Geography: Sub-Saharan Africa

  • Claire Spiller

    I am an advocate for creating fair access to tech careers and supporting people to reach their potential. Over the last twenty years, I have designed and managed re-skilling programmes, including those for marginalised groups of society. I support females, refugees, ex-offenders, people with disabilities and other people across our communities.

    Now I bridge the gap between education and paid employment, by providing work placements at a Tech For Good, non-profit, The Cloud Crew CIC. By populating CV’s with AI and digital transformation projects, more under-represented people stand out in recruitment processes.

    Through my work on the Digital Skills Council (DiSC) I have seen first-hand how policies could be better aligned and how initiatives could benefit from having more consistent quality-control measures across counties.

    Through my work at AWS, rolling out an EMEA-wide tech re-skilling programme, I am passionate about sharing ideas and concepts across boarders. Ideas shaped in a different country, based on the context of their economic climate, industry needs and socio-economic requirements, can often be translated into other countries and cultures, bringing a fresh perspective to shared challenges.

    I am an experienced speaker on topics such as diversity in tech, purposeful leadership and skills-based hiring and have contributed to articles, studies and interviews on the subjects.

  • Sahar Danesh

    Sahar Danesh is the Senior Government Engagement Manager at BSI, the UK’s National Standards Body. As a key member of BSI’s Standards Policy team, she leads engagement with government on digital and technology policy, identifying opportunities where standardization can deliver tangible benefits for UK businesses and society.

    Sahar plays a central role in defining the governance frameworks of the future, ensuring that technology—especially AI —is developed, implemented, and adopted in ways that is safe, transparent, and inclusive. Her work focuses on embedding transparency and public trust at the heart of technological progress, so that innovation benefits everyone and no community is left behind.

    A Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the IET, Sahar’s career spans private consultancy, central government policy, and leadership roles in professional institutions such as The Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Her fellowship reflects her outstanding contributions to engineering, tech policy, and governance.

  • Ella Shoup

    Ella is AI Policy Strategist for the Responsible AI team in GSK’s AIML department. She focuses on policy that can preserve AI’s scientific benefit while adequately managing its risks. Her work at GSK includes managing internal AI governance and analysing external AI policy that touch on science. She has a background in digital rights, during which time she worked to make content moderation appropriate for local contexts.

  • Eliz Peck

  • Emma Dunn

    Emma Dunn is the co-founder of Friday Initiatives, a data company building practical tools and strategies that help organisations understand, govern and get value from their data. Friday works across the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia, supporting clients from government bodies to high-growth startups. Emma’s work focuses on shaping Friday’s direction, translating complex data and regulatory issues into clear narratives, and guiding how the company engages with partners and stakeholders as it scales.

  • Gisella Lomax

    Gisella Lomax is the Senior Advisor on Information Integrity at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, leading a ‘Digital Protection’ capacity to address the harmful impact of information risks such as misinformation, disinformation and hate speech on refugees and people forced to flee, and on humanitarian action.

    Following a career in journalism with global media organisations, Gisella joined the UN in 2011: a year of global disruption to the information ecosystem driven by digital platforms. She has worked in partnerships, external engagement, digital and strategic communications roles across various parts of UN, including on climate action, human rights, peace-building, disarmament, and trade and development.

  • Amy Jordan

    Amy is Director of Strategy and Delivery in the Infrastructure and Connectivity Group at Ofcom. She previously set up Ofcom’s first tech policy team and spent a number of years leading the development of Ofcom’s approach to Online Safety policy and supervision. Prior to Ofcom she spent over a decade in the UK Goverment leading a range of national security, cyber and technology issues , and two years at the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Cybersecurity.

  • Leonie Maria Tanczer

    Leonie Maria Tanczer is an Associate Professor in International Security and Emerging Technologies at University College London’s (UCL) Department of Computer Science and a grant holder of the prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF). She is part of UCL’s Information Security Research Group and initiated and heads the “Gender and Tech Research Lab”.

    Tanczer is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Open Rights Group (ORG), a Steering Committee member for the Offensive Cyber Working Group, and a voting member of the IEEE Working Group P2987 “Recommended Practice for Principles for Design and Operation Addressing Technology-Facilitated Inter-personal Control”.

    She was formerly an Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) Media Fellow at The Economist and a Fellow at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) in Berlin. Her research focuses on questions related to Internet security, and she is specifically interested in the intersection points of technology, cybersecurity and gender.

  • Dina Rickman

    Senior director at GoFundMe, the world’s largest fundraising platform.
    Also launched two national news sites.

  • Oyetola Florence Idowu

    A dynamic digital transformation Tech leader, Global AI Delegate for the United Kingdom with Gafai and an advocate for responsible AI, ethics and sustainability in Tech with over 13 years of experience driving digital transformation across healthcare, government, public, private, and consulting sectors.


    I currently work with the NHS, where I lead cross-functional teams to deliver innovative digital products and process re-engineering initiatives using Agile (Scrum), Waterfall, and Lean methodologies. My expertise spans Digital Product Delivery, Business Intelligence, Data Analytics, Process Improvement, and Responsible AI. An award-winning researcher and co-author in AI Automation Framework, sustainability, Embedding ethics into AI collaboration, and healthcare technology.


    I am a mentor and an Early Career Advocate with the British Computer Society (BCS), showcasing my passion for empowering the next generation of tech professionals. I also mentor young professionals with the Association for black and minority Engineers (AFBE)UK, and MSc Big Data Analytics students at the University of Derby during the MSc enrichment week, guiding and empowering the next generation of tech professionals.


    I am an active member of the Institute of Engineering and Technology (MIET), a Professional member of the British Computer Society (BCS), a Corporate member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (MNSE), Registered Engineer with council of Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) and the Internet Society UK, cementing my reputation as a respected leader in the global tech ecosystem.