Advisory Council - Technology and Digital

Erika was a founding member of London Government, moving from the voluntary sector to join the set-up team in the London Development Agency (LDA) in April 2000. At the LDA she delivered regeneration programmes across London - working with the Finsbury Park Partnership and on the Olympic Park delivery programme. Subsequently the Director of Strategy at the LDA, she was responsible for the development and delivery of the Mayor’s Economic Development Strategy.

Erika joined DCMS in 2018 to deliver the National Data Strategy, in addition she was responsible for Data Policy and Ethics. In December 2019 she was appointed Director, Cyber Security and Digital Identity.

Chris has worked in cyber security for nearly 30 years in a variety of roles, all of which have involved building new capabilities to help organisations protect themselves.

As Deputy Director for Cyber Growth, he is charged with using the NCSC’s expertise and brand to build national cyber security capabilities in education, skills, research, innovation and industry.

Helen has 20 years’ experience in industry, across healthcare, wellness, academia, the life sciences and more recently medical device start-ups. She has a deep understanding of the pathway to commercialisation for emerging disruptive healthcare technologies, the key challenges that companies in this sector face, the technologies involved, and a passion to see the UK achieve further success in the area.

Helen joined Innovate UK in 2020 to lead on the Healthy Ageing Challenge Investor Partnerships programme and more recently an initiative to support social ventures working in the ageing sector.

Victoria is responsible for connecting OII research with policy and practice. Her research interests draw on her background as a political theorist and concern the normative policy implications of evidence characterising children’s use of internet technologies. Recent projects have included an analysis of age verification policies as a tool for balancing the interests of children and adults online, and a review of the risks and harms faced by children online.

She holds several digital policy advisory roles and is frequently called on to give expert evidence in UK and EU policy consultations on broader issues such as platform governance.

Cordia has experience advising international governments about their digital strategy, building capability, cloud hosting, and leading agile teams. Having worked at the UK's Government Digital Service (GDS), she has advised the governments of UAE, KSA, Brazil and Jersey on digital service design, drawing on experiences from the Digital nine nations.

She leads on government digital, human-centred service design, which includes creating complex end-to-end user journeys, with an emphasis on meeting users’ needs.

Cordia has experience in international trade having worked on the early phases of the UK-US Free Trade Agreement and developed DIT's FTA and Trade Disputes collaboration platform.

Tom engages with government, industry and trade associations in order to shape a supportive environment for digital technology, as an enabler for innovation and growth across the UK economy.  

Before joining IBM, Tom had an extensive international career at British Airways, and held several senior leadership roles including Head of Government and Regulatory Affairs, EVP for External Relations (Brussels and North America), and General Manager for International Relations. He also previously managed the airlines operations in Poland and Bulgaria.

John Abel is a developer turned innovator. His focus is driving customer success blending new technologies such as Blockchain, AI, Internet of Things with existing, deployed, systems to help make ideas become not just reality, but commercially relevant.

John works within a diverse team drawn from multiple backgrounds and skill sets to ensure synergies of various perspectives working together comes to the fore. John also supports a number of STEM projects that are aimed at enhancing participation overall but particularly from a wider range of backgrounds.  John is also very proud of being an ambassador for British Dyslexia Association 

John began his technology career nearly 31 years ago, working on early AI and even distributed ledger technologies that were deployed to great impact in private and public sector environments. His expertise across many roles within Oracle and now Google in security and data technologies have led to him being a renowned industry speaker, author and commentator on technical and business innovation issues.

Leigh has over 25 years experience in the Public Sector, formerly Director of ICT (CDO), Customer Care & Information Management (SIRO). Leigh started in Xerox in 2016 and his focus is on Digital Transformation Services - developing Strategies, Business Cases and Roadmaps for change with C Level stakeholders and a data & insight / agile based approach to the development of innovation for clients. Leigh has developed a number of Digital Strategies for Public Sector Clients which have delivered step change improvements for citizens and significant cash efficiencies.

Leigh is based near Cardiff and also has experience as a Trustee Board Member of a local Charity.

As Event & Content Manager, Leo is responsible for producing and managing a wide range of WIG events.

Prior to joining WIG, Leo was Head of Events at the PRCA, the professional association for the PR and communications industry.

In his spare time Leo enjoys gardening and spending time in the allotment with his greyhound, Del. He also plays drums in an indie-blues band.