Simon Walker, Managing Partner of Kubrick: “Our longstanding partnership with Women in Data means to much me from both a personal perspective and as a business leader, so I jumped at the chance to show my gratitude by hosting the evening at Kubrick HQ. Having joined the first all-male panel in WiD Week’s history to discuss allyship, I wanted to ensure I was following my own advice: allyship is all about action, not empty words. It was a privilege to use our space and platform to gather so many incredible figures in the data and technology world, the Alumni of the Twenty in Data & Technology list, and be able to share ideas. In the years to come, I look forward to seeing some of our Kubrick Alumni go on to join that list!”
Keynote speaker:
Robin Sutara, Chief Data Officer at Microsoft UK
Robin Sutara, Chief Data Officer at Microsoft UK
Holly Armitage, Principal Strategist at BAE Systems
Melanie Heslop, Founder at Victim Campaign
Nicola Klein, Chief Data & Operations Officer at Kantar Public
Paul Court, Chief Superintendent, Head of Digital Transformation at Merseyside Police
Aimee Reed, Director of Data at Metropolitan Police
Jillian Kowalchuk, CEO & Founder, Safe & the City
Data and its importance for Women’s Safety
This year, Women in Data’s flagship session will focus on women’s safety. It is a topic that affects us all and one which has been brought to the forefront in light of recent significant events. We will take a look at how data can shape and improve the safety of women in our society and the challenges that need to be overcome.
Keynote speaker: Robin Sutara, Chief Data Officer at Microsoft UK
From an Apache Helicopter electrical and armament repairer serving in the US Army to the Chief Data Officer of Microsoft UK, Robin Sutara’s career journey is beyond inspiring and is unique. Today, Robin is not only an advocate of data-driven decisions, but also is deeply passionate about connecting, inspiring and growing women technologists, and believes that gender diversity generates innovation.
Join Robin for this keynote, in which she’ll be sharing insight into her inspiring career journey, what truly matters to her today and why she’s stayed at Microsoft for over 20 years. Hear from Robin about her perspective of Women’s safety and Data, and the social impact she and the organisation have been driving, followed by the opportunity for Q&A.
Data and its importance for Women’s Safety – the expert panel
Join us as industry experts, survivors and technologists come together to discuss a topic that has a deep, wide and highly troubling impact on society: “Data and its importance for Women’s Safety”. This topic will be explored and debated, while focussing on how data strategy, protection, ethics and exploitation affect our lives. Protecting women is at the forefront of many political and policing agendas currently. Women in Data® will examine how Data and Tech experts can bring insight and support to this incredibly important issue.
Women in Data® will be joined by Policing Data Experts, Data and Technology Leaders and those impacted by femicide, rape and violence. We call upon our community to learn, engage and affect change at this deeply significant time when there is an opportunity to be a positive voice for greater awareness and new measures.
As an advocate of data-driven decisions, Robin has spent most of her career ensuring organizations have the tools to leverage the zettabytes of data available today to achieve their digital transformation vision. Whether increasing operational efficiency, improving employee or customer experience, or creating new and innovative products and solutions, Robin believes access to and analysis of data is paramount. Robin strives to bring my best in all aspects of work and personal life. From obtaining two law degrees and multiple professional certifications – all while working full time, parenting her daughters and balancing personal commitments (including training for an IronMan), I believe anything is possible. I am inspired by the opportunity to improve, to grow, to get better. It is important to Robin to do these things with respect, care, and concern. Robin has been fortunate to have some strong mentors and role models as she progresses her career; so it’s Robin’s desire to pay it forward and help others find the same. Today, Robin is a member of the Microsoft UK Solutions Leadership Team, where she is responsible for the Data + AI business. Under her leadership, the team provides technical and industry-specific data expertise to Microsoft UK customers and partners. She is focused on enabling data strategies including modernisation, analytics/insights, and governance. Robin joined Microsoft in 1999, and has held various leadership roles across services, sales, operations, and engineering. Prior to Microsoft, Robin worked at Tandy Services and served in the United States Army.
Holly is a multiple award-winning data and technology strategist with extensive hands-on experience in strategy development in the private and public sectors.
Holly works with government and financial institutions supporting their strategic technology agendas. Before joining BAE Systems, Holly held several senior leadership positions within the public sector. Holly is a fellow of the RSA, research manager for The Intelligence Network and a committee member for Women in Data® .
Holly is passionate about channelling the transformative power of data and ensuring that it has a positive – not nefarious – impact. She is an engaging conference speaker and writer on strategy development, data ethics, data-driven decisioning making and the opportunities and cultural barriers facing a data-driven society.
Twitter: @holly_armitage
As an advocate of data-driven decisions, Robin has spent most of her career ensuring organizations have the tools to leverage the zettabytes of data available today to achieve their digital transformation vision. Whether increasing operational efficiency, improving employee or customer experience, or creating new and innovative products and solutions, Robin believes access to and analysis of data is paramount. Robin strives to bring my best in all aspects of work and personal life. From obtaining two law degrees and multiple professional certifications – all while working full time, parenting her daughters and balancing personal commitments (including training for an IronMan), I believe anything is possible. I am inspired by the opportunity to improve, to grow, to get better. It is important to Robin to do these things with respect, care, and concern. Robin has been fortunate to have some strong mentors and role models as she progresses her career; so it’s Robin’s desire to pay it forward and help others find the same. Today, Robin is a member of the Microsoft UK Solutions Leadership Team, where she is responsible for the Data + AI business. Under her leadership, the team provides technical and industry-specific data expertise to Microsoft UK customers and partners. She is focused on enabling data strategies including modernisation, analytics/insights, and governance. Robin joined Microsoft in 1999, and has held various leadership roles across services, sales, operations, and engineering. Prior to Microsoft, Robin worked at Tandy Services and served in the United States Army.
Melanie is a survivor of sexual assault who has been working for the last 7 years under the title Victim Campaign to advocate for the rights of victims. She has had a law written, discussed and rejected twice by the House of Lords advocating the need to protect the data of victims from their attackers in stranger cases. She is now fundraising and in differing developmental stages of three huge projects:
Outside of Victim Campaign, Melanie is a freelance actor, director, academic tutor and trained chef. Having studied at English at Cambridge University she went on to train in acting at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama before founding Go People Productions Ltd (a London based theatre company producing work across theatres such as The Park and Southwark Playhouse) and Revels In Hand (a luxury entertainment service that takes West End Quality theatre into alternative venues for private events).
Nicky builds and leads data driven organisations, putting data at the heart of decisions and cultures. She is an industry thought leader, recognised as Data and Analytics Leader of the year 2020 (DataIQ) and a proud Women in Data® alumnus.
As Chief Data & Operations Officer at Kantar Public Nicky works at the intersection of data, technology and human understanding, providing the evidence and insight that informs policy decisions for governments and public bodies around the world. Previously Nicky was Chief Data Officer at Direct Line Group, one of the UK’s leading Insurers and COO at Dunnhumby, the global leader in Customer Data Science.
At Kantar Public Nicky has combined her passion for social justice with her belief in the power of data to drive change. In the UK Kantar Public works with the Home Office and Office for National Statistics to deliver the Crime Survey for England and Wales, which is how the government gains insight into the 6 out of 10 crimes that are not reported to the police. In Australia, where domestic violence is the number one cause of death and disability amongst women aged 15-44, Kantar Public works with the Prime Minister’s office on the evidence base and communications strategy behind the “Stop it at the start” behaviour change campaign. Kantar Public also partners with Women Political Leaders to produce the Reykjavik Index for Leadership, a measure of how society perceives women and men in terms of their suitability for leadership, exploring how comfortable society is overall with female leadership
A combination of a voracious appetite for true crime books in her teens, a first class degree in Criminology and an inquisitorial, some say nosey, nature are the foundations of her relentless quest to place good data at the heart of Police decision-making.
Aimee joined the MPS in 2001 as an Intelligence Analyst, by 2014 she was leading the largest Confidential Intelligence Unit in UK Policing; accountable for the collection, development and dissemination of covert intelligence into high-end investigations and operations. After passing the Police Strategic Command Course (2015), Aimee had a data “epiphany”; operational decision-making was only as good as the effort put into managing that data. An unrelenting mission to get policing to realise it needed to roll its sleeves up and do the “data basics” resulted in her successfully leading the MPS data transformation programme. Aimee is the first Director of Data for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and over the last two years has been building the first Data Office in law enforcement.
She will be the new Chair of the National Data Board (Dec 2021) and currently leads across all forces on Data Protection, Data Sharing and Freedom of Information. Her focus has been to simplify how the police and their partners make effective use of data they hold and, more importantly, shifting attitudes to be more open and transparent with the public about what they can access and understand about policing.
A professed data geek and mother of two Aimee is passionate that data be treated as a valuable asset; we need high-quality data & proper investment in Data Professionals to maintain transparency with the public, improve trust in how policing is doing, prevent crime and drive criminal justice outcomes.
Paul started his policing career at Merseyside Police in 2004 where he performed a variety of frontline roles. As he progressed through the ranks, he undertook a Master’s Degree in Police Leadership and Management at Liverpool Hope University and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Public Leadership and Management at Warwick Business School. In 2019, he joined the Metropolitan Police Service where he led the Prevention Portfolio within the Directorate of Professional Standards. Two years later he returned to Merseyside Police where he is currently Head of the Digital Futures portfolio, leading a team of professionals with the mission of accelerating digital innovation across the Force. Paul has returned to study and is now undertaking a Doctorate of Business Administration at Glasgow Caledonian University.
Paul remains a senior operational leader within the Police Service and is a qualified Public Order Commander, CBRN Commander and Hostage and Crisis Negotiator. Paul is passionate about workplace inclusion which he influences in his role with the Police Superintendents’ Association as the national LGBT+ lead.
In his spare time, Paul is an aviation geek and has his Private Pilots Licence. He has also started open water swimming which is now on hold until the warmer months return!
Jillian Kowalchuk, is an award-winning entrepreneur as the Founder & CEO of Safe & The City, technology and data intelligence designing safety in digital and physical spaces. She was given the Exceptional Talent in Technology by the U.K. Home Office, winner of JCI Contribution to Human rights and was listed as the Top 20 Women in Data in the U.K. She sits on the Commonwealth Businesswomen Executive Team and the Department for International Trade’s Female Founders Advisory Board.
Jillian is a TEDx speaker, author of the recently published book, Wired Influence: Make technology work for you again. She shares her knowledge, expertise and experience of traveling to over 50 countries and breadth of knowledge on gender equality, tech4good, women in STEM to inspire and motivate others to take innovative action to solve meaningful problems. She holds an MSc in Public Health from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and BA in Psychology.
