Alex Kontofrios

Head of Data GovernanceClose Brothers

Alex is Head of Data Governance for the Close Brothers group, where the challenge has been to unite federated businesses around a data governance framework and common set of standards in order to improve data quality and accountability. Alex comes from a technical background, with project delivery experience spanning 25 years across banking, insurance and private equity, and is a keen contributor to the Banks enterprise data architecture.

Gillian Tomlinson

Global Group Chief Data & Digital OfficerWeir Group

A highly accomplished executive leader with over 20 years of experience in leading data and digital strategy & transformation. Proven track record of success in developing and executing strategies that have resulted in significant business growth and innovation. Extensive experience working for large organisations in a variety of industries, including financial services, insurance, retail, telecommunications, mining, and engineering. Accolades include Global Womans Data Power List 2023, Top Data Activators award = Hottopics 2022, Chief Data Officer of the Year 2017 IQPC , Global Business of Data Advisory board member- CoriniumGlobal 2021, DataIQ advisory board member 2020 /2021, Data Top 100 innovators 2019, 2020 and 2021 DataIQ, Ranked No. 2 on the DataIQ Top 100 most influential people in data-driven business 2018, Profiled as one of the Top 20 women in Data by The Female Lead in 2018.

Lynn Watts

Head of Data Management & GovernanceRoyal London Asset Management

Lynn is an experienced all round data professional who has been hands on in a variety of data related roles for over 27 years including Data Architecture, Data Warehousing, Data Modelling and Data Engineering. In the last 10 years she has specialised in Data Governance and has been helping organisations to define an implement their Data Governance frameworks and Data Strategies. Lynn loves the challenge of helping organisations to adopt data best practice and mature to become data led. She is an advocate for agile data governance and adopting a lineage first approach to understanding your data estate.

Neil McIvor

Chief Data OfficerDepartment for Education

Neil started his career in the Civil Service in 2001, becoming a professionally accredited statistician in 2003 following achieving a first class honours degree in Mathematics at the Open University. Neil moved to his current role as the Department for Education’s Chief Data Officer in 2017, where he has responsibility for the Department’s enterprise wide data and information strategy, governance, and automated end to end data pipelines, conceptualising and delivering the automated flow of tens of millions of school attendance records daily into the Department’s data lakehouse, which his team built in house. Neil also leads the Department’s data protection and knowledge and information management teams, including content stewardship and data ethics for AI, as was a witness on data ethics for the All Party Parliamentary Group for ethics in AI. Neil was voted the 7th most influential data leader in the UK DATAIQ 2020 awards, and one of the UK’s top 10 data leaders in ‘only jobs’ 2022 poll.

Sandip Wadje

Managing DirectorGlobal Head of Emerging Technology Operational Risks and Intelligence

Sandip Wadje is Managing Director, Global Head of Emerging Tech Risks at BNP Paribas focused on Digital Soltuons (Cloud, AI, and API, Digital Assets, and Threat Intelligence.

Sunny Jaisinghani

Head of Dataesynergy

Sunny Jaisinghani, an accomplished thought leader with 18 years of experience in data platforms, is currently Head of Data at esynergy. His career spans leadership and delivery roles at institutions like Northern Trust and HSBC, where he led transformative initiatives in digital and data domains. As Strategy, Program, and Delivery Lead for esynergy at Northern Trust, he orchestrated complex projects across the Global Data Mesh platform and Asset Servicing App Store. Sunny's tenure as Platform Owner at HSBC focused on the Data as a Service (DaaS) offering, establishing an industrialized Data Mesh platform supporting a multitude of use-cases globally. His career also highlights his role as a DevOps and agile transformation lead, cultivating a culture of experimentation and value delivery across 50+ delivery streams. With expertise in diverse industries, including finance, healthcare, and education, Sunny is a dynamic speaker, bringing practical experience and strategic insights to discussions on data platforms and digital transformation.