%20(1).png)
Meet the people building, leading and shaping what’s next in technology. Hear directly from the minds behind AI, innovation and industry at some of the world’s most influential companies.
More speakers to be announced soon.
Priscillia Mudiaki is a Creator Manager specialising in creator management and LinkedIn content strategy. She partners with C-suite executives, business leaders, and high-impact content creators across EMEA to amplify their presence on LinkedIn, empowering them to grow their influence, increase visibility, and build meaningful engagement through strategic storytelling and content. Alongside her role, she serves as an ERG Co-Lead for the EMEA region, helping foster an inclusive culture, strengthen employee engagement, and drive community-led initiatives across the organisation.
With over a decade of experience in the creative industries, Ree has built an unconventional yet dynamic career spanning event management, presenting, radio, tour management, and A&R. She has worked at (and with) both independent and major labels, including Universal, BMG, and Believe, shaping her diverse perspective on the music ecosystem. Now serving as Senior Artist and Label Relations Manager at SoundCloud, Ree focuses on supporting artist development, driving audience growth, and helping foster vibrant music communities.
Renee Hunt is Chief Data & Information Officer at Mortgage Advice Bureau (mab), leading Technology, Product, Data, AI, Customer Experience and Change. With more than forty years in technology and transformation, including senior leadership roles at Sky and Compare the Market, she combines commercial thinking, a passion for people and culture, and a self-confessed geekiness about great engineering. Renee is particularly interested in how AI and data can reshape financial advice, creating better customer outcomes and making advisers and businesses more successful. Alongside her executive role, she is a Non-Executive Director at the Institute of Directors and Nando’s, as well as a strategic adviser and certified Executive Coach.
Robel Efrem is a Swedish technology entrepreneur, investor and speaker with more than a decade of experience building and scaling technology companies.
He is the co-founder and CEO of Challengermode, a global esports platform used by millions of players, and the founder of Pixel Systems, an AI company developing technology to verify whether digital content has been generated or manipulated by artificial intelligence.
Over his career, Robel has raised more than SEK 400 million from international investors including Alibaba Group, built companies serving global markets, and worked at the intersection of technology, AI, gaming and entrepreneurship.
Roger Hallam is a well-known rebel and someone with first-hand experience of civil resistance, and was ranked as the 34th most influential person shaping Britain’s progressive politics by The New Statesman, 2023. He researched the dynamics of mass mobilisations at King's College for five years and has been at the forefront of climate campaigning for many years. He is the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, probably the world’s most high-profile climate crisis movement. His actions are grounded in a belief that peaceful public disruption is effective and justified in the face of social collapse as the crisis escalates. Roger has been involved in many acts of civil disobedience, leading to over thirty arrests and four periods of imprisonment. Roger is also the author of “Common Sense For The 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown And Social Collapse”.
- ,Community Organiser, Rev21
Ruby-Jade Aryiku is the Co-Founder and PR Director of VAMP, a culture-led PR and marketing agency founded by three Black women and dedicated to authentically reaching Black British audiences across Film, TV, Music, Sport and Lifestyle. She was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe list in 2023.
Clients include Disney, Netflix, Paramount, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, Sky, Spotify, Universal Music, ITV, Meta, Nike, MAC, Gymshark, McDonald's, PLT, Arsenal and the BFI London Film Festival.
VAMP was founded in 2017, a year after the founders graduated from university. Now in its ninth year, the agency has delivered campaigns for Black Panther 1 & 2, The Woman King and The Little Mermaid, alongside Spotify's Asake show at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Ne-Yo and Akon's European tour and creator activations at the British Grand Prix with Cadillac F1 - cementing its position as the go-to agency for publicity campaigns that reach diverse audiences, led by Ruby and her Publicity team. Ruby is also the UK publicist for Davido.
Beyond VAMP, Ruby is the co-founder of GLVM House, a creative content studio hub in Lagos, extending her work across the UK and Africa.
As an advocate for representation and access, Ruby is passionate about creating pathways into industries that aren't always easy to reach. Having started work experience at 15, she understands the value of early exposure, and spends much of her time mentoring creators, upcoming press and new talent breaking into PR and marketing - including media training workshops with organisations such as Lollipop Mentoring.
Prior to founding VAMP, Ruby worked in technology PR, music PR and events. She is a Trustee and Board Member of the Black British Initiative (BBI).
Savannah Adams is a programme and editorial leader who has shaped C-suite content across energy, financial services and pharmaceuticals, with roles at S&P Global (Senior Manager), Financial Times (Senior Content Editor), Informa and more. She also sits on the Industry Advisory Board at King's College London.
Beyond her role, Savannah builds rooms where Black professionals are seen, connected and championed. As Co-Chair of CBERG, she brings together the Black employee networks of 60 financial services firms, and helped deliver its second annual Black History Month Opening Gala at Guildhall, in partnership with the City of London Corporation, for more than 300 professionals and senior leaders. She is also the inaugural Convenor of Black in the Square Mile, a City of London Corporation City Belonging Network, previously led BOLD, S&P Global's Black employee network, across EMEA, and co-chaired FT Embrace.
Named in the EMpower Top 100 Future Leaders 2026, she is a frequent speaker and moderator, including at Black Tech Fest and the UK Black Business Show.
Seun Afolayan-Imthiyaz is the Head of Product at Bamboo, a pan-African investment platform helping individuals and institutions access financial markets and build long-term wealth. She leads product strategy across Bamboo’s consumer and business offerings.
Previously, Seun spent seven years at Goldman Sachs in London, most recently as a Vice President in Engineering, where she worked across technology and product management, including leading initiatives to introduce and scale AI-powered engineering tools across the firm.
Beyond her corporate career, Seun is passionate about entrepreneurship, investing and the role of ownership in building long-term wealth. She is involved in ventures including Society Girl Capital, a community exploring collective investing, and Stake, a platform bringing together ambitious Africans across the diaspora to celebrate achievement, build connections and create opportunities.
Seun holds a First Class degree in Computer Science from Covenant University and is currently pursuing a Masters in Finance at London Business School, where she is a Women in Finance Scholar.
Simeon Agada is a Director in KPMG UK’s Infrastructure Advisory Group, where he leads teams helping asset-intensive organisations turn technology ambition into measurable operational and public value. Over an 18-year career spanning consulting, government, industry and academia, he has led digital strategy, transformation and complex programme delivery across real estate, energy, transport, utilities and the built environment. His work includes major asset-management system implementations, digital investment cases and innovation programmes harnessing automation, data analytics, digital platforms, digital twins and AI. Previously, Simeon was Head of Clean Energy and Advanced Economies at BEIS, representing the UK in international energy partnerships, and held engineering and commercial roles at Baker Hughes GE. He is a Chartered Engineer with a PhD from Heriot-Watt University and postdoctoral experience at Imperial College London. He brings executive-level insight into how technology reshapes organisations, services, careers and opportunities while building more connected, resilient and productive infrastructure systems.
Snoochie Shy is a London-born DJ and presenter, known for her energy and deep roots in UK rap, grime and R&B. She’s worked across BBC Radio 1Xtra, international DJ sets and TV, including I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! and Yo! MTV Raps. With a natural ability to connect with artists and audiences, Snoochie has become a familiar voice in UK music and youth culture.
Stephanie Anani is a Solutions Engineer at OpenAI, driving value with AI in some of Europe’s largest companies. She helps leaders connect advances in AI with their business ambitions, identify where the technology can make a meaningful difference, and understand what it takes to translate that potential into results across their organisations.
Previously at Google, Stephanie connects technology, business strategy and the human implications of change. She also writes The Consult, exploring how AI is reshaping work and our relationship with technology, and what that means for human judgement, creativity and connection.
Sunnie Gill leads Enterprise AI at Arm, whose compute platform helps power cloud, edge and physical AI from data centres and smartphones to robotics and autonomous vehicles. Within this deeply technical, engineering led business, he helps teams put AI into practice and rethink how work gets done.
His experience spans machine learning and generative AI across FTSE listed businesses in finance, aviation, energy, retail and technology. A self described AI nerd, he gets as deep into model architectures as he does into the human side of adoption. His passion lies in innovation, emerging tech and exploring the deeper world of AI, from its technical possibilities to its power to transform enterprises and people.
Outside of AI, he’s a Liverpool fan, boxing enthusiast and keen traveller. Having grown up around music producers and artists, creativity runs in the family. He’s also a dad with a surprisingly deep knowledge of the Moana soundtrack and all things Disney!
Tamison O’Connor is Fashion Features Director at ELLE UK, where she commissions, edits and writes stories about the people and ideas shaping fashion. Previously Luxury Correspondent at The Business of Fashion, she brings deep expertise in luxury, the global fashion industry and its cultural shifts. Her work includes interviews with leading designers, executives and creatives, and she appeared as a fashion commentator on leading news and radio outlets including BBC News, BBC Radio and LBC.
Terver Bendega is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Samsara and ex Head of Marketing at mobility company, Bolt. With leadership roles at top fintech and SaaS companies such as Tipalti and Airwallex, Terver brings nearly a decade of expertise spanning B2B, B2C, and B2B2C marketing. Her career journey has taken her across digital advertising, early-stage tech startups, and scale-ups, where she has combined storytelling, creative strategy, and data-driven insights to drive growth for global brands in disrupted industries. A passionate marketing leader, Terver enjoys long walks, reading (and writing) fiction, and helping the next generation of talent carve a path for their growth.
Tey Bannerman is a former Partner at McKinsey & Company and a Senior Advisor on AI, Innovation, and Design. At McKinsey he was Head of McKinsey Design Europe and led AI transformations for global brands. He is co-author of the Amazon bestseller The AI Revolution, has spoken at World AI Festival in Cannes, Founders Forum Global and AI Hot 100 New York, and was named by LinkedIn as one of the top 12 people in Europe to follow for AI in the workplace. He started out writing code and designing products at startups, still builds for fun, and founded the Purposeful AI Project to spotlight the ways that technology and AI are being used to improve people's lives.
.jpeg)
Kanishka Narayan was appointed Minister of State (Minister for Artificial Intelligence) jointly in the Cabinet Office and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade on 20 July 2026.
He was previously Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology from 7 September 2025 to 20 July 2026. He was elected as the MP for Vale of Glamorgan in July 2024.
Toccara Baker is a marketing leader with nearly 20 years of experience across advertising, technology, and media. As Partner Marketing Lead, EMEA at Amazon Ads, she leads strategic initiatives focused on partner growth, go-to-market strategy, and innovation. Previously, she held senior leadership roles at TripleLift, Snapchat, Adobe, and other leading technology companies. Originally from Oakland, California, and based in London for the past decade, Toccara is passionate about the intersection of technology, culture, and commercial growth.
Tolu Osinubi is a Director at Deloitte UK within the Engineering, AI & Data practice, where she leads large-scale technology delivery and digital transformation programmes for global consumer organisations. With more than 13 years of consulting experience in quality engineering, software testing, and transformation delivery, Tolu specialises in guiding complex, enterprise wide change initiatives, helping organisations modernise technology landscapes, enhance customer experiences, and realise measurable business value.
Recognised as a trusted technology leader, Tolu is known for driving change at the intersection of innovation, delivery excellence, and people transformation. She has successfully led programme testing and quality assurance across some of the most complex business and technology transformations, enabling organisations to adopt emerging technologies and deliver sustainable outcomes at scale.
Beyond her client work, Tolu is a multi-award-winning inclusion champion and influential voice on diversity, equity, and belonging. She was recognised as the Rainbow Honours Corporate Champion 2026 and the Pride Power List 2026 for advancing equity and inclusion for the LGBTQIA+ community. As an advocate for intersectionality, she uses her platform to amplify underrepresented voices and foster inclusive cultures. A sought-after speaker, Tolu regularly presents at industry and community events, sharing insights on leadership, technology transformation, and the Black experience in the UK through the lens of her lived experiences as a Black LGBTQ+ leader.
Professor of Philosophy & Ethics Lead In Safe AI Systems, University of York - Spokesperson Pull the plug
At the University of York my primary responsibilities are as Convenor of the MA in Applied Ethics and Governance of Data Privacy and as Ethics Lead for the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Safe AI Systems (SAINTS). My purely philosophical research currently focuses on the structure and justification of moral theory. I have also written, spoken and given expert opinion on digital states, digital sovereignty, existential risk, and deepfakes. I am an active campaigner for greater democratic control over the way AI is deployed in our society, with particular attention to the social and environmental harms of the UK strategy, and a spokesperson for the campaign group Pull the Plug.
Toni Tone is a Sunday Times Bestselling author, award-winning podcast host and content creator with a global following of 1.3Mill+.
January 2025 saw Toni launch her first solo podcast, Toni Told Me, which quickly gained a loyal audience and earned Toni a nomination on the British Podcast Awards’ 2025 shortlist for the Rising Star award.
She has also hosted the BBC Sounds podcast Money Moves, and the Caroline Herrera podcast Walk Tall, for which her series won Bronze for the Business category in the British Podcast Awards.
Toni’s debut book, I Wish I Knew This Earlier: Lessons on Love (2021), became an instant Sunday Times Bestseller, and was followed up with Take Note: Real Life Lessons (2022), a powerful exploration of personal and professional growth. Toni’s highly anticipated third book and guide to break ups, No F*cks Given, was published in 2025 and her newest title, Soft Life: 10 Steps to a Gentle, Abundant and Easeful Life, was published by Bloomsbury in September 2026.
Toni’s invaluable advice has earned her reputation as the internet’s best big sister and in 2024 she was shortlisted for bCreator’s Lifestyle of the Year award.
She continues to be a longstanding Ambassador for the Young Women’s Trust, and regularly delivers impactful campaigns for global brands such as WhatsApp, PayPal, Max Factor, YSL Beauty, ITV and more.
Trudianne Bedward is a Senior Events Producer at the BBC and Events Lead for BBC Embrace, a staff-led network supporting colleagues from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds. She leads the delivery of impactful technology, careers, and inclusion-focused events that connect people, showcase opportunities, and drive meaningful engagement. With experience across the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4, Trudianne has delivered events at major conferences, career fairs, and technology festivals throughout the UK. Passionate about diversity, talent development, and creating opportunities for others to thrive, she is a Top 100 Female Pipeline Leaders Rising Star Award winner, a Black Tech Achievement Awards finalist, and a CCC Awards nominee.
Vivian Eni is an experienced HR professional, leader, and career coach with nearly two decades of expertise spanning the banking, telecommunications, and technology consulting sectors.
Originally from Nigeria, she relocated to the UK in 2007 to pursue a master’s degree in Human Resources and International Business at De Montfort University in Leicester. In 2020, she trained as a professional and personal coach with Barefoot Coaching and is a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF).
As a first-generation immigrant, Vivian has navigated the complexities of building a corporate career in the Western world without traditional guidance. Her journey, marked by resilience, challenges, and success, inspired her to author her debut book, How to Build a Corporate Career: Lessons from a First-Generation Migrant, which has ranked among Amazon’s top books in Diversity and Inclusion and HR and Personnel Management.
Since the book’s release, Vivian has toured esteemed institutions including King’s College London, LSE, Imperial College, Coventry University in London, and her alma mater, De Montfort University, encouraging young people to pursue career paths aligned with purpose and fulfilment.
She has delivered keynote speeches on prominent platforms such as the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, BWHR, her current employer EPAM systems, Brunch in t’ City, and multiple International Women’s Day events, in addition to being a moderator at Black Tech Fest, appearances at international book readings, corporate conferences, and leadership forums. Her story has also been spotlighted on influential podcasts including Bread and Butter with Emmanuel Asuquo, Black Create Connect, SHE Can, and Stories Next Door.
Known for her authentic voice and warm delivery, Vivian creates safe, inspiring spaces where her audience feels seen, heard, and empowered. No question is off-limits. Her practical and purpose-driven approach to career development continues to demystify the path to success. Vivian is passionate about guiding the next generation of corporate leaders to recognize their strengths, embrace their potential, and build careers that are impactful, courageous, and true to who they are.
Chinwendu Nweje is a data platform engineer at Goldman Sachs with a strong multidisciplinary background in machine learning, data systems, and backend development.
Her experience spans across software development and insight analysis within the financial technology sector. An award-winning hackathon winner and accomplished public speaker. Wendy is particularly interested in the intersection of data, product thinking, and intelligent systems, and enjoys sharing practical insights from both industry and early-career growth.
William Isaac is a Principal Scientist at Google DeepMind, focusing on researching GDM’s in-house technologies and advising teams on the best approach for developing novel mitigations. In his role, William researches the ethical and societal impacts of AI. Alongside his team, he develops mitigation frameworks and methods, which are formalized into papers shared widely to deepen industry understanding. William is motivated to further improve modes of evaluation and red teaming as well as collaborating to align AI behaviour with a broad range of human values. A computational social scientist, William is also a Research Affiliate at the Centre for the Governance of AI. William previously served as an Open Society Foundations Fellow and Research Advisor for the Human Rights Data Analysis Group.
I am a Software Engineer at Goldman Sachs, working within Regulatory Engineering on mission-critical, non-financial transaction reporting systems. After completing a successful internship, I returned to the firm full-time via the graduate programme, where I now build high-scale data pipelines and enterprise services using technologies such as Java, Kafka, Snowflake, and Kubernetes. Holding a BSc in Systems Engineering from the University of Lagos, I bring a unique international perspective to enterprise engineering.
Behind every percentage point is a person. Yvette Schmitter has built her career making sure no one in the room forgets it. Most AI security guards the doors while the real risk walks in wearing the model's own credentials. She built Fusion Collective to watch what a system does after it passes every check. She's CEO and co-founder of the independent AI governance, audit, and assurance firm, built on one principle: the auditor cannot be the vendor. As AI takes on decisions that shape people's lives, she's the independent check that proves a system is safe and worthy of trust, catching it the moment it drifts. Her work has led to the protection of than 2+ million people. Fusion Collective and Fusion Sentinel were shortlisted at the 2026 A.I. Awards for Most Innovative AI Technology, Best Consideration of Ethics and Governance in AI, and AI for Good. An ISO 42001 Lead Auditor, she directed one of the largest cloud migrations in AWS history and advises the not-for-profits shaping AI regulation with the US Congress and UK Parliament. She returns to Black Tech Fest to moderate roundtables and panels on cybersecurity, ethical AI, and trust, because the future of AI should belong to all of us, and the people it forgets are the ones she puts back in the room.
