Technology Connected Blockchain

David is a qualified financial professional and technologist with a broad experience having worked across numerous sectors, including; power generation, ad-tech, medical devices and defence/aerospace.

As Investment Director at a UK leading investment fund Deepbridge Capital, David’s role is to support the commercialisation and growth of a number of Deepbridge’s portfolio companies, whilst also working on a number of future funding opportunities. He specialises in technology investments into early stage companies and currently works with a number of investees ranging from fintech, software, space tech to quantum computing.

David previously worked as an Investment Executive at the Development Bank of Wales’ Technology Venture Investments fund allowing him to work specifically within the Welsh technology ecosystem.

David is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and holds a distinction in a MSc in Computing, bringing with him a combination of practical skills and experiences from finance and technology for early stage technology companies and has been involved with the Blockchain Connected steering committee since September 2020.

Although based in Wales, David works with clients across the UK and is delighted to be playing a role within the early stage technology ecosystem.

Jack Davies is a Senior Strategy Manager at nChain, specialising in cryptographic applications, network theory and data protocols for Bitcoin-based systems. Jack has been working in the field since 2017 immediately after completing an undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences (Physical) at Cambridge University. In his research, Jack has helped develop a number concepts relating to novel usage of the blockchain. A notable example of his work is the Metanet, a framework for a value-based internet, which Jack has contributed to in his role at nChain, and which he publicly detailed at the 2019 CoinGeek Toronto conference. Other significant contributions include his work on simplified payment verification (SPV) and in examining the layered-network structure of Bitcoin.

One of Jack’s key interests is furthering education in blockchain, both in corporate and academic circles. In the past 6 months, Jack has given guest lectures at the University of Swansea, and several London-based institutions on the economic theory of Bitcoin. In addition, Jack is one of the co-founders of the BSV Wales blockchain meetup group, where he has helped run educational events, seeking to improve the quality of information disseminated throughout Wales’ technology industries.

Whilst working with entrepreneurial and innovative people in Wales and across the UK, especially in advanced manufacturing and technology businesses, Nicola’s focus is on working closely with clients to solve their problems and really understand how their businesses work.

Nicola has worked on secondment to the Royal Mint at Llantrisant, focusing on new business and intellectual property, but also for clients in a range of sectors on software outsourcing agreements, blockchain solutions and EMI schemes. Giving businesses the right legal infrastructure to enable them to develop and grow is important to Nicola and therefore Nicola has found her non-executive director role with Business in Focus, supporting Welsh businesses, fascinating.

Yingli specialises and researches in digital transformation and technological innovations in supply chains. One of her research priorities is blockchain/distributed ledger technology and its integrative use with other digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things and cloud computing. She is currently involved in a number of blockchain initiatives internationally, for instance she sits as a blockchain supply chain expert for World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, shaping the trajectory of blockchain deployment in supply chains towards interoperability, integrity and inclusivity.

In the UK, she’s been working with a few organisations from the construction and fintech sectors exploring the deployment of blockchain for value creation. She is keen in raising awareness and sharing knowledge about blockchain in supply chain and has delivered in collaboration with industrial partners a master class on blockchain at RICS Digital Built Environment Conference 2019 (London) and a webinar on blockchain’s role in the circular economy for the World Built Environment Forum. She is also one of the core contributors to the Blockchain Deployment Toolkit recently launched by World Economic Forum, which can be accessed here. Dr. Wang is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT).  Before embarking on her academic career, she worked for about 8.5 years at Nestlé China in various senior managerial roles.

Sharon Henley has been in the blockchain space for over six years now and is well known in the space.

Sharon got her start in blockchain and crypto while Head of Marketing at the Royal Mint, where she was responsible for launching The Royal Mint’s blockchain venture- Royal Mint Gold (RMG); a tradable, digital, direct ownership of gold. More recently she serves as CPO for Coincover, the #1 brand in crypto security delivering FCIS like Deposit Protection and insurance back theft cover for crypto assets. She is a non-executive director for Trustworks.io and was co-founder of The British Blockchain and Frontier Technologies Association. Sharon has more than 20 years of international experience at top brands, including Canon, Microsoft, Xerox, DuPont and Nikon where she delivered innovative programs requiring complex strategy focused on growth and revenue, and has worked extensively in both Silicon Valley and London. She holds 8 technology patents.

Thane has been with Thales for 14 years mainly working on projects around Defence and Security and over the last three years has been looking at Blockchain applications associated with supply chains and asset tracking. Thane has explored the benefits and challenges to Blockchain adoption in this application space for both internal use cases and for customer requirements alike. Thane setup and ran the Bristol Blockchain Meetup Group for 18 months which also brought him into close contact with teams working in other Blockchain application spaces.

Avril was appointed Managing Director of Technology Connected, formerly the ESTnet, in May 2012.

Her background is in the semiconductor industry, and she was awarded the MBE for services to the technology industry in Wales in 2018. Avril is an influential and energetic leader with highly developed communication and interpersonal skills, and thrives as a catalyst for change.

Dr Imtiaz Khan is a Reader in Data Science at Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK with a mission to increase the veracity and value of big data. Having a PhD in Bioinformatics from Cardiff University, UK and a postdoctoral fellowship from Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, USA, his research focuses on heterogeneous data integration and interpretation through visualisation. At present his research interest includes provenance, blockchain, data modelling, data interoperability, interactive data visualisation, machine learning and IoT integrated mobile app development. He leads the Centre for Industry 4.0 and Blockchain Research (CI4BCR) at Cardiff Met and also founded the Hub for Distributed Technologies and Future Societies, a multidisciplinary research cluster investigating the impact of distributed technologies like blockchain on future societies. He is also the programme director for the BSc Apprenticeship Data Science programme.

Omer F. Rana is a professor of performance engineering at Cardiff University in the School of Computer Science & Informatics, with expertise in high performance distributed computing & data science. He is also the Dean of International for the Physical Sciences and Engineering College at Cardiff University, responsible for coordinating partnerships in Education & Research with institutions in the US, Brazil, China and India. He co-leads the “Scalable Blockchains & Parachain” working group under IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEMS)’s Technical Committee on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs). This group focuses on bringing together a global research & development community on improving transaction rates of blockchain/DLTs, supporting DLTs in emerging applications (such as energy grids, transport systems & internet of things) where scalability is a key requirement. As part of the Chinese MoE “111” programme, he is a visiting professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and formerly a visiting professor at Princess Noura University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

He was formerly the deputy director of the Welsh eScience Centre and had the opportunity to interact with a number of computational scientists across Cardiff University and the UK. Rana has contributed to specification and standardisation activities via the Open Grid Forum and worked as a software developer with London-based Marshall Bio-Technology Limited prior to joining Cardiff University, where he developed specialist software to support biotech instrumentation. He was a mentor to two startup companies as part of the “Internet of Things Accelerator Wales” programme — a partnership between Innovation Point, The Accelerator Network (TAN), Barclays Eagle Labs, Inspire Wales and the Development Bank of Wales. He  contributed to public understanding of science, via the Wellcome Trust funded “Science Line”, in collaboration with BBC and Channel 4. Rana holds a PhD in “Neural Computing and Parallel Architectures” from Imperial College (London Univ.), an MSc in Microelectronics (Univ. of Southampton) and a BEng in Information Systems Eng. from Imperial College (London Univ.). He serves on the editorial boards (as Associate Editor) of IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, (formerly) IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, IEEE Cloud Computing magazine and ACM Transactions on Internet Technology. He is a founding-member and associate editor of ACM Transactions on Autonomous & Adaptive Systems.

Nish Kotecha, is an tech entrepreneur and investment banking professional. Nish is the Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Finboot (London, Barcelona). 

Finboot (Cardiff, London, Barcelona) is a technology company that gives its world class customers a competitive edge through accelerating their digital transformation, realising value and building trust through blockchain.

Previously, he founded Geosansar, a fintech pioneer in India delivering financial inclusion, combining technology and traditional opening models to deliver banking, payments, insurance and credit products.

Previously, Nish held senior positions at Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan and BZW/Barclays. 

Nish has been a key player in supporting enterprise and entrepreneurship in the UK through his pro bono roles. He was the founder of TIE UK and formerly a Global Trustee; He is also a SME Panel Member, Business Banking Resolution Service; Deputy Chair London of Chamber of Commerce & Industry & Chairman of London Chamber of Arbitration and Mediation amongst others.

Gavin is currently Operations Principle for QPQ. Having a rich background that covers technology, innovation and its whole lifecycle from conception to commercialisation. Initially gaining a PhD in artificial intelligence and working across defence, medical, aerospace and finance and sectors, with the inclusion of a growing focus around ESG, sustainability and net-zero where Gavin supports UK government through expert panels. Gavin has transitioned from writing code to acquisition and delivery of large scale programs and portfolios and now enjoys the rapid transition and growth that QPQ are displaying.

Dr Matt Shields is the director of UK operations for SIMBA Chain Inc., he is based in South Wales. SIMBA Chain Inc. was formed in 2017 to find a solution on how to use blockchain to move classified information securely for US government and military purposes. The right development platform would be one that is simple, chain agnostic, powerful, portable, and secure to create a pathway to all that Web3 might offer. SIMBA Chain built that product, SIMBA, a SIMplified Blockchain Applications platform. Many are now adopting SIMBA Chain’s technology. SIMBA is now used for NFT marketplaces by sports franchises and clubs, enterprises such as Boeing, Mantech, and Toks, and by every section of the U.S. Department of Defense. Matt gained his Ph.D. from Cardiff University in the fields of distributed computing and workflow. His experience spans enterprise, academia, and investment banking; with a varied career from senior engineer to enterprise architect in 10 years at one of the UKs largest motor insurers; 10 years IT consultancy in domains from aircraft logistics to astronomy; and nearly 10 years an investment bank foreign exchange trader in London and Frankfurt.