Tag: Salesforce

Posted on by

Salesforce execs at TDX 25: Agentforce a whole system AI play

At the TDX 2025 developer conference in San Francisco, Salesforce executives presented its Agentforce agentic AI technology as a “whole system” approach, where large language models (LLMs) are less significant than a “trinity” of data, applications and agents. Relatedly, they consistently disparage “DIY” artificial intelligence (AI) programmes.

Paula Goldman, the supplier’s chief ethical and humane use officer, said: “I think a lot of the public discourse about AI has been about [large language] models. But if you think about Agentforce, it’s a whole system. There’s a foundation model, and then there’s a series of smaller models that go into our Atlas system, and there are workflows that are automated that people can draw on. We’ve got used to talking about AI as models over the past few years, but I think we need to be talking about systems.”

David Schmaier, president and chief product officer at Salesforce, said the supplier’s entire technology stack, including Slack and Tableau, comes into play with Agentforce. He also pointed to its Data Cloud platform as central to its AI offer.

“You couldn’t have a computer without a microprocessor; you need storage and RAM and a display and an operating system around it. That’s what we’ve done. We have our data cloud, which harmonises hundreds of thousands of systems. It gives you the data, the metadata and the semantics. That’s why we can outperform an LLM by itself. LLMs have hallucinations, they have bias, toxicity. An LLM is necessary but insufficient. We add to the LLM. Our view is the data powers the AI and then the AI powers the customer experience of the future,” he said.

An LLM is necessary but insufficient. We add to the LLM. Our view is the data powers the AI and then the AI powers the customer experience of the future David Schmaier, Salesforce

“We call it the ‘holy trinity’. We have the Data Cloud, then we have our Sales Cloud, Service Cloud and Marketing Cloud apps – which is how we got the name Salesforce – as well as Slack, Mulesoft and Tableau. And now we have Agentforce on top of all that. That’s how we can turn on 10,600 customers over three days with agents. It’s because we are using the same platform as we have for 25 years. So, with a healthcare company, for example, that has workflows it has bult in its Salesforce deployment, it can make all those available for [virtual] agents,” Schmaier added.

He believes too many organisations are doing DIY AI. “Most people are just trying to take whatever apps they have, whether it’s Salesforce or SAP or Workday, and just buying ChatGPT and trying to plug it in. No other competitor has what we have, in terms of agents. We think we have a real lead in this agentic field. We’ve sold to 5,200 customers since launching at Dreamforce [in September 2024]. Now, we have 200,000 customers, and most don’t use Agentforce today,” he said.

Rahul Auradkar, executive vice-president and general manager of Unified Data Services and Einstein at Salesforce, made a similar argument about what the provider calls DIY AI.

“What we are doing with agents is an entire system. We’re not shipping a model, an app or a copilot. We’re shipping an AI system on a deeply unified platform. What that system allows our enterprise customers, who don’t want to do the DIY, to do is surface customer-centric analytics and workflows, and listen to the customers to feed back to the system so the agents get better. Copilots are a narrow sliver of what AI can be,” he said.

“The difference between a DIY AI and an enterprise using [our] system is that the enterprise can focus on things that they are good at, which is plenty of things. They have their data. The have their transactions. They have their engagement data. They have their AI policies, their workflows, their automations. We bring all that together within a deeply unified platform and drive value for our customers,” added Auradkar.

DIY AI programmes strongly in evidence among users

And yet, analyst research from Informa TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) offers a contrast with Salesforce’s disparagement of DIY AI – a complicating contrast rather than a confutation, but a contrast nevertheless.

Towards the end of 2024, ESG surveyed 832 professionals at organisations across the globe involved in the strategy, decision-making, selection, deployment and management of generative AI (GenAI) initiatives and projects at their organisations and familiar with their organisation’s use of third parties to support GenAI initiatives.

The resulting report, The state of the generative AI market: Widespread transformation continues – authored by Mark Beccue, principal analyst, Mike Leone, practice director and principal analyst, and Emily Marsh, associate research director – does find support for an agentic AI philosophy: “Respondents most often said that they see AI agents, virtual assistants, and intelligent chatbots powered by AI as valuable productivity tools, though they also often said they view them with cautious optimism (41%). Over two-thirds of organisations are planning for or considering AI agents, which represents a significant opportunity for AI vendors to target these requirements with capabilities and services.”

They also note, however: “The AI agent market is extremely nascent and loaded with challenges, including managing single-task agents, interoperability problems, the potential emergence of multitask agents and security.”

But the authors also remark, similarly to Salesforce’s Auradkar, that: “A wide majority (84%) of respondents agreed it is important to incorporate their own enterprise data into models that support generative AI. GenAI models themselves are not a competitive differentiator. Rather, effectively identifying, organising and vetting internal data for use with GenAI models is the key to creating unique and highly actionable insights.”

The research also found user organisations to be embracing a variety of LLMs – open source and proprietary. The largest percentage of respondent organisations (43%) are both proprietary and open source models.

Alongside this enthusiasm for using large language models, the study found that organisations are placing “their bets on internal resources, planning to reskill or upskill employees (58%) and provide education and awareness training to employees (43%)”. This suggests a growing cadre of employees who will want to do DIY AI.

The authors comment: “Employee enthusiasm for these technologies is likely at a high point as GenAI excitement pervades many facets of society, so this internal investment will likely be a win-win situation whereby personnel receive welcome development opportunities and the business gains valuable GenAI expertise.”

At Dreamforce in September 2024, Marc Benioff, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, was in combative mood in respect of Agentforce, positioning it as a wholescale alternative to generative AI copilot usage, associated with Microsoft and Google, but with other vendors too.

“There’s a lot of narratives out there from vendors, and a lot of it is not true,” he said at the time. “You need to sit with those customers [at the Dreamforce event], look at the code and break the hypnosis coming from all the vendors. There’s plenty of real customers here who are really deploying real AI. But there are billions being invested in copilots, delivering how much productivity increase? Is there a better way to do it? And so, that’s our gambit.”

The game is still being played. The middle game lies ahead.

Source

Posted on by

The Security Interviews: Yevgeny Dibrov, Armis

Over the past 20 to 30 years, the intelligence community has generated a stream of cyber security leaders – private cyber security companies are littered with former operatives of the American and British intelligence services.

But in Israel’s case, the intelligence-to-cyber pipeline has produced arguably the highest density of cyber security startups and organisations in the world. The likes of Check Point, CyberArk, Imperva, Palo Alto Networks and Radware can all claim links back to the Israel Defence Force’s (IDF’s) technology units.

Among these units, which likely date back to before Israel’s founding in 1948, are the highly secretive cyber weapons and tech development shop Unit 81, and the more widely known signals intelligence Unit 8200.

Israel’s astonishing concentration of cyber security talent is largely attributable to both Unit 81 and Unit 8200, whose existence has only been fairly recently acknowledged. Mossad may get international attention, but it is Unit 8200 that gets the data to support it and Unit 81 that builds the tech.

Acting as incubators for cyber security and hacking talent, these units benefit from Israel’s compulsory military service laws and intensive screening processes, which divert individuals with potential from frontline armed service, although they also scout after-school computer clubs for likely-looking candidates.

That the IDF is the wellspring of Israel’s cyber talent is these days no secret, but Armis CEO, Yevgeny Dibrov – who is allowed to say little more about the time he served in Unit 81 beyond the fact that he was there – says there’s more to the growth of Israel’s cyber community than just the hothouse conditions at the IDF.

He compares the environment to that of a startup. “When you’re a startup, when you’re building something, you don’t have much budget, but with what you have you still need to do outstanding things that differentiate a lot, that achieve a lot, and that puts you in a great place.

“We don’t have the same budget as the CIA or the NSA, maybe point one of a percent, but we have no choice. There is no other way,” he explains. “We have a lot of enemies and we want to win.”

Make the impossible possible

At first. Dibrov’s pipeline into the IT industry does not seem all that different from most other people’s – stemming from an initial schoolboy interest in computers, maths and physics – but he became hooked when he was tapped for Unit 81 as a fresh-faced teen.

“In the years I spent there I became fascinated by different capabilities, fascinated by this world, fascinated also by working hard for my country,” he says. “Twice during my service I was part of the team that won the Israel Defence Prize, which is for outstanding achievements in the technology space.

“The slogan of our unit was ‘Make the Impossible Possible’,” says Dibrov. “It’s written over the door when you enter. You see it every day, and so you kind of live towards it. It’s not just a cliché.”

Twice during my service [at Unit 81] I was part of the team that won the Israel Defence Prize, which is for outstanding achievements in the technology space Yevgeny Dibrov, Armis

But the intelligence forces serve not only as a hub for creative talent, but a hub for team-building. Indeed, of Armis’s first cohort of employees, about 50% served alongside Dibrov himself at Unit 81, and the others worked alongside his co-founder – and chief technology officer (CTO) – Nadir Izrael at Unit 8200.

“People get to know each other, and during my time at Unit 81, we were always talking to alumni that actually started companies and did great things,” says Dibrov. “I remember my team leader in the army was [Wiz CEO] Assaf Rappaport, so we were always meeting some of the alumni from our unit and learning what they had done.

“It makes you excited,” he says. “It makes you think, ‘Okay, when I’m out, here is what I want to do’. I already knew that I wanted to start a company.”

Alongside heading off to study at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology, between 2010 and 2013, at the end of his service, Dibrov helped set up Adallom, with which Rappaport was also involved. Adallom was a cloud access security brokerage (CASB) specialising in visibility, governance and protection across business applications such as Box, Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce.

The firm’s Office 365 work clearly stood out, because in September 2015, Microsoft bought the company for over $300m. Just a couple of months later, Dibrov and Izrael started Armis, with the first employees coming on board in February 2016.

Google Maps, but for vulnerable assets

Asked to “explain like I’m five”, Dibrov describes Armis as a cyber exposure management platform that essentially provides its customers with a Google Map of their IT environment, with every single asset accounted for, whether it’s something run-of-the-mill like a laptop or smartphone, to operational technology (OT) like industrial controllers, even medical equipment.

On top of this basic map, Armis provides additional layers covering security risk discovery, monitoring and management, and ultimately, remediation.

“We want to not just allow you to see your risk, but reduce it, whether through patching devices or mitigating threats with different rules in your technology environment,” he says.

Armis was earlier than many to the OT/internet of things (IoT) side of security, mapping it as a factor early on in its history, before the topic really started to hit mainstream security conversations about six or seven years ago. What was the spark that led Dibrov to make this bet?

“We really started from talking to a lot of customers, talking to a lot of CIOs, and we were hearing about the explosion of connected devices,” he explains. “We looked at the variety of different environments and we saw there was a gap.

“On the one hand, you have laptops and servers that are covered by your antivirus or next-gen antivirus, and then you have everything else. And then everything else changes in different industries. If you look at an airport, they have a big gap around a lot of operational technology stuff. They have different distribution centres, logistics centres and more. They have datacentres. They have buildings with building management systems.”

At about the same time, incidents such as NotPetya and WannaCry were exposing the precarious security of such environments – particularly in healthcare settings – and this helped push people towards a more holistic view of cyber security.

Security teams have no idea what cameras they have, and they’re 90% Chinese, potentially exploited with backdoors, and often in the most critical environments Yevgeny Dibrov, Armis

“It was a huge push across the board,” says Dibrov. “Everyone suddenly understood that they needed to have visibility into what they have in these environments – because imagine if I’m an attacker, why would I attack a laptop if the laptop has 50 agents on it? I attack the most vulnerable thing, and that’s usually devices that don’t run any agents or antivirus, devices that are mostly not updated or cannot be patched, and a bunch of old XP machines in those areas.

“These devices are often the most important in the organisation. Look at a hospital. How can you compare the importance of a laptop versus an MRI scanner?”

Customers took to this like ducks to water, and today Armis works with over 35% of the Fortune 100.

From day-to-day there is no such thing as a typical customer, says Dibrov, but they tend to be larger, distributed organisations with highly complex environments and a lot of devices. Armis claims currently to have approximately 5.3 billion connected devices in harness.

What’s the weirdest ‘thing’ he ever found? “We have things like cars that connect to the company network, to wireless air fryers – we see those a lot. And the amount of types of cameras you would never believe,” says Dibrov. “Security teams have no idea what cameras they have, and they’re 90% Chinese, potentially exploited with backdoors, and often in the most critical environments.”

Like many of its peers, Armis has also been branching out into threat research and frequently publishes its own thought leadership on diverse topics – recent ones include breaking down CISA’s most exploited vulnerabilities and the emergence of DeepSeek.

“We have so much data now, and our customers can benefit from that,” says Dibrov. “We also acquired a company in the space, some super-talented guys who merge a lot of their own data with data we generated to provide early warning, which has been very significant.”

What’s next?

Keeping in touch with Armis’s buyers is a source of pride for Dibrov, who makes a point of frequently checking in with his user advisory board and speaking to six or seven individual customers every day, whether those are long-term existing ones, new ones, or those moving through their procurement or onboarding processes.

“What do they need? What do they think like? What do we need to do different?” says Dibrov. “This is something that is ongoing for us – always listening, always developing, always running fast, and always providing real solutions to real problems.”

Dibrov declares himself particularly paranoid when it comes to the competition, and likes to try to think about 18 months ahead in terms of innovation. “This is something that is always on my mind because that’s the biggest differentiator,” he says. “You need to have first of all the best product, and then to execute from there. That’s what keeps me up at night.”

Armis recently closed a large Series D funding round, raising $200m to take it to a total valuation of over $4bn. And having made two acquisitions in the past 12 months – Silk Security in April 2024 and CTCI in February 2025 – Dibrov is open to more, as well as exploring the possibility of an initial public offering (IPO).

Beyond these goals, Dibrov is, of course, keeping a close eye on the developing threat landscape. His views on where things are going tally with those of many other observers.

“We keep seeing a lot of state actors, from Russia, China, North Korea, Iran. We keep seeing them, and we keep seeing a lot of targeting of EMEA and US critical infrastructure and manufacturing,” he says. “We see them sometimes also leveraging AI [artificial intelligence]. My guess is we’ll see that more and more, and defenders really need to be prepared.”

Source

Posted on by

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. 

Source