The Steering Committee
A steering committee including representation across all relevant bodies and sectors and providing balanced and diverse representation across Scotland was appointed to oversee the Strategy’s development
The job titles below were correct at the time of the Strategy’s development
CHAIR - KATE FORBES, MSP | SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
Kate Forbes is the Cabinet Secretary for Finance. She is from Dingwall, although has spent part of her upbringing in Glasgow and India. Until she was elected as MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, Kate was employed as an accountant in the banking industry. Prior to that she studied History at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh with a focus on human migration.
LES BAYNE | ACCENTURE
Les is responsible for leading the growth and development of Accenture’s business in Scotland and growing Accenture’s Intelligent Operations Business in the Comms, Media and Technology Industry Sectors. Les is a founder of Accenture’s Innovation Programme and lead facilitator of Accenture’s Innovation Centre in London. Les has a passion for innovation and driving breakthrough thinking with clients. Sharing role with Michelle Hawkins
VICKY BYROM | MERKLE|AQUILA
Vicky is the Head of Solutions Analytics at Merkle|Aquila and has over 20 years experience delivering analytics projects across both private and public sectors, enabling companies to effectively use their data to make better decisions. Currently she is the leader of the multi-award winning analytics practice for Merkle|Aquila, an agency that specialises in all areas of analytics and machine learning across a diverse client portfolio.
GILLIAN DOCHERTY OBE | THE DATA LAB
Gillian is Chief Executive of The Data Lab. Formerly of IBM, Gillian was named in the UK’s top ten most influential people in data according to DataIQ as well as Digital Leader (2018) and CEO of the Year (Digital Technology Awards 2017). Gillian has a degree in Computing Science from the University of Glasgow and was appointed an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019. Sharing role with Brian Hills.
SALLY DYSON | SCOTTISH COUNCIL OF VOLUNTARY ORGANISATIONS (SCVO)
Sally is SCVO’s Head of Digital & Programmes. She is the strategic lead for digital inclusion and evolution across the voluntary sector. Alongside this she leads SCVOs work on the funding landscape. Sally has a background of both social inclusion and organisational change and holds a Masters in Charity Leadership and Management. Previous posts have included working for funders, regional government and infrastructure charities.
CLIVE GILLMAN | CREATIVE SCOTLAND
Clive Gillman works as the Director of Creative Industries for Creative Scotland, the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland. Clive has a background in contemporary art and media, having worked as an artist exhibiting internationally and across the UK. He was previously Associate Director of FACT in Liverpool, before becoming the Director of Dundee Contemporary Arts (2005-2015).
KATY GUTHRIE | SCOTLAND IS
Katy is Head of Data at ScotlandIS. She runs ScotlandIS Data which is designed to assist companies supplying data driven products or services within Scotland. By understanding and mapping out the industry, Katy aims to identify and address the needs of the data tech sector, foster collaboration, and demonstrate the breadth of capability within Scotland. Prior to leading ScotlandIS Data, Katy worked in a variety of data and analytics roles within Financial Services. Sharing role with Gareth Williams.
DAVID HARRISON | iCAIRD
David Harrison is an academic clinical pathologist, based variously in St Andrews, Edinburgh and Glasgow. In addition to having has management and service redesign experience in laboratory medicine, he is director of iCAIRD (Industrial Centre for AI Research in Digital Diagnostics), one of five UK centres of excellence established with £10M funding from government and a further £6M from industry. His primary research areas are the applications of artificial intelligence to images of tissue.
EMMA HART | EDINBURGH NAPIER UNIVERSITY
Prof. Hart moved to Edinburgh Napier University in 2000 as a lecturer, and was promoted to a Chair in 2008 where she leads a group in Nature-Inspired Intelligent Systems, specialising in optimisation and learning algorithms applied in domains that range from combinatorial optimisation to swarm robotics.
With a world-wide reputation in her field, she was appointed as Editor-in-Chief of Evolutionary Computation (MIT Press) in 2017. Sharing role with Helen Hastie.
HELEN HASTIE | HERIOT-WATT UNIVERSITY
Helen Hastie is a Professor of Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University and has 25 years of industry and academic experience designing, building and evaluating Spoken Dialog and multimodal systems for multiple domains including energy, tourism, pedagogy and defence. She also directs the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Robotic and Autonomous Systems at the Edinburgh Centre of Robotics. Sharing role with Emma Hart.
MICHELLE HAWKINS | ACCENTURE
Michelle is the Global Delivery Director of Accenture Technology and the Managing Director of Accenture Scotland. She has 25 years’ experience in delivering large scale technology and transformational change programs with clients across different industry sectors. As well as working with clients in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen she also has extensive international experience, including 4 years in Asia. Sharing role with Les Bayne.
STEVEN HEDDLE | COSLA
Steven Heddle was appointed Environment and Economy Spokesperson for CoSLA (the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) in May 2017. Steven is from Kirkwall and studied Physics at Aberdeen and Edinburgh Universities, gaining a BSc and PhD. After working in R&D, he returned to Orkney in 1999 and established a consultancy business. While leader of Orkney Islands Council from 2012 to 2017 he shared the 2013 Herald Local Politician of the Year Award and 2014 Scottish Public Service Award for Leadership.
BRIAN HILLS | THE DATA LAB
Brian is the Deputy CEO at the Data Lab. Brian has over 21 years experience in analytics and software engineering, across domains including Telecoms, IT and Digital. He joined the Data Lab from Skyscanner where he launched and grew the Business Intelligence team. Prior to Skyscanner, Brian held analytics and engineering roles with Sumerian and HP. Sharing role with Gillian Docherty.
ADAM LANG | NESTA
Adam leads the work of Nesta, the UK innovation foundation, in Scotland with a focus on supporting digital, data and technology driven innovation for social good across Nesta’s five priority areas of focus - government innovation, innovation policy, health, education and the creative economy. Adam joined Nesta after five successful years as the Head of Communications and Policy for Shelter Scotland.
EWA LUGER | ALAN TURING INSTITUTE
Dr Ewa Luger is Chancellor’s Fellow in Digital Arts and Humanities and Deputy Research Director for Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI), a Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute (Ethical AI by Design), and a consulting researcher at Microsoft Research UK (AI and Ethics). Her work explores applied ethical issues within the sphere of machine intelligence and data-driven systems, from a human-centered perspective.
STUART MACKINNON | FEDERATION OF SMALL BUSINESSES (FSB)
Stuart is a senior member of the FSB team in Scotland, leading on communications for the small business campaign group north of the border. Stuart has campaigned for better Scottish digital infrastructure and made the case for improved business-facing digital public services. Before joining FSB, Stuart worked for specialist public relations and public affairs consultancies and the University of St Andrews.
HELEN MARTIN | SCOTTISH TRADES UNION CONGRESS (STUC)
Helen is the Assistant General Secretary at the STUC for policy and parliamentary affairs. Her responsibilities include running the STUC’s policy and research function and political engagement at both Holyrood and Westminster. Helen was a Commissioner on the Widening Access to Higher Education Commission and was a member of the Health and Work review. She previously worked as a policy officer in the Equality and Human Rights Commission and started her career at the Commission for Racial Equality.
NORA SENIOR CBE | ENTERPRISE & SKILLS BOARD
Nora is the Executive Chair UK/Ireland of global corporate communications consultancy, Weber Shandwick. Immediate past President of British Chambers of Commerce and former Chair of Scottish Chambers of Commerce. Currently non-exec Chair of the Scottish Government’s Strategic Board for Enterprise and Skills, whose role is to drive greater alignment between Scotland’s public agencies. A former Businesswoman of the Year, she was previously Managing Director of Saatchi & Saatchi (North.)
ROB SKIPWORTH | DELL TECHNOLOGIES
Robert joined Dell Technologies in July 2018 as part of a major expansion of resources to meet the growing needs of Unstructured Data for AI, IOT, Big Data and Modern Workplaces. His role as Regional Territory Manager covers Scotland and Ireland. A key responsibility is developing the communication of Dell Technologies vision around data capital and innovation. Helping Scotland’s Public Sector Services take advantage of data services through the democratisation of IT for hybrid-cloud and on-premise solutions.
GARETH WILLIAMS | SCOTTISH COUNCIL FOR DEVELOPMENT & INDUSTRY (SCDI)
Gareth is Head of Policy at SCDI. He has been responsible for the development of SCDI's major policy reports, including From Fragile to Agile: A Blueprint for Growth & Prosperity in 2015 and its Future Scotland series about Scotland’s future constitutional options with papers on Macroeconomic & Fiscal Sustainability, Energy and Europe & International in 2013. Gareth also represents SCDI on a wide range of external groups. Sharing role with Katy Guthrie.