Venturi's Voice: Technology | Leadership | Staffing | Career | Innovation

Dave is the CTO of ResearchBods and the wider STRAT7 Group With over 16 years’ experience working within SME’s, Dave has a unique blend of Technical and Strategic Leadership skills backed up by strong Product Management, Platform Delivery, Operational IT/Support, and Quality Assurance skills. He prides himself on being commercially focused and has experience in all aspects of Application Lifecycle Management in both the larger and smaller SME fields. With a proven track record in digital transformations, Dave understands the mechanics that make a technology focussed organisation succeed and grow. ResearchBods are a tech-enabled business, utilising propriety software to harness customer data and intelligence. As part of the STRAT7 group, they partner with agencies including Bonamy Finch and LiFE to provide an end-to-end data-driven strategy for brands and businesses. Dave takes responsibility for the creation and execution of the technology strategy, ranging from new product developments and ensuring the group has cutting edge IT functions in place. Dave works with end users, senior management, customers, and a growing team across the group.

Akshat is the CTO & Co-founder at Udelv. Udelv is an autonomous delivery company co-founded by Akshat. Prior to Udelv, he worked for Apple and Tesla’s autonomous driving teams. Akshat worked on both the hardware, software, and engineering management. Before this, he had worked on several projects at General Motors and caterpillar. In these roles, he started off working on power systems, automated motor drives, and motor controls.

Brian Robinson is the managing director of digital teams at Dept Agency With a mixture of delivery and commercial roles under his belt, Brian has the hands-on technical experience to deliver transformation project and work on business strategies for clients. He is currently a managing director at Dept, a digital agency that employees 1200 individuals across 14 different offices. Until the start of 2018 he was the MD of the design and technology which was based in Manchester and focused on large-scale web and application development. In 2019 Brian’s role has changed slightly when Dept created its new ‘digital teams’ business model. Dept’s Digital teams help companies that are going through that digital change period. Their mission spans from the very top of an organisation where they look at the digital strategy of a company through to creating a product that empowers a business to take over their own delivery.

Ammar is the Founder & CEO at Yobota. Prior to founding Yobota, Ammar had a career consulting in the financial services sector. He spent 10 years advising companies like UBS Investment Bank and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Post-2008, Ammar moved into consulting in the retail sector with a focus on revitalising the sector with new technologies, better customer experiences and better product choices. This new direction took Ammar on a gradual path to what he’s doing today.

Tor is the CTO at Adarga A very experienced digital CTO/technologist, Tor specialises in managing large scale online presences using cutting edge tech. His IT experience stretches to the online and media industries. He has worked with both startups and large companies using a mix of traditional and agile approaches to solution solving. Tor has hands-on experience in building complete online technology teams and web services from greenfield, on an international stage with distributed teams.

Alastair is the CTO at BrightHR. An enthusiastic and motivated professional, Alastair has spent twenty-seven years working in Information Technology. He has a very strong technical background with delivery focussed experiences across many business sectors. Alastair has many years of experience delivering large and complicated IT projects and programmes, with a reputation for guaranteed delivery to the highest quality.

Kiesling is responsible for all elements of the employee lifecycle. This includes developing an excellent recruitment experience for all applicants, delivering an engagement plan that is valuable company-wide, managing the professional and personal development of Ampersand's team, attending industry events to increase company exposure, leading the onboarding and induction process for all new employees and maintaining HR policies in line with employment legislation.

Alttaf is the Team Lead & Tech Lead for Yoti. Watching Knight Rider and Terminator as a child sparked Alttaf’s interest in technology. He always has a desire to figure out how tech is working. This fascination led him into a career in computer science, completing a Bachelors degree in Artificial Intelligence in 2006. He started his career in tech through a graduate training scheme at a company called Thales. He was building flight simulators using a mixture of C++ and AI. In his next role, he moved into web where he was working on an HR platform with Untangel Limited. His interest in Javascript was a key factor in taking the role as Untangel was one of the first companies to use Javascript on the backend. His next move was Yoti in 2016, after showing the CEO a potential demo of electronic signing he loved it so Altaff and a colleague went away and built the demo which is now in production.

Pat is the CTO at Abundance Abundance is a leading direct investment platform giving people control over their money. People invest from £5 in energy projects that generate something good for the environment and society, as well as bank-beating returns. With a choice of projects, investors know where their money is going and how it is working for them. They receive regular capital repayments and investment returns, along with updates on energy generation. At the same time, the world benefits from energy that is renewable and sustainable and communities enjoy a range of perks from reduced energy bills to community dividends.

Jump to 12.34 to hear what the 4 barriers to getting underrepresented people into tech are. Debbie is the CEO at Tech Talent Charter. Originally an English teacher Debbie was an early adopter of computers in the classroom. This quickly saw Debbie becoming in charge of the schools IT department. Working her way up the school career ladder she saw tech as a great enabler. For some of the children, she was teaching she saw how tech could become a way into careers they might not be able to consider otherwise. As a head teacher, her school piloted and championed a new scheme called Computer Club for Girls. After a career as a teacher, Debbie joined E-skills UK. She was the Head of Education which meant she was working with policymakers like IBM & Microsoft trying to figure out how they could make a tech curriculum fit for purpose. Having a hand in policy was very important for instigating change, but it wasn’t Debbie's first love. While she was at E Skills she came across a company called Apps for Good. Which teaches students digital skills via an app. Debbie took the company from two schools and 41 students to reaching around 75000 kids. Debbie saw again how this app caught the eyes of girls and she was drawn back into discussions about diversity in tech. As time went on Debbie was heading to more and more diversity based events. Evidence was showing more diverse workforces were better for business. Whilst she was still at Apps for Good, Debbie was approached by Sinead Bunting with an offer of creating a group that’s focused on increasing diversity in tech. This was the beginning at the Tech Talent Charter.