NI’s biggest technology event
is here: Big Data Belfast!

Alastair is a Partner at EY Ireland and Head of Healthcare Technology. In this role, he leads initiatives focused on integrating digital, data and technology within the healthcare sector, aiming to enhance patient care and operational efficiency. His responsibilities include leading client delivery, driving innovation, and fostering strategic partnerships to help improve patient outcomes.

In addition to his role at EY, Alastair is also Board Member at openEHR UK reflecting his commitment to shaping the future of healthcare through open standards.

Prior to joining EY, Alastair was a founding member of a leading Electronic Medical Records Product. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, he supported the NHS’s response through his work on COVID-19 Testing, Contact Tracing and Vaccinations. He has also led several large scale interoperability projects across the NHS, including a shared care planning service across London.

Alastair holds a B.Sc. (First Class Hons) in Computer Science from Queen’s University Belfast.

Adele Brown is Director of the Northern Ireland Executive’s Programme on Paramilitarism, Criminality and Organised Crime which came into being in 2015 following the Fresh Start Agreement agreed by the UK and Irish Governments.

It is the first initiative of its kind in Northern Ireland, providing an outcomes-focused, trauma-informed, public health approach to violence reduction. Adele has worked on issues relating to paramilitarism in Northern Ireland for over a decade.

Andrew currently works as a Master Strategist for UK & Ireland at Hewlett-Packard Enterprise – one of the world’s most innovative technology companies – where he advises clients, across a range of industries, on how they should leverage people, processes and technologies to spur their transformation and change agenda.

In his work, Andrew is able to draw from his extensive knowledge and experience spanning a broad range of related areas – such as Transformation, Edge to Multi-Cloud Technologies, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence – to advise boards and their teams on their optimal paths to success. In recognition of his expertise, he currently holds the position of Discussion Leader at HPE’s Customer Innovation Centre in London.

Before joining HPE, Andrew worked at Micro Focus (now OpenText) where he led the Advisory & Professional Services teams on a range of strategic client accounts – across Financial Services, Pharmaceutical and Manufacturing industries. Prior to this Andrew was a Senior Manager at the world’s leading technology research and consulting firm Gartner Inc. – spending 5 years supporting clients in the Arabian Gulf and 3 further years aligned to the Public Sector in the UK&I. This combined experience has given Andrew unique perspectives on what it takes to succeed, the pitfalls that are to be avoided along the way and the approaches and frameworks senior leaders should embrace and adopt to keep their critical technology programmes on track.

As a seasoned public speaker, throughout his career, Andrew has spoken at CIO and Digital Transformation events – aimed at senior business and technology leaders – across UK, Ireland and the broader EMEA region. Andrew qualified from University of London with a BSc in Biological Sciences, holds an M.B.A (with Distinction) from Manchester Business School and is in the final stages of his Ph.D at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). His doctoral research centres on the challenges of effectively governing the use of AI and Machine Learning in Heavily Regulated Industry contexts – such as Banking and Finance. Andrew is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) – an international, nonprofit, scientific society devoted to promoting research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence.

In terms of speaking engagements Andrew’s main focus at present is on raising awareness of the fact that humans are no longer the only ‘agent-type’ in the modern organisation. Instead, companies have become ‘socio-material assemblages’ made up of humans AND machines. In his view, modern firms (their strategies, policies and principles) still run on the outdated notion of ‘human-centricity’.

Andrew believes that this paradigm-shift towards ‘the second machine age’ renders most of the collective wisdom we hold on how best to manage, govern and optimise organisations – much less relevant and in some cases completely redundant. He also covers the all-important area of leveraging high-quality data – as the foundation stone to successful AI (and other) endeavours.

Andrew splits his time between London, England and Belfast, Northern Ireland with his wife, daughter and dog. Amongst other things, he is passionate about music, literature and cross-country mountain biking.

We are excited to announce Steve Blanche, CTO at Ergo will join us at Big Data Belfast 2024!

Steve creates and drives the technical direction and strategy for Ergo’s managed services business and leads Ergo’s consultants and their teams, delivering ICT solutions to corporate and enterprise customers.

In his role he manages and has grown, Ergo’s core specialisations in digital transformation, cloud adoption services and ICT strategies and was responsible for the development and growth of Ergo’s managed services business, currently servicing in excess of 400 customers who have outsourced various levels of IT services to Ergo.

Stephanie is Head of Innovation with 10+ years’ experience in academia, food manufacturing and food-tech.

With an undergraduate degree in Food Science and a PhD in Food Supply Chain Management, Stephanie has spent her career working in food manufacturing environments in a R&D capacity, as well as working on and managing several multi-million pound research projects while working for Queen’s University Belfast.

Stephanie has worked with Foods Connected for the several years, working on innovation projects and implementing the Trace Connected solution within the food industry.

Paul McCormick has over 15 years of extensive experience in data and analytics across multiple industries. At Danske Bank, as the Data & Analytics Delivery Manager, he has introduced many innovative solutions that have redefined data’s significance to the organisation. He oversees a skilled team focused on data engineering, analytics, and AI, helping turn data into strategic solutions and insights.

Tim is a Partner in Technology Consulting, specialising in Digital and Emerging Technology, leading the Intelligent Automation team across the Island of Ireland.

Tim is an accomplished and experienced technologist, assisting our clients to understand how different technologies can help solve a wide range of different business problems.

Prior to joining EY Tim worked with another big 4 with a focus on Business/Digital Transformations, Programme & Project Delivery, Service Delivery and Strategy development and execution.

Tim holds a B.Sc. in Business Information Technology from Queen’s University Belfast.

Stephen is head of the Information Processing and Analytics service at the European Medicines Agency (EMA), responsible for the software platforms underpinning EMA’s role in the domain of Eudravigilance and data analytics. Last year, his team successfully implemented the first GPT-driven production system at any EU institution.

Prior to EMA, he was CIO at Spectral Energy, one of the top scale-ups in the Netherlands. Whilst based in Slovenia for more than a decade from 2006, he first ran his own nearshoring software consultancy and then led the Market Surveillance and Analytics team at the EU’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators.

Born and raised in County Down, Stephen has more than 25 years’ experience in providing data-driven software solutions within a multinational context. He holds a Masters in Engineering and Computer Science from Oxford University.

Dr Michaela Fox is AgriFood Business Development Manager at Momentum One Zero in Queen’s University, Belfast (QUB). Michaela completed her undergraduate and PhD studies at the Institute for Global Food Security (IGFS). Michaela has worked within the University for the over 5 supporting Queen’s partnership with EIT Food, a prestigious knowledge and innovation community of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology which connects partners from leading businesses, universities, research centres and startups across 13 countries in Europe and from the entire food value chain.

In her current role as business development manager in Momentum One Zero, Michaela is supporting companies to co-create, access, and exploit Momentum One Zero’s expertise and advanced technologies in Secure Connected Intelligence and translate them into solutions for the agrifood sector.

Andreas is a seasoned Data, Analytics, and AI leader with a proven track record of building successful analytics functions from scratch, delivering exceptional retention and ROI. His expertise spans across industries such as energy, insurance, civil infrastructure and environmental infrastructure, publication, healthcare, and loyalty management, where he has facilitated transitions to data-driven models and built successful analytics functions. As a qualified data leader and with publications on national newspapers for his work, he brings a unique perspective to the table, driving strategic advisory both on crafting effective data and AI strategies and on data ethics and auditing AI models. With a passion for uncovering insights, he thrives on leveraging data to propel business success. Let’s connect and explore how we can drive growth through data-driven approaches.

Dr Robert Grundy has spent over 24 years in Pharma and Biotech beginning in drug discovery and development at Schering-Plough and GlaxoSmithKline. Rob served as CSO with Cerebricon before joining Almac Discovery in 2008. In 2014 Rob founded Anglezarke Life Sciences, a commercialisation and growth strategy consultancy.

Rob has served as CEO of CIGA Healthcare and Health Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland. Rob has held or holds visiting and honorary lectureships at King’s College London and Queen’s University Belfast. Rob formally chaired Matrix, the Science and Technology policy panel for the Northern Ireland Government and represented Northern Ireland on the Chief Scientific Advisors Network for the UK. He currently serves as CEO at Intelligent OMICS Ltd, an AI driven drug discovery company.

Deborah is a Lead Data Scientist for Marketing at Allstate NI, where she specialises in optimising the annual marketing budget across multiple media channels within the Marketing Analytics & Data Science department.

Prior to her role at Allstate, she contributed to modelling projects in Astrophysics and Medical Physics at Queen’s University Belfast. Leveraging her academic expertise and teaching experience, Deborah has effectively transitioned into the realms of Big Data Analytics and predictive modelling in the insurance industry.

She is also responsible for delivering Allstate’s training courses in Data Analytics.

Tim Jennings leads Synechron’s Data & Analytics practice, driving data strategy, governance, architecture and analytics offerings for our clients. He is a seasoned IT professional with a strong background in investment banking & financial services.

Tim has 25+ years’ experience delivering business strategy and change projects across front, middle and back office; as well as technical infrastructure and IT operations management. He works with senior data stakeholders in business and IT to help them define, refine and deliver their strategic objectives.

Gareth is a Partner at EY Ireland Data & Analytics practice, with a focus on innovation through technology, data and analytics, artificial intelligence, and robotics.

Experienced in external audit, he helps lead the EY Audit Centre of Excellence and works with a large team, supporting innovation and statutory audit transformation through the implementation of data and analytic technologies.
Additionally, Gareth works with EY clients to transform internal audit through analytics, automation and process optimisation.

Prior to joining EY, he worked as Senior Manager at another big four firm. Gareth holds an LLB in Law and Accountancy from the Queen’s University Belfast.

Victoria is a Principal Data Scientist at LibertyIT and has been part of the company for the past 13 years, having completed her PhD in Astrophysics at Queen’s University Belfast. She joined LibertyIT as a software engineer and spent the first nine years of her career developing front-end and back-end solutions to streamline the underwriting process for large commercial insurance products.

In 2020, she transitioned to an innovation team, where she focused on MLOps projects while furthering her data science skills through work opportunities and a postgraduate course in Artificial Intelligence at Ulster University. This experience paved the way for a career shift in 2022 when she moved into data science.

Over the last two years, she has worked on a variety of projects, including building predictive models to enhance customer experience in insurance purchasing, as well as researching graph data science techniques for fraud detection.

Gary Marshall represents NantStudios, a cutting-edge facility specialising in both traditional and virtual production. Based in Los Angeles, NantStudios has been involved in some of Hollywood’s biggest hits, including Avengers: Endgame, Mary Poppins Returns, and Deadpool 2. They have also were involved with our very own Studio Ulster.

James is a lead data scientist in Allstate Northern Ireland’s Belfast office. He leverages data to drive decisions across various business functions, including sales, marketing, pricing, and underwriting. With a track record of supporting initiatives from planning through to deployment, James excels at demonstrating the value of these projects once implemented.

James is currently focused on innovative projects that analyse property imagery to generate general purpose insights, enhancing both customer experiences and business outcomes.

We are thrilled to welcome Alistair Stoops, Data, Analytics & AI Lead at Ergo, to Big Data Belfast 2024!

As Data, Analytics & AI Lead & with a remarkable career within data analysis, risk assessment, and technical consulting, Alistair brings a wealth of expertise to the table. Skilled in SQL, R, and Python, he excels in automation, data governance, and enhancing data quality. His extensive experience in delivering technical solutions, managing teams, and fostering learning and development makes him an invaluable addition to our lineup.

Don’t miss the chance to gain insights from Alistair and an incredible roster of speakers at this year’s event!

Rebecca is an award-winning service designer, engineer, and digital health expert. A Chartered Mechanical Engineer (IMechE), Rebecca holds an MEng (Hons) in Aerospace Engineering from Queen’s University Belfast and brings 15 years of experience in user-centred design and innovation to her role as Service Design Director at Big Motive.

Rebecca is responsible for delivering high-quality experience health design projects for a range of Big Motive’s clients, spanning private health technology startups to large public sector health systems. As a teacher and advisor, Rebecca is a panel member of Matrix, Northern Ireland’s Science Industry Panel, and co-chair of the ‘Service Design Ireland.’

Rebecca led Big Motive’s multi-disciplined design team in Northern Ireland’s award-winning digital response to the pandemic, delivering a variety of digital services that helped promote better health outcomes, for the population of Northern Ireland.