meet the speakers
Ian Ritchie is the non-executive Chairman of Tern plc, Computer Applications Service, and Krotos; he serves on the board of the Royal Lyceum Theatre.
He founded OWL in 1984 which pioneered hypertext technology (a forerunner to the World Wide Web) and which was sold to Panasonic in 1989. Since then, he has been involved in over 50 start-up high-tech businesses.
In the late 1980s he was a founder of ScotlandIS (then the Scottish Software House Federation) and was its Chairman from 1988 to 1990. He was President of the BCS in 1998-99.
His writes a monthly column in The Herald BusinessHQ section and his TED talk has been viewed over 600,000 times. His book, ‘The Web before the Web’ describes the early development of the graphics-based personal computer.
‘Hopeful sceptic’ K D Adamson’s inspirational performances have been described as a TED talk on
steroids and a Tarantino movie where no one died, challenging our assumptions about geopolitics and
society, business, the environment, economics, technology, and ourselves.
Sharp, funny and straight-talking on stage, screen, and in print she is a regular commentator on global
events renowned for her simple yet powerful ideas, thought-provoking opinions, and ability to distill
complex, hot-button issues as a contributor to BBC World News, Bloomberg, CNN, The Sun, Financial
Times, Al Jazeera, Fast Company, Channel News Asia, and BBC R4 Today.
A visionary who reframes the future as a value problem that no technology can solve, K D’s candid
pragmatism and practical commercial acumen guides and influences sustainable value creation for
leaders and organisations around the world.
Expert in sustainable organisational transformation, digitalization, AI, innovation, agility, ESG, leadership,
and the blue, green and circular economies her stellar clients include major global brands, tech giants,
multi-nationals, governments, non-profits and NGOs.
Visionary yet pragmatic she reframes the future as a value problem that no technology can solve. Her
motto is ‘dubito ergo sum’ – ‘I doubt, therefore I am’.
A former Gartner analyst, Richard Marshall has over 30 years of experience in the field of software design and innovation, including 18 as an entrepreneur.
As an inventor of software technology, Richard has lectured, written papers, articles and reports for many years. He has held a variety of leadership roles including VP, CTO, CMO, and CEO.
Richard regularly acts as an expert witness, including deposition, court testimony, and voir-dire and Daubert challenges, with an unbroken record of success for clients, including winning record damages of over $2bn for willful and malicious misappropriation of trade secrets.
Cheryl Hung is Senior Director, Head of Infrastructure Ecosystem at Arm, and thought leader in open source and ecosystem strategy.
She was VP Ecosystem at the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, engaging organisations such as Apple, Airbnb, CERN, Intuit and Spotify in the End User Community. She was an early pioneer in the Kubernetes community, founding the Cloud Native London meetup in 2017 and growing it to over 9000 members. Previously she managed engineering teams at Apple and Google.
Cheryl holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge.
Gary is the Founder and Chief Advisor at Owendale Advisory, where he helps leaders navigate AI’s impact on business strategy, operations, workforce and customers. He’s led large-scale business and technology transformations for some of the world’s best-known brands and loves working at the intersection of strategy, technology, and design.
Director of Technology at CreateFuture, Daniel Llewellyn is an experienced software engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the information security and services industry.
Skilled in Android development in Java and kotlin, Daniel is passionate about continuous improvement in the software development lifecycle, as well as learning and improving on his current skills.
Keith O’Donnell is the Managing Director of Feynic Technology Ltd, an advisory consultancy focused on the commercialisation of emerging technologies.
He previously led the EMEA Innovation Program for Morgan Stanley, seeding their Spatial Computing & Quantum Technology programs and developing numerous proof-of-concept projects across a number of disciplines relevant to this special interest group proposal.
Working across numerous industries since 2001, Keith has earned a varied skillset that enables him to adapt quickly to new technologies and disciplines. This experience covers the construction, logistics, finance and technology sectors. He currently holds an affiliate position with the Scottish International Space Advisory Council (SISAC) and is an active member of the Global Scot network.
Keith earned his degree in Business from the University of Strathclyde, having previously studied Genetics & Biotechnology at the University of Glasgow.
Tracy was voted PCR’S Woman of the Year 2016 and one of the top 50 women in technology in 2014 and 2015. She was awarded CompTIA’s Member of the Year in March 2017, and voted in as Chairwoman of the Board of CompTIA in May 2021. In 2025 she was honoured as one of the 50 Leaders Advancing the Channel by Channel Futures, alongside being award a top 100 winner in the global Women in Leadership awards 2025. She is passionate about diversity and raising the bar in professionalism and skills with tech professionals.
Tracy has over 40 years’ experience working in tech and has successfully implemented business systems and training programmes across many different industries from service and professional sectors through to retail, education and manufacturing.
She has taken part in several Chamber of Commerce initiatives to deliver free IT advice to SME’s, has been a part of the Staffordshire Online Fraud Forum, and was one of the authors of a business standard for IT companies called Accredit UK that was run by Advantage West Midlands under ERDF funding.
An active member of the global tech trade association GTIA, Tracy is a member of the Education Faculty delivering training, webinars and talks for GTIA members around the world. In 2015 Tracy joined the GTIA Board of Directors, after previously being part of the UK Executive Council. GTIA is a global not for profit trade association with annual revenues in excess of $180 million. Her duties as a Board director have included chairing the Governance Committee and the Audit, Finance and Investment Committee before taking over as Chairwoman of the Board, and Immediate Past Chair. Tracy is also a member of the Executive Committee, overseeing the composition and structure of the Board.
She founded Maximity, an IT consulting and training business specializing Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Microsoft 365, in 2000 and co-founded Prizm Solutions, an insurance brokerage, with her husband in 2006.Tracy also serves on the Advisory Board for Channel Futures, a US based media and events platform providing information, perspective and community for the global tech channel ecosystem.
Tracy is a member of the Chartered Management Institute, a Fellow of the Institute of Consulting, a member of the FSB and Chamber of Commerce.
Tom is a Fullstack Software engineer and Data Platforming consultant at Accenture Next Gen Engineering, based out of Edinburgh.
He is passionate about building simple, end-to-end, modular, future-proof data platforms that evolve with scale.
Ceri (they/them) has 25+ years of experience in the tech industry as a hands-on developer, manager and senior technical leader. They currently work as a Fractional CTO, helping start-ups and scale-ups with technical strategy and delivery execution. They love solving problems of all descriptions: people, processes and technology, and thoroughly enjoy assisting technical teams in fixing what’s getting in their way.
Ceri specialises in the practices and behaviours that drive high-performing teams, particularly around the delivery and visibility of value generated by technical teams, and how that value is communicated to the rest of the organisation.
Ilyas founded Cambridge Quantum in 2014 and was the founding CEO of Quantinuum, the company created as a result of the merger of Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum. As well as being Vice-Chairman of the board of directors, he is also the Chief Product Officer of Quantinuum and part of the executive leadership team of the company.
He is the Leader in Residence at the University of Cambridge’s Judge Business School where he was instrumental in establishing the highly regarded Accelerate Cambridge program of investment in early-stage Cambridge-based deep-science technology sector companies.
Ilyas was the inaugural Chairman of The Stephen Hawking Foundation, holding the post until 2019. He is also the founding Chairman (non-executive) of the Topos Institute. He is also a fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Ilyas is recognised as one of the founders and leading voices in the quantum computing industry globally.
Charlie Maclean-Bristol, MA (Hons), PgD, FBCI, FEPS, CBCI, MCIPR, is a leading Business Continuity, Cyber Incident Management, and Crisis Management consultant with over 30 years’ experience. He is an NCSC-certified tutor, the author of two NCSC-certified cyber training courses, and has led PlanB Consulting to become an NCSC Cyber Incident Exercising Certified Provider.
A former Army officer, Charlie’s first experience of incident management came through active service in Northern Ireland. Since then, he has delivered hundreds of cyber exercises for organisations across a wide range of sectors and geographies. He is a Fellow of both the Business Continuity Institute and the Emergency Planning Society and has won several industry awards, including the CIR Lifetime Achievement Award. Charlie teaches at Glasgow Caledonian University and has contributed extensively to the development of the profession through speaking, writing, and course development. He continues to champion practical, hands-on resilience and leadership in the face of evolving threats.
Peter Gordon is a Principal Consultant at Waracle, where he has been leading Enterprise Product Discovery, Client deliveries, AI adoption and Product Discovery in startups, SMEs and Enterprises.
Pete has worked as a Senior Developer, Team Manager, COO, CTO and Consultant for the last 30 years. He has global experience in digital transformation, AI product development, Design Thinking and is known for his results-driven mindset and leadership style that inspires high-performance teams.