Host
Professor Rajkumar Roy (Executive Dean of the School of Science and Technology and 'Social Responsibility' lead at City, University of London)
Professor Rajkumar Roy is the Executive Dean of the School of Science & Technology at City, University of London. He is also leading this national initiative on “developing socially responsible STEM professionals” and has actively supported inclusion of ethics in the undergraduate curriculum and research. He is also the lead on Social Responsibility across City, University of London. Currently he is leading self-engineering research at City. Previously he was the Principal Investigator of the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Through-life Engineering Services (TES) and collaborated extensively with industry. He was also PI and then CoI of EPSRC Platform Grant on Throughlife Performance and EPSRC GCRF project. He has a track record of projects from EPSRC, EU, IUK and HEFCE and was also the PI on topics including design optimisation, concept design, whole life cost modelling and design for service. He is the Founding Editor in Chief of the Applied Soft Computing journal from Elsevier (2001-2016). He has published over 100 peer reviewed journal papers. He is a Fellow of the CIRP, IET, IED, ACostE and a Principal Fellow of HEA. He is also a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT).
Panel chairs
Andrew Vautier (Senior Managing Director at Accenture)
Andrew is a globally experienced, innovative Accenture Senior Managing Director with broad experience in consulting, delivering transformational outcomes and cyber security. His over 30 year career with Accenture has been consistently focussed on being at the vanguard of what Accenture does.
Rob Wirszycz (Master at the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists)
Rob is Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, the Modern City Livery company for the Tech Sector. Rob is a passionate believer in the need for organisations to generate social value alongside financial value and for a truly stakeholder approach. He is a 40 year veteran of the IT industry and currently chairs a number of scale-up tech businesses.
Keynote speakers
Dr Victoria Baines (WCIT Professor of IT at Gresham College)
Dr Victoria Baines is Professor of IT at Gresham College, the City of London’s oldest higher education institution, established in 1597 to provide free lectures to the public. Her current series of lectures is focused on Humanising Cyberspace and putting citizens back at the heart of IT policy. She frequently contributes to major broadcast media outlets on digital ethics, cybercrime and the misuse of emerging technologies, and is regularly voted one of the leading women in cybersecurity. Her areas of research include electronic surveillance, cybercrime futures, and the politics of security. She also provides research expertise to a number of international organisations including Interpol, the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Commission. For several years Victoria was Facebook’s Trust & Safety Manager for EMEA. Prior to this, Victoria led the Strategy team at Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), where she was responsible for the EU’s cyber threat analysis, and the ground-breaking cybersecurity futures exercise, Project 2020. Victoria chairs the Security Panel of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, the IT Livery Company in the City of London. She has an MA from the University of Oxford and a doctorate from the University of Nottingham.
Andrew Baughen (Chaplain and Visiting Lecturer at Bayes Business School)
Andrew Baughen has worked as a management consultant in banking strategy and as the Vicar of a church in London’s business district. He continues to work in the ‘theotech’ sector at the intersection of business and theology. He is currently researching the difference between soul-full and soul-less organisations and how worldview shapes the way we see our work and make ethical decisions. He has created a tool that maps the wide range of value generated by a business (soulfulenterprise.org). Andrew is also an Anglican Chaplain at City, University of London and a Visiting Lecturer and Honorary Visiting Fellow at Bayes Business School.
Professor Stephen O'Connor (Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, the Institute of Physics, Royal Academy of Engineering, and Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians)
Stephen O’Connor is a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Physicist, Fellow of the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine, IPEM, the Institute of Physics, as well as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He has been a Visiting Professor at City, UoL since 2011 and is currently Chair of the Strategic Advisory Board for the School of Science and Technology. He has held many voluntary positions with IPEM over 4 decades acceding to President from 2019 to 2021. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2021 and became a RAEng Visiting Professor in Biomedical Engineering at City, UoL in 2022.
Professor Nalin Thakkar (Vice-President of The University of Manchester)
Nalin Thakkar is the Vice President for Social Responsibility and Professor of Molecular Pathology at the University of Manchester and recently retired as a Consultant Histopathologist at the Manchester Universities NHS Foundation Trust. Prior to his current appointment, he served for nearly 10 years as the University’s Associate Vice President for Compliance, Risk, Research Governance & Integrity and oversaw the transformation of compliance management and accountability at the University. External to the University, he has served as a Non-Executive Director of the UK Health Research Authority (HRA) and also the Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust, a neurospecialist NHS Trust in Liverpool. He has previously also served as a National Research Ethics Advisor and a member of the Royal College of Pathologists Ethics Committee. The University of Manchester has placed Social Responsibility as a core goal equal with Research & Innovation and Teaching Learning since 2011 and has been ranked in the top 10 globally in the Times Higher Impact Ranking since its inception in 2019.
Professor Andy Phippen (Professor of Digital Rights at Bournemouth University)
Professor Andy Phippen has specialised in the use of ICTs in social contexts and the intersection with legislation for almost 20 years, carrying out a large amount of grass roots research on issues such as attitudes toward privacy and data protection, internet safety and contemporary issues such as sexting, peer abuse and the impact of digital technology on wellbeing. He has presented written and oral evidence to parliamentary inquiries related to the use of ICTs in society, is widely published in the area and is a frequent media commentator on these issues.
Dr Manny Contomanolis (Director of Career Services at Harvard University)
Dr Manny Contomanolis, PhD, has more than 40 years of higher education experience currently serving as Director of Career Services at Harvard University. He is active professionally as a speaker, author, and consultant. He is Past President of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), a member of the NACE Academy of Fellows, and recipient of the NACE Kauffman Award for outstanding contributions to the field. He is the co-editor and contributor to two books Leadership in Career Services: Voices from the Field and Winning the War for College Talent and a frequent contributor to the media on hiring trends, the job search, and the future of higher education.
Julia George (Court Liveryman at the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists)
Julia George is a Board Strategy and Information Technology Consultant engaged by organisations of all sizes and types to challenge & develop strategy to realise stakeholder benefits. Her career has been primarily focused on the Financial Services sector. She is a Chartered Fellow of the CISI, a Court Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists, where, as chair of the Financial Services Technology Panel, she has lead initiatives on ESG, Cybersecurity Skills and Operational Resilience. A founding Trustee of Red Trouser Day raising funds for bowel cancer research, where she developed the strategy to achieve full charitable status and is responsible for identifying early research that requires seed funding. Her recent roles have included non executive responsibility for funding strategies for early stage technology companies.
Panelists
Professor Felician Campean (Associate Dean - Research and Innovation at the University of Bradford)
Felician is a Professor in Automotive Reliability Engineering and Director of the Automotive Research Centre, and Associate Dean – Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Engineering and Informatics, University of Bradford. His research interests revolve around the durable development of complex engineered systems, and has an extensive track record of collaboration with the global automotive industry on model and data centric systems design and product development. More recently, he has been working towards developing methodologies for embedding ethics in model based systems engineering design of autonomous vehicles.
Professor Sanowar Khan (Professor of Instrumentation and Sensors at City, University of London)
Professor Khan is an Associate Dean (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) in the School of Science and Technology at City, University of London. He has been the Deputy Dean of the School for over 10 years. He is a Fellow of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Institute of Measurement and Control (InstMC). He served as the Vice-President of InstMC, a member of its Board of Trustees and Council for over 5 years. He is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers, a former member of its Education Committee, an Apprentice Master of the Livery, and a member of its Court. He is a Trustee of the City of London Academies Trust (CoLAT) and a member of its People, Equalities and Inclusion Committee. Prior to this, he has been a Sponsor Governor of the City of London Academy Islington which is a stand-alone academy co-sponsored by City, University of London and City of London Corporation. He is also on the Upward Bound Strategic Governance Board, Islington Council. First delivered in 2006, Upward Bound is a programme aimed at raising attainment and aspirations for young people studying at key stages 3 and 4 in Islington.
Dr Jonathan Truslove (Education and Skills Lead at Engineers Without Borders UK)
Dr Jonathan Truslove is the Education and Skills Lead for Engineers Without Borders UK and works to develop opportunities to learn about putting global responsibility at the heart of how engineering is taught and practised. Jonathan leads the development of the Engineers Without Borders UK Global Responsibility in Engineering Competency Framework, set to launch in early 2023. He also works on learning pathways for embedding sustainability, ethics, and global responsibility into engineering curriculum in collaboration with the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Engineers Professors Council. Since 2021, Jonathan has led the research and development of educational resources for the Engineering for People Design Challenge which reaches over 10,000 students annually. The challenge seeks to inspire multi-disciplinary groups of university students to broaden their awareness of the social, environmental, economic, and ethical implications of engineering alongside the technical skills of engineering solutions. Jonathan studied at the University of Strathclyde and completed his PhD, through the Scottish Government Climate Justice Fund: Water Futures Programme, which focused on the relationship between infrastructure and people and the sustainability burden placed on rural communities by the drive to meet global coverage targets.
Shaheen Sayed (Accenture Technology Lead for UK/Ireland at Accenture)
Shaheen holds significant experience from her twenty-year career at Accenture where she has led complex technology and business transformation programmes for clients across the public and private sector, both in the UK and globally. As a ‘’hands on’’ practitioner, she has driven some of the most complex implementations in Justice, Health; Rural Affairs and Capital Markets. Most recently, she has been working as an advisor to senior Financial Services clients at the forefront of their digital transformation and driving first-in-kind innovation from inception to execution. Outside of Accenture she is a Guest Lecturer for the London School of Economics Global Masters in Management and is a respected adviser on inclusive business cultures and the evolution of talent in a digital age. She also sits as the Honorary Colonel for 3 Military Intelligence Battalion London and is board member on The Prince’s Trust Business in the Communities (BITC) Race Leadership team & techUK. Shaheen was voted Woman of the Year in the Women in IT Awards Series & is included in the Top 10 influential Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Global leaders by the Financial Times. She is a passionate campaigner for Inclusion & Diversity in the City, with a specific focus on Social Mobility and Race. She lives in London with her son Zain.
Aaminah Patel (Deputy President of Education and Social Responsibility at City, University of London's Student Union)
Aaminah is the current elected vice-president at City Student’s Union. As a recent law graduate, and with her law background, she has taken a special interest in Corporate social responsibility and ESG’s. This individual is passionate about developing students in becoming more socially responsible, conclusively forming responsible graduates that take on community- building and wider social responsibility into their workforces.