Bio: An accomplished leader in Agile PMO, Digital Transformation, and SAFe methodologies, Maria has experience in a broad spectrum of industries, including legal, financial services, entertainment and logistics.
In her current role, Maria is focused on the use of Artificial Intelligence to enhance and simplify various processes and create more efficient work practices.
A devotee of lifelong learning, Maria holds multiple degrees that complement her experience, including MSc in Business Information Systems, International Diploma in Business Analysis, Certified SPC, BSc in Industrial Engineering and Management, and others.
Bio: Priya is the Director of Quality at Aristocrat Technology Inc. Holding degrees in Engineering and IT Marketing, she uses her knowledge and expertise in Automation and Emerging Tech to inspire her team and improve their digital processes especially quality. Priya has a pragmatic style of leadership and is passionate about making the workplace a better place for her team, both in its culture and in its workflow. She can often be found reading up on the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence and Robotic Process Automation, some of her personal interests.
Bio: I help companies solve complex business challenges using technology and leveraging data to drive revenue growth and optimise operational cost. As a problem-led leader with over 20+ years of experience in managing complex digital and data transformation initiatives.
I have led remote agile teams of over 200+ professionals and successfully transitioned technology departments to improve collaboration, efficiency, predictability, quality, operational excellence by simplifying processes and integrating business areas to deliver sustainable business value
My expertise includes tech strategy, product engineering, team building, decommissioning legacy technology, re-architecture, cloud migration, insourcing, near-shoring, and resource optimisation, with a proven track record of reducing OPEX.
I have been recognised for implementing award-winning intelligent data platforms and excel in cultivating successful relationships with stakeholders while managing multi-million-euro budgets.
Bio: Stefania Bonà is a leader in payments and data, currently working as Head of AI Products at Trustly, tapping into the account-to-account payments building products leveraging open banking. Before joining Trustly, she worked as a Data Science & Machine Learning Engineering Senior Product Manager at Checkout.com, and as EMEA Gift Cards Payments Product Manager at Amazon. She has over 11 years of experience in risk, machine learning and AI technologies
Bio: Henry Tse is an experienced Technology and Market Innovation Leader with over 20 years of expertise in managing complex systems across diverse sectors, including safety-critical engineering, security, energy, and transport innovation. Currently, he serves as the Global Head of Products and Services at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, where he drives new innovations, including AI, into solution offerings to meet clients’ evolving needs.
Previously, Henry made significant contributions at Connected Places Catapult, collaborating with stakeholders to develop commercial solutions addressing critical societal challenges. His pragmatic approach and leadership style foster the creation of strong, effective teams that work across boundaries to drive positive change.
In addition to his industry roles, Henry holds several esteemed positions: Adjunct Professor at the University of Southampton, Chair of the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub Strategic Advisory Network, and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Bio: A proven Digital AI & Data executive, Apoorv trailblazes business + technology strategies to help Financial Services, Retail and Telco companies increase digital sales, improve customer & employee experiences, and reduce operating costs.
During the past two decades, Apoorv has become:
• A trusted advisor to the CxOs and P&L champions in Insights & Analytics, Chief Data Office, eCommerce
• Battle-hardened in the deal-formation through to delivery of complex AI/ML-led Data Transformation programs
• A leadership-team executive with growth and profitability targets
At EY, Apoorv:
• Drives AI & Advanced Analytics go-to-market at key Financial Services accounts
• Proudly delivers Customer delight with strategic engagements
• Mentors a growing and diverse team of Tech Consulting rock stars
Apoorv has a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Computer Science, is an accredited Chartered Management Consultant, and has kept himself upto date on the rapidly evolving Data & AI technology via certifications such as GCP and Snowflake.
Outside of work, Apoorv spends most of his time with family & friends, outdoors!
Bio: Key Achievements
– Demonstrated that traditional methods of statistical analysis were insufficient for small sample sizes and developed a new method to analyse these data
– Awarded the Alexander Graham Bell Canadian Graduate Scholarship ($105 000) and nominated for the prestigious Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship
– Founded numerous programs, including: the McMaster Graduate Mentorship Program and the University of Toronto Undergraduate Physics & Astronomy Society’s Women’s Committee
– Have learned to acquire and develop new techniques/methods quickly and prototype new ideas on the go
Technical Skills
C/C++ (5+ years) – Conducted numerous Monte Carlo Simulations and analysed large data sets using standard libraries (e.g. GNU Scientic library).
Shell Scripting (5+ years) – Used to perform batch jobs.
R (3 years) – Integrated R functions in C code to carry out statistical analysis of large data sets.
SQL (5 years) – Carried out numerous queries of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Database.
Python (5+ year) – Build ABMs using numerous public and in-house libraries. Fluent in NumPy and pandas.
Applied numerous supervised and unsupervised machine learning algorithms on a labelled data set for binary classification using scikit-learn. Also, used Python’s Natural Language ToolKit (NLTK) to conduct natural language processing analysis.
Additional Skills
Languages: English (native) and French (conversational).
Leadership: Founded or co-ordinator numerous academic, mentorship and outreach programs during my bachelors and graduate degrees.
Communication: Presented numerous science-related talks to audiences that span a wide range of ages and professional backgrounds. In addition, I have won or been a finalist for several best presentation competitions
Bio: Luke is a seasoned Machine Learning Engineer with a diverse background spanning consultancy, entrepreneurship, and leadership roles in both startups and multinational corporations. He has built extensive expertise in Deep Learning and other ML algorithms and has applied this knowledge across multiple sectors with an emphasis on healthcare.
Bio: Tom Cooper is a seasoned data science and AI expert with over a decade of experience deploying advanced machine learning techniques. He specialises in leveraging large language models (LLMs), audio transcription, document extraction, price optimisation, and real-time customer behaviour prediction to deliver impactful business solutions. Outside of work, Tom is a passionate retro gaming enthusiast and collector, an avid metal and blues guitar player, and a devoted fan of fantasy fiction.
Bio: Trusted entrepreneurial and customer-centric Digital and Product leader with 19+ years’ experience coaching, directing and leading cross-functional teams engineering and delivering complex technology integrations. As a problem solver, I enjoy making complicated challenges simpler; running towards fires, dousing them quickly; formulating winning strategies by data driven experimentation, rapid prototyping and delivering great products that people love to use. I’ve learned a lot from mistakes made since my first sprint planning in 2007. Now, every day, I hope to learn more about emerging digital technologies, agile, gamification and bringing people together to deliver great products. I have a major in Artificial Intelligence (NLP) and keen to develop Machine Learning skills to apply them to solve Conversational UI development challenges
Bio: Darren’s 36 year career has constantly been at the heart of latest technology. Starting his career as a software developer in the days when you sat with the business, having full knowledge of business process and how this achieves customer satisfaction, developing code immediately on the back of business needs, testing and deploying on the same day. Sounds familiar, this is how banks worked in the 80’s. Darren moved away from development as the financial services industry reacted to regulatory requirements creating controls which resulted in software delivery becoming an abstract from business and customer needs. Darren has been an evangelist since a chance meeting with Gene Kim a decade ago and has been on a quest to introduce ways of working which result in the experience he had as a young developer. Job satisfaction in creating beautiful customer experiences with absolute context of business, product and customer. Creating an environment of creativity which fosters innovation.
Darren has recently started a new quest in Vanquis Bank to achieve that very outcome, an organisation serving those that create beautiful customer experiences from a blank canvas.
