CEO of Gandel Philanthropy, Adjunct Professor, School of Global Urban and Social Studies, RMIT

As CEO of one of the largest private family foundations in Australia, Vedran supports the Gandel family to invest in digital learning opportunities and programs to enable better educational outcomes for all Australians, but especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Over the years Gandel Philanthropy funded projects such as ‘computer for every child’, the digital learning labs at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, iPads for non-verbal students in specialist schools and a Tech Schools programme in regional and rural schools. Vedran is also an Adjunct Professor at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT). 

Director of Online Learning at Heriot-Watt Online

Stuart Allan leads the design and development of large-scale, fully online programmes and innovation in digital pedagogy at Heriot-Watt Online (Heriot-Watt University). Previously he led the transformation of the online MBA at Edinburgh Business School, which has over 9,000 students worldwide. Stuart has an MSc in Digital Education, is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and is currently working on a PhD at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Research in Digital Education. He is passionate about making access to digital education more equitable.

Strategic Lead for Digital Learning / Learning Technologist

Evan is the Learning Technologist at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, responsible for the uptake of Digital Learning. He has been Head of Learning Technology at Bloomsbury Institute London, St George’s University of London and Queen Mary University of London, (maternity cover), with other roles at University of Arts London, Birkbeck University of London, University of Surrey and Richmond American International University in London, where he also lectured in Art History and Fine Art.

Between 2007 and 2016, he was a Higher Education Adviser and Account Manager for Jisc. He worked with senior management, academics and students to provide Technology Enhanced Learning and IT systems reviews and other strategically focussed consultancy services at 60+ universities, FE colleges and NHS Trusts. He has provided consultancy services to University of Southern Denmark, Babes-Bolyai University Romania, the Basque Region University Spain and Syracuse University in London. He is a Senior Fellow of AdvanceHE.

Senior Instructional Designer, Digital Learning at Bayes Business School

Leonard has been working in digital learning for over 12 years.  An experienced presenter and keynote speaker, he has written about digital learning for the Guardian, FT, E-Learning Age, Association for Learning Technology and Times Higher Education. He is also a former director of the eLearning Network and has judged for the Learning Technology Awards for five years.

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A supporter of evidence-based teaching, Leonard also co-organise an e-learning research reading group in London (lerg.org) where practitioners meet to discuss current research papers in online learning. He also is currently in the final stages of designing an online MBA for Bayes Business School where he the Senior Instructional Designer.
 

Venture Partner at Northzone and Early-Stage Board Advisor and Investor

Justin fell in love with digital media while studying drama at the University of Manchester. He started a company called Fortune Cookie building web sites for big companies in 1997 and sold it to WPP 15 years later. Along the way he became Chair of BIMA, joined the Advertising Association Leadership Council, lobbied for web accessibility to become UK law and joined the board of his first venture capital-backed business. He exited and realised that building businesses that use technology to change the world is fun and rewarding. He was Vice Chair of Unicef, Chair of The Drum and Deputy Chair at FutureLearn and is now a Venture Partner at Northzone (Spotify, Klarna, Hopin, Kahoot!, Labster) and an early-stage board advisor and investor. 

Director and Partner at Parvus Asset Management

Rahul is Director and Partner at Parvus Asset Management; working with various firms as a strategic advisor, consultant or fund director. He is also a trustee and/or patron of six charities working with young people.

Rahul has spent the last 22 years building businesses across the world. Prior to moving into the world of finance he was an academic and studied at 19 universities in four countries. Today he works with six charitable organisations and supports many others. All of the charities focus on young people so education is central to the delivery of their mission and digital has been key to the success in reaching benefactors.

Director of International Strategy at Global University Systems Canada

Bernardo was born in Bogota, Colombia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in advertising & Marketing. He originally arrived in Canada as an international student in 1996 and later he co-founded of one of the most prestigious and largest private English schools for international students in Canada. Now Bernardo is the Director of International Strategy for Global University Systems Canada. Bernardo has a passion for helping people, especially other immigrants, which is why since his early years in Canada he has served at different non-profit organisations. He has been a recipient of national and international recognitions such as “New Pioneer Award” by Skills for Change, the “Ten Most Influential Hispanics in Canada” by the Hispanic Business Alliance, the “Award of Excellence” by Colombia en el Exterior and is also the recipient of the “Top 25 Canadian Immigrants Award” by the Canadian Immigrant Magazine and The Royal Bank of Canada. He is also a certified coach, teacher and speaker of the John Maxwell Organization. His passion is to intentionally add value to people and help SMBs and SMEs during their startup period.

Assistant Principal for Online Learning and Director of Learning, Teaching & Web at University of Edinburgh in Scotland

Melissa has significant experience in higher education having led digital education initiatives at the Universities of Oxford and Leeds in the UK. She has a track record of success and innovation in delivering high quality educational technology projects with global reach.  Under her leadership the University of Edinburgh teams have won many awards for excellence, innovation and creativity. She is a champion for diversity and inclusion with long-standing interests in lifelong learning, data skills and open educational resources. The University of Edinburgh is a world leader in online education and learning technologies.

Mathematics Technology Researcher at UCL Knowledge Lab

Miracule is a dynamic mathematics technology researcher at UCL Knowledge Lab, London. He is a founder of three EdTech societies in Africa-Ghana Society for Education Technology (GSET), African Society for Technology in Education (ASTE) and EdTech West Africa (EWA). He has vast experience in education technology and holds a masters degree in learning design and technology and is currently pursuing a PhD at UCL Institute of Education, London. His research interests span teaching, professional development, mathematics education, and learning sciences. He has over 13 years of experience advising national and international projects from curriculum development, teacher training, project implementation and technology integration. As a former school principal and national director of training for teachers in Ghana, he has worked with global leaders in education to bring innovation to education projects with great impact.

Lead - International Growth & Strategy, Ingenious Faces

Jubin is a dynamic young professional who has combined his love for architecture, design, business strategy and sustainable development into a fascinating career. Over his 7 years of professional career he has gained diverse experience in consulting across Ed-Tech, Health-tech and many other thematic areas, creating development programs as well as project management and execution for large scale companies. He has experience working with various sizes of organisations and types of
stakeholders, providing him a unique skill set to drive change. He has worked with the Ministry of Urban Development in India (Delhi Development Authority), followed by a 3 year stint with a renowned global social enterprise (Development Alternatives Group).
For the last 2 years he has been leading a startup accelerator called The Launch Studio which is a part of an International company called Ingenious Faces. In his current
role he has been consulting 10+ global social impact startups (most being EdTech start ups) to internationalise into new geographies.

Head of Young People at Sky

Nishy joined Sky in 1998 and has worked in Finance and Broadcasting ever since. Today, she is Head of Young People, helping hundreds of underrepresented youth find fulfilling work in the media industry. Her work has already impacted over 200,000 young people across media, tech and sport and has led to her being awarded the Social and Humanitarian Asian Women of Achievement Award for 2020.

Director of Media & Technology Enhanced Learning Operations, University of Law

Colin is an experienced leader in the field of learning transformation with a passion for digital learning, educational operations in the U.K, Australia and U.S.A, instructional / learning design, edtech, customer service design, product management & leading digital teams. For over ten years he has led on successful projects in online and blended digital courses within higher education, colleges, learning and development & commercial education working directly with educators, clients, CEOs and senior management.

Internet of Things & Digital Skills Lead

Sarah is a telecommunications professional with 25 years experience across Product Management, Business Development, Retail Operations, ISP Operations and HR.  For the last 10 years her specialism has been in product management of M2M (Machine to Machine) and IoT (Internet of Things) solutions.  From CIPD training through to general management development, she became more and more passionate about best practice for training and development.  Sarah joined Digital Isle of Man in September 2020 to manage the IoT Accelerator initiative which aims to promote the use of technology for the social and economic development of the Island. It quickly became apparent how much synergy that had with another department project to develop the Island’s Digital Skills strategy, so Sarah was happy to take that on too.

Senior Advisor to the President and CEO, Barbara Bush Foundation

Rebecca Dyer has worked for the Barbara Bush Foundation since January 1998 in a variety of roles. After retiring from her position as
Chief Mission Officer in June 2020, Becky now serves as Senior Advisor to the President and CEO. In this role, she provides counsel on the
effective design, development, and scaling of evidence-based adult and family literacy programming; incubation of new and innovative solutions through technology; research and evaluation efforts; and professional
development.

Her career spans nearly 40 years, with significant experience in public school adult education, including service as an Adult Basic Education teacher, local adult education program director, and State Director of
Adult Education in Maine.

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Becky served as the Director of the Maine Family Literacy Initiative for the Barbara Bush
Foundation for many years and has provided technical assistance to state adult education leaders on policy and career pathways. During her tenure at the Maine Department of Education, her team created the successful College Transitions Network and Work Ready programs for the State. Becky is the recipient of the Gerald N. LeVasseur Award for Outstanding Leadership and Rotary District 7780 Service Above Self Award.

Becky earned her Bachelor of Science from State University of New York at Potsdam and earned her master’s degree in Human Resource Development at the University of Southern Maine. A native of Maine, Becky and her husband, Don, live on Pequawket Lake in Limington, Maine.