Confirmed speakers
KEITH AITKEN (CHAIR)Journalist and Broadcaster | Keith Aitken is an award-winning writer and broadcaster, and one of Scotland’s most experienced conference facilitators. His busy freelance business encompasses newspaper and magazine journalism, radio presenting, speech-writing, pod-casting, drafting corporate publications, and chairing all manner of public debates. Since turning freelance in 1995, he has been a columnist for the Scotsman, the Herald and Scotland on Sunday. He currently writes a weekly column in the Scottish Daily Express, for which he also compiles a hugely popular weekly prize crossword. An accomplished author, he has contributed chapters on Scottish affairs to various books, and written a critically-acclaimed history of the STUC, The Bairns o’ Adam. Prior to 1995, he spent 16 years at the Scotsman in a succession of senior editorial posts, including parliamentary correspondent, labour correspondent, industrial editor, economics editor, chief leader writer, and opinion editor. He is a graduate of Edinburgh University and a Trustee of the Scottish Mining Museum. |
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ROGER BEARPARKAssistant Head of ICTHIllingdon Council | Roger Bearpark is the Assistant Head of ICT responsible for ICT Shared Services within Hillingdon Council. He has a particular focus on developing and implementing Cloud Computing and Greener ICT strategies – both key components of the transformational change that is taking place, including the Business Improvement Delivery programme which ensures that we are “Putting our residents first”. Roger has more than thirty years experience in the ICT industry encompassing an eclectic mix of roles and responsibilities in both Public and Private sector covering hardware, software, service delivery and much more besides. All have been underpinned by a desire to challenge the accepted norm, look for alternative solutions, add value and increase effectiveness of ICT whilst remembering that nothing is worth doing for the sake of the technology alone. |
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RAYMOND O'HAREDirectorOCSolutions and Chairman, Institute of Directors Scotland | Raymond O’Hare is the founder and Director of OCSolutions, a business and management consultancy which started trading in January 2010. Previous to this he was director of Microsoft in Scotland for five and a half years until the end of 2009. In a career which started at Royal Bank of Scotland in 1976, O’Hare has also worked in Government, in the Inland Revenue, and in a number of UK, European and US based companies in both Ireland and the UK. He holds a number of high profile board positions in Scotland including, Chairman of the Institute of Directors, Board member of the SQA and of Young Scot, member of the Strategic Advisory Board of Glasgow University business school, the government’s National Economic Forum and Skills Utilisation Leadership Group. For many years he also served on the board of Scotland IS, the trade body for the technology industry in Scotland. |
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ANDY TAITFormer Deputy Director for the G-CloudUK Cabinet Office (now Head of Public Services Strategy, VMWare) | Andy Tait was Deputy Director for the G-Cloud, Data Centre Consolidation and Application Store Programme with the UK Cabinet Office which planned the strategy to radically transform the public sector ICT landscape with the introduction of utility style standardised ICT services based upon a shared common cloud infrastructure. This ambitious government led programme aims to significantly reduce the high levels of duplication across public sector ICT, drive a vibrant marketplace for IT services and deliver savings in excess of £3bn per annum by 2020. In Andy’s new role he will continue to actively support the development of the G-Cloud through the breath and unique capabilities that VMware products and services bring to every type of cloud deployment. Previously Andy was Director of Technical Services Delivery for IPS, Director of Operations for Exodus and Head of Internet Services for BBC Technology where, amongst other innovations, his team developed the prototype for the now hugely successful iPlayer. Andy left the Cabinet Office in April 2011 to take up the role of Head of Public Sector Strategy in VMware. |
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JOHN GRIEVECorporate ICT ManagerThe Highland Council | John is Corporate ICT Manager at The Highland Council where he has responsibility for ICT Strategy, Infrastructure, Projects and Service Delivery for 42,000 users dispersed in 500+ sites across the Scottish Highlands - a challenging geographic area of 26,484 square kilometres. The Highland Council’s ICT service delivery is largely outsourced and John led the Pathfinder North procurement as well as the Council’s own more recent contract for managed ICT services awarded to Fujitsu in 2010. The Fujitsu contract includes hosting the councils new virtualised server and storage facilities in two UK Tier 3 data centers and the replacement of many desktop PC’s with thin client devices. John has a keen interest in performance and cost measurement and implementation of a ‘utility charging’ approach to billing users for their consumption of ICT services. This he believes is of particular interest when considering opportunities for shared services and adoption of cloud computing. John has over 25 years’ experience in ICT. He is a graduate of Abertay University, a Fellow of SOCITM, Member of BCS and a Chartered IT Professional |
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RORY GRAYEMEA Director - Local Government & EducationEMC | Rory Gray has worked in the ICT industry since 1979. Starting as a VM Systems Engineer his career has included a number of senior technical and sales and marketing roles and he has worked as Country Manager with solution companies across European, Middle East and African markets (EMEA). He has worked with some of the most important and innovative ICT businesses and partners specialising in hardware and software infrastructure and complex local and central government solutions for revenue, benefits and social services. As EMC’s Public Sector Director for Local Government in EMEA, Rory is principally concerned with ensuring EMC develops its Policy and Strategy for its Public Sector customers and offers solutions which meet the demanding and complex needs of Governments. |
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JOHN GURNETTHead of Public Sector & Healthcare ConsultingEMC Consulting | John heads EMC Consulting's activity within Public Sector organisations. Expert in process reengineering, change management and enabling technology implementation, John has over twenty years’ experience in public and private sector organisations. John has spent much of the last fifteen years involved with the management and delivery of organisation transformation which has been underpinned by a business process oriented approach to change. John was formerly a partner at Deloitte in the UK, where he had responsibility for developing their Healthcare and Innovative Technology offerings along with a focus on all forms of business process redesign and large scale change. He has worked internationally and at main Board and Ministerial level for clients as diverse as the UK’s Department of Health, Microsoft, GE, Roche, IBM, Honeywell, and the Global law-firms Linklaters and Freshfields. |
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LYNN COLLIERSenior Director of CloudFile and Content, Hitachi Data Systems Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) | Lynn Collier is the Senior Director of Cloud, File & Content for Hitachi Data Systems Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), and is responsible for the Go-To-Market strategy for the Cloud, File & Content solutions. Working closely with the European executive team and the regional country managers, she is tasked to develop rollout programs to drive business revenues for these core initiatives. She additionally has a UK-based team mandated to drive this business in the UK and Ireland region. Prior to taking on this responsibility Collier was heavily involved in the Enterprise Platform and Software business at Hitachi Data Systems. With a special interest in Information Governance and long term content preservation, she has worked closely in the last 5 years with EMEA Legal Counsel within Hitachi Data Systems and a number of external legal specialists and solutions providers to further investigate requirements around Information Governance and regulatory support – both current and likely future trends. Prior to joining Hitachi Data Systems in July 2004, Lynn worked for Storage Technology as their Alliance Manager. Lynn has over 25 years sales, marketing and management experience; with more than 15 years in the storage space. Aside from Storage Technology, where she worked in the UK and Australian subsidiaries, she has previously worked with Compuware, Pansophic and Micro Focus. Lynn is based in the UK and has an office at the European headquarters for Hitachi Data Systems in Buckinghamshire, UK. |
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DES WARDPresidentCloud Security Alliance: UK & Ireland | Des Ward is President of the Cloud Security Alliance: UK & Ireland and has been working in the Information Risk Management industry for over 17 years. He has both technical and non technical skill sets, with previous experience encompasses compliance programmes for HMG and FTSE 100 companies relating to the majority of legislation and regulation; including the IA Maturity Model, Security Policy Framework, Hannigan Review, Data Protection Act 1998, FSA guidelines, Payment Card Data Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) and the ISO 27000 series of standards and guidelines. His engagement with as the Head of Framework Development within the Common Assurance Maturity Model programme has allowed the creation of the UK & Ireland chapter of the Cloud Security Alliance where he trusts his passion for communicating the benefits of effective Information Risk Management will show in the output from the chapter and subsequent engagement with all stakeholders in the cloud environment in the coming two years term. Des has a distinction pass in the MSc in IT security from the University of Westminster, where he has also been a visiting lecturer. As well as being a member of the CESG Listed Adviser Scheme (CLAS) he has also lectured at the University of Bath, has presented on Internet Security Threats to the Whitehats Information Security interest group and on Changing the business perception of Security to the 2007 Gartner Security Summit, the BCS, the Whitehats group and the Information Security Forum. |
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PIERS COVILLESenior Solutions Architect - SCH UK Professional ServicesSCC | Piers Covill is a desktop and computing strategy specialist for SCC who has over 20 years’ experience helping clients to develop their desktop IT strategy. Piers has been leading the Windows 7 programme for SCC helping to position SCC as the partner of choice for many companies when considering their desktop upgrade. Piers is a leading advocate of cloud computing as a cost effective, energy efficient and user friendly option for companies, and has been running a series of customer events entitled "Windows 7 and the consumerisation of IT: how organisations can take advantage of both these trends" which has been addressing how companies can protect their existing investments in IT whilst taking advantage of new technologies and trends. |
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ALASTAIR RENNIEHead of ISScottish Environment Protection Agency | Alastair Rennie is Head of Information Services at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). Before joining SEPA in 2001 he was Head of Information Services at the Co-operative Funeral Group and Head of Strategic Development for the international engineering group Howden, managing IT and engineering development services worldwide. Alastair has more than 30 years experience in information systems management and improvement and is very experienced in aligning information strategy with core business activities. He has a particular interest in delivering value for money amid a changing business and legislative background. Alastair has been actively involved in the development of benchmarking and the introduction of national metrics across the public sector, liaising with both National Audit Office and Scottish Government. This has generated significant interest in developing shared services, including the creation of national data centres and government cloud computing. Through membership of the SocITM committee in Scotland, Alastair provides a key link on information systems strategy development between non-departmental public bodies and local authorities. |
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NEIL THOMASProduct ManagerCloud Computing, Cable and Wireless Worldwide | Neil Thomas is Product Manager for Cloud Computing at Cable&Wireless Worldwide. Neil has led the development of the Flexible Computing cloud service and its launch to customers in the UK. Having worked closely with the early adopter customers of this service, Neil has gained valuable insight on the advantages that Cloud Services can bring, but also the pitfalls to avoid and the approaches that succeed. Neil will talk about these and the key aspects that need to be considered for Government cloud services, including the use of PSN as an access route and the potential that it can bring. |
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MARTIN LOWGroup Business Systems ManagerSouth Lanarkshire Council | Martin is Group Business Systems Manager within IT Services, South Lanarkshire Council where he has responsibility for IT Programme delivery. IT Services is the single provider of IT Solutions and Infrastructure to the organisation enabling business change and enablement. He has held senior IT account management roles in Social Work, Finance and Corporate Resources. Prior to joining South Lanarkshire Council in 2000 he was an IT Project Manager at Aberdeen City Council. Martin has over 20 years experience in business systems management and the delivery of customer facing ICT Projects. A member of SOCITM, Martin has an MSc in Public Sector Management and is a qualified Prince2 Practitioner. |
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TOM MCEWANSenior LecturerInstitute for Informatics and Digital Innovation, Edinburgh Napier University | Tom McEwan is a Senior Lecturer in the Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation at Edinburgh Napier University. He chairs the Interaction Specialist Group of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, helping organise their annual conference, HCI2011, their portal usabilitynews.com, and leads an effort (uxcf.org) to define competency in the emerging employment field of User Experience. Tom also serves on the board of ScotlandIS, which led to his participation in the recent Scottish ICT Strategy Implementation Group. He has a number of other roles within BCS, including being Scottish representative on the Government Relations Group, which is the BCS’s conduit with government and responsible the annual MPs’ Website Awards. Tom’s published research areas include user experience, human-centred innovation, digital asset management and accessibility. He has also organised award-winning knowledge transfer (KTP) programmes with industry. |
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GERRY GAVIGANChairopen Source Consortium | Gerry Gavigan has been the elected chair of the Open Source Consortium for around four years. He campaigns for Open Standards and promotes Free & Open Source Software. As data is valuable you really shouldn't use anything else. He has been using OSS in all aspects of his life since 1999 so thinks he knows something about it. He sits on the BSI Standards Committees IST/38 Cloud Computing and IST/41 Document Standards. Member companies hope that increased awareness will lead to more opportunities. Find out more at www.opensourceconsortium.org |
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Featured speakers
Journalist and Broadcaster
Assistant Head of ICT, HIllingdon Council
Head of UK Public Service Strategy, VMWare and Former Deputy
Director, G-Cloud, Apps Store and
Data Centre Consolidation at the
Cabinet Office
Director, OCSolutions and Former Director of Microsoft Scotland
Product Manager, Cloud Computing, Cable and Wireless
Worldwide
Group Business Systems Manager, South Lanarkshire
Council
Senior Lecturer, Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation,
Edinburgh Napier University
Chair, Open Source Consortium