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Our speakers

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Shelsea Adrian AP Automation Expert, Yooz

Shelsea has over 10 years’ experience in International Sales and Customer Services, including several years helping global clients to improve their internal processes and gain efficiency in both B2B and B2C sectors. Shelsea is seen as a trusted advisor who helps companies of all sizes implement adapted strategies and reach their full potential.

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Paul Aplin OBE Former President of ICAEW, Deputy President of CIOT, member of CFE Tax Technology Committee & HMRC Admin Burdens Advisory Board

Paul spent 40 years in practice in an independent west country firm. He is a member of HMRC’s Administrative Burdens Advisory Board, Tax Faculty board, CIOT council, and CFE tax technology committee. He is adviser to personal tax app untied, ToD and Dext and is a regular commentator on tax and technology issues.

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Nina Barakzai Specialist Counsel, Global Privacy and Information Governance, HPE

Nina leads on privacy for M&A, HPE’s bank, global regulatory engagement, and AI ethics. Previously at Meta, Unilever, and Sky, she brings deep expertise in data governance and regularly engages with EU Data Protection Authorities on strategic matters.

Peter Beard
Peter Beard, ACA BFP Founder and Director, GenFinance.AI

Peter has over eight years of experience in finance and accounting. At Ernst & Young (EY), he managed a range of audits (including FTSE and EURO Stoxx 50-listed), contributing to EY's AI research and leading technology transformation projects. Peter was awarded twice by EY UK, for his "Significant contributions to innovation initiatives" and "Exceptional technical proficiency and quality commitment".

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Harriet Bourne Senior Audit Quality and Technical Manager, Azets

Harriet has worked in commercial audit for over eight years at Azets. Currently she manages a portfolio of audit clients alongside her role in the audit quality and technical team, where she is responsible for firm wide audit training and is involved with Azets' audit quality initiatives.

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Jason Bradley FCA CPA BSc Director of Methodology and Content, Caseware

Jason is an accomplished accounting professional with extensive expertise in audit quality enhancement, standard setting, and the intersection of technology and assurance. He is a founding member of the IESBA Technology Experts Group, where he advises on the ethical use of technology in audit, with a focus on AI governance and controls.

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Tessa Clarke Co-Founder and CEO, Olio

Tessa leads the world’s only neighbour-to-neighbour food-sharing app. Since 2015, Olio has grown to 8 million users, redistributing over 100 million meals. Recognized as Veuve Clicquot’s Bold Woman of the Year in 2023, Tessa advises the UK Government on SME concerns.

Chris Downing
Chris Downing Director Product Marketing, Sage

Chris joined Sage having been a partner at a top 100 accountancy firm. He brings nearly 20 years of hands-on experience and strategic insight of the profession, coupled with an infectious enthusiasm in the adoption of technology and Business Intelligence to improve reporting and drive innovation in the SME sector.

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Paul Ekwere Senior Manager, Data Innovation and AI BDO LLP UK

Paul serves on the ICAEW Technology Faculty Board and is a Senior Manager at BDO, specialising in Data and AI with a focus on Technology Risk Assurance. He contributes to AI auditing standards, and leads data initiatives. Paul is committed to AI safety, ethics, and promoting diversity in technology.

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Naveen Gangwar Senior Manager, Solution Consulting EMEA, Workday

Naveen leads the Solution Consulting team for Planning at  Workday EMEA. He has extensive experience, having helped over 200 companies with the sale and deployment of Accounting, Finance, and Planning solutions.

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Kyle Gibbons Head of Global Accounts, Thomson Reuters

For over 10 years Kyle's career has been focused on the audit profession, first as an auditor, then serving in consultative roles across resourcing and technology. He is a regular speaker on the topics of fraud, communication and technology use in audit. Currently he is a Director at Thomson Reuters where he has global oversight of the organisation's relationships with the world's largest accounting firms in relation to the Confirmation service.

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Daniel Gibbs Climate Propositions Director, and incoming Head of Climate Research, NatWest

Daniel is an award-winning climate solutions designer in NatWest. He specialises in using new technologies, like geospatial data, to make insights accessible at scale for UK businesses. Alongside, he is the founder and director of the Green Employee Partnership, a not-for-profit that helps businesses encourage employees to create bottom-up climate strategies.

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The Rt. Hon Justine Greening ACA Founder, The Purple Coalition and NED at On The Beach

In Government between 2010-2018, Justine was involved with three budgets as a Treasury Minister and led three spending departments. She now works on social mobility and sits around the board table as a Non-Exec Director. She’s seen the growth challenge from a policy and business perspective. She is a Chartered Accountant.

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Rachel Harris Owner of Accountant She, Director and Trustee of AAT, Accounting Personality of the Year 2023, entrepreneur

Rachel is redefining what it means to be an accountant. As the founder of @accountant_she and striveX, a seven-figure accounting firm, she empowers business owners, influencers, celebrities and fellow accountants with practical financial strategies. With over 150,000 followers, Rachel shares engaging financial education, discussing topics like financial wellbeing, tax strategy and finance related politics.

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Kerri Hollick Executive Coach and Leadership Consultant

Kerri Hollick is passionate about empowering leaders through presence. She believes great leaders use their body, voice, and physiology to project confidence, make better decisions and inspire action. With over 20 years of experience, she shares practical techniques to enhance leadership impact through body language and presence.

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Jack Holloway Commercial Director, Solutions Consulting, Caseware

Jack is a chartered accountant and qualified auditor. He began his career working for a Top 50 firm based in London before moving to a Top 6 firm in Manchester working on nationwide audits. After managing audit projects, Jack moved to industry working as a Financial Controller. Jack moved to Caseware's training team drawing on his extensive knowledge of the product gained in previous roles and now has a wide-arching role covering many areas including Solutions Consulting and Revenue Operations.

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Karenjeet Kaur Bains ACA Commonwealth Powerlifting Champion and Guinness World Record Holder, Star of BBC

A high achiever with a proven track record of discipline, resilience, and peak performance, Karenjeet was the first British Sikh female to represent GB at the World and European Championships and has multiple gold medals to her name. Her journey exemplifies the power of perseverance, goal-setting, and breaking barriers - principles that resonate deeply in the corporate world and have contributed to her career as a Chartered Accountant.

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Tom Keaton Tom Keaton, VP of Product & Strategy, Diligent

Tom has 20 years of experience in the auditing and consulting fields focusing on enterprise risk management, data analytics, automation, fraud risk/prevention, ethics and compliance as well as Sarbanes-Oxley and operational auditing. Tom holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Accounting from Kent State University and is also a CIA, CISA, CFE and CRMA.

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Conrad Langridge Global Marketing Lead for Carbon Accounting, Sage

Conrad shapes strategy and drives the adoption of sustainability solutions among accountants and SMEs. With over five years of experience in carbon accounting, he has worked closely with accounting firms to understand how the sector is evolving and how practices are unlocking new opportunities through sustainability-led services.

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Paul Lodder VP of Accounting & Product Strategy, Dext

Paul joined Dext with 20+ years in practice where he was a partner heading up the cloud accounting offering. ACCA-qualified since 2003, Paul led the firm’s MTD and digital strategy, and provided support on digitalisation to accountants and bookkeepers across the country as well as providing solutions to clients’ challenges.

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Kerrie Machin Head of Business Development, Mitigo Cyber Security

Kerrie believes that the challenges of cyber security, business resilience and legal & regulatory compliance, needn’t keep business leaders awake at night. It’s just a matter of matching the right solution to the problem. He has spent the last two decades helping businesses identify their exposure to risk, and his keen eye for detail has enabled him to deliver solutions that provide real protection – allowing them get on with doing what they do best.

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Professor Joe Nellis CBE Economic Adviser, MHA

Joe, a leading academic at Cranfield School of Management for over 40 years, became MHA’s Global Economic Advisor in 2024. He was jointly responsible for the research and development of the UK’s leading house price measurement systems, the Halifax and Nationwide House Price Indexes, and established the world-ranked Economics Group at Cranfield.

Julia Penny
Julia Penny Founder, JS Penny Consulting

Julia is extensively involved with the ICAEW as a volunteer and is past President, and a member of the Council. Julia's experience includes working in top 10 and smaller firms of accountants in technical and training roles and for listed companies providing information and training services to accountants. She has experience in specifying software requirements as a subject matter expert and writing content for audit, accounting and anti-money laundering software.

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Huw Pill Chief Economist and Executive Director for Monetary Analysis, Bank of England

Huw is responsible for the analysis used by the Bank of England to make monetary policy decisions, and leads the research that supports all their other functions. He has previously worked as Chief European Economist at Goldman Sachs, Deputy Director of Research and Head of Monetary Policy Stance Division at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt, and been a member of the faculty at Harvard Business School.

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Elliott Poulter SMB AI Business Process Lead, Microsoft UKI

Elliott leads SMB Sales at Microsoft UK, specialising in Business Applications. With a background in business change, cloud computing and workflow management, Elliott helps small and medium businesses streamline operations and drive growth using an AI first approach. He brings a practical, customer-first approach to digital transformation across the UK SMB sector.

Richard Ratcliffe profile
Richard Ratcliffe Chartered Accountant

Richard is a chartered accountant living in London. In 2016 his wife Nazanin was suddenly taken hostage in Iran, and he spent the next six years campaigning for her freedom – with the help of many others - until her release in March 2022. Since then, he and she continue to support the families of others arbitrarily held, but mainly they have gradually worked towards recovering a normal life post-trauma, at home and work.

Headshot of Erin Roesch, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Sage Earth
Erin Roesch Senior Product Marketing Manager, Sage Earth

Erin helps small businesses turn sustainability into a strategic advantage. With a decade in the charity sector, two years working in sustainability and ESG at Sage, and four years running her own business, Erin is passionate about making climate action not just accessible, but commercially viable. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and a Master’s in Divinity from Duke University.

Sarah Schlobohm
Sarah Schlobohm ACA Chief AI Officer, Origin Matters

Sarah is a fractional Chief AI Officer and consultant for SMEs adopting AI. Origin Matters uses zero-knowledge proofs to ensure model integrity for AI compliance. With a PhD in particle physics and a background at PwC and HSBC, she was named a “Rising Star” in ICAEW’s 2023 report highlighting harnessing technology and data for better decision-making.

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Jill Scott MBE Motivational speaker and panelist

Jill is a celebrated former professional footballer renowned for her commanding midfield presence and significant contributions to women's football. Throughout her illustrious career, Jill amassed numerous accolades, including multiple FA Women's Cups, League Cups, and the UEFA Women's Euro 2022 title with England. Her contributions to football were recognised with an MBE, for services to football.

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Riaz Shah OBE FCA Professor of Practice for Innovation & Leadership, Hult International Business School

Riaz is a former Senior Partner at EY. With over 40 years of experience, he advises companies and developing country governments on how to adapt, lead, and thrive in today’s rapidly changing, complex global landscape.

John Simpson Technology Leader and Multi-Sport Coach
John Simpson Technology Leader and Multi-Sport Coach

John has spent his career at the forefront of the technology sector, working with everything from AI startups to global giants like Oracle and SAP. He has built and led teams of all sizes driving innovation across enterprise software categories, including CRM, ERP, and GRC. While technology has evolved significantly over the years, John’s passion has remained the same: solving business challenges and delivering value to customers.

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Kyle Silverman Head of Product: Ecosystem, Caseware

Kyle leads the product management team behind the development of the Caseware Assurance and Financial Reporting Platform. A passionate problem solver, Kyle has been instrumental in driving Caseware’s portfolio to the cloud, creating a seamless, integrated ecosystem that empowers users to tackle industry challenges with innovative, user-centric solutions.

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David Smith Director of Quality & Professional Standards, Kreston Global

David leads initiatives to enhance audit quality, embed technology within assurance services, and promote consistent professional standards across the network’s 150+ member firms worldwide. He has extensive experience leading and supporting firms of all sizes with the procurement, design, and implementation of audit technology solutions, as well as the evolution and standardisation of audit approaches.

Polly Tsang
Polly Tsang Senior Financial Services Regulatory Manager

Prior to joining the ICAEW, Polly specialised in structured finance and asset backed securitisation at PwC, helping firms raise debt market funding and buy/sell asset pools. She qualified as an ACA with PwC London within investment management and banking and capital markets. She is interested in exploring the risks and opportunities in regulating financial services in the post-Brexit landscape, particularly in evolving areas such as ESG, crypto and AI.

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Sanjiv Tumkur Head of Equity Research, Rathbones

Sanjiv started his career at Morgan Grenfell Asset Management (later Deutsche Asset Management) in 1996 where he was an investment manager and equity research analyst. In 2006 he joined Alliance Bernstein to focus on equity research for mid-cap companies and later moved to Investec Wealth & Investment.

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Robert Tindle Vice President, ICAEW

Rob trained at Arthur Young in Newcastle – now Ernst & Young (EY) – where he developed his auditing skills. In 2000, he established his own firm, Tindle’s, driven by a belief that clients deserve tailored commercial and business advice and strategic financial guidance. Rob has served in many roles for ICAEW, including as a member of the ICAEW Audit Registration Committee, ICAEW Board and ICAEW Council.

Alan Vallance
Alan Vallance CEO, ICAEW

Alan was previously CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute, leading the premier professional body for insurance and financial planning. A chartered accountant with Ernst & Whinney, Alan is a Fellow of ICAEW, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and an Honorary Fellow of the Korean Institute of Architects.

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Emma Vardy BBC Correspondent and Presenter

Emma is a BBC Presenter and Correspondent with extensive experience covering major stories across UK and US Politics, Business, Technology, Sport and Entertainment. An engaging and versatile broadcaster, Emma regularly appears on the BBC News at Six and Ten, Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live, while her presenting work includes the BBC News Channel, Business News on BBC Breakfast and hosting Newsnight.