10 March 2026
We are pleased to be hosting our next Women in Tech event with London Business School, one of the world’s leading business schools. LBS’s academic strength and global outlook drives original and provocative business thinking. They challenge conventional wisdom, transform careers and empower their people to change the way the world does business.
Technology moves at rapid pace, much quicker than many organisations can follow. In today’s world, organisations big and small have to consider AI, cyber security, cloud platforms, automation and more – so how can you ensure that your organisation can not only keep up but thrive?
In this session, our esteemed panel will explore what a future ready tech leader looks like and how there are a great many skills needed beyond having digital expertise. Today’s leaders come from tech and non-tech backgrounds, bringing a great breadth of experience and diversity of thought and are expanding the standard skillset to include must-haves such as strong leadership, business strategy, discerning communication and tactful negotiation.
Event Details:
To register to attend, please complete the form at the bottom of the page
Femi Otitoju (Chair) | Founding Partner at Challenge EDI | LinkedIn
From firefighters to volunteers, moguls to Ministers, Femi Otitoju has inspired them all. Widely acknowledged as among the UK’s leading EDI practitioners, Femi began as an LGBTQ+ campaigner in the 1980s, then started Challenge in 1985, delivering change mostly to the public sector, NGOs and educational organisations.These days big-business also recognise (and measure) the value of diversity & inclusion in the workforce and Femi heads up a talented panel of expert, highly experienced Consultants and Trainers.Femi still trains some days but spends much of her time giving keynote speeches or delivering change by way of mediation, coaching and strategy work at Board level in every type of organisation from Global Multinationals to Universities, Parliaments and Charities of every size.
For clients Femi has written bespoke training films on Harassment and Equality and wrote the acclaimed e-Learning programme “Same Difference”. The UK Passport Office was the first of many organisations to use this as part of their induction programme for new staff. Her highly popular film based resources Fair’s Fair and Talk to Me are distributed globally by Video Arts.
Briony Barham | Executive Director, Service Management & Campus Technology at London Business School | LinkedIn
Briony is a senior technology leader with over 20 years’ experience leading IT services and digital transformation in complex, fast‑paced environments. She is Executive Director of Service Management & Campus Technology at London Business School, where she oversees service management, modern workplace and audio-visual technology as well as service delivery that supports staff, faculty and students. Briony is known for her people‑centred approach to technology, having led global teams and large‑scale change programmes focused on resilience, continuous improvement and inclusive leadership, and she is passionate about developing talent and sharing practical insights on navigating leadership as a woman in tech.
Karen Bates | Chief Digital and Information Officer at London Business School | LinkedIn
Karen Bates is Chief Digital and Information Officer at London Business School. She is an experienced digital, data and technology leader with a strong track record of driving transformation and innovation across complex organisations. Karen brings over 30 years of public sector and education experience, across Higher Education and Local Government. She is known for aligning technology strategy with organisational goals, building high-performing teams and delivering impactful, sustainable change. Karen is a champion of Women in Leadership and Women in Technology, and is a strong advocate for mentoring.
Kate Boyle | Senior Data Advisor at the Cabinet Office and Director, Data and Analytics at Police Digital Service | LinkedIn
Over 25 years’ experience of working in the financial industry, having worked at Accenture, Morgan Stanley, RBS, HSBC, and Lloyds Banking Group with the last 12 years spent in Data & Analytics.An experienced and passionate Data leader, with expertise ranging across Strategy, Maturity, Culture, Governance, Transformation, AI / Machine Learning and Business Intelligence.
She joined the Police Digital Service in October 2022 working the National Police Data and Analytics Board, Home Office and other stakeholders from across policing, to define and develop national data and analytics solutions.As Director of Data and Analytics at PDS, she is currently on secondment to the Cabinet Office as a Senior Data Advisor. She is a Women in Data Twenty in Data & Tech awardee and leads their Public Sector Community stream.
Grace Tattersall | Partner and Technology Practice Lead at Anderson Quigley | LinkedIn
With over twenty years’ recruitment experience, Grace specialises in executive search and selection for C-level and senior technology leadership appointments within the public and not-for-profit sectors. Actively supporting clients to reduce barriers to recruitment and to promote diversity in the workplace, Grace brings tailored solutions for both permanent and interim leadership roles.
Grace joined the AQ team in 2022 to further expand our work in technology & digital and data appointments; prior to joining the team she built an impressive track record recruiting mid to senior level roles for global charities, UK membership bodies, central and local government and leadership teams within the higher education sector. Grace works with personal integrity, vision, energy, and passion to support her clients and candidates through the recruitment process and beyond.Grace’s recent appointments include Interim Director of IT Projects – City University, Head of Applications & Development – St Marys University, Director of IT – Arts/Heritage Organisation, CIO – Arts/Heritage Organisation, Interim CTO – Private Education Group, Director and Assistant Director of IT – Government Body, Assistant Director of IT – University, Assistant Director of Infrastructure – University, Interim Director of Technology Operations- University and Head of IT – National Charity.
Margo Urban | Head of Application Development and Support at London Business School | LinkedIn
Margo is a senior technology leader at London Business School, where she heads up Application Development across a diverse portfolio of digital products and enterprise platforms. She leads multidisciplinary teams spanning software engineering, quality assurance, DevOps, application support and delivery leadership, and plays a key role in delivering large-scale digital initiatives that support education, research and business operations.
Her background sits at the intersection of product, technology and delivery. She focuses on shaping product direction, leading product and engineering teams through complex change, and improving how organisations deliver digital services in environments with legacy systems, transformation programmes and growing demand.At the heart of her work is building high-performing teams and creating psychologically safe environments where people can do their best work, while ensuring technology and product decisions are grounded in real value for both users and the organisation.
And our keynote speaker:
Keyvan Vakili | Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship; Academic Director, Data Science and AI Initiative at London Business School | LinkedIn
Keyvan is a strategy scholar interested in the antecedents of innovation and collaboration within creative settings. In particular, he explores how the technological and institutional contexts in which individuals and firms operate shapes their choice of collaboration and consequently the characteristics of their innovations in terms of novelty and impact. He explores these topics in three related research streams.
In his first research stream, he explores how the technological context, such as the pace of change, modularity, and breadth of applications, moderate the costs and benefits associated with knowledge diversity and distant recombinations. The findings contribute to our understanding of the relationship between knowledge diversity and the characteristics of innovation output in terms of novelty and impact. In the second research stream, he takes a step back to study how the external environment influences the decision of individuals and firms to collaborate and the composition of their collaborative arrangements in the first place. He specifically focuses on how the characteristics of the surrounding technological and institutional environments influence the collaboration choice of individuals and firms and, consequently, their innovation output. Finally, in his third research stream, he focuses on how scientists and inventors choose the topics or areas in which they invest their efforts.
Before joining academia, he was an entrepreneur and worked as a consultant. In 2006, he founded a video game production company, which was acquired by Samsung Co, three years later. As a consultant, he worked with executives in a range of industries such as auto, oil, education, software and hardware. He currently advise several startups in the fields of mobile apps, cloud computing, and blockchain technology.
