Date: Monday, November 26th
Doors Open: 12:30 PM
Conference: 1:00 PM – 5:30 PM
Reception: 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Bloomberg London, 3 Queen Victoria St
London EC4N 4TQ, UK
Location Host & Sponsor
This is our 2nd annual Tech Inclusion London, convening the tech industry to focus on solutions to diversity and inclusion!
Our theme this year is “Voices of Innovation” – featuring diverse, underrepresented voices building the innovative technologies and cultures of our future. Join us for keynotes, panel discussions, solo talks and an interactive session focusing on allyship in tech.
Starting at 12:30, join us in learning new solutions, meeting diverse people who care, being stretched in a safe environment, and gaining new tools and strength to advocate for change. Then join us for a reception in the evening to network, debrief and unwind.
Impact + Conference + Networking Reception
Andy Ayim
Managing Director at Backstage Capital
Andy Ayim has been a business builder for over 8 years, from founding his first startup Mixtape Madness to joining Backstage Capital more recently. Backstage invests in startup founders who identify as a Woman, Person of Color, and/or LGBTQ. We believe these founders are underestimated and have the most potential for unlocking innovation and creating valuable businesses. To support more founders, we're growing a global community of local accelerator programs.
Amy Chao
Creative & Tech Connector at VR Diversity Initiative
Excited to empower creative and tech synergy, especially towards inclusion in immersive tech through the not-for-profit VR Diversity Initiative bringing hands on XR technology workshops for under-represented groups. Helping to build a lifestyle brand at street-smarts navigation app Safe & The City social enterprise, to transform communities to be safer, more inclusive places to walk, work, shop and live. Multidisciplinary background designing, making, strategising and managing across tech, fashion, retail and travel from startups, global corporates to entrepreneurship on 3 continents. Let's journey together to create, innovate, connect!
Neil Milliken
Head of Accessibility & Digital Inclusion at Atos
Neil Milliken is Head of Accessibility & Inclusion at Atos. His role is to help make the world a better place by delivering better technology for customers and staff, embedding inclusive practice into the processes of organisations with thousands of employees and turnovers of billions. Neil delivers strategy and services working with a wide range of clients helping them to develop policies, processes, and technology solutions to meet the needs of their staff and customers. He is the Atos representative on the Business Disability Forum Technology Task Force. Neil is also an invited expert for the W3C Cognitive Accessibility Taskforce & member of the Atos Scientific Community & Atos Distinguished Expert. He is co-founder of AXSChat Europe’s largest twitter chat with a focus on Accessibility & Inclusion. Neil is a member of the Board of Directors for WID & Chair of the Diversity Board for Institute of Coding.
Dr J Harrison
Harbinger of Change at ThoughtWorks
Out as Non-Binary GenderQueer for over 10 years, Dr J has been bringing queer theory (with a slice of humour) into the tech space, building on Thoughtworks' dedication to inclusivity and intersectionality. Dr J takes a strategic view of cultural change in Technology through a few lenses, notably queer theory. This combines well with their years of experience using agile processes to build software and a talent for really understanding clients - looking at the problems they are solving and how to make great teams to deliver real value. Their passion? How you can do things better with just simple changes - bringing their Service Design thinking into both the Technology and the Diversity and Inclusion spaces. Troublemaker. #queernuisance
Dr Ian McDonald
CTO in residence at Microsoft
Dr Ian McDonald has been a visionary technology leader for over 20 years and is currently CTO in residence at Microsoft for Startups in London. He’s previously lead teams at a range of corporates and startups and built global scale systems. Ian has a first class honours degree in Computing and Maths and a doctorate in network congestion. He also has been a contributor to the Linux kernel and other open source projects.
Taz Latif
Head of Growth at Knowit
Having worked in sales and marketing during her studies, Taz then spent over 4 years as a teacher. Hungry for a bigger challenge, she ventured into the world of Tech recruitment - an unconventional move but it bought together two things; her curiosity around how humans are wired and her desire to help people. A story-teller at the core, her heart truly lies in connecting people. Frustrated with the lack of diversity and inclusion in her industry, Taz joined the Muslamic Makers community, to bring these issues into the limelight, to encourage awareness and ultimately, create real, impactful change.
Anisah Osman Britton
CEO at 23 Code Street, Director at Backstage Capital
Anisah is the founder and CEO of 23 Code Street, a coding school for all women created to make technology more accessible to women and non binary people. Most recently, she has also been named as a director of Backstage London. Anisah previously worked for The Bakery, a global accelerator bringing new products and services to market by connecting startups and brands and ran a Sirius Programme arm- an accelerator, funded and run by the UK government, to bring global start up talent to the UK. Having seen the lack of diversity and inclusion in tech and the effects this has on products and services, Anisah is determined to be a signpost for the underrepresented to create a workforce that represents our society.
Vivek Nair
Education & Training Engineering Manager at Twilio
Built and scaling the Hatch software engineering apprenticeship at Twilio. Investing in developer education and training across a variety of technical and interpersonal skill sets. Experience in designing, developing and operationalizing robust distributed systems at scale. Passionate about diversity and inclusion at the workplace, industry and society at large. Avid animal advocate, amateur cook and running enthusiast. Degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
Dayo Akinrinade
Head of Partnerships at Your Startup Your Story
Dayo is the Partnerships Lead at Your Startup Your Story, a thriving startup community of founders, developers, creatives and investors on a mission to make a difference. She is currently advising 12 top London accelerators on diversity and inclusion. She is the founder Africlick, a dating/networking app for professionals & creatives of African & Caribbean heritage. The mission is to empower global Afro-Caribbeans to connect to their culture by using a unique “cultural” matching algorithm. Dayo’s background is IT Management Consulting at Accenture and Deloitte, she has delivered several large-scale fintech and analytics transformation programmes. She holds a Bsc in Computer Science from the University of Manchester and a MSc in Technology at University College London.
Marissa Ellis
Founder, CEO at Diversily
Marissa Ellis is a strategy consultant, business advisor and the founder of Diversily. From blue-chip companies to start-ups to accelerators, Marissa is an experienced and well-respected leader in the tech world. Digital innovation, product & service design and business intelligence are a few of her areas of expertise. A lightbulb moment at the end of 2017 made her realise that the lack of diversity in the sector was far from acceptable and that she was personally going to step up and do her bit to drive change. She founded Diversily and created The Change Canvas which is now being used all over the world to drive change.
Darren Tenkorang
CEO at TRIM-IT
TRIM-IT is the UK’s 1st app powered mobile barbershop. Founded by Darren Tenkorang in 2016 during his final year studying at the University of Sussex. He has gone on to win various competition for his work within the male grooming industry.
Nafisa Bakkar
Co Founder, CEO at Amaliah
Nafisa Bakkar is the CEO of Amaliah.com, a media company amplifying the voices of Muslim women. Amaliah’s work has been celebrated in Forbes, CNN, Wired, Guardian, BBC. Nafisa's aspirations to make it easier to exist as a Muslim woman saw her launch Amaliah’s insights agency. Amaliah has worked with leading global brands such as eBay, Lush, Pinterest, WGSN, Shortlist Media and Marks & Spencer. Nafisa is also a contributor on Forbes writing on inclusion and startup life.
Shelley Taylor
Founder, CEO at Trellyz
Serial digital entrepreneur who is passionate about helping those who help others have a greater impact through technology. 25 years in tech, Silicon Valley veteran who created the world's first user interface "bible," and much of the language around websites, e-commerce, interactive television and digital entertainment we use today. Deep expertise product design, social impact, ontologies. Creator of RefAid, app for services delivery for refugees, now in 23 countries; first social impact app to be featured in App Store. Featured in "Meet the Developer" piece on US App Store, one of less than 100 developers ever featured.
Francesca Warner
Co-Founder, CEO at Diversity VC
Francesca is the co-founder and CEO of Diversity VC, a non-profit made up of interested individuals working in venture capital, who seek to increase diversity of thought in the venture industry. As well as producing content, running training for VCs, events for founders and an internship programme, Diversity VC publishes original data on the state of diversity in the technology and VC industry, including the first-ever study on the number of Women in VC in 2017. Francesca is also a seed investor focused on investing in overlooked entrepreneurs. She’s worked has worked at Seraphim Capital, Downing Ventures and Techstars. She graduated from Cambridge and worked in advertising before joining the VC industry.
Suki Fuller
Co-Founder, CEO at Salaam Ventures
Suki Fuller, an Analytical Storyteller, globally recognized by Forbes as a Strategic advisor for her work with fundraising startups, speaker, and mentor. She is the Co-Founder & CEO of Salaam Ventures; Founder of Miribure; a Strategic & Competitive Intelligence company and is currently co-leading #FiftyFiftyPledge an initiative to increase the number of women in Venture Capital. A dual citizen (UK/US) Suki has diverse experience from chemical engineering to intelligence. She has lived and worked globally (EU, MENA, GCC, China, UK and US) within Academia, National Security, Law Enforcement, and Private Corporations. She is also an advisor, board member and NED to several startups. She is a global judge and mentor at the accelerator MassChallenge; NSCS/GCHQ Cyber Accelerator; Judge for Women Startup Challenge and others; an Advocate for Tech London Advocates (TLA); Mentor Ambassador for TLA - Women in Tech; Suki was recently named one of the 30 Change Makers to watch for London Tech Week 2018 and Computer Weekly, Most Influential Women in UK IT: Five Rising Stars 2018. Suki loves Penguins.
Buki Thompson
Product Specialist II at Synchronoss Technologies
Buki Thompson is a Product Specialist II. Her passion for tech led her to quit her job in sales, learn how to code and pursuing a role as a Developer. To inspire more people of colour, especially women to explore the tech industry, she founded a masterclass called #CodeXhiphop. The idea of the masterclass was all about demystifying the stereotype that coding is not meant for creatives and that technology can only be fuelled through innovative solutions. Due to this she has been featured on the BBC to share her journey and also has been invited on the Guardians podcast to talk about diversity in tech.
Alexander Fefegha
Founder, Head Creative Technologist at Comuzi
Alex is the co-founder & head creative technologist at Comuzi, a future focused creative innovation firm, working at the intersection of emerging technology and humans. Some of Comuzi's clients include Nike, ASOS, Uber, BBC, University of Arts London, Ustwo and the NHS. Alex's work has been recognised internationally in recent times for his work investigating the ethical implications of AI, algorithmic bias in regards to race and gender and exploring the future technological interfaces that we as humans will interact with. Alex holds a Masters degree in Innovation from Central St Martins.
Pamela Hutchinson
Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Bloomberg LP
Pamela is the Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Bloomberg. In this role, she leads the company’s global diversity and inclusion initiatives around the world. Since joining Bloomberg in March 2016 as Head of Diversity and Inclusion for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), she has served as a partner and thought leader on strategy and vision and helped the company broaden its recruitment efforts and make its office culture even more inclusive. Pamela is cited as one of the most recognised thought leaders and vocal advocates for diversity across the private sector and has more than 20 years’ experience in managing diversity across engineering, financial services, technology and media. During her tenure, Pamela has provided coaching and guidance to senior leaders, whilst collaborating across HR and the business to deliver objectives, measures and solutions to promote and progress diversity and inclusion. Pamela has worked at firms including Barclay’s, Bechtel Ltd, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Northern Trust and has been instrumental in firmly establishing ethnic diversity as an imperative across the City whilst being a visible and vocal campaigner for equality. Pamela was recognised in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 Power list of Britain’s most influential people of African and African Caribbean heritage, awarded Head of Diversity of the Year in the 2016 European Diversity Awards and was featured in the 2016 & 2017 Global Diversity List Top 50 Diversity Professionals. Pamela is a Trustee at The Inspiring Leadership Trust.
Wayne Barlow
Senior Director at Bloomberg LP
Wayne is the Senior Director of Engineering for Market and Community Applications. This global engineering team is responsible for building and improving the most heavily used content on the Bloomberg Terminal, including: the company's email and instant messaging (Instant Bloomberg) platforms; News and Research; Charts; Real-time Security Monitors; and Equity, Foreign Exchange, and Commodity analytics. His team is also responsible for the Bloomberg Professional mobile app. Previously, Wayne was Head of the Software Infrastructure Engineering group, which is responsible for the development of the software platform and frameworks used by Bloomberg's entire Engineering department to develop content for the Bloomberg Terminal as well as providing Enterprise technologies for Bloomberg’s customers. Wayne serves as a Diversity & Inclusion Champion for Bloomberg's Engineering organization. He is instrumental in the implementation of the D&I business plan for Engineering, as well as sponsoring initiatives within the plan. Prior to joining Bloomberg in 2006, Wayne was an Associate Director at Bear Stearns and a Software Engineer at Compaq. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering from Virginia Tech.
Hawra Milani
Founder at Code 2 Serve
Hawra is an active community organiser, where she volunteers the majority of her time in organising, attending, and speaking at technical conferences around the world. She is the founder of ‘Code 2 Serve’ where she spends a lot of her time creating coding programmes and convincing youth that no matter what their educational or cultural background, they have a place in tech. She is the Lead Organiser for the Google Developer Group (GDG) Oxford, a Lead for Google Women Techmakers, and a STEM UK ambassador. She also teaches in Code Clubs and Coder Dojos in various parts of London, and is an Apple and Raspberry Pi Certified Educator. She holds a BSc in Computer Science, a PGCE in Computer Science, and an MA in Computer Science Education from King’s College London.
Nicola Corti
Android Engineer at Yelp
Nicola Corti has been an Android Software Engineer since 2.2, and a Free and Open Source lover for as long as he remembers. He’s currently working as an Android Engineer at Yelp Inc, connecting millions of users with great local businesses worldwide. Nicola usually calls himself a 'community addict’. He can't survive without learning every day, sharing knowledge, and having fun with other developers. He’s also currently managing the GDG chapter in Pisa. In his free time, he also loves photography, hiking, and cake design.
Christine Flounders
Regional Engineering Manager at Bloomberg LP
Christine Flounders is Regional Manager for Engineering at Bloomberg L.P in London, responsible for a team of more than 850 technologists working to architect, build and deploy software, digital platforms and mobile applications for Bloomberg customers in financial services. She also leads Bloomberg Engineering's Training and Agile groups globally. Flounders has worked at Bloomberg for 17 years. During this time she has managed teams in London and New York, working across a diverse spectrum of solutions that range from charting and technical analysis software to real-time alerts and pricing tools. Flounders holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Courant Institute of Mathematics at New York University.
Gillian Bell
Director of Systems Engineering at Symantec
Gillian Bell is a Director of Systems Engineering at Symantec Dublin, she leads the inside sales engineering team for EMEA. She has worked at Symantec for over 5 years. During her leadership career spanning 17 years she has worked in many tech corporate roles gaining lots of different experiences. She is passionate about working in Cyber security. She is also a leader of the women’s action network supporting our diverse workforce in Dublin. She has a strong history and passion for leading and promoting diverse teams with a focus on developing strong female sales engineers and leaders.
Zoe Philpott
Director at Philpott Design / ADA.ADA.ADA
Zoe Philpott is an interactive storyteller at the intersection of business and the arts. Her career as a tech entrepreneur spans two decades, co founding a webcasting company initially, before helping create virtual theatre for education “Kar2ouche” using gaming technology. Her work in Education and Technology has won a BIMA, a number of BETTs and a BAFTA nomination. More recently, Zoe has worked with Google to engage girls with careers in computer science. She was key to their Made With Code initiative wherein 50,000 programmable LEDS installed on 56 Christmas trees in front of the White House were coded by girls across the United States. In response the lack of diversity in STEM, Zoe has created “Ada.Ada.Ada”. This is a one woman show which tells the story of the world’s first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace, using her own words, an LED dress, and a lot of string. Ada.Ada.Ada is working with businesses, governments and education to build a more inclusive recruitment pipeline and working environment. A new interactive storytelling is in progress: Ada's Army will use AI to help normalise diversity in STEM and Fintech.
Jack Armley
Accessibility Engineer at Expedia
Jack Armley is a front-end developer and accessibility champion at Expedia. He has always believed websites should be inclusive to all users and throughout his career, this has been one of my primary concerns.
Melinda Briana Epler
Founder, CEO at Change Catalyst
Melinda Briana Epler has more than 25 years of experience elevating brands and developing business innovation and inclusion strategies for startups, tech hubs, social enterprises, Fortune 500 companies and global NGOs. As Founder & CEO of Change Catalyst, Melinda empowers diverse, inclusive and sustainable tech innovation through events, education, mentorship and funding. Through Tech Inclusion, an initiative of Change Catalyst, she partners with the tech community to solve diversity and inclusion together. Her work spans the full tech ecosystem, from Education to Workplace, Entrepreneurship, Policy and Media. Melinda speaks, mentors and writes about diversity and inclusion in tech, social entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurs and investing. She is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker – her film and television work includes projects that exposed the AIDS crisis in South Africa, explored women’s rights in Turkey, and prepared communities for the effects of climate change. She has worked on several television shows, including NBC’s The West Wing.
Wayne Sutton
Co-Founder, CTO at Change Catalyst
Wayne is responsible for Backstage Accelerator programming, which ensures founder short- and long-term success through mentor connections, logistics, and curriculum. Previously, he launched the first accelerator for underestimated founders in 2011, and a pre-accelerator in 2014. In 2015, Wayne joined Change Catalyst to launch its Tech Inclusion programs to exploring innovative solutions to diversity and inclusion in tech through conferences, training, workshops, and fellows programs. Wayne has been recognized as one of the “Silicon Valley 100 coolest people in tech”, “52 hottest new stars in Silicon Valley”, “46 Most Important African-Americans In Technology”, and “Top 100 most influential black people on social media”. His work has been featured on CNN, BBC, USA Today, TechCrunch, Mashable, and Black Enterprise; his thought leadership on diversity and inclusion in tech has been featured in TechCrunch, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. Wayne has been a featured speaker at Stanford, UC Berkeley, Duke, UNC, TEDx, O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW, DockerCon, and the U.S. Embassy Jamaica. Wayne winds down with long motorcycle rides on his Ducati Scrambler Full Throttle along Hwy 1 with life partner Melinda Epler.
Andy Ayim
Managing Director at Backstage Capital
Amy Chao
Creative & Tech Connector at VR Diversity Initiative
Neil Milliken
Head of Accessibility & Digital Inclusion at Atos
Dr J Harrison
Harbinger of Change at ThoughtWorks
Dr Ian McDonald
CTO in residence at Microsoft
Taz Latif
Head of Growth at Knowit
Anisah Osman Britton
CEO at 23 Code Street, Director at Backstage Capital
Vivek Nair
Education & Training Engineering Manager at Twilio
Dayo Akinrinade
Head of Partnerships at Your Startup Your Story
Marissa Ellis
Founder, CEO at Diversily
Darren Tenkorang
CEO at TRIM-IT
Nafisa Bakkar
Co Founder, CEO at Amaliah
Shelley Taylor
Founder, CEO at Trellyz
Francesca Warner
Co-Founder, CEO at Diversity VC
Suki Fuller
Co-Founder, CEO at Salaam Ventures
Buki Thompson
Product Specialist II at Synchronoss Technologies
Alexander Fefegha
Founder, Head Creative Technologist at Comuzi
Pamela Hutchinson
Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Bloomberg LP
Wayne Barlow
Senior Director at Bloomberg LP
Hawra Milani
Founder at Code 2 Serve
Nicola Corti
Android Engineer at Yelp
Christine Flounders
Regional Engineering Manager at Bloomberg LP
Gillian Bell
Director of Systems Engineering at Symantec
Zoe Philpott
Director at Philpott Design / ADA.ADA.ADA
Jack Armley
Accessibility Engineer at Expedia
Melinda Briana Epler
Founder, CEO at Change Catalyst
Wayne Sutton
Co-Founder, CTO at Change Catalyst
Bloomberg London
3 Queen Victoria St
London EC4N 4TQ, UK
Tech Inclusion events are a safe and innovative space for people across every gender, race, ethnicity, religion, country of origin, sexual orientation, visible and invisible ability, and age, as well as veterans and people who have been incarcerated. Our Code of Conduct will be visible and enforced.
We work hard to make our events accessible to everyone – the venue is wheelchair accessible; we’ll have seats up front reserved for wheelchairs, people who are deaf, hard of hearing and/or visually impaired; we’ll have live captioning at the stage; there will be vegan, dairy free and gluten free food options.
If you need an interpreter, volunteer guide, Mother’s Room, prayer room or have other accessibility or dietary needs we’ll do our best – please let us know when you RSVP!”
Change Catalyst builds inclusive tech ecosystems through strategic advising, startup programmes and resources, and a series of events around the globe.
Using culture and behaviour change strategies, we partner with the tech industry to drive solutions to diversity and inclusion together: across education, workplace, entrepreneurship, policy, media/entertainment and ecosystem builders.
Twitter: @ChangeCatalysts
Facebook: facebook.com/changecatalysts
Email: contact@changecatalyst.co
Web: Changecatalyst.co
Interested in sponsoring? This is a unique chance to meet diverse engineers, entrepreneurs, designers and more! Contact us for more information.
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Accessibility Please see above section for Event Accessibility.
Code of Conduct It is very important to us that everyone attending the conference feels safe and respected. Will be strictly enforcing our Code of Conduct at all Tech Inclusion events. Please read it here.
Filming on Premises Change Catalyst is an educational company that supports and catalyses people leading change. We photograph, video and audio record our events to share important discussions and experiences with people who are unable to attend in person. By entering our event location during our event, you agree that Change Catalyst has the right to use your likeness, image, voice, etc. in photos, videos and in any educational, marketing, advertising or related endeavours. You will not be compensated in any way for the use of your likeness, image, voice, etc. Being on these premises during our event means that you release and hold harmless Change Catalyst from any claims or actions that arise as a result of this production. Thank you so much for your support and cooperation. We look forward to seeing you soon!
Transfers & Refunds Tickets are non-transferable. If you are no longer able to attend, we are happy to issue a refund within 60 days of your purchase, if your request is received less than 20 days before. We will not be able to issue refunds after that date.