Confirmed Speakers - Opening Sessions

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As the Chief Executive of B4, Richard has been leading the creation and development of an active, collaborative, and supportive business community in Oxfordshire since 2006. With almost 20 years of experience in marketing communications, social networking and events, Richard has a passion for helping businesses be seen, heard, get connected, and grow through B4's digital platforms and huge calendar of events.

By joining B4, you not only have access to an extensive events programme and digital benefits including B4 HUB, but you also have direct access to a growing community of some of Oxfordshire's leading companies. The mission is to provide you with great profile and incredible connections that will help you thrive in your industry.

Richard is incredibly proud to have created the Oxfordshire Business Summit, bringing Oxfordshire's business leaders together for a full day of inspirational presentations, discussions and connections. This wouldn't have been possible without the help of some amazing people and organisations, not least the phenomenal support of Dominic Hare and his team at Blenheim. 

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. 

Calum Miller was elected as MP for the new constituency of Bicester & Woodstock in July 2024.  From 2012, he helped to establish the Blavatnik School Of Government, University of Oxford, as its first Chief Operating Officer. Calum co-directed the School's international programmes for public leaders and led research projects on national education systems (such as RISE) and government performance (such as InCiSE).  Calum was previously a senior UK civil servant, latterly leading the offices of the Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary. 

Frank Nigriello has worked in ‘blue chip’ companies such as Barclays, IBM and Unipart, as well as with a wide range of SMEs, in establishing strong reputations, clear value propositions and effective marketing programmes. He has a long track record in media relations, crisis management and organisational learning. A strong advocate corporate social responsibility, Frank was privileged to serve as HRH the Prince of Wales’s ambassador for responsible business in the South East, a position he held for four years
 

As well as his role as chairman of the B4 network, Frank is co-chair of Earth Trust, the sustainability charity, and was previously chairman of Oxfordshire Business First, the innovation business network. He is a founder member and non-executive director of the Ideas Network 2030, which identifies long-term trends and their effects on our economy, politics and society.

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About Laura's talk

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. 

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.  

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 Institute 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 Satellite 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. 

Sebastian Johnson is a dynamic leader in the UK’s innovation and investment landscape, currently driving growth and collaboration as part of the ARC Group and Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. With a career spanning private, public and charity sectors, Sebastian previously played a pivotal role at the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and local authorities, fostering economic development and supporting the region’s world-leading science and technology ecosystem. Passionate about creating opportunities for cutting-edge companies and innovators, he remains dedicated to advancing the UK’s and Oxfordshire’s position as a global hub for research, development, and investment.

Caroline has 20 years of experience in Local Government, the last 8 in Oxford and before that, at the LGA working with councils across the country and across the political on a range of public service disciplines, policy and strategy development and improvement. Caroline’s background is in economics, sustainable development and planning and housing. 

Whilst Chief Executive at Oxford, the council has successfully managed the financial challenges that COVID-19 and the ensuing economic crisis has posed to the council, identifying, and delivering £18m savings and new income. The council is delivering an ambitious development and regeneration programme and the Council is delivering the largest council house building programme for 40 years. Caroline has implemented the council’s Fit for the Future change programme to modernise service delivery to achieve efficiencies and improved outcomes for citizens through better use of technology, service redesign, with a heavy focus on people development, and culture change. Developing robust governance and culture of transparency and accountability between the council and its companies has been a focus, as has collaboration between council services, communities and partners in locality-based working across the City. The Council’s work on responding to the climate emergency is recognised as leading edge – winning the LGC and MJ awards for climate response in 2023.

Caroline has a strong track record on partnership working including Oxford’s universities and close working with other local authorities in Oxfordshire, including experience of negotiation on devolution and securing a growth deal with government.

Martin has been Chief Executive of Oxfordshire County Council since March 2023. He was previously Chief Executive of Coventry City Council for over 14 years and was also the Chief Executive of the West Midlands Combined Authority from March 2016 to September 2017. He had previously been with Bedfordshire County Council for three and a half years as Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Executive.  

Martin has held strategic leadership roles in a District and an outer London Borough and was Programme Director for Work Smart, Westminster City Council’s flagship transformation programme. Martin spent much of his early career as a lecturer and researcher and has a PhD in applied economics.

He has an Honorary Doctorate from Coventry University in recognition of his service and commitment to the City of Coventry and is the first Honorary President of LARIA (Local Area Research and Intelligence Association). 

He is a former President of SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives & Senior Managers) and is the current Local Government Association (LGA) National Procurement Champion.