In 1999, Mr Lubi started working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was an Economic Adviser at the Estonian Embassy in London 2002-2006. After that, he worked as a Director of the General Affairs Division in the EU Department. In August 2009, Mr Lubi took up the position of Economic Adviser at the Estonian Embassy in Washington, DC. In 2011, he was seconded to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in Estonia. In 2013, Mr Lubi took up office in New Delhi as the first residing Estonian Ambassador to India. After 3 years, he served as a Vice Minister for Economic Development in Estonia. Since 2021, Mr Lubi has been the Ambassador of Estonia to the United Kingdom. 

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.   

Robin Presswood is Executive Director of City Development at Dundee City Council, with responsibility for Planning and Building Standards, Economic Development, Sustainable Transport and Roads, Property, Engineering and Sustainability. 

Robin started his local government career with Tayside Regional Council, had various elected, voluntary and non-executive posts with Dundee District Council, NHS Tayside and Scottish Arts Council, before joining Fife Council in 2004, where he was Head of a service combining planning, economic development, tourism, employability, building standards, environmental health, and trading standards.  He was chairman of Dundee Contemporary Arts from 2003 to 2016. 

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.

Iain Gillespie is Principal and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Dundee, appointed in January 2021. Prior to that Iain was Pro Vice Chancellor, Research and Enterprise at the University of Leicester. During his time in Leicester, Iain led  their £100M Space Park development, the designation of the UK’s first Life Science Opportunity Zone at Charnwood, and  the university’s Global Strategy, including Joint Education initiatives with Dalian University of Technology and  with Chongqing Medical University as well as the establishment of the sector-leading Nairobi Alliance in partnership with leading African universities.  

He was formerly Director of Science and Innovation at the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the UK’s leading funder for environmental science, and was lead director for international research across all seven UK research councils that are  now part of UKRI. He is Honorary Visiting Professor at University College London, Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Honorary Professor at Jiangsu University, China, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. 

Prior to NERC, Iain was Visiting Professor in innovation in the life sciences at the University of Edinburgh. He spent 10 years at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development leading work on science, technology and innovation and more than a decade in UK central government, with science-based roles in the Cabinet Office, and the Departments of Environment of Trade and Industry and of Health. He has had considerable engagement at UN and regional international level as well as in UK domestic policy and enterprise relations.  

Alison is CEO of Dundee & Angus Chamber of Commerce, and is a member of the Board of the Developing the Young Workforce Tay Cities Regional Group, and sits on the Advisory Board for the University of Dundee School of Business. 

Alison is Chair of the Tay Cities Enterprise Forum, and Co-Chair of the Dundee Fair Work & Enterprise Board: championing business & employment opportunities across the region.  

She is passionate about business & the local community and works with partners on many projects to ensure that business voice is heard and represented.  

She leads on the Circular Tayside programme, which supports many organisations across the region to be more sustainable and achieve their ambitions of growing enterprises, minimising waste and transitioning to circular enterprises and most recently has been advising Zero Waste Scotland regarding the production of a Circularity Gap Report for Scotland. 

Outside of work, Alison is a wife, mother, an avid reader and a keen walker. She is a very proud Dundonian, a Burgess of the City of Dundee and loves to walk along our many local beaches! 

Chris van der Kuyl is one of Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs working across the technology, media, gaming and entertainment sectors.  Chris is most notably co-founder and chairman of multiple award-winning games developer 4J Studios, best known for developing Minecraft for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo games consoles. He and fellow co-founder Paddy Burns launched Chroma Ventures, the investment arm of 4J Studios, in 2021. 

Chris is chairman of; Broker Insights, Puny Astronaut, Stormcloud Games, Parsley Box and Ace Aquatec and sits on the boards of; Blippar, Ant Workshop and ADV Holdings. He is also a non-executive director of the Ballie Gifford US Growth Trust. 

Alongside his commercial roles, he was the founding chairman of Entrepreneurial Scotland and is currently a member of multiple advisory and local charity boards. Elected as one of the youngest Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2013, Chris was also formally recognised for his contribution to technology in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020, becoming a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE). 

From the public to the private sectors and back again, Scott has worked in information and cyber security for the past 20 years. Having held CISO positions in the private sector, he joined NHS Scotland NSS in the throes of the Coronavirus pandemic and as Head of Information and Cyber Security leads the mission to deliver a world class cyber security operations capability for Scotland’s Health Sector. He is excited by the opportunities that new technologies and ways of working bring to society and an advocate of cohesive security strategies presented in everyday language that’s understood by users and decision makers alike. 

Cheryl Torano is the Business Development Manager for Abertay cyberQuarter.

Her current role began in 2021 and is funded through Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government.

Cheryl graduated from Abertay’s Ethical Hacking programme in 2017 having undertaken an accelerated BSc Hons degree.

Prior to that she studied HND Computer Networking and Internet Technology at Dundee and Angus College.

Following graduation, she worked in Abertay University’s digital marketing team until 2019 when she took up a role with Brightsolid as a Cyber Security Engineer. During this time, she completed an MBA in Business Administration in Cybersecurity.

Cheryl is on the Scottish Women in Cyber and Ladies Hacking Society committees, and a key member in the Scottish Cyber Cluster.

Audrey Opdycke-Barnes is VP of Regional Engagement for CodeBase, with a background in engineering, commercial development, organisational change management, and team building. She brings a diverse range of experience working across aerospace, cyber security, digital engagement technologies, business consultancy, and now tech startup support community building with CodeBase. She is a passionate advocate for inclusion, and creating more equitable access to support for founders building the next generations of successful tech innovations and businesses.

Professor Sir Mike Ferguson CBE FRS FRSE FMedSci is Regius Professor of Life Sciences, contributing to Life Sciences research strategy and commercialisation. He has played a significant role in helping build Life Sciences research at the University of Dundee to its current size (over 800 people with £50 m pa research funding) and international reputation. He is particularly interested in the translation of discovery science into societal benefit, and in delivering economic impact for the University’s principle stakeholder – the tax payer. To these ends, he founded the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) at the University of Dundee in 2006. The DDU is a unique facility among the UK universities that works with academics across the UK to convert biological discoveries into developable and investable assets. He was Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors of Wellcome and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Medicines for Malaria Venture and UK Biobank. He co-leads ‘Growing the Biomedical Cluster’- a project to create wealth & job opportunities in Tayside and beyond through life sciences innovation. He was knighted for services to science in 2019.  

Gordon Mole is Fife Council’s Head of Business and Employability, having joined the Council in early 2016. He is the Council’s senior lead for Employability, Economic Development, economic policy, town centres and tourism. Gordon leads on the development of Fife projects for the Edinburgh and South East Scotland and Tay Cities Deals.  

Gordon has a particular interest in better collaborative working between national, local and third sector agencies for employability and employer engagement and chairs the Opportunities Fife Partnership Employer Engagement Delivery Group. He is also a board member of Developing the Young Workforce Fife.  

Before joining Fife, Gordon held a leadership role at Ipswich Borough Council as Head of Culture and Environment Services, managing a range of frontline operational and income generating services.  

He has previously led on development of new apprenticeships and graduate training as Employment and Brokerage Manager for Crossrail, and has led on economic development, responsible procurement and employment initiatives for major construction programmes, including London’s Shard of Glass, Heathrow Terminal 5 and Tate Modern.  

Gordon has provided policy advice to local, regional and national government on the Work Programme, re-use of electronic waste, social enterprise and employment of military veterans. He holds a MA (Hons) in Religious Studies from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Development Planning from University College London, where he specialised in international Urban Economic Development, with a focus on Ghana.  

Morag led on the development of the Business Case for the Digital Skills Project that was approved in December 2022. This is for the phase 1 activity through to March 2025. This project is part of the Regional Skills and Employability Development Programme for Tay Cities Region.   

Since 2018, Morag has been Fife Council’s Programme Manager for strategic growth projects as part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal as well as the Tay Cities Region Deal.   

Morag joined Fife Council in 2010 as lead on Fife’s economic strategy. She began working on digital connectivity to help develop the Digital Scotland Superfast Broadband Programme. She is an experienced project and programme manager. Recently she led on the Council’s UK Shared Prosperity Investment Plan and its Levelling Up bids.  

Erikka is an award-winning journalist and commentator. She has written for titles including The Press and Journal, The Herald, The Scotsman, The Sunday Times and Scottish Business Insider. Originally from Canada, she has been reporting on businesses and the economy in Scotland and the north of England for over 20 years.

Scott is co-founder, Director and Chief Technical Officer at MyWay Digital Health and Senior Lecturer at the University of Dundee. He has over twenty years’ experience in software architecture, development and project management within healthcare. He was technical lead for NHS Scotland’s shared electronic record for diabetes: SCI Diabetes Collaboration (SCI-DC – www.sci-diabetes.scot.nhs.uk). This system has been hugely influential in the understanding of diabetes epidemiology and pharmacogenomics.

He also initiated and leads NHS Scotland’s diabetes award-winning programme patient information and records access service: My Diabetes My Way (www.mydiabetesmyway.scot.nhs.uk). This system has been embedded as an integral part of diabetes care in Scotland since 2008.

MyWay Digital Health is taking this experience into new markets across the UK and internationally. We aim to deliver complete chronic disease management solutions with an emphasis on supporting benefits to each individual.

Dr Abigail Lyons joined the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI) as Senior Business Innovation Manager in November 2022 and is responsible for developing their Industry Engagement Strategy and the delivery of focussed support to companies innovating in digital health and care.

She has fifteen years’ experience in economic development, including six years supporting the creation of Scottish spin-out companies in bio-tech, med-tech and agri-tech. At Scottish Enterprise, she also led delivery of Interactive Scotland, a programme supporting innovation across the digital sector.

Abigail lived in the United States for eight years, working in product development in the Cardiac Surgery division of Medtronic, and as an academic researcher at the Mayo Clinic. She qualified in Immunology and Molecular Biology at the Universities of Glasgow and Dundee, respectively, and last year participated in entrepreneurship training at MIT.

Abigail is delighted to be in a position where she can leverage experience gained in roles woven through the triple helix of industry, academia and the public sector, to help companies innovate and commercialise new solutions in Digital Health & Care.

As an Advanced Practice Physiotherapist, Joyce has worked in a variety of clinical roles within NHS Fife, HSCP, including 15 years in Community Paediatrics, specialising in MSK and Respiratory roles.

However, in the past 7 years, Joyce has now found that her passion lies in the speciality of Paediatric Orthopaedics and Leads the Fife wide Baby Hip surveillance service, based in Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.

As an experienced clinician Joyce is determined to deliver the principles of Realistic Medicine and Value based health and care.

Joyce states ” I am delighted to be awarded one of the first NHS Scotland Clinical Innovation Fellowships. I am particularly pleased as an AHP that I have been given this opportunity to work with world leading experts within Industry and Academia. Supported by HISES, SHIP and NHS Fife Research Knowledge and Innovation team, I endeavour to lead on an innovation project which aims to enhance diagnostic capabilities, improve patient outcomes, as well as develop efficient, effective clinical pathways which are not only sustainable but fit for the future needs of our population.

This fellowship is an exciting development within NHS Scotland and a clear sign that Scotland is ready and willing to develop and be early adopters of the latest technical advancements. It also demonstrates that there is strong commitment to developing and supporting all NHS staff as innovators.

Phil Ford is the Head of Digital Economy and Financial Services at Skills Development Scotland, leading a team to shape cross-sectoral strategies to ensure skills planning, investment and delivery are demand led in support of industry priorities.  Phil has previously worked as a Regional Skills Planning Lead for SDS in the south east and south of Scotland. This role involved close partnership working with a range of stakeholders, to develop Skills Investment Plans to ensure that regional supply meets current and future demand. He has previously worked in several senior roles in the Construction Industry Training Board and most recently as the Strategic Partnerships Director for Scotland. In this position he was responsible for driving forward a £2m Joint Investment Strategy with the Scottish Government to address skills and training needs in the construction industry and working closely with politicians to influence policy development.

David is the Managing Director of Beyond Blue and Global Head of Cyber Futures at KPMG.
Over his 35 years in security, he has played a leading role in developing the UK’s cyber security strategy, including as the Head of Cyber and Space for the Ministry of Defence and the chair of the National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board for Scotland.
Cyber security has been his passion over the years, and he has worked with the largest firms in the world to bring cyber security to life as a topic for executives and boards.
David was made an OBE for his contribution to national security and is a Fellow of the British Computer Society and the Institute for Information Security.

With a background in television and film, James established Xbox Scotland, a Facebook group, in 2015 due to his passion for gaming. Realizing the lack of a platform for sharing competitive gaming events in Scotland, he founded Esports Scotland in 2017. His goal was to establish Scotland as a prominent hub for competitive gaming, and he has not only gained recognition as the leading organization for esports in the country but also earned global acclaim. James led the Scotland Team at the Commonwealth Games in CEC2022, held in Birmingham, where they achieved remarkable success by winning 2 Silver Medals. This marked a significant milestone as esports made its inaugural inclusion in this esteemed global sporting event.

Andy Sinclair has over 15 years of experience delivering complex technical solutions, driving innovation and leading successful teams. As CTO of Brightsolid, Andy is responsible for shaping and overseeing the company’s technology and product strategy, developing innovative solutions that address our customers’ diverse and dynamic needs. Andy leads Brightsolid’s team of cloud, cyber security, network and solution engineers, ensuring that the company leverages the latest technological innovations to deliver desirable value to our market.