Joanna joined the Home Office in November 2017 following a 28 year career with PWC and IBM, where she focussed on delivering large Public Sector ICT programmes, often in the UK but also for governments across Europe and in the US/Canada. Before that Joanna enjoyed 5 years in the Civil Service in the National Audit Office and is delighted to now be back in central Government at the Home Office. She is the department’s Chief Digital, Data and Technology Officer, leading a team of over 3,000 employees reporting directly to the Permanent Secretary, with a seat at the departmental Board.

As Chief DDaT Officer her role is to provide exceptionally strong leadership and senior-level advocacy, internally within the Home Office and across Government, and externally, for the delivery of digital, data and technology solutions that support the department’s current and future business transformation programmes. In doing so she will bring a deep knowledge of the technology and digital landscape and marketplace to the Home Office, and ensure that the Home Office makes effective use of modern standards and solutions.

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Emily Andrews is an Associate Director at the Institute for Government – a non-partisan, independent think tank which works to make government more effective.

She currently leads Performance Tracker, a data-driven analysis of the performance of public services, produced in partnership with CIPFA. She has previously worked on digital transformation in government, and professional skills in Whitehall.

She holds a PhD in the history of dementia from the University of Warwick, and began her career as a secondary school teacher in London.

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Charles Clarke was Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 to 2010. He served as Education Minister from 1998 and then in the Home Office from 1999 to 2001. He then joined the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio and Labour Party Chair. From 2002 to 2004 he was Secretary of State for Education and Skills and then Home Secretary until 2006.

Charles was previously Chief of Staff to Neil Kinnock, Leader of the Labour Opposition and a councillor in the London Borough of Hackney, chairing the housing committee.

He now holds Visiting Professorships at Lancaster University and Kings College London and works with educational organisations internationally. In 2011 the Centre for European Reform published his ‘The EU and Migration: A Call for Action’. In 2014 he published ‘The Too Difficult Box’, an analysis of the problems which need to be overcome in promoting change, and in September 2015 two studies in political leadership, ‘British Labour Leaders’ and ‘British Conservative Leaders’; in 2015 he wrote, with Professor Linda Woodhead, “A New Settlement, Religion and Belief in Schools”.

Mr Clarke read mathematics and economics at Kings College Cambridge and was then President of the National Union of Students.

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Tim Shipman is Political Editor of the Sunday Times and one of the most experienced reporters and observational commentators of Westminster life working today. His posts have included Deputy Political Editor at the Daily Mail, Washington Correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph and Political and Foreign Correspondent at the Daily Express and Sunday Express.

His first book All Out War tells the story of this momentous upheaval in British politics, from PM David Cameron’s efforts to secure a new deal from Brussels, through the referendum campaign. His follow-up book Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem chronicles the most dramatic general election campaign in modern history and Theresa May’s battle for a Brexit deal with the EU.

Tim also writes for The Spectator and for Total Politics and has a growing following as an observer of the political scene on Twitter, @ShippersUnbound with more than eighty-thousand followers.

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Kevin Acklin has served as in a number of capacities at the City of Pittsburgh including Chief of Staff to the Mayor, Chief Development Officer and Chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Authority. He oversaw all development activities in the city, with responsibilities over City Planning, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority, Sports & Exhibition Authority, and the Stadium Authority. He graduated cum laude from Harvard College and earned his law degree cum laude from Georgetown University.  Kevin currently serves as Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of Peoples Natural Gas Company and continues to serve as Chairman of the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

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Both as advisor and then minister, Andrew Adonis was a key architect of Tony Blair’s public service reforms in education, health, local government, policing and transport. He has deep
and broad experience of the challenge of leadership, change management and policy implementation in complex organisations – and in difficult conditions.

As Labour Secretary of State for Transport, Andrew prepared the plan for the HS2 rail line which was adopted Conservative/Lib-Dem Government. As Schools Minister he was the driving force behind the Academies programme which led to the creation of 400 ‘independent state schools’ – again it became the model for the incoming government. He also pioneered the controversial introduction of university tuition fees, now broadly accepted by all main parties.

After an early career as Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, Oxford and Public Policy Editor of the Financial Times, Andrew spent two years as Head of the No.10 Policy Unit. One of the most ardent modernisers, he became the Prime Minister’s principal advisor on domestic policy and is widely respected by all parts of the political spectrum for his understanding of  policy, implementation and strategy.

Andrew’s experience and knowledge of both policy and infrastructure saw him appointed Chair of the newly created National Infrastructure Commission. The Commission’s role is to make long-term decisions on infrastructure projects in the UK with a view to what is necessary for the economy, what is required to realise it, and its effects.

Lord Adonis is author of books on parliamentary reform, the class system and the infamous poll tax – and was named ‘Peer of the Year’ in Channel Four’s awards. After leaving the Cabinet he became Chairman of a cross-party think tank, working on ways to improve the effectiveness of government.

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All of Andy’s work revolves around the idea that collaborative, campaigning communities of like-minded people can drive the positive change that is so desperately needed throughout the financial services market.

He is the Founding Chair of the Transparency Task Force, the collaborative, campaigning community dedicated to driving up the levels of transparency in financial services, right around the world. This community has 13 teams of volunteers, each team focused on particular industry issues.

The TTF’s Costs and Charges Team has been highly active in campaigning for greater transparency on costs and charges in pensions and investments; and it has been actively engaged with the Financial Conduct Authority’s Asset Management Market Study, the Pension Regulator’s Work on Value for Money and the Department for Work and Pensions’ activity around pension costs reporting.

Andy can be reached through andy.agathangelou@transparencytaskforce.org and he is also:

• Founding Chair, the Technology Task Force
• Chair, The Interoperability Steering Group
• Governor, the Pensions Policy Institute
• Chair of Pensions BIB
• Member, the Independent Advisory Board to the Investment Association on Cost Disclosure
• Former Founding Chair, Friends of the Association of Member Nominated Trustees
• Former Founding Chair, Friends of Automatic Enrolmen

Anita Anand is a BBC news and politics broadcaster. She took over from Jonathan Dimbleby as host of Radio 4’s debate programme Any Answers. She previously co-presented The Daily Politics with Andrew Neil and also Double Take, The Anita Anand Show and 5Live’s Sunday morning show exploring the stories behind the headlines.

Starting her career at Zee TV, Anita was one of the youngest news editors in the country. She went on to become the channel’s political correspondent and made a series of documentary films about the political aspirations of Asian communities in marginal constituencies before the 1997 election. She then became co-host of Radio 5 live’s Drive.

Combining wit and insight, Anita’s breadth of knowledge and skill at thinking on her feet make her a popular live host for a wide variety of audiences. Anita has also presented Beyond Westminster, the Westminster Hour, Midweek and Saturday Live for Radio 4, and Have Your Say on the BBC World Service. She has written for The Independent, Guardian, Asian Age and India Today, and is the author of the acclaimed Sophia – Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary, a biography of an Indian princess who was a key figure during one of the most fascinating periods of her country’s, and the British Empire’s, history. Her latest book, Koh-i- Noor, the story of the world’s most infamous diamond, is already an international bestseller.

Emily Andrews is an Associate Director at the Institute for Government – a non-partisan, independent think tank which works to make government more effective.

She currently leads Performance Tracker, a data-driven analysis of the performance of public services, produced in partnership with CIPFA. She has previously worked on digital transformation in government, and professional skills in Whitehall.

She holds a PhD in the history of dementia from the University of Warwick, and began her career as a secondary school teacher in London.

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With more than 35 years of industry experience, Mark’s background is firmly rooted in the management and administration of retirement assets.

At Northern Trust, he is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction of its asset servicing business for UK pension clients – supporting their needs in areas ranging from liquidity management to operational efficiency and helping deliver transparency and oversight over their investment assets.

Mark is passionate about retirement provision and is a lead author behind a recent white paper aimed at providing trustees and those overseeing pension funds with insights into better understanding their investment costs. He is also a trustee of the Northern Trust UK Pension Scheme.

His experience includes spells at an asset manager with significant pension market share and at two asset servicing institutions predominately servicing the European defined benefit and defined contribution markets.

His other areas of experience include helping a wide variety of clients with their use of asset pooling structures, as well as the more complex aspects of pension de-risking and the use of other deficit reduction structures.

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Alix Bedford is a strategic risk professional with over 15 years’ experience working both with and within the public sector initially as a Strategic Risk Consultant with Zurich Municipal. Alix’s current focus is supporting the delivery of strategic risk management solutions across Zurich Municipal segments through the provision of risk insight, training and coaching. Prior to this Alix spent 7 years as the lead officer for risk and performance management at Swindon Borough Council, and has experience in a variety of fields including policy development, corporate planning, performance management, programme and project management and business resilience. Alix is a member of the Institute of Risk Management and was their Certificate qualification student of the year for 2016.

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Hamant Bharadia is CGMA and CIPFA qualified professional with 28 years of local government experience within Finance and IT. As Assistant Director of Finance and Deputy S151 officer leads on the financial strategy and policy for the Council and the development and implementation of all financial aspects of the Council’s budget processes for both revenue and capital.

Having worked at various levels with technology, organisation redesign and financial management as subject matter expert, project lead or senior responsible officer has been exposed to both client and provider perspective. Often acting as the bridge between Finance and Technology to interpret and deliver business specific and practical solutions covering a wide range of back office transactional processes to client servicing systems such as social care and housing for example.

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Saskia is a senior press and public affairs officer for CIPFA and manages the Institute’s Brexit Advisory Commission for Public Services

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Chris is an FRICS qualified surveyor and Senior Property Advisor within the CIPFA group. Chris delivers the CIPFA’s Strategic Assets Network, Property Training Network and Highway Asset Management Network, as well as advising on asset management and asset valuation issues throughout the UK and undertaking a range of related consultancy.

Chris is a long standing member of the RICS Public Sector Valuation Group and has contributed actively to revisions to and development of RICS Professional Standards (the ‘Red Book’). He is recognised as one of the UK’s leading experts on local authority asset valuation, having acted as joint author on relevant CIPFA publications and also jointly devised and delivered the CIPFA Certificate in Local Authority Asset Valuation.

Andrew Burns is the immediate Past President of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA); Director of Finance and Resources for Staffordshire County Council (SCC) and previously Chairman of the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB).

He was elected to CIPFA Council in 2010 and has chaired the Group Board, Policy and Standards Board and led CIPFA’s Aligning Public Services Working Group.

As Director of Finance and Resources for SCC he has strategic responsibility for finance, HR, ICT, digital, property, commercial and customer services and is Treasurer of the Staffordshire Pension Fund. Andy led the financial transformation programme that delivered £150m savings and significant service improvement in Staffordshire.

For his CCAB role Andy took leadership of the group representing the main UK accountancy bodies, which has a combined membership of over 380,000 professional accountants worldwide.

He has an MBA from Aston Business School and is Past-President of the Society of County Treasurers.

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Carole Cadwalladr broke the story on the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal throwing a spotlight on the protection of personal data in the public domain, and how governments and companies use data to deliver services, target unsuspecting subjects and influence our lives. The ethical and legal dimensions will reverberate for years.

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Anne is a CIPFA member and is also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland. She has over 30 years’ experience in both public and private sector finance.Anne has worked at Audit Scotland for 15 years and has public sector audit experience across the NHS, central and local government sectors. This includes work on financial, performance and best value audits.

Anne is Audit Scotland’s technical manager for social security and benefits, including the Scottish Parliament’s newly devolved social security powers. This involves close working with the Department for Work and Pensions, benefit practitioners and the Scottish Government.Anne is a member of the Scottish Government’s Counter Fraud Forum working with Scottish public sector counter-fraud professionals.

She also works with local auditors to identify system weaknesses that have led to fraud and error in local and central government bodies. Over the last year, Anne has taken on the role of leading the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) in Scotland. This involves close liaison with the Cabinet Office and NFI leads in Northern Ireland and Wales.

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Sunil has 32 years’ experience and is an asset management and investment costs & charges SME

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Charles Clarke was Member of Parliament for Norwich South from 1997 to 2010. He served as Education Minister from 1998 and then in the Home Office from 1999 to 2001. He then joined the Cabinet as Minister without Portfolio and Labour Party Chair. From 2002 to 2004 he was Secretary of State for Education and Skills and then Home Secretary until 2006.

Charles was previously Chief of Staff to Neil Kinnock, Leader of the Labour Opposition and a councillor in the London Borough of Hackney, chairing the housing committee.

He now holds Visiting Professorships at Lancaster University and Kings College London and works with educational organisations internationally. In 2011 the Centre for European Reform published his ‘The EU and Migration: A Call for Action’. In 2014 he published ‘The Too Difficult Box’, an analysis of the problems which need to be overcome in promoting change, and in September 2015 two studies in political leadership, ‘British Labour Leaders’ and ‘British Conservative Leaders’; in 2015 he wrote, with Professor Linda Woodhead, “A New Settlement, Religion and Belief in Schools”.

Mr Clarke read mathematics and economics at Kings College Cambridge and was then President of the National Union of Students.

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Fran Collingham is a strategic communications advisor and LGA Associate working with councils and public sector organisations across the country. She jointly edited Walk Tall and Holding Up the Mirror with Dawn Reeves.

Until October 2016 she was Assistant Director of Communications at Coventry City Council and a member of Council’s top management team. She began her career as a journalist working on local and regional evening newspapers before local government, joining Coventry in 2003 after working in and leading award-winning communications teams at Wychavon, Redditch and Birmingham councils. In 2014 she was awarded a Comms2point0 lifetime achievement award for her work in local government communications.

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Anthony has over 24 years of Financial Services,  Risk Management and Project Management experience.

The majority of this time has been spent working in 3 Lines of Defence Risk Functions. Key achievements include developing a Risk Culture Assessment mode across a global Corporate Bank, setting up an Operational Risk function for a new UK Challenger Bank. Anthony was also a successful Project Manager with responsibility for managing and delivering a number of high profile IT and Risk projects throughout his career.

Anthony joined Zurich Risk Engineering in March 2017 and has already had a positive influence across a wide and varied portfolio of clients putting his extensive risk management skills to the test.

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With over 30 years IT leadership experience, Jos has held a variety of CIO roles and non-executive director positions.  He is a recognised independent analyst and researcher, including Associate Director and Past President of Socitm, Strategic Advisor for Advice Cloud, Principal Analyst for Eduserv, and past President of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. He sits on the Open University Industrial Board and is on the Risk and Audit Committee for the Department of International Trade

For over a decade Jos was CIO and latterly CDO for Hampshire County Council, leading a range of ground-breaking shared services and achieving national recognition with a range of awards for IT innovation.  He set up and chaired the Local Public Service CIO Council and has worked with central government on a range of strategic programmes such as open data, ID cards and supplier negotiation. His experience includes large-scale mergers, national and international IT programmes and the start-up and subsequent sale of a tech business.

Now operating as an independent consultant, Jos provides expert advice to public and private sectors on digital and IT strategies. He writes and presents extensively on digital transformation and supports senior executives as a coach and mentor. He has worked with over 150 clients, typically at board level on digital assignments and constructive challenge.

Recent research projects have included some of the most challenge aspects of modern public service digital delivery, in areas such as health and social care integration, information management, cyber security, cloud, smart cities, and digital leadership for HR, Finance and CEOs.

Jos was named as the ‘most influential and innovative CIO’ in the UK in the ‘Silicon 50’ CIO survey in 2017 and has been included in the ‘Top 100 CIO’ list from its inception until becoming an independent consultant in 2015.

Drew Cullen has over 25 years’ experience of working in professional publishing, charities and the not-for-profit sector. He is currently a director at CIPFA where he leads public affairs and communications strategy to deliver public policy, thought leadership and media profile, developing new impactful communications programmes and key partnerships globally with professional services firms, corporates, governments, NGOs and other international bodies.

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Noel Cullen FCMA, is an experienced finance operations leader and change manager with a demonstrated history of working across the private and public sectors. He brings knowledge of outsourcing, shared services and of cognitive and robotics technology that offer next-level value to finance functions.

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Adam Cunnington has been Managing Director of Public Sector Plc since 2011. Prior to joining PSP Adam spent nine years at Land Securities as Development Director heading up the 17 million sq ft Ebbsfleet Valley development in the Thames Gateway. PSP currently has twenty one partnerships with council across the country and is engaged in a broad range of property based projects to create value for its council partners in innovative and exciting ways; delivering regeneration, capital receipts and revenue benefits.

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Joanna joined the Home Office in November 2017 following a 28 year career with PWC and IBM, where she focussed on delivering large Public Sector ICT programmes, often in the UK but also for governments across Europe and in the US/Canada. Before that Joanna enjoyed 5 years in the Civil Service in the National Audit Office and is delighted to now be back in central Government at the Home Office. She is the department’s Chief Digital, Data and Technology Officer, leading a team of over 3,000 employees reporting directly to the Permanent Secretary, with a seat at the departmental Board.

As Chief DDaT Officer her role is to provide exceptionally strong leadership and senior-level advocacy, internally within the Home Office and across Government, and externally, for the delivery of digital, data and technology solutions that support the department’s current and future business transformation programmes. In doing so she will bring a deep knowledge of the technology and digital landscape and marketplace to the Home Office, and ensure that the Home Office makes effective use of modern standards and solutions.

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Barry is a Chartered Accountant and Qualified Insolvency Practitioner.  He heads up Grant Thornton’s forensic investigations for the public sector and has nearly 30 years of experience investigating fraud and misconduct.  He has worked on some of the biggest and most complex fraud cases in the UK including cases for central government and major high street banks.

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I am currently the Head of Local Government and of Public Sector Financial Reporting in Grant Thornton. I am responsible for all of our formal responses to technical papers that are related to public sector financial reporting. This usually involves responding to consolation drafts from the Department of Health and the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accountancy (for Local Government).   I also led our work on the conversion of the NHS and Local Government from UK GAAP to IFRS in the period 2008-10.  I am currently working on a major project with key finance leaders in local government to help streamline financial reporting arrangements which have become cumbersome and overlong. From 2017/18 , all local authorities will need to audited by within 4 months of 31 March year end and this requires new look at what is required to be produced to comply with accounting  standards and to meet the needs of the various stakeholders.

I have worked with local authorities for 30 years including at least 10 London boroughs and many other types of council. Client I have worked with include; London Boroughs of Westminster, Greenwich, Southwark, Barnet, Haringey and Enfield. I have vast experience of finance, governance and performance issues as well as extensive experience of challenge work and the exercise of statutory functions.  I have been the Head of Local Government for Grant Thornton for the last 6 years and this gives me a great opportunity to bring insight from across the UK to all of my clients. In 2015 I worked very closely with the team who produced our key national reports, ” Reforging Local Government “, Making Devolution Work” and our detailed insight into the world of Local Authority Trading Companies (” Spreading their Wings”).  I recently chaired a roundtable with the Welsh Government on local government reorganisation and have presented to Scottish authorities and Audit Scotland on the lessons from English Devolution.

I lead our business partner arrangements with both CIPFA and SOLACE which give me access to the resources and insight provided by these organisations in respect of local government. I have presented at countless events ranging from the introduction of IFRS, the challenges of austerity and the opportunities offered by devolution.

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Martin is a Director within Grant Thornton’s public sector advisory practice. He works with public sector bodies across the UK focusing on strategy development, collaboration and governance.

He is highly experienced in supporting public sector partnerships in achieving consensus on complex strategic issues such as structural reform, devolution and development of alternative delivery models. Martin is a leading advisor on public sector reform within two-tier areas.

Until his retirement in September 2014 Mike was Director of Finance and Resources at London Borough of Bexley, where he had spent most of his career. In addition to the usual Director’s duties, he had responsibility for the Council’s pension fund.

Since retiring Mike has been appointed as independent chair of the Local Pension Boards at the London Boroughs of Croydon, Southwark and Sutton, and chairs Cipfa’s Pensions Panel . He is also a non executive director of a property company established by Bexley.

Outside of work he remains a keen runner having achieved a personal best of 2 hours 30minutes in the London Marathon – although some years ago!

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Sara has over twenty five years’ experience as a monitoring officer for a range of local authorities. Since joining PSP she has lead on the shaping of our robust governance approach as well as giving clarity to our partners legal and financial teams on how the model works in practise.

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Kerry is the CEO of the Global Sourcing Association.  Kerry’s focus is on growing the reach and the positive reputation of the sourcing industry globally, through the development and dissemination of standards and qualifications.

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Richard and his team are working across the UK supporting Councils with new commercial models.  He’s currently supporting councils in creating new delivery models, improve existing ones and in some cases insource others.  Richard has established several new public service collaboration and delivery models including Public Service Mutuals / Cooperatives, Community Interest Companies, Children’s Trusts, Local Authority Trading Companies and public/private Joint Ventures. A former Local Authority Commercial Director, he has formerly held roles as council shareholder, and managed several major contract and commercial management services.

Sarah is a partner and head of public sector at Grant Thornton. Sarah’s passion for the sector and strong support for CIPFA has seen Grant Thornton become the largest UK recruiter of CIPFA students and the first firm to launch the CIPFA apprenticeship scheme and adopt the new Integrated Qualification.

Sarah spends much of her time between the north of England and London, leading the firm’s public sector assurance and advisory practice. Sarah has been lucky to work with a variety of clients over the last 25 years, seeing most recently the devolution changes across Greater Manchester first hand. Previously Sarah was a partner at RSM Robson Rhodes, and before that was with the Audit Commission in Bristol and Yorkshire.

Sarah has been an active volunteer for CIPFA over much of her career, as an examiner, regional executive member and as an elected council member. Sarah’s volunteering efforts have been recognised by the Institute through both the Dr Hedley Marshall Award for outstanding contribution to regional activities and the Tom Sowerby Award for outstanding services to CIPFA students.

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Zanco is a principal solution consultant, specialised in Analytics, BigData and Machine Learning .He has over 20 years’ hand-on experience in Oracle technologies, Analytics applications and operational reporting.

He worked as Sales Intelligence Director for Oracle UK, where he implemented and promoted data-driven decision making processes and Analytical applications.

Zanco has 9 years’ Oracle Analytics solution experience of supporting a range of clients across the public and private sectors, with specific focus on BigData and Data science.

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Margaret is the Executive Director for Corporate and Customer Services at Essex County Council and has responsibility for:

•   Finance and Procurement Services
•   Legal and Assurance
•   Essex Pension Fund
•   Customer Services
•   SELEP Accountable Body

While the vast majority of her career has been at Essex County Council, she has held many varied roles during that time, including leading the implementation of a new General Ledger and related finance systems, was Head of Finance for Social Services before moving to corporate finance roles, becoming the statutory Chief Financial Officer (S151) in 2007, and an Executive Director in 2010. She also holds the position of S151 of the South East Local Economic Partnership (SELEP) and the Essex Pension Fund. Margaret is also the Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) for the Council

Margaret is a past President of the national Society of County Treasurers (SCT), is an SCT core advisor to the Local Government Association (LGA) and also sits on various national Local Government working groups, most recently the Steering Board for the Business Rates Reform work which sees 100 per cent of business rates transferred to local government in 2020,  is working with MHCLG and LGA to design the new model of business rates retention planned for 2020. She was a member of the LGA Finance Peer Review team who reviewed Northampton County Council in September 2017, and is now co-chairing a CIPFA Panel charged with drawing up a new code of Practice for Financial Management and Planning to improve financial resilience. She has recently worked again with CIPFA to draw up a paper on the role of the S151 for LEPS. This paper is currently out for consultation. More locally, she is a member of the Improvement East Finance Directors group and the Essex Finance Officers Association.

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Grace has spent the last few years working with various early-stage startups in the Blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. As programme manager and UK rep at AID:Tech, she manages a diverse range of international applications and programmes AID:Tech whilst overseeing operational processes. Grace has a MA from King’s College London and a BA from University of Warwick.

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Richard is a Chartered Tax Adviser and leads KPMG’s Employment Solutions team in London Region. He has more than 15 years’ experience of supporting a range of clients across the public and private sectors, with specific focus on the tax aspects of employing people.

A key part of this is helping employers improve the effectiveness of their processes and controls around payroll and employee expenses for tax and other purposes.

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June Matte is the Chief Executive of PFM in the UK, and is responsible for bringing PFM’s market leading local government and public sector expertise to the UK market. June has built an impressive track record over nearly 40 years of advising leading US cities, states and authorities on financial strategy and implementation, encompassing credit strategy development, risk assessment, financing alternatives, transaction management and cash-flow optimisation. June has assisted both states and local authorities in managing portfolios of governmental debt totalling more than $25 billion.

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Lord Andrew Mawson is a social entrepreneur. He was appointed Chairman of Well North in 2015, a Public Health England initiative working with the public, businesses, and voluntary sectors to improve the health of people living in some of the most deprived communities. Well North is now working in ten towns and cities in the North of England. Andrew was a member of Lord Heseltine’s Estates Regeneration Advisory Panel, at the Department of Communities and Local Government, advising on improving housing estates up and down the country.

Andrew is best known for founding the Bromley-by-Bow Centre in east London, Community Action Network (CAN), Poplar Harca (one of the first housing companies) and Leaside Regeneration Ltd.  Andrew has now “graduated” from most of these ventures and each of them continues as a successful organisation. He has created Andrew Mawson Partnerships as a vehicle both to grow and replicate his approach and successes.

In 2012, Andrew was made a Freeman of the City of London. He is also the best-selling author of the book, “The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work.”

Nearly two  decades ago, Andrew and his partners wrote one of the first papers proposing that the Olympics Games be brought to east London. He was until recently a Director of the London Legacy Development Corporation where he chaired the Regeneration and Community Partnerships Committee. The corporation has the responsibility to plan, develop, and manage the Olympic Park in east London and create a lasting legacy from the 2012 Games.

Under the AMP banner, Andrew co-founded One Church 100 Uses CIC and launched the Water City Group to create and implement a joined-up vision for east London revitalised by the opportunities of the 21st Century and the 2012 Olympic Games.

Andrew was made a life Peer in 2007 in recognition of the social impact of his work and he now sits as an independent crossbench Peer in the House of Lords. For Andrew, nothing is impossible. His favourite saying is, “live dangerously or do not live at all.”

Sophie is an Executive within Grant Thornton’s audit department where she performs the In-Charge Auditor role on a number of NHS and Local Government clients. Sophie completed her CIPFA qualification in December 2017, and was recognized as a prize-winner in 2016 and 2018. Sophie has been a member of the CIPFA Student Network Executive throughout her studies and will be the Network President for 2018/19.

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Diana is the lead advisor for the CIPFA Better Governance Forum. She is a CIPFA-qualified accountant and is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Prior to joining CIPFA in 2008 she was head of internal audit at Salisbury Council and held other audit roles in local government and at the National Audit Office. She has authored the 2018 edition of Audit Committees: Practical Guidance for Local Authorities and Police and co-developed the CIPFA Code of Practice on Managing the Risk of Fraud and Corruption (2014). She is part of the CIPFA working group that developed the Good Governance Framework for Local Government (2016) and supports other CIPFA policy initiatives and publications on governance, internal audit and counter fraud.

Aileen has been Director of MHCLG & Local Government VFM at the NAO since July 2013 and leads the NAO’s value for money work on local government. She has published reports to Parliament on financial sustainability of local authorities, most recently on capital expenditure by local authorities, the local economic growth landscape and on Adult Social Care. One of her most recent outputs Progress in setting up combined authorities builds on previous work in Devolving responsibilities to cities in England: Wave 1 City Deals and  Local Enterprise Partnerships examining at the government’s  steps in devolving power and responsibility as the Government’s programme of devolution gets underway. She has published Housing in England: an overview and Homelessness in England assessing trends in homelessness and the government’s measures to combat its rise.

Ian is the Executive Director of Corporate Resources at Ealing Council.

He is responsible for managing an annual budget of over £1bn, and as part of his portfolio oversees audit and anti-fraud functions.  He is also the Treasurer of the West London Waste Authority.

Ian is the former chair of the Fighting Fraud & Corruption Locally board, which produced the national counter fraud strategy for local government in 2016.

He is the originator and chair of the London Counter Fraud Hub, a collaboration between 33 London boroughs to share data and use advanced analytics to prevent and detect fraud.

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Ben Page is Chief Executive of Ipsos MORI. He joined MORI in 1987 after graduating from Oxford University in 1986, and was one of the leaders of its first management buyout in 2000. A frequent writer and speaker on trends, leadership and performance management, he has directed hundreds of surveys examining consumer trends and citizen behaviour.

From 1987-1992 Ben worked in our private sector business on corporate reputation and consumer research, working for companies like Shell, BAE Systems, Sky TV and IBM. Since 1992 he has worked closely with both Conservative and Labour ministers and senior policy makers across government, leading on work for Downing Street, the Cabinet Office, the Home Office and the Department of Health, as well as a wide range of local authorities and NHS Trusts.

He became Chief Executive of Ipsos in the UK and Ireland in 2009.

Ben is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and serves on advisory groups at the Kings Fund, Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Social Market Foundation (SMF), and is a Trustee at the Centre for London. He is also a commissioner on the Resolution Foundation’s Intergenerational Commission. He was named in GQ’s 100 Most Connected Men of 2015.

He regularly appears on national TV and radio programmes.

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Naresh joined Oracle in 2009, manages local government South at Oracle and is responsible for developing and executing an integrated, long term digital cloud strategies with local government and is actively involved in helping finance develop their digital skills

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Sarah is the Strategic Risk Practice Leader who leads and manages the Strategic Risk Practice comprising of 10 FTE’s.  Prior to this role Sarah worked as a Senior Risk Consultant within the team for 3 years.

Sarah’s background before joining Zurich is 24 years in the Public Sector working in the Police Service, a Metropolitan Council and a District Council.

Sarah was previously a member of a council’s strategic leadership team for 10 years and has managed a successful corporate service.  She has experience in a variety of fields including strategic planning, policy development, performance management, business resilience/risk management, and financial management.

Sarah obtained her MBA in 1999 and is a member of the Business Continuity Institute, Institute of Risk Management, Chartered Institute of Management and Chartered Insurance Institute.

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Jill is the President of the Society of District Treasurers alongside her current role as Head of Finance and Revenue Services at Broadland District Council.

Her role in the Society enables her to lobby central government about local authority issues, representing all 201 District Councils on topics such as Business Rate Retention and the Comprehensive Spending Review.

A strategic leader, Jill has experience of working in a variety of public and third sector organisations including the National Trust and Norfolk County Council. She is experienced in providing compelling strategic advice to shape policy decisions, building leadership capability and empowering staff and colleagues through mentoring and coaching. This work has led Jill to create a mentoring programme at Broadland District Council.

David is an Associate Director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, working in both the Pensions and Public Finances sector and the DfID-funded Centre for Tax Analysis in Developing Countries (TAXDEV).

One of his main areas of work is devolved and local government finance, with a particular focus on the incentives and risks that different systems entail for sub-national government, and their responses to these. This includes work on devolution arrangements for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and on the ongoing major changes to English local government finance. Recent publications in this area have examined the impact of business rates retention on councils’ finances, councils’ attitudes to the finance system, and the role of local and national government in social care funding.

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Ben is the Deputy Director in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy responsible for local growth investment – encompassing the £9 billion Growth Deal programme in England and the UK-wide project to create the UK Shared Prosperity Fund after the UK has left the European Union. Working in local growth for most of the last 10 years, Ben’s other roles have included Head of Policy on the Regional Growth Fund and Private Secretary to Lord Heseltine. In the latter role he helped develop the 2012 No Stone Unturned report

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Margaret Pratt was CIPFA’s first female president (1998). She joined Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council in 1979 as its first graduate trainee at the age of 25, qualifying in 1982. She became active in the Midlands Student’s Society and CIPFA nationally in the early 1980s and played a key role in establishing CIPFA in the Midlands as the first integrated CIPFA Region. She was an elected member of the CIPFA Council 1988-2003. Margaret has had a varied professional career working in local government, consultancy and the NHS before establishing her own consultancy in 1999. She has worked in a range of executive, non-executive and advisory roles.

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Lisa has 27 years of experience in Local Government and was Director of Finance & Business Services at Cheshire East Borough Council before joining Link Asset Services in June 2013. Her previous roles include S151 Officer for Cheshire East, Corporate Manager Finance & Assets at Macclesfield Borough Council, Shadow Section 151 Officer for the newly forming Cheshire East Council and Borough Treasurer and Head of Assets as the new Unitary Council formed. Lisa qualified as an accountant (CIPFA) in 1996 and is also a qualified accounting technician.

Andrew Rawnsley is Chief Political Commentator and Associate Editor of The Observer and a regular broadcaster on TV and radio on political issues.

Andrew presented the Radio 4 show, The Westminster Hour, securing a series of major newsmaking and agenda-setting scoops. Before that he was presenter of Channel 4’s highly popular, A Week In Politics. He later hosted ITV’s flagship political programme, The Sunday Edition. He has won a series of awards, including the prestigious What The Papers Say award as Columnist of the Year, and Journalist of the Year in both the Channel 4 and Public Affairs political awards.

Andrew is the author of the controversial political book, Servants of the People – a Biography of New Labour. His inside account provides an entertaining view and highlights Labour’s inherent problems. Andrew is considered one of the best informed commentators on the New Labour era and has written and presented a number of acclaimed programmes on the time including The Rise And Fall Of Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

Dawn Reeves is an author and facilitator who specialises in making positive change in the public sector. A former Local Authority Corporate Director, Dawn has published two novels, political thrillers set in local government. Hard Change, was published in 2013 and We know what we are – published by Shared Press in October 2017, is a gritty story of integrity, loyalty, football and local politics.

Dawn has been commissioned by SOLACE to write and curate two books about the future of the public service – Holding up the Mirror – True stories of public service in a post-truth world (out at this Summit) and Change the Ending. In 2016, on behalf of the LGA, Solace and the PPMA, Dawn produced Walk Tall – Being a 21st Century Public Servant; these books are creative collaborations bringing stories that matter alive for organisations and individuals. Dawn has facilitated workshops on the 21st Century Public Service in many Councils. She has written for the Guardian and was the Writer-in-Residence at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance (CIPFA). She an accredited professional member of the International Association of Facilitators (CPF) one of only 70 in the UK.

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Chris is Project Accountant (NDR Pool) at the City of London Corporation, in which he provides financial management support for the City Corporation’s investment in its major projects (with potential investment of several hundred million pounds) including the proposed Centre for Music, the Museum of London’s move to West Smithfield, and the accommodation strategy for the City of London Police. In addition, Chris supports the City Corporation’s work as lead authority for the 2018/19 London pilot of 100% business rates retention. A CIPFA prize-winner in 2015, Chris qualified in 2016 after training on Hertfordshire County Council’s graduate programme which incorporated placements in education & schools finance, internal audit, and financial planning & accounts, and with the finance team at East Herts Council (one of Hertfordshire’s ten districts). Chris is a scheme member representative on the Hertfordshire LGPS Pension Board, Independent Examiner for the Berkley Ensemble, and 2017/18 President of the CIPFA Student Network.

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Kushal leads the Local Government (LG) practise within Evosys bringing extensive experience of Oracle Cloud transformation programmes in supporting the LG clients in achieving the business transformation that they seek. Evosys are a leading Global Oracle Platinum Partner specialising in delivering Oracle Cloud Transformation Programs and we are in this regard proud to have been recognised by Oracle as their Global Oracle Cloud Partner of the Year in 2017/18. Evosys has worked in partnership with 15+ LG clients and have successfully delivered digital transformation programs that make a measurable difference in terms of service quality, productivity, and efficiency.

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Tim Shipman is Political Editor of the Sunday Times and one of the most experienced reporters and observational commentators of Westminster life working today. His posts have included Deputy Political Editor at the Daily Mail, Washington Correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph and Political and Foreign Correspondent at the Daily Express and Sunday Express.

His first book All Out War tells the story of this momentous upheaval in British politics, from PM David Cameron’s efforts to secure a new deal from Brussels, through the referendum campaign. His follow-up book Fall Out: A Year of Political Mayhem chronicles the most dramatic general election campaign in modern history and Theresa May’s battle for a Brexit deal with the EU.

Tim also writes for The Spectator and for Total Politics and has a growing following as an observer of the political scene on Twitter, @ShippersUnbound with more than eighty-thousand followers.

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Mal is Deputy Director Finance in the Department for Work Pensions and currently supports the £1.1bn Transformation of the Digital function. He is leading on the exploitation of innovation in the payments field using Block Chain Technology and supporting 24/7 Service Delivery through safer, more secure and cost effective strategies in Hosting, Networks, Infrastructure and Security.

He has worked on the insourcing of Application, Development and Maintenance activities through the setup of a Gov Co and the build of two Data Centres. He is an experienced Finance Professional who supported key Welfare Reforms covering Working Age, Disability and Pensions under the Coalition Government. He also led the finance function for the live running of Universal Credit and the Benefit Services Operations.

Mal joined DWP in 2010. Prior to that he spent 6 years at HM Treasury driving the professionalization and financial management reform agenda across government. Previously Mal served as a CIPFA Council Member.

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Richard Smith is Chairman of PSP. He has enjoyed various senior management positions in both public and private sectors. He has, over his career, acquired extensive experience of public/private sector partnering and has evolved a new governance legal framework which places a cultural emphasise on developing relationships first.

Richard has worked for both Marconi GEC and Portsmouth City Council from where his position of Head of Businesses 1991 – 1995 he initiated the Public Sector Plc partnership initiative which today comprises a network of over 20 councils representing different political interests, are of different sizes and have different property needs. He is a non-practicing Barrister and Fellow of The Institute of Directors.

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Peter Smithson is Director of Information Assurance at the National Audit Office (NAO). In this role he oversees the provision of technology based services that support the work of the NAO’s Financial Audit practice. These technology based services cover three principle areas, being:

• IT Audit;
• Data Analytics:
• Automation tools used in the delivery of audit engagements.

His client portfolio at the NAO covers a range of large, IT dependent organisations and departments, operating complex IT systems, with specific emphasis on SAP and Oracle systems. Since joining the NAO, in 2016, his focus has been on developing the NAO’s skills in these two key IT platforms. He has also overseen the increased use of data analytics in the NAO’s audit of financial statements.

Prior to joining the NAO, he spent 20 years at PwC, where he focussed on the insurance and asset management industry sectors.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and has a BA in Economics from Manchester University.

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As Deputy Director at NLGN, Jessica leads NLGN’s thought leadership and research, and contributes strategic oversight of the organisation. She writes regularly and research interests include local government finance, devolution, public service and organisational reform. Prior to joining NLGN, Jessica was political adviser to the Labour Group at the Local Government Association (LGA). She led policy there, working closely on public service reform and devolution. This included a secondment to the Policy Unit of the Leader of the Opposition’s Office during 2013-14 to lead on the Local Government Innovation Taskforce, a commission that reported into Labour’s Policy Review ahead of the 2015 General Election. Previously she worked in policy roles in the voluntary sector for a street homelessness and a childcare charity, and she began her career at the Fabian Society.

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Tony is the Chief Operating Officer of Socitm Advisory, providing consultancy services to local authorities and other public sector organisations. Socitm is the professional network for digital leaders in the transformation of public services that currently represents over 700 public and private sector organisations. Over the last 3 years Socitm Advisory has supported over 100 local authorities in improving services through the adoption and improvement of digital technologies. Tony has spent over 35 years working in the public sector, is a CIPFA member and former Director of Resources in the criminal justice sector.

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Rishi Sunak was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on 9 January 2018. Rishi was elected Conservative MP for Richmond (Yorks) in May 2015 and served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from June 2017 until his ministerial appointment.

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Matthew Taylor has been Chief Executive of the RSA since November 2006. During this time the Society has substantially increased its output of research and innovation, has provided new routes to support charitable initiatives of its 29,000 Fellows and has developed a global profile as a platform for ideas.  In July 2017 Matthew published the report ‘Good Work’; an independent review into modern employment, which was commissioned by the UK Prime Minister.

Prior to this appointment, Matthew was Chief Adviser on Political Strategy to the Prime Minister. Previous roles include Labour Party Director of Policy and Deputy General Secretary and Chief Executive of the ippr the UK’s leading left of centre think tank.

Matthew is a regular media performer having appeared several times on the Today Programme, The Daily Politics and Newsnight. He had written and presented several Radio Four documentaries and is a panellist on the programme Moral Maze.  He has posted over a thousand times on his RSA blog site and tweets as @RSAMatthew.

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Rick Tazzini is a Fellow CPFA with a wide-ranging background in strategic finance and governance across the public sector including local authorities, police, NHS and not for profit trading bodies.

He is a trustee of the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR).

Rick is an active member of the CIPFA Ethics Working Group and designed the CIPFA / Public Finance 2018 ethics survey. He has presented on the topic of the International Code of Ethics to HFMA and CIPFA regional seminars.

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Gemma is chief economist at the Institute for Government. Before that she spent two years as Economics Correspondent at the Financial Times, covering economic developments in the UK and globally.

She started her career at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, where she spent 11 years, including leading the Institute’s work on public finances and pensions.

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John Tizard is a strategic advisor and commentator.

John regularly advises, writes, speaks and comments nationally and internationally on issues such public policy, public services, outsourcing and in-sourcing governance.

He works with a range of organisations including those in the local government, business, charity, wider VCSE, and trade union sectors as well as think tanks and academic institutions.

Earlier this year he co-authored a Smith Institute report on the future of public service outsourcing – ‘Out of Contract: time to move on from outsourcing and PFI.’

John has been an evaluator for the European Public Service Awards 2013, 2015 and 2o17.

John was a county councillor for eighteen years until 1997. He was a group leader and joint council leader council for many years. He also has had board experience with a central government programme, a police authority and the NHS. And has held senior executive roles in the business sector (Capita) and the voluntary sector (The Spastics Society/Scope). He currently has a portfolio of non-executive and trustee appointments.

He is an economic and mathematics graduate of the London School of Economics; and has been an Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Birmingham and a Visiting Fellow at London South Bank University. He is a Fellow of the RSA.

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Max leads the NAO’s value for money programme on digital transformation across government. He has experience of reviewing major government transformation programmes such as Universal Credit, cross-government initiatives such as GOV.UK Verify, and digital skills gaps. Before joining the NAO, Max worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Co. and has worked in the UK and overseas in a range of sectors including logistics, regulatory strategy, retail, climate finance, and health.

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Tim Wakeford is Vice President, Financials Product Strategy, EMEA at Workday, and is responsible for setting the strategic direction of Workday’s financial products in EMEA.

Prior to joining Workday in 2017, Tim served as Finance Director on the UK Boards of Cushman & Wakefield, and previously, Willis Towers Watson. Tim has held executive level positions in the finance departments of both private and public sector organisations.

Tim is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and holds a BA in Politics and Government from the University of Kent.

Christian Wall is a Director and responsible for PFM’s local government advisory business in the UK having previously been the Credit Officer at the UK Municipal Bonds Agency.  He has over ten years’ experience in local government, specialising in business planning and corporate finance.  Christian started his career in investment banking, where he spent seven years in the capital markets.

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Robert Weaver, Deputy CEO at Tewkesbury Borough Council has over 20 years local government experience, predominantly within the regulatory and development management sectors. He is passionate about improving services for local communities, through transformation and innovative service delivery and appreciates the benefit of more contemporary forms of income generation in meeting this aim. Robert is currently undertaking research work for the completion of an MBA, exploring the relationship between non- financial risk management and governance arrangements associated with local authority commercial investment programmes. Robert is undertaking this work in light of limited existing research exploring this relationship and the connection with the moral dilemma facing many Councils of how and where to invest, whilst remaining true to the purpose and principles of local government. With many councils either already involved in commercial investment activity, or thinking of setting up such programmes, Robert hopes his work could lead to the creation of a non-financial risk management framework to assist local authorities alongside more traditional financial risk management processes.

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Rob Whiteman has been CEO of CIPFA since October 2013 during which time the institute has seen its accountancy student footprint extend to 80 countries and new specialisms launched in areas such as counter fraud. Rob has been chair of the North East London STP since 2016.

Previously, Rob has held CEO roles at the Home Office for the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and the Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA). He was CEO of LB Barking & Dagenham from 2005 to 2010 and non-executive roles have included the Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC).

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Duncan is the Strategic Director of Finance and Governance at the London Borough of Southwark, one of the largest of London’s Councils. He is a past President of both the Society of London Treasurers the Society of Municipal Treasurers and is currently the Chair of London Financial Advisory Committee and the President of the Association of Local Authorities Treasurers Society. He is a qualified CIPFA accountant who has worked in local government in London since 1980 following a short spell in the private sector. He is also currently the s151 representative on the LGPS Advisory Board.

He has extensive experience of managing the finances of large London authorities. He has worked with the private sector on significant partnering arrangements for contracts, regeneration and housing developments and in sourcing.

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Mark is an independent consultant specialises in the analysis, visualisation and reporting of financial and economic data.  He runs London Business Analytics Group, a very popular, active meetup.  He is a Microsoft MVP on the Data Platform. He has a MA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge and an MBA from Imperial College, London.

Carolyn Williamson is Deputy Chief Executive & Director of Corporate Resources for Hampshire County Council and is responsible for the Corporate Services Shared Partnership arrangement covering the County Council, Hampshire Constabulary, Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service, Oxfordshire County Council, London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Westminster City Council which encompasses Finance, HR and Transactional Services to the partners. This is a unique arrangement which operates across the Public Sector with joint governance arrangements and a cost sharing arrangement to underpin the partnership.

Carolyn is the Chief Financial Officer for Hampshire County Council and Hampshire Pension Fund. Carolyn is also responsible for Hampshire County Council’s IT Service and leads on the Digital Strategy implementation for the County Council.

Carolyn is CIPFA (Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) qualified, since 1991. Carolyn is Junior Vice President of CIPFA and has been a Member of CIPFA Council since 2013, having held Chairmanship roles on the Audit Committee and Student & Members Board, as well as attending CIPFA Council.

Peter Wilson, Director of Counter Fraud, is responsible for developing new commercial and new membership products and services for the counter fraud market in the UK and internationally. In running the Counter Fraud Centre with the Fraud Hubs, he will build further partnerships across industry sectors and within the public sector to achieve measurable change in identifying and preventing fraud and avoiding losses.

He comes to this role with a background in strategic marketing and operations with; GlaxoSmithKline Consumer, Pfizer J&J Healthcare, Kettle Foods and in the public sector with HMRC, the National Fraud Authority where he launched Action Fraud, and most recently with the Home Office where he established a national asset; the Research Information Communication Unit. This Unit has become globally renown for analysing data, conducting bespoke (MRS award winning) applied research and delivering measurable interventions, that have delivered effective impact against fraud, counter terrorism and cybercrime, among others. Peter also serves on the International Board of Trustees for Medair, a Swiss based NGO that deliver disaster relief, serving some of the hardest to reach and most vulnerable around the world.

Salena Worrall is the Cofounder and CMO of Zonafide, a Digital Wallet for Securing Activities from fraud and cybercrime built on blockchain technology. She built the first use case of Zonafide with UK Local Governments and organisations including Atos. It is one of the first business use cases of blockchain technology and provides an opportunity to directly integrate public and private sector processes empowering the public to be the conduit between both.

She previously had a fifteen year career in teaching. During that time she also designed and marketed, Stereolife, a semantic search engine for careers and worked on this with the BBC, Barclays and the DfE.

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James’ expertise spans IT, energy, construction, manufacturing, leisure and retailing. He has a proven track record of seeing trends before his peers and delivering counter-intuitive but highly pragmatic proposals on how to react. The former head of worldwide market intelligence at Philips questions our assumptions on everything from risk to industrial strategy. James also publishes essays and white papers addressing issues such as medicine, housing, cities and transport.

James Woudhuysen is visiting Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at London South Bank University. His ability to spot trends before many of his peers, and his habit of delivering often surprising conclusions and practical recommendations based on these trends mark him out as an iconoclast in the world of forecasting and innovation.

From the early days of IT when, in 1981, James stated that the main issue it had to tackle was that of the user interface, he has consistently warned and predicted correctly. He foresaw the dot com crash, the success of 3G, and the need for mass produced housing whilst many in their respective industries still held contrary views. With an understanding of every sector from telecoms to transport, energy to economics, retail to construction, the only areas he avoids in his forecasts are the weather, the stock market, and personal predictions of health, wealth and happiness.

Starting his career in journalism, James then joined the innovation and design consultancy Fitch as its head of research. Later he was chief of global market intelligence for Philips consumer electronics. He also founded consultancy on IT and on cities at The Henley Centre for Forecasting, WPP, and was a director of the acclaimed product design practice, Seymour Powell. Today, he writes and speaks on innovation in the fields of work, IT, energy and the environment, international trade, consumers, and – in the first place – business.

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