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

Mike is the development manager at Manheim Auctions. Starting his development career working on with the little known coding language ‘Progress’, Mike moved from developer to lead developer to development manager. He is now responsible for 11 people who he manages in an agile fashion. He is currently overseeing the rollout of a business-wide Azure deployment. This project is the culmination of 18 months of work and will be affecting all of Manheim Auctions sites.

Juan is the software engineer team lead at Balena.io He focuses on building high-quality software and is passionate about open-source, maintainability, testing, software correctness, and static program analysis. He’s been with Balena for 4 years moving from a Software Engineer to a team lead and now he is the Engineering Lead. Prior to Balena.io Juan worked as a Software Engineer for Rulemotion and PikaPay.

Drew is the Delivery Manager at Karhoo A self-proclaimed ‘recovering project manager’ Drew’s career started in engineering. He was a backend engineer in the era of Java. Prior to KarHoo, Drew worked at a technology agency working with various clients in the UK in a project focused role delivering technology software. Drew now manages the creation of award-winning digital products across web, mobile and tablet devices. He is experienced in managing teams of developers, analysts, UX, creative and testers delivering compelling digital products through full product life cycle development and evolution.

Nicholas is the CEO at CommerceBank A cryptocurrencies entrepreneur & software engineer, Nicholas has been involved with bitcoin since 2012. Nicholas is a technologist first and foremost, he caught the bitcoin bug through writing software for banks. Although he was working in banking Nicholas did question the ethics of the 2008 financial crisis and thought it was unfair that they got bailed out. He came to the conclusion the traditional banking sector wasn’t for him. This realisation spurred his interest in Blockchain and he found the concept of bitcoin fascinating. This culminated in his role as the CEO at CommerceBank Nicholas is regularly quoted in major cryptocurrency publications and he is an experienced advisor for government trade bodies on crypto.

Doug is the Head of Data at Metropolitan Thames Valley Douglas Silverstone is the Head of Data, Analytics and Information Security at Metropolitan Thames Valley. Responsible for the data on 60,000 homes more than 100,000 tenants and countless repairs and components. Housing Data is becoming increasingly complex and interrelated. Be that legislative requirements, IoT, or simply providing a better service to our tenants, both the data we collect and the information we manage is increasing by the day. Douglas has led the Data governance initiative at Metropolitan Thames Valley Housing. Beyond this, he is a thought leader in the sector setting up a housing data forum and a strong advocate of the HACT data standards, which enable associations to work better together and deliver more for their tenants. His approach has led to a fundamental step-change in the way data is understood and used, and helps MTVH to be leaders in their field.

Matt is the lead full-stack game developer at Wibbu Currently the lead full-stack game developer at Wibbu, Matt makes games for language learning. His goal is to create immersive experiences for players to learn languages. From the player perspective, this is done as a second point to the game. Wibbu wants its players to enjoy their game experience and then once they’ve finished they realise they’ve learned a language. The school version of Ruby Rei is sold and endorsed by Cambridge University Assessments and is accompanied by an extensive Teacher's Handbook developed by Cambridge University Press. Before Wibbu Matt has worked in web development and for a games company called Everi, which specialised in slot machine games. **At 9.13 Matt mentions mention that the school's version of Ruby Rei is scheduled to release in May. As schedules usually do, this has changed. The school's version is currently being sold in Turkey and is going to be launched in Mexico and Spain within the next year?

Bo Run is the Head of Data at the Alzheimer's Society. After a year leading a data department at Greenpeace, Bo returned to Alzheimer’s Society and became their first Head of Data. This decision was influenced in part by the amazing work the Society does to combat dementia. He was also drawn to the organisation as he relished the challenge of developing a data strategy in what is effectively a greenfield site. Alzheimer’s Society has yet to leverage the data it has access to up to Bo’s appointment so he was uniquely placed to roll out an effective and robust data strategy for the charity.

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 gro

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.

Sebastian is the Co-founder and Director at Titus Learning As the co-founder of Titus Learning Sebastian has always championed e-learning and alternate educational routes. After a brief stint at university, he found he worked best when engaging in ‘non-traditional’ educational avenues. This realisation saw him set up Titus Learning to bring the advantages of e-learning courses to as many people as possible. Jump to 24.22 to listen to Seb's three lessons. Key points covered in this show include: How e-learning is disrupting the ‘traditional’ education sectors How can we create a tech curriculum that can adapt to the pace of change of technology

Rich is an EMEA Recruitment Specialist for Google Cloud. Starting his career recruiting for marketing roles in an agency, Rich, quickly learned the benefits developing long term relationships can have on one's career. Building true and meaningful client and candidate relationships has always been at the core of Rich’s recruitment strategy. In 2012 he started working for a recruitment company who then looked to expand their digital recruitment arm. Rich started recruiting digital marketing professionals for a variety of other businesses. Over the next 6 years, his division grew across the UK. Rich started to manage several different teams and advise teams in other areas of the world on how to found their own digital business units. He was also added to the board of directors. After a seven-year stint working agency side, Rich moved to an in-house role working for Google Cloud. This move was spurred by his desire to work in long term partnerships with clients. Initially, he acted as the point of cont

John is an entrepreneur and founder of Pushfor. John’s career started when he was 11 years old after a chance encounter with a computer magazine. His first computer was a ZX81 Sinclair and he had to type in his programs from computer magazines. Always a fan of taking things apart to find out how they worked John started deconstructing the programs he was typing into his computer and began learning from there. This combined with a natural flair for working with people quickly saw John working in consultancy. John worked with Experian and in his spare time he wrote a security application to protect some software he’d been writing. John developed software protection technology that turned into a powerful security engine that was used for companies like Microsoft Games.