Confirmed Speakers

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Dr. Laura Gilbert is the Head of the AI for Government Program at the Ellison Institute of Technology in Oxford. As part of this role she works on secondment to the Tony Blair Institute, as well as on secondment to the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation in the UK Government as an Expert Advisor in AI.  

From September 2020 to January 2025, Laura worked in 10 Downing Street as the founding director of 10DS, the data science and analytics team. She also created and directed the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) in 2023 until her exit, and held other roles including Chief Analyst for the Cabinet Office and directorship of other teams including the Evaluation Taskforce and a team in national security. These high performance teams successfully provided ground-breaking, fast-paced modelling and analysis to support policy making and delivery, and delivered expert data and AI solutions into public services. Laura also created and spearheads a broader program of radical transformation, innovation, digitisation and radical upskilling in central government called Evidence House, that delivered around 1500 hours of free, in person technical training to civil servants and spun out multiple AI solutions to public service delivery problems.  

Laura holds a doctorate in Particle Physics and Computing from the University of Oxford, undergraduate degrees from the University of Cambridge, is a Visiting Professor at LSE, and holds fellowships of the Institute of Physics and the Institute of Analytics. She previously worked in defence intelligence, quantitative finance, and for nearly a decade was CTO of a medical technologies company, Rescon, bringing it from start-up to SMT to acquisition before exiting and joining government in 2020. She is fluent in seven programming languages, and is named on four patents, including lead inventor on two data security patents.  

Laura will be speaking about delivering innovation and problem solving rapidly in AI and providing delegates with an insight into her personal journey of delivering change in government.  

Born in Liverpool and studied Law at Oxford, Dominic qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG & spent the next 10 years in corporate finance and investment banking (with Paribas and Barclays Capital), specialising in the media and telecoms sector. At Blenheim, he and the team are delivering an energetic vision of the evolved role of a landed estate today, not an historic anachronism but on the powerhouse of the local economy, custodians and innovators in carbon management and the heartbeat of local life. 

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Will Hutton is a political  economist, author, think tank/academic leader and Observer columnist. He is currently President of the Academy of Social Sciences (since 2021), hosts the We Society podcast and co-chairs the Purposeful Company  (since 2015). 

See (www.thepurposefulcompany.org) . He also chairs the advisory board of the Fairness Foundation, is trustee of the National Institure for Economic and Social Research, a member of the Progressive Economic Forum and editorial advisory board of Prospect magazine. 

His now fifty year career spans a period in the City as an investment banker, the Economics editorship of the Guardian  and BBC2 Newsnight , the editorship of the Observer, the chief executive of the Work Foundation and Principal of Hertford College Oxford. Along the way he has won awards for his journalism and as a thought leader in Human Resources. 

He has written seven major books on political economy including  1995’s The State We’re In that became the best selling political economy book since 1945. Other best selling books include The Writing on the Wall (2007), the World We’re In (2002), Them and Us ( 2010) , and How Good We Can Be ( 2015) . This Time No Mistakes: How to Remake Britain was published in April 2024 , cited in the FT as one of the must-read economics books of last summer.

Will has chaired two government Commissions – one on Public Sector Pay for the Coalition government in 2011 and one on the Creative Industries for the Labour government in 2007. He helped instigate the creation of the Catapult network in 2011 and served on the board of the Satelllite Applications Catapult for nine years to 2022.  He was rapporteur for the EU’s Kok Commission in 2004, and was one of “ twelve wise men and women” to reflect on the future of Europe at the request of President Prodi in 2002. He has chaired/directed and/or founded four think tanks ( The Employment Policy Institute, The Purposeful Company, The Big Innovation Centre, The Work Foundation) and advises governments and companies at senior level at both home and overseas. He holds a degree in Economics and Sociology from Bristol University and an MBA from INSEAD. 

Coming soon.  

Tom is a town planner who has worked across the public, private and social enterprise sectors. He joined Oxford City Council is April 2019 as the Executive Director of Development, where he has responsibility for planning, property, housing supply, regeneration, economic development & city centre management and in February 2025 became Deputy Chief Executive – Place, which includes additional responsibilities for regulatory services, selective licensing, HMO enforcement and clienting.

He is also a director of Oxford West End Developments (OXWED), which is the Council’s joint venture with Nuffield College, currently taking forward the Oxpens redevelopment. 

Other key projects being led by Tom include the Blackbird Leys estate regeneration, major improvements to the Covered Market, plans to reopen the Cowley Branch Line, and a refresh of masterplan for Oxford train station. 

Prior to joining Oxford City Council, Tom was the Assistant Director for Area Regeneration at Lambeth Council, where he delivered a range of workspace, public realm and meanwhile projects. He joined Lambeth from AECOM Design + Planning, where he led numerous masterplanning, regeneration and infrastructure planning projects. 

He has also worked for the Greater London Authority, establishing the Royal Docks Enterprise Zone, and working as part of the team that secured the funding package for the Northern Line Extension. Tom began his career at Renaisi, a social enterprise based in east London, where he led the Woodberry Down and Stamford Hill Single Regeneration Budget programme.

Coming soon.  

Richard has spent 20 years working with the world's biggest brands, most recognised talent and growing unique marketing agencies. From creating the most watched global sponsorship content with elite sports teams to leading on sustainability with B Corp certification and re-wilding projects, he can always be found working at the cutting edge of business innovation. After running internal tech teams at a £20m agency, Richard has built a new agency business model which is  "Ai-enabled, sustainable as standard", built to efficiently tackle global creative content production for brands marketing within sports and entertainment. He is leading the implementation of the latest tech tools, processes and integration of Ai across business. 

Coming soon.  

Working in destination management for 25 years across the public, private and voluntary sectors, Hayley currently leads Experience Oxfordshire as the Chief Executive of the award-winning Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) and destination management organisation (DMO).  

Whilst in situ she has continually developed their business model through the successful introduction and implementation of commercial services. Prior to this she was the Director of Oxfordshire Cotswolds’ Tourism Services where she developed and implemented a Cotswold wide Destination Management plan and has worked in numerous Local Authorities across Oxfordshire and Gloucester, having started her career with a tour operator. 

She has held various non-executive director roles including those at Tourism South- East and the Tourism Society. Hayley is also the former Chair of the Tourism Society for which she served on their board of directors for nine years and is now a Fellow of the Society. With a strong background in marketing and partnership development, Hayley is passionate about continuous improvement, relationship building and raising the profile of the importance of the visitor economy sector. Hayley is highly engaged at a national level across trade bodies and government and currently sits on the national VisitEngland English Tourism Week Steering Group and is a member of the newly re-formed All Party Parliamentary Group for Events (APPG). 

Coming soon.