Skills & Diversity Council members
Pamela Clarke-Acaster
Pamela Clarke-Acaster
With over 16 years-experience in HR and people related roles, Pam demonstrates a broad, deep knowledge of the employee lifecycle, strategies and activities which support colleague and business performance. Identifying and advising on people risks and external developments impacting business culture.
Pam's key strengths are drive & execution, reinforced by the feedback she has received on her tenacity, resilience & proven track record of delivery. This is balanced with Pam's personality of honesty, integrity & self awareness. To summarise, Pam's leadership style is about making things happen through collaborative working & engaging hearts and minds.
Sian Wilson
Sian Wilson
Sian is a founding member and director at Day One - an HR tech start-up helping you to Hire Better. She have over 24 years experience in growth, strategic development, marketing and business development.
Sian is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts (RSA), Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Fellow of the Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP) and Chartered Member of Personnel Development (CIPD).
- Twitter:
- @SianWilsonMyers
- Website:
- https://dayonework.com/
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/sianwilsonmyers/?originalSubdomain=uk
Anita Ibrahim
Anita Ibrahim
With over a decade in apprenticeships and professional development, and the majority of that time spent in tech skills capability, Anita has worked with a multitude of industries and enterprise clients, supporting talent and skills strategy, succession planning and apprenticeship levy utilization. However, it was her time working alongside talent teams in the automotive industry long before the apprenticeship levy and standards were introduced, that Anita found that her passion for social justice and equity could be put to use, working towards creating a more inclusive environment in the workforce, through apprenticeships. From working towards seeing more women in technician and engineering roles, to creating safe spaces in workshops and dealerships for employees of different faiths and backgrounds, the typically traditional automotive industry was a catalyst to her dedication to widening access and participation in apprenticeships.
Anita has spent the past 7 years working for training providers and consultancies focused on closing the digital skills gap, while empowering social mobility and the attraction and inclusion of diverse talent. Having sat on the advisory panel of the Association of Apprentices representing Grant Thornton, and now sitting on the England Policy Group for UCAS representing her current employer QA Ltd, Anita is committed to ensuring that the skills gap in the digital space is filled equitably.
Currently on an apprenticeship with Cranfield Business School working towards a leadership masters without a prior degree, Anita knows first-hand the opportunity that apprenticeships can provide, and credits her apprenticeship for her latest role currently heading up a new division for QA, as Head of Partnerships and Social Mobility, working closely with major Cloud vendors, enterprise organisations, small businesses, industry leaders and social enterprise to create collaborations to close the skills gap in tech. As an example, Anita is leading on a programme to support prison leavers into tech careers through apprenticeships by taking advantage of a recent change of legislation allowing prisoners release on temporary license to take on an apprenticeship while completing sentences, bringing together employers, charities, and prisons. With major employers, cat D open prisons and various support services on board, this initiative is one of a number of projects Anita is passionate about that will empower untapped talent into meaningful careers in tech.
Amanda Whicher
Amanda Whicher
Amanda Whicher is a Director at Hays, specialising in Public Services Technology. With over 17 years of experience in the recruitment sector, Amanda has a wealth of insights when it comes to the challenges employers face accessing and retaining talent. She has a particular interest in encouraging more women into tech, to expand their career opportunities and create more diverse and inclusive tech teams.
Amanda is passionate about matching the top technology experts to organisations, through life-long partnerships and workplace solutions, to support both clients and candidates to meet their ambitions and thrive in the ever-changing world of tech.
Casey Calista
Casey Calista
Casey is the Head of Policy and Public Affairs and Vorboss - a scale-up building the connectivity infrastructure needed to underpin our economy. In her role, she is focused on supporting future-facing skills, diversity in tech & infrastructure, security & resilience, and our future needs to underpin growth.
Prior to working at Vorboss, Casey launched and grew the tech public affairs practice at two agencies. As a tech policy specialist, she has worked with some of the largest and most exciting technology companies in the world - helping them with policy, government relations and strategic communications Westminster-focused to global. Previously, she managed the leading parliamentary technology policy group, mobilising cross-party coalitions to educate policymakers on emerging tech, and ran a London-based startup media company.
Casey is the Industry Chair of Labour Digital and co-founder of the Women in Tech Policy Network.
Dimple Khagram
Dimple Khagram
Dimple is an experienced education practitioner and entrepreneur. She has worked in the vocational education sector for more than 15 years in various roles, She has led teams of delivery, business development and setting up & running two successful training companies in the U.K.
Her specialisms include AI, digital technology, curriculum design to support the delivery of technology standards, preparation for quality assurance, employer engagement, team management, partnership working, designing e-learning, project management and supporting delivery teams.
Freya Mumford
Freya Mumford
Freya Mumford is the Digital Manager at the EY Foundation, where she focuses on how technology can be used to support social mobility. Her work includes both using innovative technology to support employability training for young people from low-income backgrounds, as well as exploring how emerging technologies like AI and the Metaverse could impact social mobility in the future, and what can be done to minimise risks and take advantage of opportunities. With a background in social science with a particular focus on tech, Freya is keen to contribute to techUK’s efforts to enhance diversity and skill-building in the tech sector.
Izabella Koukorava
Izabella Koukorava
Since joining Sky (a Comcast company) in 2018, Izabella has been leading her international product teams’ efforts to build global and/ internationalise next-gen TV streaming products for the European markets, contributing to customer and revenue growth targets. Her current focus is on product operations and transformation strategy.
Prior to Sky, Izabella developed and took to international markets new products and services, worked on strategic branding and social impact initiatives, and gained cross-sectoral experience, such as private education, strategic branding and communications (inc. FMCG, Financial Institutions).
Izabella holds an MBA degree from Bayes Business School (former Cass) of City University, London UK and a Bachelor’s degree in International and European Studies from Panteion University, Athens Greece. Izabella is a winner of the TechWomen100 ’22 award, and she was one of the top 3 finalists for the Product Innovation category of the RISE Awards ’21 for Gender Diversity in Media . She is an advocate of DEI and Women in Leadership initiatives, and a seasoned and awarded mentor.
James Corcoran
James Corcoran
James brings nearly two decades of experience in recruitment to the table, with a rich background that began within a FTSE250 recruitment business. Over the past seven years, he has honed his expertise in the dynamic realm of technology recruitment, with a particular focus on serving Government and Defence organisations across both private and public sectors.
In addition to his hands-on experience, James is a long serving member of the techUK Skills and Diversity Council, a role he has embraced for four years. Through this involvement, he remains deeply committed to bridging the digital skills gap, investing significant effort into initiatives aimed at fostering diversity and inclusion within the tech industry.
James is driven by a genuine passion for advancing diversity in technology and believes strongly in focusing on tangible solutions rather than merely paying lip service to lofty ideals. With a pragmatic approach and a dedication to tackling challenges head-on, he remains steadfast in his mission to effect meaningful change within the industry.
- Twitter:
- @SandersonGDplc
- Website:
- www.sandersonplc.com/sectors/government-and-defence
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-corcoran-a272398/
James Dunn
James Dunn
James leads the global Government and Regulatory Affairs function at DXC Technology. With 130,000 people in over 70 countries, DXC helps leading organizations run their mission-critical IT systems and business operations. James is focused on demonstrating DXC’s capabilities to drive digital transformation especially in the UK public sector, where DXC has decades of experience. He joined DXC after five years in the UK Civil Service, leading teams working on trade negotiations, crisis management, and social policy.
His current work seeks to understand how advanced technologies can be used to address the challenges facing government today. In previous roles, James spent five years leading policy teams in the charity sector with a notable focus on access to education and technology. Outside of work, James volunteers on a number of boards including Disability Sports Wales and coaches a LGBT+ rugby team. He is especially motivated by removing barriers to participation in any walk of life.
James has focused DXC’s public affairs work on how tech and political parties can unite to solve skills challenges in the build up to the general election. He sponsored, alongside techUK, events at both Conservative and Labour conferences focusing on how to improve skills for policy makers in the civil service and wider society. He took part in the Bertlesmann Foundation’s Fellowship looking at the Future of Work, with a particular emphasis on the intersection between technology innovation and physical health.
Jazz Rasool
Jazz Rasool
Jazz is the Founder of AICA, Artificial Intelligence Coaching Alliance, comprising world leading business and executive coaches and researchers collaborating to cultivate ethically-centric adoption of AI into coaching and mentoring professions. He focuses on AI Democratisation, its Diversification through embodied DEIB practices and Decentralisation through Intercultural adoptions native to nation states.
He is a qualified/experienced Executive Coach, in Business Analysis, in Civil, Commercial and Workplace Mediation as well as a British Psychological Society approved Mindfulness Instructor.
He spent 7 years a Research Fellow in Technology Enhanced Learning knowledge exchange/transfer projects at Ravensbourne University London. This included facilitating traction in a €1m EU funded FP7 project by forecasting futures of European Creative Sectors. A local London project Jazz did centred on the London Mayors / Olympic Legacy initiative for the underemployed, upskilling them in Immersive Reality / Metaverse Technology production, being responsible for the 12-week Level 3 curriculum design and also delivery. The most significant projects were helping implement €1.5m EU funded project where he helped develop multimedia education apps and programs for residents in Syrian and Gaza refugee camps in Jordan. In parallel with this Jazz worked on a 3 year €2.7m Horizon 2020 funded XR/AI Workplace Performance program for enhancing Astronaut training for future International Space Station (ISS) and Manned Mars missions at the base for the ISS in Turin, Italy.
In 2019, Jazz worked with the Leonardo Da Vinci Society, Victoria and Albert Museum and London Design Week to celebrate the 500th Anniversary of Leonardo Da Vinci’s death by contributing to creation of interactive Holographic experiences of his perpetual machine designs never built. A strong focus on mentoring women entrepreneurs globally using his own AI Coaching platform first built in 2008, operating on intercultural psychometric models of psychology to respect Diversity factors.
From 1998-2003 Jazz was IT Manager for a mobile phone company and qualified as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. For his BSc. degree he studied Astrophysics at Queen Mary College at the University of London, graduating in 1992. His Birkbeck College MSc. degree was in Computer Modelling of Molecular and Biological Processes, covering Genetic Engineering, Quantum Simulations of drug behaviour relating to neuroscience processes and brain functions associated with Consciousness states affected during epilepsy as well as local and general anaesthesia.
Joanna Wake
Joanna Wake
Director of Public Affairs at Baltic Apprenticeships, Joanna Wake has over a decade of tech and digital skills experience, championing innovation, and skills development.
Joanna launched her first digital business in 2010 followed by a digital skills company in 2013 which was bought by Baltic Apprenticeships in 2020.
Baltic is national Grade 1 Outstanding apprenticeship provider of tech apprenticeships in data, software, IT and digital marketing, the company is seen as an exemplar due to its high completion and achievement rates. The company is a Top 10 apprenticeship providers nationally and forms part of the Department for Educations Expert Provider Panel.
Joanna's role includes working with the wider skills system and stakeholders, lobbying, leading the creation of reports, insights and data projects, and being a positive voice for apprenticeships.
Joanna is a long-standing champion of digital skills and a recognised innovator in this area having been highly commended for many industry awards, including the National Women in IT Awards, Digital Leaders 100, Digital Skills Initiative of the Year, and NE Innovator of the Year.
An advocate of apprenticeships with a particular focus on increasing the number of young and diverse apprentices, Joanna and has recently led a report on the decline of young apprentices with key recommendations to change the statistics which received wide ranging support.
As an adult female with ADHD, Joanna is a passionate spokesperson on neurodiversity as well as a seasoned speaker on skills, young people and diversity.
Kathryn Baddeley
Kathryn Baddeley
Kathryn is the Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for Cisco UK & Ireland, leading and enabling innovative CSR initiatives across the organisation: engaging employees, benefiting the business and supporting Cisco’s not for profit partners.
- Twitter:
- @kbaddele
- Website:
- www.cisco.com/c/en_uk/index.html
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynbaddeley
Lisa Ventura MBE
Lisa Ventura MBE
Lisa Ventura MBE is an award-winning cyber security specialist, content writer, and speaker. She is the Founder of Cyber Security Unity, a global community organisation that is dedicated to bringing individuals and companies together who actively work in cyber security to help combat the growing cyber threat. She is also a mindset and mental health coach for CISOs and other cyber security professionals and offers help and support to those affected by stress, burnout, bullying/abuse and mental health issues in cyber security and Infosec.
Lisa has also worked with numerous cyber security organisations as a consultant including Proficio Inc, Boost Technology Group, Blue Voyant, CyBourn, Pinsent Masons and the UK Cyber Security Council to name but a few She currently works at Qualitest as a Senior Specialist to develop a global cyber security awareness programme for their staff which comprises of cyber escape rooms, phishing email simulation exercises and carefully curated internal communications to promote good cyber hygiene to help prevent cyber-attacks. She has a unique perspective on cyber security and specialises in cyberpsychology and the human elements of cyber security.
She is passionate about raising awareness of the growing cyber threat globally and actively supports women, those from minority backgrounds and those who are neurodiverse into careers in cyber security. Her books “The Rise of the Cyber Women: Volume 1 and Volume 2” were released in 2020 and 2021 to great acclaim and volume 3 of “The Rise of the Cyber Women” will be released on 8 March 2024, International Women’s Day. Lisa has also spoken at numerous events and conferences about key topics and themes within the cyber security industry.
Lisa sits on the Advisory Group of the West Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre, sits on the board of Think Digital Partners as their Cyber Security Advisor and is a member of the Advisory Council for the National Cyber Security Show and International Security Expo events in the UK. In 2022 and 2024 respectively she was named as one of IT Security Guru’s “Most Inspiring Women in Cyber Security” and won the “Positive Role Model for Gender” award in ITV News’s National Diversity Awards in 2020. She has also won numerous other awards for her work including SC Magazine’s “Outstanding Contribution to Cyber Security” award. In June 2023 Lisa was awarded an MBE in King Charles III’s birthday honours list for services to cyber security and diversity/inclusion.
Luke Morgan
Luke Morgan
Luke has 14 years experience in providing global law enforcement and national security with commercial software solutions.
He is a software development thought leader in Agile principles and practices with over 18 years’ experience, leading, motivating and managing highly performant teams to delivery value.
Maggie Scott
Maggie Scott
Maggie Scott is CEO of Principle One, a specialist consultancy operating across a growing portfolio of public sector customers. Launched in 2018 with a strong focus on UK Law Enforcement, Principle One’s team has grown to over 80 consultants, offering a broad range of skillsets to its customer base from business strategy and change through systems engineering and technical architecture into software delivery. With over thirty years consulting experience, Maggie is a passionate advocate for diversity in the workplace and has championed a range of initiatives to promote skills development and diversity within Principle One over the last five years. This has included diversifying recruitment and working to create entry level roles open to applicants from a diverse backgrounds.
She has led the development of a strong early careers programme, creating a supportive working environment and establishing relationships with local state schools, providing mentoring and opportunities for sixth form students to develop the skills they need as they move into further education and employment. This is supported by a strong mentorship programme, with coaching and training to enable those from more diverse backgrounds to accelerate their technology career, enabling representation at all levels.
Naureen Khan
Naureen Khan
Naureen is currently part of the Data and AI practice in the UK – with a focus on responsible AI services for our clients. She has worked across Accenture from Government Relations to Technology, as well as the Health and Public sector part of the business.
Prior to joining Accenture, Naureen held a number of senior roles with a UK and global policy focus both in the public and private sector, including techUK, Computacenter, Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the NSPCC. At the EHRC, she led the Commissions’ successful application to become an A status accredited National Human Rights Institution at the United Nations.
She was previously elected Chair of techUK's Central Government Council, and is a Trustee of the Good Things Foundation.
Paige Gelder
Paige Gelder
Uniquely-skilled professional with over five years’ experience in the CAD/PLM software consulting industry, Paige currently leverages her passion for innovation and human connection as a Co-Facilitator within the Accelerated Solutions Environment (ASE) team at Capgemini.
In her previous role as Internal Communications Lead for Dassault Systèmes Northern Europe, Paige created a data-driven communication strategy and leads campaigns to ensure that the corporate purpose and values of the global business software company are understood by teams across the region, to increase ownership and business success externally.
Paige is passionate about championing Inclusion in Tech and was a member of the techUK Skills and Diversity Council in January 2022. She was also a Founding member of the Diversity & Belonging Movement for Dassault Systèmes Northern Europe, est. 2020. In this capacity, she built an internal virtual community of 350+ members; launched the LGBTQ+ Rainbow Network and Rainbow Lanyard Pledge Program (in partnership with Stonewall Charity), which currently has over 250 pledges to commit to LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace. She is currently an active STEM ambassador focusing on encouraging young women and students from disadvantaged backgrounds to consider a career in STEM (since 2013).
Paige holds a First Class Honours Chemical Engineering Master’s degree from the University of Sheffield. She is a huge fan of laughter, historical documentaries and sitting in parks worldwide.
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigegelder/
Riham Satti
Riham Satti
Riham is a female clinical neuroscientist turned entrepreneur in a male-dominated start-up field. She is the co-founder and CEO of MeVitae, a cognitive recruiting system that makes intelligent and personalised hiring decisions.
- Twitter:
- @rihamsatti
- Website:
- www.mevitae.com/
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/rihamsatti/?originalSubdomain=uk
Robyn Heslin
Robyn Heslin
Samuel Ajiboyede
Samuel Ajiboyede
Samuel Ajiboyede is a visionary leader transforming industries through technology. As the founder and CEO of Zido, he revolutionizes global goods and service distribution with a payment guarantee for businesses and helps customers manage their bills. He also founded Rowvar, connecting members to affordable premium properties worldwide.
Samuel's work with General Electric on hybrid power solutions has reduced OPEX and CAPEX for African telecom sites and decreased Africa's carbon footprint. As the innovator behind the Harnod Energy concept, he is increasing electric vehicle (EV) driving range by ten times. A tech guru with deep AI expertise, Samuel drives revenue growth and solves complex problems.
He has built several multi-million-dollar companies and is a global speaker, mentor, and expert in fintech, mobility, and real estate.
Committed to mentoring the next generation of African entrepreneurs, Samuel hosts the LinkedIn Live show "Exceptional With Sam" and writes the popular newsletter, The Entrepreneur's Diary.
Stuart Munton
Stuart Munton
Community and Curiosity are Stuart’s core values which have led him through his 20+ year digital career. Starting with pivotal Agile and Digital transformations for major players like ASDA / Walmart and the NHS, he became an agile advocate back in 2004.
Stuart joined AND Digital as a 10 person start-up in 2014 and led the set-up and evolution of their way of working as they have grown to 1500+ consultants. He has honed practices for ~50 of AND’s clients across various industries - Retail, eCommerce, Insurance, Leisure, Hospitality, Media, Publishing etc.
Currently, as Chief for Group Delivery, Stuart guides evolution in practices across Agile, Scaled, and Programme Delivery. He also leads AND’s ‘Standards’ Programme that is mixing the best of external approaches with the innovation from within AND’s Digital’s community..
Alongside AND, Stuart co-founded the Agile Reading meet-up, creating a space for agile enthusiasts since 2020 and has been speaking at international conferences (e.g. Agile on the Beach, ACE Krakow, XP2023 Amsterdam, ScanAgile etc.) from 2021 onwards.
Stuart lives with his family in Reading Berkshire where he is a coach and semi-retired player at his local rugby club and is a lifelong Leicester Tigers rugby team fan.
Xanthe Marmion
Xanthe Marmion
Xanthe joined Hatch Digital from an advertising background, where she had become frustrated with the lack of equitable opportunity and barriers to progression for women in large agency environments.
She felt compelled by Hatch’s mission & quickly joined the founding team, having since held roles across marketing, operations, business development & sales as the business has grown and evolved. Through it all, she has remained committed to driving industry-wide change for minority demographics across the tech industry by providing employers with the means to prove value in what a person is capable of– their ‘potential’ - rather than what is says on their CV.
Nimmi Patel
Nimmi Patel
Nimmi Patel is the Head of Skills, Talent and Diversity at techUK.
She works on all things skills, education, and future of work policy, focusing on upskilling and retraining. Nimmi is also an Advisory Board member of Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (digit). The Centre research aims to increase understanding of how digital technologies are changing work and the implications for employers, workers, job seekers and governments.
Prior to joining the team, she worked for the UK Labour Party and New Zealand Labour Party, and holds an MA in Strategic Communications at King’s College London and BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Manchester.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 07805744520
- Twitter:
- @nimmiptl
- Website:
- www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimmi-patel1/
