Sarah is a former New Zealand diplomat and international lawyer. She joined Facebook after pitching a job and worked there for many years, ultimately becoming director of global public policy. After leaving the company, she has continued to work on tech policy, including artificial intelligence.

Julia Adamson MBE FBCS CITP is the Managing Director of Education and Public Benefit at BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. Her mission is to equip every young person with the digital and computing skills for success. Leading initiatives like Computing at School (CAS) and Barefoot, she's impacted over 25,000 teachers and reached 3.3 million children in the UK. Julia spearheaded the National Centre for Computing Education a £84 million government-funded program to enhance computing education. And was awarded an MBE in 2023 for Services to Education.

Alaa is an AI and Machine Learning expert bringing more than 15 years of extensive experience in leading, developing and implementing end-to-end AI and machine learning solutions. She focuses on AI technical validation and assurance, ensuring robust and reliable artificial intelligence systems that meet the highest standards of performance and compliance.

Chris is Head of Science for AI at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), where he leads strategic research into trustworthy AI, AI for science and AI assurance. His work supports the development of reliable, transparent, and fit-for-purpose AI systems, particularly in critical sectors such as healthcare and manufacturing. He also holds a professorship in Systems and Synthetic Biology at University College London (UCL), where his academic research focuses on AI, computational modelling and engineering biology.

Avtar is a director at Deloitte with a focus on AI Assurance, helping organisations to scale with AI in a trustworthy manner. Avtar has deep technical experience of building and validating quantitative models and has been working with clients validating GenAI and Agentic AI systems. Avtar has 16 years of experience across consulting and Financial Services including the PRA, in quantitative roles specialising to in Data, Analytics and AI.

Tess is a digital ethicist and musician. She holds an MA in AI and Philosophy from Northeastern University, specialising in ableism in biotechnologies, and a BA from McGill University in ownership and authorship in multiplayer models.Following her postgrad Tess worked as an AI Ethics Senior Analyst, contributing to a dataset on corporate digital responsibility commissioned by investors seeking to understand portfolio risk, before supporting the development of a specialised model for sustainability disclosure requests. Currently, as Senior Programme Manager in Digital Ethics and AI Safety at techUK, her north star is demystifying and operationalising ethics, often through assurance mechanisms and standards.

Mark is a Partner at Deloitte and leads the Global Algorithm & AI Assurance team, which provides support as advanced technologies are adopted across industries and as tech-powered companies themselves enter a period of major regulatory change. He has extensive experience across audit, assurance and regulatory compliance and is active in supporting the development of AI assurance standards and methods. He is a ICAEW Fellow and chairs the ICAEW AI Assurance Working Group.

Sang Hao has experience in developing practical AI governance frameworks and tools to help industry implement responsible AI. His current focus is on building an ecosystem for AI assurance and testing to enable trustworthy AI. His recent initiatives include the Global AI Assurance Sandbox that brings together AI deployers and specialist testing firms to technically assess the safety and reliability of AI systems, and the AI Tester Accreditation Programme that recognises the technical competency and operational readiness of AI testing service firms.

Lord Clement-Jones serves as the Liberal Democrat House of Lords spokesperson for Science, Innovation and Technology, with a long-standing focus on artificial intelligence policy and governance. As former Chair of the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, he led the publication of the landmark reports, which helped shape the UK’s approach to AI strategy, ethics, and regulation. In 2016, he co-founded and continues to co-chair the All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI, providing a cross-party platform for engagement on emerging technologies. Internationally, he is a founding member of the OECD Parliamentary Group on AI and has advised the Council of Europe’s Ad-hoc Committee on AI (CAHAI).

Frank trained as a theoretical physicist, and he has been active as an expert supporting audits and as risk consultant for over 25 years. As early as 2022 he helped a European Non-Profit design its audit procedures supporting their Ethical AI label, and he is currently active in providing AI assurance both through second line (Risk) and third line (Internal Audit) in the financial industry.

Ray is an AI expert and the best-selling author of Governing the Machine – How to navigate the risks of AI and unlock its true potential (Bloomsbury, October 2025). He is Senior Research Associate for Responsible AI at the Intellectual Forum, Jesus College Cambridge, and has led AI research collaborations with Stanford, MIT, The Alan Turing Institute and the Institute for AI Ethics at Oxford University. Ray was Accenture’s global lead for Responsible AI and designed Accenture’s AI compliance program. He advises on principles and policy, governance, areas of risk (such as bias, explainability, reliability and sustainability), controls, capabilities and supporting platforms and technologies.

Dr Matthew Forshaw is Senior Advisor for Skills to The Alan Turing Institute and a Reader in Data Science at Newcastle University. He leads the AI Skills for Business Competency Framework with DSIT and Innovate UK, and setting professional standards with the Alliance of Data Science Professionals. He is currently seconded to DSIT as their Head of Skills for AI Assurance, working on policy commitments from the Third-Party AI Assurance Roadmap. He is passionate about democratising access to AI skills.

Franki is Director of Audit AI at Grant Thornton UK. Previously, Franki was Head of Audit and Ethics at Engine B while maintaining an academic sideline researching country-by-country tax reporting and open databases, and worked before that as Head of the Data Analytics Research Team at the UK National Audit Office. Franki is a trained data scientist and auditor with a background in political economy, chairs the ICAEW Data Analytics Community Group and sits on the ICAEW Ethics Advisory Committee

Sofia leads AI Consulting at Forvis Mazars, helping clients harness the potential of AI through responsible, strategic innovation. She also plays a key internal role in driving Forvis Mazars’ own AI-enabled transformation, shaping how the firm adopts and scales AI. Sofia brings deep expertise in designing and implementing Responsible AI governance frameworks, along with the tools and enablers needed to foster trustworthy AI. Her work helps organisations navigate the complexity of emerging technologies and evolving regulatory landscapes with confidence.

Esther influences Technology policy to enable businesses, accountants and wider society to harness its benefits while limiting harm. Prior to joining ICAEW, she worked in technology consulting, internal and external audit roles, focussing on information and cyber security and operational resilience. She trained as a software engineer and is also an ICAEW Chartered Accountant.

Anekanta® AI provides AI strategy, risk, literacy and governance services internationally across high-risk sectors including financial services, aviation, education, public services, recruitment and security. Pauline is a highly experienced executive board director and NED, and her background includes large international technology companies operating in high-stakes environments. Driving technology good practice for over two decades, her recent voluntary work focused on facial recognition software, AI standards and governance frameworks for Directors. Pauline holds a 1st Class Honours degree in law including AI liability and the EU AI Act and a distinction from the University of Oxford Executive AI Programme.

Chi Onwurah MP is a British politician representing Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West in the House of Commons. She was first elected in 2010 to represent Newcastle Central. She serves as the Chair of the House of Commons Science, Innovation and Technology Committee. Chi is a Charted Electrical Engineer and before entering Parliament spent over twenty years working on engineering projects around the world. She has previously served as Head of Technology at Ofcom. Whilst at Ofcom Chi oversaw the development of PIA, the Physical Infrastructure Access regulatory product which has enabled competition and greater fibre coverage in the UK.

Giles is an AI and data veteran, having worked in data analytics for 35 years. Most notably he works on the application of AI in a trust worthy, efficacious and timely manner. Giles has a portfolio of advisory positions with companies big - Unilever - and smaller HolisticAI and Aria Intelligent Solutions, along with regularly contributing to Government thinking with DSIT, DCMS. He is on the advisory board for a number of UKRI initiatives - Smart Data UK; Hub for Generative AI; Knowledge Exchange for Mathematics. Giles is Honorary Professor In the Application of AI at University College London.

Jacob is the Policy Impact and Europe Lead at Partnership on AI. He has written about Assurance, the societal impacts of foundation models, and AI agent failures. His work has been cited in the International AI Safety Report and by the OECD and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. Before joining PAI, Jacob worked as a researcher at The Alan Turing Institute, where he was part of the core team that launched the AI Standards Hub in 2022.

Stan is responsible for delivering assurance for non-model objects associated with Generative AI (GenAI) and Agentic AI across the organization. he has over 17 years of experience in Big4 Advisory & Assurance with track record of building relationships, business, teams, developing quantitative/data analytics, AI/Machine Learning propositions for banking and large corporate clients. In prior role as Director in Deloitte Audit and Assurance, Stan has built and lead two teams of combined size 70 people: AI/ML/Big Data and Credit Quant Analytics. He holds PhD in theoretical physics from Humboldt University Berlin where he has developed algorithms and deployed on High Performance Computing systems.

President, ICAEW Caroline joined the profession as a graduate trainee. For some years she specialised in audit but in the last twenty years has worked in risk and compliance for a Mid-Tier firm Bishop Fleming. She is a Past-President of ICAEW South West, past chair of both ICAEW Practice Committee and ICAEW Members and Commercial Board.

Rob leads KPMG’s Risk & Regulatory Advisory team in the UK. Rob has over 25 years of finance and risk management experience, the majority of which has been focused on the Risk agenda for Financial Services clients. Rob also heads KPMG’s Global Regulatory Network and sits on the ICAEW Risk & Regulatory Committee as the KPMG representative.

Richard’s background spans financial services industry and professional services. In industry he led the design, ownership and operation of complex analytical systems and the model and data controls that underpin them. In professional services he has provided independent challenge, oversight and assurance of critical analytical systems and datasets, helping clients strengthen governance, reduce operational and model risk, and meet regulatory expectations.

With both a Law degree and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, Sue established AI Governance Limited in 2020 to advise businesses and policy makers on pragmatic AI, data ethics and governance issues, and making a positive societal impact. She is Professor in Practice for AI and Technologies at the University of Bristol Business School, Board Chair and Non-Executive Director for purpose-driven businesses in regulated industries and has been a Mentor on the Turing Institute’s Skills Policy Awards. She has been rated in the World's Top 100 Women in AI Ethics and was one of the first 14 people globally to be accredited in the Foundations of Independent Audit of AI systems.