As the most senior civil servant in Scotland and head of the civil service supporting the Scottish Government, the Permanent Secretary is the principal policy adviser to the First Minister and Secretary to the Scottish Cabinet.

JP leads the Scottish Government civil service to deliver the full range of devolved powers and duties set out in the Scotland Act. As the principal accountable officer for the Scottish Government, JP is personally responsible to the Scottish Parliament for the exercise of his responsibilities. This includes the management of the Scottish Government’s £59 billion budget and the economic, efficient and effective use of all related resources.

Leading more than 7,000 civil servants who work for the Scottish Government in Scotland, London and around the world, JP supports the development, implementation and communication of government policies. This work is undertaken in accordance with the Civil Service Code, upholding its four core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.

Married with two children, JP was born in the Channel Islands and lives in Scotland. JP is committed to building a world-class, values-led civil service which excels in serving the public.

Eilidh McLaughlin took up the position of Head of Digital Citizen Unit at Scottish Government in April 2022.  This is a new Unit, part of the Digital Directorate and Eilidh’s role is to head up the Connecting Scotland programme.  Connecting Scotland is a unique initiative, set up during the pandemic, to get devices and/or connectivity to those who needed it most.  The programme has delivered 60,000 devices and connectivity packages over the initial two years and has a commitment to deliver a further 300,000.

Eilidh has a background in Information Security and Governance as well as corporate governance services, equality and diversity, internal audit, complaints, information governance and various business support services from previous roles in NHS National Services Scotland.

Previously, she practiced as a lawyer both in the private sector with Maclay Murray & Spens and then in the public sector, firstly with West Lothian Council, as a member of the property and contracts team, and subsequently as legal adviser at Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh, East Lothian.

Outside of work, Eilidh’s time is very much taken up with her husband and young daughter, though when she can, she enjoys the rugby, a good book and cooking.

Geoff Huggins is Director for Digital at the Scottish Government.  Previously he was Director of the NHS Education Scotland Digital Service working to create the NHS National Digital Platform.  From 2013 to 2018 he was Director for Health and Social Care Integration and from 2017 to 2018 also Director for Digital Health and Social Care.  Prior to that he was Head of Mental Health for nine years.  From 1991 to 1998 he worked for the Northern Ireland Office working on security and political development.  He holds degrees in law and criminology from Queen’s University, Belfast.  He is a non-executive director of Cornerstone, Penumbra and the International Initiative for Mental Health Leadership.  He runs a little, takes photographs and watches films.  

Robbie has been Head of the Digital Connectivity Division in the Scottish Government since 2018, leading the delivery of a number of flagship infrastructure projects that are enhancing Scotland’s digital infrastructure and extending access to connectivity. Robbie has worked in several roles across Scottish Government – previously managing European Structural Funds programmes and helping to set up SPRUCE, the first investment fund specifically established to support urban development and regeneration activity in Scotland.

Sally Kerr has extensive experience of data and digital delivery, working primarily in the Public Sector but also across sectors with business and Universities. 

She has worked on a range of innovative data driven projects, leading the development and delivery of the City of Edinburgh Council’s Open Data Strategy, and creating EdinburghApps, an open data driven civic challenge programme. She was co-founder of Edinburgh Living Lab which used a data and design approach to bring insight to city issues and introduced innovative approaches to solving urban problems. Sally also led the City of Edinburgh Council’s web and digital estate programme for over 10 years, developing strategy, policies and best practice approaches.  

She have been involved in a range of collaborative work, sitting on the Scottish Government’s first Open Data Strategy working and review groups, as co-chair of Eurocities Data group, developing the European Citizen Data Principles and as an active member of a range of distinct project programmes locally and internationally promoting data. She has also been a member of the Open Government Civil Society Network specifically contributing to Scotland’s data commitment. 

Sally is currently working with Scottish Government as their Data Transformation Lead, with a focus on data maturity and delivering data improvement across the Scottish Public Sector 

GLASS: The Citizen-focused e-Government Digital Wallet supporting Engagement, Privacy and Freedom of Movement

William (Bill) J Buchanan OBE is a Professor in the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University, and a Fellow of the BCS and Principal Fellow of the HEA. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to cybersecurity. Bill lives and works in Edinburgh and is a believer in fairness, justice, and freedom. His social media tagline reflects his strong belief in changing the world for the better: “A Serial Innovator. An Old World Breaker. A New World Creator.” He also has a strong belief in the power of education and in supporting innovation from every angle, and currently leads the Blockpass ID Lab and the Centre for Cybersystems, IoT and Cyberphysical. Bill works in the areas of blockchain, cryptography, trust and digital identity. He has one of the most extensive cryptography sites in the World (asecuritysite.com), and is involved in many areas of novel research and teaching. Bill has published over 30 academic books and over 300 academic research papers. Along with this, Bill’s work has led to many areas of impact, including three highly successful spin-out companies (Zonefox, Symphonic Software and Cyan Forensics), along with awards for excellence in knowledge transfer and for teaching. Bill recently received an ”Outstanding Contribution to Knowledge Exchange” award and was included in the FutureScot “Top 50 Scottish Tech People Who Are Changing The World”.

Tom is the Chief Data Officer at the Scottish Government, with extensive hands-on experience working across Data Science, Data Analysis, Data Architecture, Software Development and Data Engineering. With his wealth of experience working in various UK government departments, he has spent several years developing and improving organisations’ use of data to inform policy and operational decisions.

Isaac Smith is Deputy Director for Cloud and Digital Services within the Digital Directorate of the Scottish Government.  Previously he was Deputy Director of Product, Delivery and Capability (interim) at the Department of Health and Social Care where he provided leadership to the DDaT profession. Prior to this he was Head of Technology at NHSX working to create sustainable digital transformation in health and care. Since 2014 he has specialised in Digital with a focus on technology and user centred design within the Department of Health and Social Care, the Home Office, and the Department of Work and Pensions. He holds degrees in Law and History from The University of Dundee.

Shannon Vallor is the Baillie Gifford Professor in the Ethics of Data and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh, where she directs the Centre for Technomoral Futures in the Edinburgh Futures Institute. A Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, Professor Vallor’s research maps the ethical challenges and opportunities posed by new uses of data and artificial intelligence. Her work includes advising academia, government and industry on the ethical design and use of AI, and she co-leads the UKRI’s Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) programme. She is the author of Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting (Oxford University Press, 2016) and editor of the Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Technology (2022). She is the recipient of multiple awards for teaching, scholarship and public engagement, including the 2022 Covey Award and the 2015 World Technology Award in Ethics.

Before moving to Scottish Government, Joy held a number of posts across UK government. She is an experienced transformation lead. Driven by her passion for delivering excellent public services, Joy has been involved in designing some extraordinary services, recognised by their many awards. As Head of Digital Transformation, Joy’s goals include ensuring all services are designed in collaboration with the people who use them and that people are always encouraged to challenge the status quo.

Clinical Director, North East of Scotland Breast Screening Programme

Consultant Radiologist, NHS Grampian

Vice Chair, RCR British Society of Breast Radiology

National Innovation Fellow, Chief Scientists Office

Dr Gerald Lip is the Clinical Director for breast screening in the North East of Scotland and the Principal Investigator of the GEMINI prospective evaluation of mammography artificial intelligence supported by the NHS National Strategy for AI in Health and Social Care.  He has recently completed a 4-year retrospective research project in the same topic with the Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Diagnostics in Scotland.

Dr Lip has recently been awarded a two-year Innovation Fellowship by the Chief Scientists Office of Scotland to lead innovation adoption in the NHS. Dr Lip is the vice chair of the British Society of Breast Radiology and sits on the UK Royal College of Radiology Informatics committee, on the Advisory Board of the Centre for Doctoral Training for Biomedical AI in Edinburgh University and is a scientific advisor to the National Covid Chest Imaging Database.

Dr Lip is active in research, education and training publishing on work with radiology trainees in AI, opinions on the member of the public and professional colleagues on AI and also sits on the British Institute of Radiology AI special interest group leading on education.

A graduate of Trinity College Medicine, along with his medical degree he also qualified with an Msc. in Health Informatics and completed his radiology training in Aberdeen. He is an honorary senior clinical lecturer in the University of Aberdeen. Dr Lip has published and spoken on topics nationally and internationally such as patient engagement, innovation in breast imaging techniques, quality assurance and safety and monitoring in AI.

Colin Birchenall is the Chief Technology Officer of the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government. In 2016 the Local Government Digital Partnership appointed him and Martyn Wallace to establish the Digital Office.
He has a particular interest in the role that digital technology can play to deliver better outcomes such as quality of life, the economy and the environment. He has first-hand experience of demonstrating how technology such as the Internet of Things (IoT), data, cloud computing, and mobility can enable public services to be transformed by enabling greater transparency, better decision-making, place-based approaches, partnership working, and prevention/early-intervention.
Colin brings eight years of experience of local government technology transformation having worked with Glasgow City Council, where he recently acted as the lead architect for the £24M Innovate UK Glasgow Future Cities Demonstrator. Prior to this he spent ten years in the telecommunications sector based at Adastral Park in Suffolk.

Kimberley is the Head of Business Intelligence at Glasgow City Council, looking at how data can be used to support both council and city transformation.   She leads a broad range of innovative data analytics projects that inform policy, transform services, and ultimately aim to deliver better outcomes for the people of Glasgow. She is a champion of open data and an advocate for better data sharing across the public sector.  She is a member of the Digital Glasgow Board that is responsible for overseeing the development of the Digital Glasgow Strategy, and is also actively involved in developing data analytics capabilities across Scottish Local Government in collaboration with the Scottish Local Government Digital Office.  

Colleen is the Business Change Manager at Aberdeenshire Council where she leads several teams delivering programmes of Digital and Strategic change across the organisation which will improve service delivery and build resilience. Colleen developed and is leading on the delivery of the Council’s Digital Strategy and is passionate about embedding User Centred Design to inform and improve user experience, leading the growth of this discipline across services. 

Colleen holds an MSc in Criminal Justice and is a Qualified BCS Business Analyst and PRINCE 2 Practitioner. Alongside certifications in Service Design and Leadership, she has held various Voluntary Board positions and is a 2022 graduate of the SOLACE Springboard Leadership programme. Colleen lives in a small village in Aberdeenshire with her young family and enjoys visiting the local beaches and forests, as well as spending time in her home city of Edinburgh.

Steph is a data science enthusiast with specific experience of the healthcare domain. She has been extensively involved in developing and building collaborations across organisations as well as experience in project and programme management. Steph has a diverse background ranging from astrophysics to genomics in academia and film & TV to dance in the arts and the third sector. Steph led on Data Lab’s efforts in support of the Scottish Government in developing Scotland’s AI Strategy and is currently leading on its delivery through the Scottish AI Alliance, a partnership between The Data Lab and the Scottish Government. She is also the regional lead for Scotland for Women in AI UK.

Hugh Wallace is Chief Information Officer at Research Data Scotland (RDS), an organisation that helps researchers find and make use of data that can improve the lives of people in Scotland.

Prior to RDS, Hugh led a high-profile programme to deliver a common payments platform in Scottish Government and support digital service development within Scotland’s Social Security agency. His previous roles include leading the digital teams at Oxfam and National Museums Scotland, as well as heading up the design function in a digital agency.

Steven Flockhart is a professional Technology & Change Executive who leads the Digital & Security team. Steven has spent time working with well-established companies such as Royal Bank of Scotland, Sainsburys Bank, Lloyds Banking Group & Tesco.

After spending more than 20 years in Information Technology Services, Steven has delivered large scale Transformation and Technology change programmes with a strong focus across Public and Private Cloud Services, Data Architecture, Data Science and Advanced Analytics.

Steven holds professional qualifications in Programme Management, Enterprise Architecture and Cloud Solutions.

Digital and Security Responsibility:

Maintain and incrementally improve the Digital and Security suite of services across the entire customer and user base. Focusing on provision of scalable, secure digital solutions that support NHS Scotland to achieve it’s digital outcomes.

Key priorities:

• Digital Strategy & Innovation
• Secure Digital Services
• National Shared Services Provision
• Digital Transformation
• National Cyber Operations Centre
• Clinical Informatics

Lisa has worked in the Civil Service for over 20 years and brings a wealth of experience and proven track record in leading and managing large scale multi-disciplinary transformational change programmes in Government.

Having joined Scottish Government in 2016 as Programme Director within the Social Security Directorate, she is currently responsible for the successful delivery of one of the largest, most complex Programmes in the history of the Scottish Government: a high-profile, highly political Programme to establish Social Security Scotland, a brand new public service.

Through setting the strategic direction for designing, building and delivering a new Social Security Agency and Infrastructure, Lisa has championed a new approach to Service Design and Digital Delivery, placing customers at the heart, ensuring services are user-centric and easily accessible.

Despite being the first time any country has attempted to devolve powers from such an integrated and complex system of social security, Social Security Scotland is now recognised as a modern, award-winning digital service delivering a world class customer experience – an achievement Lisa ranks as one of the biggest and proudest of her career.

Thomas Rysgaard Christiansen is the former CEO of KOMBIT, Inc. He spent the last 13 years overseeing the procurement and development of efficient, coherent, and user-friendly IT-solutions for both the state and local government in Denmark. Drawing on his technical and business background, Thomas led the company through the immense task of replacing and modernizing a monopolized critical case management and self-service systems portfolio as well as ensure new critical infrastructure for the local Danish government.

Thomas is a strong advocate of digitalization and coherent digital development of the public sector. He applies his extensive experience from the private sector to his approach to digital transformation in the public sector. Thomas is a frequent member on expert boards and facilitates several networks on the subject of digital development and transformation. Thomas joined Netcompany in 2023 as International Market Development Partner. Thomas will be the overall Group responsible for our digital government vertical and will lead our large new project EU-Wallet.

Dr Kevin Macnish is Digital Ethics Consulting Manager with Sopra Steria. Kevin formerly worked at GCHQ and was assistant professor at the universities of Leeds and Twente. Kevin has published 50 academic articles, chapters and books on ethics and technology, including Big Data and Democracy (Edinburgh University Press, 2020).

Kira Levy is the Head of Healthcare for the UK, where she is accountable for driving the AWS’s UK strategy to accelerate cloud adoption and enable healthcare customers to deliver their digital transformation goals. Kira has over twenty years of healthcare strategy and product development experience, supporting both the National Health Service as well as international health markets. She is passionate about helping customers unlock insights in their data to improve decision making and previously worked for a global health service provider, developing population health management and clinical decision support tools for the NHS. Kira holds an MSc in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  

Mikko Uusitalo is the Global Director of Mission Critical & Private Networks at Cellnex Telecom. He is responsible for driving and leading strategic initiatives, building partnerships, and leading the company’s sales efforts for the mission critical network business. With over 25 years as a global ICT business executive with HP, Alcatel-Lucent and Canon globally, he holds a leadership position on Private Wireless Network Business unite at Cellnex Telecom. At the moment, he has took part in 30+ live implementations of Private Network solutions in the Nordics in addition to Vice President and Business Development for Global brands. and Worldwide and Go-to-market sales strategy expertise.

Kjersti has over two decades of experience of leading digital transformation within the Public Sector. She’s an expert in Lean Six Sigma for service and office environments.

Kjersti has worked with many organisations across the Scottish Public Sector and has delivered and supported a wide range of initiatives from complex transformations to using intelligent automation to deliver streamlined operating models and drive more efficient services.

Dan is a leader in Zuhlke’s Data and AI practice and has extensive experience working across a diverse range of sectors including government, transport, telecoms and manufacturing. As a skilled engineer and strategic advisor, Dan effectively connects the needs of leadership with the technical expertise of teams to successfully drive data transformation initiatives for organisations. He brings a unique combination of strategic thinking and deep knowledge of data and engineering to his consulting work.

Highly respected and trusted leader, Alisdair is recognised by his peers as one of Scotland’s prominent professional advisers in Scotland’s digital and technology sector. As the Director leading the development and growth of the Glasgow City Innovation District (Scotland’s first Innovation District), Alisdair is a board adviser to several of Scotland’s leading, prominent Digital Product SMEs. Alisdair also founded Framewire, Scotland’s first advisory practice focused on developing Scotland’s Digital and Tech Ecosystem as well as mentoring the founders of Scotland’s leading digital technology businesses. Alisdair is also recognised for his passion and dedication to developing the growth of Scotland’s Tech Ecosystem and Tech Clusters and is currently focused on scaling Glasgow’s Digital and Tech sector as part of the Glasgow City Innovation District. 

Alisdair is the co-founder of the internationally acclaimed Turing Festival (now Turing Fest) and at the inaugural Scottish Tech Startup Awards was awarded the first Tech Ecosystem award where his peers recognised his expertise and commitment to developing Scotland’s tech ecosystem. Alisdair was a finalist in the Barclays Entrepreneur Awards and has been inducted into the BIMA 100 as one of the UK’s leading digital tech leaders. Alongside being a board member of BIMA in Scotland, Alisdair is a board member of digital tech companies Amiqus, Cut Media and VeryConnect. Alisdair is also a member of the ScotlandIS policy steering group, which provides strategic advice to the UK and Scottish Governments on developing Scotland’s tech sector and is a member of Johnston Carmichael’s Tech Advisory Board. 

Yasmin Sulaiman is VP of Partnerships at CodeBase, an organisation dedicated to helping people build better startups. Yasmin started her career in journalism, working at the BBC and the Guardian before a stint as Editor-in-Chief at Scottish arts publication The List. Yasmin then joined Creative Edinburgh as Executive Director, where she worked with and advocated for the capital’s creative community. Since joining CodeBase, Yasmin has worked with hundreds of founders to help bridge the gap between the creative and tech sectors. Yasmin is also Trustee at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Philip is responsible for UiPath’s market engagement with the Public Sector across the UK and Ireland.

He brings more than 20 years’ experience of driving engagement between technology and Public Sector organisations.

A core priority at UiPath is helping address some of the systemic challenges facing the UK, driving enhanced citizen outcomes and bridging the digital skills gap which exists across Agencies, Departments and wider Public Sector bodies.

Paul has been working in the senior digital leadership team at Registers of Scotland for 4 years. A technology enthusiast who believes in delivering success through service aligned, autonomous, high performing teams. 

Registers of Scotland have been through several “digital transformation” iterations over the last ten years. Their journey has seen the delivery of several transformational services which benefit Scottish Citizens and underpin the Scottish Property Market, such as SCOTLIS and Digital Submissions Service.  

With many lessons learned on the way, and many more inevitably to come, Paul and the Registers of Scotland team would like to share their digital transformation journey with you. 

Mark, the Chief Solution Architect at Leidos, boasts 28 years of expertise in bridging real-world problems with digital solutions. His unwavering passion lies in Scotland, where he envisions data as the catalyst for perpetual enhancement across various sectors, encompassing education, welfare, agriculture, healthcare, law enforcement, and cultural affairs. Mark also serves as a prominent member of the Digital Twin steering group at TechUK and is actively advocating for government adoption of a ‘Digital Twin First’ strategy across all public services.

Nia is an experienced leader of digital transformation who has helped the Scottish public sector deliver services that are more efficient to run and meet the raised expectations of today’s customers. She now helps organisations transition to working in the cloud.
Before that Nia spent 19 years working in both the Welsh and English public sector delivering policy improvements, community development, digital connectivity and business transformation.

Kim McAllister is a freelance journalist and communications consultant at Connect. She presents Clever About Cash on BBC Radio Scotland and contributes to a number of BBC shows including Radio 4’s Inside Science. She regularly writes for the Herald and other business titles. Since the pandemic hit, Kim has been involved with a wide range of events online, from chairing the three day annual international conference of the British Occupational Hygiene Society to hosting business recovery webinars for the Herald. Her space podcast series “Scotland’s Secret Space Race”, which she made with the University of Edinburgh, is the no 6 physics podcast in the UK and she is currently working on a special edition.

Sarah is the Programme Director for Digital Infrastructure at Scottish Futures Trust, a centre of infrastructure expertise. She leads a team of industry and commercial specialist that support the Scottish Government in the development and delivery of their digital infrastructure strategies that covers international connectivity, data centres, fibre broadband and advance wireless infrastructure. Taking an active leadership role across major infrastructure programmes, Sarah brings a unique mix of skills, experience, and knowledge to bear to deliver improved outcomes from Scotland’s public sector infrastructure. 

Sarah sits on the Scotland 4G Investment Programme Board and Scotland 5G Centre Governing Board with a drive to ensure that 4G and 5G are tied into the broader tech scene in Scotland and that best practice is shared across the UK. With a commercial background in fibre and mobile deployment, she promotes an inclusive and holistic approach across the regional boards and working groups that she sits on and encourages collaboration across all her work.  

Andrew Husak is the VP of Product Architecture at Emergn. He joined in 2011 and for several years acted as the Solution Lead across key consulting engagements, creating compelling and valuable solutions to the most pressing, and often wicked, problems Emergn customers have faced. He held the vision for how changes in mindset (how we think), measures (how we understand success) and mechanics (what we do) combine to transform customers’ bottom line and their ability to improve performance. In his role now, Andrew helps ensure that Emergn’s Value, Flow, Quality philosophy (VFQ) continues to be pragmatically and consistently applied across engagements. He contributes thought leadership and guidance to VFQ practitioners within and outside of the company. He is the creator of the Product Estate concept, the Increment Definition technique and the brain power behind Systemic Flow Analysis and Emergn’s VFQ Analytics platform.

Andrew brings more than 30 years of experience in product development, PLM, and technology, having previously held senior positions at Ivar Jacobson Consulting, PTC, and Inso. His expertise blends sociology, pedagogy, economics, math, design and engineering to challenge the way people think about work.  He enjoys changing things with clients so that work becomes more purposeful, effective, rewarding … and fun!