in disciplines such as engineering, virtual environments, programme management and operations.

Prior to this role, she was COO of online skills platform Coursera, and has also acted at general manager for emerging markets platforms in China at Intel.

Philpot has a background in both sales, and learning and development, which she uses in her role as the vice-president of global sales enablement at Getty Images. She has held various roles both in and outside of sales at many notable firms, such as Shell, Mars and GSK.

As well as being a board member for the TLA Black Women in Tech group, she is a member and speaker for the Sales Enablement Directive.

Hodson has an extensive background in the technology sector, and has had roles such as managing consultant at EY and general manager at Siemens Business Services responsible for public sector, healthcare, financial services and manufacturing.

More recently, she was vice-president for global sales, marketing and operations – field transformation at Microsoft, before becoming chief executive of IBM in UK and Ireland at the beginning of 2023.

She’s also a board member and deputy president of TechUK, and holds several non-executive directorships.

As managing director of Jomas Associates (Engineering & Environmental), Savage specialises in geotechnical and environmental engineering.

She is also passionate about topics such as women in engineering and social mobility, and is on the UK government’s SME Business Council.

With a long history of CEO positions, Kirkby has experience in running companies with a background in telecoms, and in February this year took over as CEO of BT Group. Her past CEO roles have included TDC group, Tele2 and Telia, and she is also a non-executive director of Brookfield asset management.

Barclay has been with Microsoft for more than 10 years, holding several roles including director of SMB, general manager of small and mid-market solutions and partners, COO, and CEO in the UK.

In November 2024, she became president of enterprise and industry for Microsoft in the UK. She is chair of the industrial strategy advisory council for the Department for Business and Trade, volunteers as a board member for the British Heart Foundation and, until recently, was a non-executive director at CBI.

Oniwinde Agoro founded BYP Network in 2016 to help black professionals network and have easier access to jobs, after a trip abroad confirmed the challenges young black people face in getting jobs both in and outside the UK.

Until 2024, she was board trustee for volunteer organisation Getting On Board, and has received several awards and accolades, including Forbes 30 Under 30 and Financial Times Top 100 BAME Leaders in Technology.

Wallace heads up diversity and inclusion, partnerships and people change at Sky, and one of her focuses in this role is designing and delivering the people strategy for technology within the firm.

Outside of this, Wallace was a member of the advisory board for recently disbanded Tech Talent Charter, and volunteers as a cub and scout assistant.

Scullion is a serial founder, having founded dressCode, a not-for-profit that encourages young women in Scotland to consider a career in computer science, and co-founded the Ada Scotland Festival, which aims to use collaboration to close the gender gap in computer science education in Scotland.

These endeavours stem from her being a computer science teacher passionate about encouraging more children to take the subject. Alongside this work, she is a volunteer for the Scottish Tech Army, a not-for-profit aimed at using tech for good.

Earlier this year, Tulip took on the role of chief growth officer at software engineering consultancy Conquer Technology. In 2018, she co-founded community-led initiative Women In Leeds Digital, which encourages and helps minority groups to consider a career in technology.

Tulip is also chair of the regional productivity forum in Yorkshire, Humberside and the North East for the Productivity Institute, ambassador for Leeds as a digital city at Leeds City Council, and managing director at &Then Consulting.

Moore co-founded data analytics and AI firm Panintelligence in 2010 with the aim of helping firms properly organise their data to more easily adopt AI. She became CEO in 2018.

Alongside this, Moore also founded low-code tech community No Code Lab and gender equality community Lean In Leeds. As well as a position as chair for Lifted Ventures, Moore is an Ada Angel for inclusive venture firm Ada Ventures.

As global director of identity at Sky, Moore is responsible for leading the firm’s identity management projects. Prior to this, she held several roles as a project manager, and was previously the head of infotainment group technology for Vodafone.

As well as being a member of the board for Tech Talent Charter, she is the co-founder of female tech leaders community Lift as we Climb.

Maria Axente is the head of AI public policy and ethics at PwC in the UK, where she combines her skills in analytics and ethical AI policy development to ensure AI is developed with humans in mind.

Previously, she was the artificial intelligence and AI-for-good lead at the firm, responsible for advising clients on responsible use of AI, and ensuring ethical development of PwC AI operations, products and services.

She’s a vice-chair for the data, analytics and AI leadership committee at TechUK, and in the past she has been an advisory board member for the APPG for AI, and adviser for the PHI for Augmented Intelligence.

As CEO of Nash Squared, White heads up the global firm which provides IT recruitment, technology solutions and leadership services out of 36 offices across the world.

White has a long background in the tech sector, having previously held roles as CIO and director of IT, as well as completing a degree in computer science.

Bentinck was named a Computer Weekly Rising Star in 2014, and has co-founded several organisations, including Entrepreneur First, a firm that supports European technology startups, and not-for-profit coding training programme Code First Girls.

She is on the Computer Science Department Industrial Liaison Board for Imperial College London, is a board trustee for Generation and is the author of startup business book How to be a founder.

Hirt joined Innovate Finance in 2015 as the industry body’s head of community, before eventually becoming its CEO six years later. She now heads up the organisation, aiming to drive innovation and transformation in the fintech sector to make it more inclusive.

She has worked around the world in a variety of roles, including acting head of corporate relations for Chatham House in the UK, head of membership for the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce in New York, and head new hire trainer for an English language training programme in Japan.

Davis is the co-founder of diversity career platform Diversifying, and founder and CEO of recruitment organisation BAME Recruitment and Consulting.

She is chair of the board of directors for Pop Up Projects and a board trustee for charity Over the Wall, both aimed at changing young people’s lives for the better.

Davis has previously held roles in talent acquisition in the STEM sector, at telecoms firm BT, and as part of a short-term project at an aerospace, aviation, F1 and motorsport organisation.

The first female to head up GCHQ, Keast-Butler moved into the director role last year after serving as deputy director general of MI5. With a long career in security and defence, her previous roles have included overseeing the upkeep of functions that support MI5’s operational activities and the launch of the UK’s National Cyber Security Programme.

As well as her work as senior EUC engineer, infrastructure and cloud engineering at the London Stock Exchange Group, Opong is a freelancer and STEM adviser and a board trustee for The Blair Project Foundation.

Until recently, she was part of the City of London Corporation volunteer advisory group for equality, diversity and inclusion, and was previously an advisory board member for Neurodiversity in Business, and a mentor at the TechUp mentor programme for Durham University.

Opong was a contributor for Voices in the shadows, the book of black female role models created by the 2022 Computer Weekly Most Influential Woman in UK Tech, Flavilla Fongang.

Munby has a long history of working in government, and became permanent secretary leading the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in February 2023.

She has also been partner, leader of strategy and corporate finance practice in UK and Ireland at McKinsey & Company, where she led the firm’s work on productivity across the UK economy.

Crosswell is managing director of consulting firm Exadin, as well as chair for the Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology. She holds several other non-executive directorships in firms such as Freemarket and the Centre for Policy Studies. In 2021, she received an OBE for services to the financial services sector.

Graham has been the CEO of not-for-profit the ScaleUp Institute since 2015, and has an OBE for services to UK business and economy.

As well as being a visiting professor of entrepreneurship at Strathclyde University, Graham holds various non-executive and advisory roles.

As CEO of Salesforce in the UK and Ireland, Bahrololoumi is responsible for the workforce in these regions across all industries and functions, and is particularly focused on ensuring its customers are ready for digital transformation.

She sits on several boards, including for Seeing Is Believing Coventry Place, Movement to Work and Cancer Research UK Corporate Partnerships, and is an independent non-executive director on the TSB board.

In 2023, she was awarded a CBE for services to the information technology sector.

Naming the technology sector her “familiar territory”, Gardner has an extensive background in the technology sector, having held roles such as first line support at Fujitsu, senior supply chain administrator at Technicolor and project manager at the BBC as a member of the BBC’s Design and Technology Business Management Unit HQ Team.

Now, she’s a business operations analyst as part of the technology arm of News UK, and is a board trustee of food and hygiene bank Necessities UK.

Cardell has been at the Competition and Markets Authority since 2013, first as general counsel, then as interim CEO, and now as CEO.

Prior to her time at the Competition and Markets Authority, she was a legal partner for the markets division of energy markets authority Ofgem, and in her early career spent 11 years at law firm Slaughter and May, working her way from trainee solicitor to partner.

Sinel founded Teens in AI and Acorn Aspirations to help young people who want to solve real-world problems using technology such as AI, virtual, augmented and mixed reality.

She has won awards for her work, including CogX 2017 Award in Using AI for Social Good Projects, and is currently an education taskforce committee member for the All Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence, and a business mentor at Microsoft for Startups.

Before working on Acorn Associates and Teens in AI, Sinel was a consultant for several firms, including the British Council, NGOs, Chittagong Hill Tracts and the Ethiopian Cultural Heritage Project. 

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