Speakers 2025

Helen’s work seeks to ensure that nursing and midwifery practice is supported by digital technology and data science and that nurses and midwifes are equipped to work and lead in an digitally enabled environment.  

Helen is passionate about using technology to support the delivery of high quality, evidence-based care and empowering patients in managing their own health record.

Alongside nursing and midwifery, Helen’s leadership portfolio includes frontline digitisation, digital citizen and maternity and child health. 

In her role, Lucy leads a team of clinically trained professionals dedicated to enhancing the EHR system for better usability and patient safety. She works closely with stakeholders to ensure that changes are operationally effective and aligned with the digital health roadmap supported by the wider Digital Health Team.

She graduated from both the University of Louvain, from which she holds a MSc in Business Engineering, and the London School of Economics, from which she holds a MSc in Organisational Behaviour and a PhD in Management. Her current research focuses on how contribution, impact and meaning at work help leadership, team engagement and wellbeing and how to inspire, retain and increase motivation and performance in high pressure environments.

With 15+ years of experience in strategy consulting for consultancy companies, and later change & finance management at a FTSE100 multinational company, Aurelie has been instrumental in helping companies and governmental organisations achieve strategic change and world-class performance. Currently, Aurelie acts as an adviser for governmental institutions and UK-based technology sector companies.

Dr Simon Eccles is a Vice President and the Chief Health Officer for Europe at Salesforce. He works to help public sector health and health and life sciences to understand the offer and value of the Salesforce platform; and works within the company to refine our delivery against the specific requirements of healthcare.
Prior to joining Salesforce he was the Chief Clinical Information Officer at NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, and the deputy CEO at NHSX. Over six years, Simon was responsible for most of the national portfolio of digital transformation programmes at national level across the NHS. He still works as an honorary Emergency Department Consultant in London having worked as a doctor in the NHS for 30 years. He lives in London with his family, collects eclectic classic cars and has written a couple of books.

Daniel Eyre is responsible for business development for CereCore International and is focused on building the CereCore brand in the UK and other international markets. He has worked in healthcare for nearly 25 years and gained experience on implementing technology solutions while working within the NHS and in the private sector for EPR vendors and Nuance. Dan also worked for the consulting firm CapGemini on central government projects as well as healthcare organisations and witnessed the time savings that healthcare technology can bring to patient care and back-office employees. He brings this varied experience to work in partnership with organisations to help them deal with their pain points in the most appropriate and economical way. Dan attended Leeds Metropolitan University where he studied Systems Analysis and Design.

In additional to her PhD from Imperial, Christa holds a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) in Economics from the University of Oxford, a dual Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from London Business School (LBS) and Columbia Business School, and a BA in Economics from Stanford University. Prior to joining Imperial, Christa worked as a research assistant at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Andy was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2010. For the six years prior to that he was Chief Finance Officer of UHCW, as well as Deputy Chief Executive Officer from 2008-2010. In January 2016 Andy was appointed Professor of Industry at the University of Warwick and in 2022 awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Business Administration at Coventry University in recognition of his leadership and significant contribution to healthcare provision across Coventry and Warwickshire.

Steve is CTO at Altera Digital Health UK. He supports NHS organisations to implement flexible, usable, clinically led solutions that make a real difference, improving care and safety for patients.

I am the Chief Digital and Infrastructure Officer at Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust. Prior to this, I held the role of Deputy Director for Quality, Innovation and Improvement and CIO for the North West Ambulance Service. I am passionate about transforming health and care for all people by harnessing technology, data and estates, using a methodologically driven approach to improve the way we deliver services. I am a big advocate for clinical leadership and co-design with patients, providing the space for staff, patients and technical teams to work together to generate and test ideas.

I have a unique understanding and combined experience of digital, estates, mental health, improvement and NHS regulatory requirements over my 20 years in the NHS. I have worked nationally, regionally and for providers. I have worked alongside some of the world’s leading healthcare improvers and thought leaders and developed partnerships with industry, academia and health and social care to deliver change. I am passionate about leading teams to deliver standards and governance ensuring safety and security whilst enabling change and doing this thorough collaboration and partnerships where we bring people together to deliver on shared goals.

Stacey [RGN, BSc, MSc] is the CNIO at the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust.
She has held various digital transformation roles in three large NHS acute trusts since 2017. Before taking up positions in digital transformation, she worked clinically in the Emergency Department, medical wards, and the Patient Safety and Quality Improvement team.

Stacey is a Florence Nightingale Foundation 2022 Digital Scholar and whilst she has been involved in and led several digital transformation projects, she is interested in how to create a digitally positive culture in the NHS and plans to explore this during her FNF year.

In addition to her NHS experience, Stacey also co-founded a health IT company, a clinically-led enterprise developing forward-thinking quality assurance and improvement software. The start-up is on a mission to help clinical colleagues use data to improve patient care.

James is a highly experienced digital, technology and business leader who has led and delivered some of the highest profile digital programmes, products and services in the UK. James is currently the Chief Digital and Information Officer at York and Scarborough NHS Foundation Trust and prior to that he had several different roles on the executive team at NHS Digital and has been central to the delivery of many of the national NHS IT systems and services.

Daniel has occupied management and operational roles directing frontline services to meet the contemporary challenges in healthcare provisions. He is also a recipient of a NIHR Clinical Research Fellowship award at Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery and is Imprivata’s Clinical Safety Officer.

Daniel continues to be active within the nursing community, championing the development of Nursing Chief Information Officer role at a national and European level, with involvement in GDE Nursing & Midwifery Learning and HIMSS Europe Nursing Informatics Communities.

Jason has specialised research interests in innovative and simulated learning environments and is a PhD candidate in Vascular Surgery, focusing on data models and surgical training. As a Clinical Research and Teaching Fellow, he plays a key role in curriculum development and delivery, serving as a Module Lead for both the MSc Health Policy and PGDip Digital Health Leadership programmes.

Jason holds a Master’s degree in Human Physiology and a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery, with a background in neurophysiology and elite athlete physiology.

His previous roles include clinical practice in both rural and tertiary healthcare settings in South Africa. He has served as Chairperson of the South African Medical Student Association and worked as a physiologist at the Institute of Sports Research. He is also a faculty member for the Advanced Trauma Life Support programme at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Currently, he practices clinically and teaches in the Department of Vascular Surgery at St Mary’s Hospital, London.

Before joining BridgeHead, Maria spent seven years as an Account Manager for Healthcare Informatics at Philips, working closely with NHS Trusts and private healthcare providers. Prior to that, she specialised in Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) solutions at Hyland, helping organisations take control of their imaging data. Earlier in her career, Maria held various roles at GE Healthcare, progressing from radiology PACS implementations to Applications Manager before moving into sales.

Nephrology interests include renal transplantation, dialysis, transition from paediatric to adult care and complex rare disease.

She has been involved in collaboration with patients, clinical staff groups and development teams to build Electronic Healthcare Records within the Trust. Wider projects include interoperability, regional data exchange, national clinical data linkage and patient portals. She is interested in quality improvement and patient safety.

He has three decades of transformation and programme management experience. His first decade focused on UK military aircraft projects and for the last two decades he has focused on digital transformation in the NHS. He is currently leading the Yorkshire & Humber Care Record development to provide interweave as an open platform for shared care record and population health systems.

Previously, Derm held the role of Director of Technology Services at NHS Digital, where he managed IT services during the critical period of the COVID-19 pandemic. His leadership ensured the seamless transition to virtual working environments and the provision of essential IT infrastructure to frontline workers.

David joined the NHS in 1983 and his final position in the NHS was as Chief Operating Officer on the Board of NHS England, overseeing the health and care of 56 million people and the budget of £180 billion.

In 2022, David was named by the Health Service Journal as the fourth-most influential person in English health policy in their HSJ100 list.

In between times, his roles included chief executive of NHS Haringey and chief executive of the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust after which he joined the Royal Free London (RFL) in July 2009. He led the hospital to foundation status in 2012, followed by the successful acquisition of Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals in 2014. During his tenure the trust was awarded the Dr Fosters NHS Hospital of the Year and was accredited as a Global Digital Exemplar. After a decade at RFL, he left to take up the position of NHS regional director for London, with an oversight of the healthcare of a population of 10 million and a budget to £18 billion. He led the NHS in London through the first waves of Covid-19, before moving on the national COO role, where he led England through subsequent waves of Covid.

She joined the NHS in October 2009, initially leading commissioning support services in the West Midlands as the Managing Director for Healthcare Commissioning Services and then as the Managing Director for South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Commissioning Support Unit.

Ming is currently the Chief Data and Analytics Officer for NHS England responsible for strategic development of data and analytics capability across NHS.

An advanced physiotherapy practitioner by background, Linda Vernon is interim Digital Culture and Transformation Clinical Lead across Lancashire & South Cumbria ICS.  Passionate about upstream population health, co-production and empowering individuals and communities, Linda leads digital programmes supporting social prescribing, self-management and digital inclusion across Lancashire & South Cumbria. 

Dr Simon Wallace is the Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) and Director of Business Strategy at Microsoft in the UK and Ireland. Simon has worked as a GP, hospital and public health doctor in Brighton and London. His interest in digital health began in the 90s when he spent a year at the King’s Fund investigating the impact of the internet on shared decision making between patients and their healthcare professional. For the past 20 years, he has worked for a range of organisations including Bupa, Dr Foster, Cerner Corporation and GSK across a range of technologies which include AI-powered speech recognition, electronic patient records, telemedicine, mobile health and lifestyle devices.