Latest - Decades: 2020s

Professor Michael Mainelli

Professor Michael Mainelli’s life story is a fascinating journey from 1958 Seattle to Alderman and Sheriff of the City of London.  His Irish mother and Italian father came from lines of engineers and his experience spans computer scientist, accountant, and management consultant.  His education reflects expansive interests, including a Doctorate as a mature student, alongside his busy professional assignments. 

He established City think tank and venture firm Z/Yen in 1994 and Michael has advised on and managed a host of challenging projects, for a multitude of clients from the first complete digital map of the world; to the UK Ministry of Defence commercialising its £100M technology business; and setting up City indices. He recommends small teams to solve big problems and his mass of publications includes bestselling books.

Professor Nick Jennings

Professor Nick Jennings is an internationally recognised authority in the areas of artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cybersecurity and agent-based computing.

He is the Vice-Provost for Research and Enterprise and Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Imperial College London. He was the UK’s first Regius Professor of Computer Science (a post bestowed by the monarch to recognise exceptionally high quality research) at the University of Southampton and the UK Government’s first Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security. 

Professor Alan Bundy CBE

Professor Alan Richard Bundy, CBE, FRSE, FRS, FREng, FACM is Professor of Automated Reasoning in the School of Informatics at Edinburgh University.  Throughout his long and illustrious career he has worked mostly as a researcher in artificial intelligence, mathematical reasoning and representations of knowledge.  Alan helped set up the UK Computing Research Committee and has been the Vice-President of the British Computer Society, among many other contributions to important bodies.

Professor Brian Collins CB

Professor Brian Collins CB spent his career in the public service, in the private sector and as an academic.  He met his first computer programming the speed of nuclear bomb blasts and went on to work at the defence research establishment at Malvern.  He devised night goggles and tank night-time battle systems.  At the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) he helped re-orientate it to the new role after the cold war.  Working in the private sector he amalgamated the IT systems of the world’s largest legal firm.  He worked on integrating technology to government policy and then transferred to academia.

Professor William Webb

Professor William Webb chose as his PhD thesis finished in 1992 the use of variable level modulation in radio networks to raise the amount of data which can be carried. It is used widely in radio networks today. He worked for UK wireless consultancies until he moved to Motorola’s world HQ in Chicago becoming director of strategy. He joined the newly formed Ofcom communications regulator in the UK in 2003 and ran a 35 person R&D group. He often worked in mixed groups of engineers and economists where he developed his skills as a forecaster of technology developments. He now runs his own consultancy used internationally to advise CEOs, government and advisory bodies on issues of wireless communications.

Lisa Powis

Lisa Powis was enthralled by IT when at 11 she saw her father use an early computer in his insurance business. Since then she has been an advocate of the use of IT in business. She has tried to use IT in all of her roles in the insurance sector, sometimes asking IT to do more than it could given her enthusiasm. Powis is one of the users of IT who have pushed IT’s boundaries and challenged IT suppliers to give business what it needs. She is now launching a crowd-funded investment platform for companies developing IT of the insurance sector.

Edwina Dunn OBE

Edwina Dunn OBE has spent her 40 years in the IT industry analysing great globs of data and turning it into useful business information to guide businesses. We call that today the analysis of big data. She started at the US CACI company which used census data to help customers such as banks and building societies. She left with her husband after nine years and they formed their own consultancy focusing on analysing customer data. Their big breakthrough was launching the Clubcard customer service for Tesco which catapulted Tesco to the front rank of UK grocery marketing. They sold the business to Tesco and formed another company. She is concerned about the ethics of using data and about the role of women in IT.