Dave’s experiences include; Lead technical specialist and architect roles on large services engagements in the Telco, Transportation and Utilities sectors; Directing multi- disciplinary research teams from leading academic and industry partners as part of a $100M US/UK research programme; Delivery of numerous first-of-a-kind experimental projects fusing research capabilities with current technologies for a variety of clients.
Most recently specialised in knowledge representation, semantics, language and cognitive systems and actively researching in these fields as well as delivering experimental capabilities.
An executive leader with a strong track record and reputation for leading successful customer focused, innovative and profitable initiatives and enterprises in financial services.
Stephen’s career has included executive roles with large institutions such as Standard Life and Barclays as well as small innovative enterprises.
Stephen is a frequent author of articles and regular contributor at global conferences on subjects ranging from customer strategy and execution, fintech innovation as well as business change leadership.
Alun is the UK Academic Technical Area Lead for the US/UK Distributed Analytics and Information Sciences International Technology Alliance (DAIS ITA, 2016-2026) funded by the US & UK Governments and led by IBM, in which he also leads the project Anticipatory Situational Understanding involving a team from Airbus, BAE Systems, IBM, UCL, and UCLA.
Previously, Alun served in the same role for the Network and Information Sciences International Technology Alliance (NIS ITA, 2006-2016).
Ben Preston-Marriot, Head of Product at W2, is an experienced product leader, having gained valuable knowledge at some of the leading digital financial brands in the UK. He specializes in driving vision and roadmap for businesses, particularly collaboration between customer and company. Ben passionately fosters an open environment that strongly encourages fresh ideas, challenge, experimentation, and organisational learning.
Jon Wood is the Manager for Wales at Innovate UK, the UK’s Innovation agency ( a council of UK Research and Innovation).
Jon works closely with both Governments in Wales, the universities and business support networks, to ensure businesses across Wales can understand and access funding from Innovate UK and the UK’s Industrial Strategy. Jon is particularly interested in how innovation clusters can drive economic growth, smart specialisation and helping small business with ambition and potential, to grow and scale in the UK. Jon has provided a strategic role in providing and coordinating expert input into the 4 city / growth deals across Wales on behalf of Welsh and UK Governments.
As General Secretary Gavin is working with the Fintech Envoy for Wales to create the ecosystem and environment that will support fintech innovation and growth in Wales. Prior, Gavin worked at Airbus managing a portfolio of contracts for technology, change, improvement and innovation projects, responsible for full project lifecycle from acquisition to execution delivery and closure.