Silka Patel is a strategic marketing expert with 25 years experience of working within the technology industry and is currently the Social Value Manager at Leidos UK. Silka set up Scotland Women in Technology, a non-for-profit organisation, which is now in its 16th year, championing women in the technology sector. 

Silka has a number of external board roles including a Non-Executive Director at the Glasgow Women’s Library which she has held for 10 years, Non-Executive Director at Technology Scotland and a member of Changing the Chemistry which seeks to improve board effectiveness and quality through the diversity of thought. 

She is a keen supporter of women in technology and mentors STEM graduates and apprentices so they can be involved in the life changing opportunities that the sector offers. 

Mark is the Chief Entrepreneurial Advisor to the Scottish Government, a Professor of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow, and a Senior Enterprise Fellow at the University of Strathclyde.  Mark has almost 30 years of senior leadership experience in the tech and start-up sector, including as COO of Skyscanner, one of Europe’s most successful technology companies, where he was responsible for the general management of the business during the company’s high-growth phase, culminating in the sale of the business for £1.45B in 2016.

In 2014, the Institute of Directors named him Director of the Year and in 2016 he won the UK Digital Masters award for Excellence in General Management.  He was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Glasgow and Doctor of Business Administration by Robert Gordon University. In 2022, he was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh for his contribution to Scotland’s technology industry. He was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year’s honours for his contribution to the economy.  

Mark is the author of the Scottish Technology Ecosystem Review and co-author of the Pathways: A new approach for women in Entrepreneurship review which, together, form the foundations of the Scottish Government’s policy strategy for entrepreneurial ecosystem development.

He is also co-founder of Ipso-Facto Management, a consultancy to start-up and scale-ups in the UK and international tech sectors, an investor and non-executive director.   

Stuart Patrick CBE is Chief Executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, committed to increasing trading opportunities for Chamber members and delivering a strong business influence on the growth of the Glasgow city region. 

Stuart joined the Chamber in 2009 and has worked with the Chamber’s team, Board and Governing Council to build the Chamber’s policy voice, evolve member services and support Glasgow in the delivery of an ambitious economic strategy.  International trade, transport investment, city centre growth, key industry strategies and youth employment are all important issues for the Chamber.  

Stuart has spent over 25 years in urban economic development including 17 years at Scottish Enterprise where he focused on the economic transformation of Glasgow ultimately leading Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and becoming Senior Commercial Director for Scottish Enterprise itself. At the beginning of his career Stuart trained with Ernst & Young where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and he has an MBA from Strathclyde University.  He took his first degree at Glasgow University. 

Stuart takes an active interest in Glasgow’s economy and is a member of the Glasgow Economic Leadership Board, the Sustainable Glasgow Board, the Glasgow City Centre Strategy Board and the British Chamber of Commerce Board. He co-chairs the Glasgow Employer Board. He is also chair of Glasgow City of Science and Innovation.  

Stuart has a number of personal interests around Glasgow including the chairmanship of the Wise Group and directorships of Glasgow Science Centre, Clyde Gateway URC and the Cottier Project. 

Paul Leinster was elected to Glasgow City Council in 2022 to represent the Langside ward in the Southside of the City. He currently serves as Chair of the Digital Glasgow Board as well as holding a number of other roles in the Council.  

Since becoming Chair, the Digital Board  has overseen the development and implementation of the new Digital Glasgow Strategy 2024 – 2030, setting out the Council’s ambitious digital plans for the second half of the decade. 

Before being elected, Paul spent a decade working in politics and policy in Brussels, Westminster, and Holyrood. 

From Spinout to Scale-up’ Description: ‘Exploring the decisions and challenges along the way’

Elaine is CFO of ENOUGH, a food ingredient company supplying ABUNDA® mycoprotein.  Elaine has worked in early stage businesses for 20 years following an early career with EY. 

Elaine joined ENOUGH, a University of Strathclyde spin out, in 2017 before its Series A funding.  The business has raised >€100M and now employs 70 people.  The first manufacturing facility is located in the Netherlands with head office functions in the UK.  ENOUGH’s goal is to grow 1 million tonnes of product in the next decade, which requires collaboration across all parts of the value chain. 

Unlocking the Future of Ultrasonic Surgery

Dr Nico Fenu holds a BEng in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Cagliari, an MSc (Hons) in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Dundee, and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Glasgow, specialising in power ultrasonics for surgical applications. In December 2021, Dr Fenu founded Nami Surgical, where he serves as CEO, leading the company’s mission to develop the first miniaturised ultrasonic scalpel for wristed surgical robots. His work aims to revolutionise surgical precision and improve patient outcomes globally, driving innovation and advancing healthcare technology on an international scale. 

Debbie Strang is a founder Director and the Chief Operating Officer of SaxaVord Spaceport in Unst, Shetland, the UK’s first vertical facility with access to sun-synchronous and polar orbits. The Spaceport License was awarded in December 2023 and the Range License in March 2024. Building on successful engine tests with German company HyImpulse and French company Latitude last year, Rocket Factory Augsburg undertook successful live firing and integrated systems testing this summer and continue to build to a first vertical launch later this year. The highly specialised and rapidly growing team currently stands around 70 and the operational staff are well on their way to developing the systems and processes to enable 30 launches per year from 3 launch pads. 

She is a former RAF Operations Officer, worked for the Cairngorms National Park as Economic Development Manager and 10 years ago set up the UK’s most northerly distillery in Unst, creating award-winning Shetland Reel Gin, which is located less than 2 miles from the launch site. 

Dougie leads the Future Products team within NatWest Group’s  Innovation & Partnerships department – responsible for creating brand new solutions, products and experiences for the wider Group, often leveraging start-ups and other technology partners to bring NatWest’s strategy to life. 

Dougie’s background is in digital development – working with a range of digital agencies and a multi-national plc since the early days of the internet to create and deliver award-winning digital solutions. 

Kristen is a creative leader and strategic partner with deep expertise in strategy, design, transformation, and innovation. Kristen is currently the Group Head of Partnerships and Innovation at Barclays, responsible for innovation, strategic partnerships, and Generative AI. Kristen’s career has involved the development and delivery of new products, services, and ventures, always working at the intersection of strategy, design, and technology. Kristen was previously the Director of Innovation and Partnerships at NatWest, focused on reimagining financial services for 19 million customers. Kristen created “OX”, the award-winning innovation design studios in London and Edinburgh, where she and her team worked at the bounds of what is possible, using insight and emerging technologies. Kristen was recognised by IBM as one of 35 exceptional women leaders globally for her work in artificial intelligence to transform NatWest’s business. Kristen is passionate about using strategic design and technology to solve our greatest challenges and is the Vice Chair of the Glasgow School of Art, a global leader in arts education. Kristen holds a degree from Northwestern University and has completed Executive Education programs at INSEAD and the University of Cambridge.

Stella McManus has worked in the further education sectors across Scotland and England for over 19 years. She is passionate about lifelong learning and the transformational change that education can have on the lives of people at any age and from any background. Stella joined South Lanarkshire College as Depute Principal, before being appointed to Principal and Chief Executive in April 2023. 

Stella began her further education career in 2005, having previously lived and worked in Italy teaching English language. She is a fully qualified teacher and language specialist with a broad set of classroom practitioner and management skills gained from over 18 years’ experience in a range of educational settings. Her academic background is in the field of linguistics, having completed her master’s degree in Applied Linguistics at King’s College, London. 

Providing high quality education and skills are crucial to creating a vibrant future workforce for South Lanarkshire and Scotland, and the college sector is central to supporting that pipeline. Therefore, she is keen to ensure both young people and adults are equipped with the necessary skills to allow them to be able to meet demands for current and future jobs, creating a talent stream from within South Lanarkshire.  

Dr. Angeli is currently Group Chief Health Officer and member of the Group Executive Committee at Zühlke Group. She was also recently Managing Director at Sequoia Growth, where she consulted with and provided technical guidance to venture capital groups, government organizations, biotech, pharmaceutical and software companies. Prior to that she held various positions at Roche and Bayer; notably Head of Data and Integrations Generating Insights and Head of Pharma International Informatics at Roche and VP Head of Global Data Assets, Pharma Digital Transformation & IT at Bayer. She co-founded The Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare, a global advocacy organisation that enables the advancement and use of AI in healthcare. Angeli is also a scientific advisory board member of Multiomic Health and a council member of UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council. 

Derek Shaw is Director of Scaling Innovation, one of Scottish Enterprise’s (SE) three critical missions. As Director, Derek is responsible for shaping and delivering strategy around the Scaling Innovation mission with an ambition to double the number of scale-up businesses in Scotland over the next ten years and support the growth of existing scale-ups by 20%, creating 100,000+ jobs and c£20bn of additional turnover. Working with colleagues, Derek is responsible for leading the vision within SE for Scotland to be recognised as having some of the most innovative and fastest growing industries globally, with increased investment and international exports. Derek has leadership responsibility for SE’s overall innovation strategy.  

Prior to this, Derek was Director of Innovation & Place within SE responsible for the Team that leads the development and delivery of transformational place-based innovation programmes across Scotland.  In this role, Derek had overall leadership for SE’s extensive land and property portfolio with his Tean responsible for developing initiatives in areas where there are market gaps or supply issues in the provision of business infrastructure. Prior to this, Derek was Head of Investment Management within SE’s Growth Investments Team and led the teams responsible for managing the portfolio of investment, the debt team, project & risk management and business support functions. On graduating with a Bachelor of Laws, Derek started his career with the corporate banking arm of Bank of Scotland.  

Derek is a director on the boards of Michelin Scotland Innovation Parc, Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company and Censis Technology Solutions Limited. He represents Scottish Enterprise on the Board of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland and co-chairs, along with the Scottish Government, the Grangemouth Future Industry Board. 

Based in Economic Development, within Glasgow City Council, Graham leads on the Council’s investment, international and innovation activity, and works strategically with both UK and Scottish government, as well as a range of stakeholders across the public, private and academic sectors to deliver on the city’s economic ambitions.  Over the last 18 months, this has seen the delivery of the £33m Innovation Accelerator programme, as well as the £27m Shared Prosperity Fund, part of which has provided programmes of support for the Tech community in Glasgow. 

The final frontier – Fuelling innovation and igniting growth in SpaceTech Ecosystem

Andy is a pioneering leader in the Scottish space sector. He’s forged international relationships with senior personnel at NASA, astronauts, leading scientists and SpaceTech entrepreneurs globally. In 2022, he founded the Space Network, aimed at fuelling innovation and igniting growth by supporting space sector companies, connecting them to talent and opportunities and driving funding into the sector. Andy is an entrepreneurial leader with a proven track record in founding, leading and growing successful businesses, securing over £40m in international contracts. He has significant expertise in strategy, board-level governance and has extensive connections across the private, public and academia. 

Triple helix partnerships for health innovation

Professor Dominiczak is a world-leading cardiovascular scientist and clinical academic. Her major research interests include hypertension, cardiovascular genomics, and precision medicine. She has published extensively in top peer-reviewed journals (over 550 publications, a h-index of 123 according to Web of Science). Between 2010 and 2020 she was Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow. She was the driving force behind the fundraising, development and delivery of the University’s clinical academic campus at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where she led a triple helix partnership between academia, the NHS, and industry to accelerate innovation, maximize patient benefits and economic growth.  Dame Anna is a member of several editorial boards and, from 2012 – 2022, was Editor-in-Chief of Hypertension, journal of the American Heart Association. Currently, she is Editor-in Chief of Precision Medicine, a new Prism journal of the Cambridge Press. In March 2020, Anna led the establishment of Lighthouse Laboratory in Glasgow to provide rapid Covid–19 diagnostics, and then was asked to become Director of Laboratories at the UK Department of Health and Social Care to lead all 10 Lighthouse Laboratories across the UK, the role she fulfilled until 2022. In July 2022 Professor Dominiczak was appointed as Chief Scientist (Health) for the Scottish Government, where she leads and coordinates health research and innovation, working in partnership with the NHS, academia and industry to develop rapid translation and adoption of transformative innovations for the Scottish NHS.  

Professor Matt Baker is the inventor of Dxcover’s Liquid Biopsy Platform. Since the company’s inception in 2019, Professor Baker has been responsible for the company’s technical research and development, intellectual property portfolio, and clinical studies strategy and execution.  Now as Dxcover CEO, he is leading the company’s mission to be a world leader in liquid biopsy and artificial intelligence for the early detection of cancer while democratizing cancer care.  He is also Professor of Early Diagnostics in the School of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Central Lancashire 

Stephen is an influential advocate of making the financial world more open, creative and inclusive through innovative digital and data initiatives, encouraging progressive ways of working and collaboration across diverse organisations.   

His career over four decades has earned a track record and reputation for leading customer focused, technology enabled initiatives and he is passionate about the role of financial innovation shaping the future economy and breaking down barriers and division across the UK, especially with new initiatives such as cluster development and innovation accelerators.  

Today, Stephen is Chairman of FinTech Scotland and a Non-Executive of the Centre for Finance Innovation and Technology (CFIT), the leadership bodies focused on financial innovation.  

He led the formation and growth of FinTech Scotland since 2018, initially as Chief Executive, to be recognised as a leading fintech cluster management organisations in the UK and Europe.  

In addition, Stephen is Deputy Convenor (Enterprise and Investment) on the Court of University of Strathclyde and Chair of the Strategic Industry Clusters Group  

He was awarded an OBE in the 2023 New Year Honours List for services to UK financial technology (fintech) innovation.   

Alisdair is recognised by his peers as one of Scotland’s prominent professional advisers amongst Scotland’s technology, digital and engineering sectors. Alisdair leads the development of Glasgow City Innovation District – Scotland’s leading Innovation District and is the founder of Framewire, Scotland’s first advisory practice focused on developing Scotland’s Digital and Tech Ecosystem.

Alisdair dedicates his time to supporting founders create, develop, invest, and scale their tech, digital or deep tech business and through Glasgow City Innovation District, is guiding the development of Glasgow’s Tech Sector as Scotland’s leading Innovation Hub.

Alisdair led the creation of the first tech week for a Scottish City – Glasgow Tech Week and is the co-founder of the internationally acclaimed Turing Festival (now Turing Fest). At the inaugural Scottish Tech Startup Awards, Alisdair was awarded Scotland’s first Tech Ecosystem award where his peers independently recognised his expertise and commitment to developing Scotland’s Tech Ecosystem. Alisdair has also been awarded the Principal’s Special Award for his outstanding contribution to the success of the University of Strathclyde and was a Barclays Entrepreneur of the Year finalist for Scotland. Alisdair is an Independent board advisor to Barclays Eagle Labs and is a strategic advisor to Amiqus and VeryConnect and member of Johnston Carmichael’s Tech Advisory Board.  

Colin was appointed Director of Economic Development in Scottish Government in 2021.  Prior to this he spent over four years as Director Digital, responsible for delivering Scotland’s national digital strategy, including work on the digital transformation of the public sector and public services, Scotland’s data strategy, digital connectivity and the IT shared services used by up to 16,000 public servants in Scotland.

Colin started his career in marketing within the packaging and chemical industries.  He then joined Royal Mail, eventually becoming marketing director of the £4 billion core letters business and enjoying a spell as Assistant to the Chairman and Chief Executive of The Post Office.  He first joined Scottish Government in 2003 as Deputy Director,  Public Health, where he led the consultation that led to the smoking ban and then Deputy Director, Healthcare strategy and planning.  Prior to joining digital, Colin Spent four years on secondment to Cabinet Office / MOS as Marketing Director, British Army Recruitment where he introduced an award winning online recruiting process

Colin is a Vice Chairman of the Royal Caledonian Education Trust and a former trustee of The Poppy Factory.

Trish Quinn is the Strategic Innovation Director for Fintech Scotland. She is responsible for delivering the Financial Innovation and Regulation Lab. Trish has over 20 years of experience in leadership roles  focussed on digital service delivery across the private and public sector. She won the Scottish Public Sector’s Leadership Award for her work during the pandemic.  

Gillian Docherty is chief commercial officer at the University of Strathclyde.  Gillian has responsibility for Innovation & Industry Engagement, Research & Knowledge Exchange Services, Campus Services and Marketing & Development. As a member of the Executive Team, she works across the institution to drive forward the University’s sector-leading activities with industry and support Scotland and the UK’s economic recovery from the global pandemic. 

As a leading international technological University, we are extremely proud of our network of partners across business and industry in the UK and globally. Our approach to collaboration is accelerating the development of new technologies, helping companies compete internationally, informing public policy and supporting the economy. 

Prior to joining the University in 2022, Gillian was the Chief Executive of The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence with a mission to help Scotland maximise value from data and lead the world to a data-powered future. 

Gillian is Chair of CodeBase, who help people build better tech startups and make startups accessible to everyone. 

Gillian is a member of the Scottish Governments National Strategy for Economic Transformation Delivery Board and Trade Board. 

Gillian was appointed an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019 for Services to Information Technology and Business. 

A born entrepreneur and charismatic leader, Charlie founded The Social Hub in 2003. His love of community and belief that customers deserve better started it all and remains the guiding force behind the company’s winning hybrid hospitality concept. With his instinctive drive, The Social Hub has grown to hold 23 assets – with 18 hubs open across Europe – and has raised more than €2 billion from investors, making Charlie a leading voice on the future of hospitality for industry publications and events around the world. Today, as he steers from the front, his focus has shifted to building one team, one community and one global brand.  

Beyond The Social Hub, Charlie focuses on his work improving refugee camps through the humanitarian crises NGO he founded in 2015, Movement on the Ground (MOTG). Their mission? To transform camps into campuses, offering refugees better opportunities and a better life. For Charlie, it’s one small step towards world peace.