Category: 2017 Delegate

Mike Hulett

Mike is the Head of Operations for the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), part of the National Crime Agency, responsible for leading the UK’s Law Enforcement response to cyber crime. The NCCU has around 250 officers based at 4 sites , with a range of investigation, intelligence, technical, digital forensics, data analysis and financial investigation skills.

Mike is responsible for leading the highest level and most complex investigations into cyber crime in the UK, utilising support from across UK & international law enforcement agencies, other UK Government departments and a range of industry partners. NCCU Operations also coordinate and support cyber crime investigations undertaken by police Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCUs) and local police forces across the UK.

The majority of Mike’s career has been spent leading serious organised crime investigations across a variety of sectors including drugs, firearms, money laundering, corruption, kidnap, organised immigration crime and now cyber crime. Mike holds a Master’s degree in criminology from the University of Cambridge, and lives in the home counties with his wife and two young children.

Dr Trevor Higgins

Trevor was born, bred and educated in Bradford. He worked for BT in various management roles for 45 years. Laterly he was the Regional Business Manager for BT and managed a team of 1200 engineers with a turnover of £30m and for the last ten years he was BTs Regional Partnership Director.

He left BT to become CEO of Bradford Breakthrough which is the large employers organisation lobbying for Bradford. He is also Chairman of the Digital Health Enterprise Zone, Deputy Chair of Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, a Lay Mamber of The Univesrity of Bradford Council, Member of Bradford Chamber of Commerce Leadership Board and a Member of Bradford Producer City Place Board.

Educated to Post graduate level he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for services to businesses and communities across the region.

Professor Paul Hanna

Professor Paul Hanna Associate Dean (Global Engagement), Ulster University Paul joined Ulster in 1994 and was Head of School for Computing and Mathematics for 8 years before taking up his current post as Associate Dean (Global Engagement) in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. He has held significant roles in relation to Professional Body Accreditation of computing courses such as Chair of the BCS Academic Accreditation Committee and he currently represents the BCS on the Seoul Accord. He has chaired national and international working groups relating to professional body accreditation of higher education qualifications. He is also a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Both his work at Ulster and his external accreditation activities have given him extensive experience working with international higher education establishments and other bodies associated with education. In his current role at Ulster, he has responsibility for establishing and promoting international links relating to both research and teaching.

Professor Kevin Hall

Professor Kevin Hall has had a distinguished academic career holding senior academic leadership roles in universities in Australia and Canada. Professor Hall studied a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science at Queen’s University in Canada and completed his PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Professor Hall has spearheaded UON’s entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives, leading the establishment of the Integrated Innovation Network (I2N) of five innovation incubators across the Hunter region. He was also instrumental in state funding for the Hunter Innovation Project, including UON’s new Innovation Hub. A highly respected leader in the Australian higher education sector, Professor Hall has been appointed to the Australia Research Council Advisory Council. He has also taken on a national role in developing industry and innovation policy, serving as an invited member of the Australian Research Council’s steering committee for Industry Engagement and Impact Metrics. He is also a founding board member of the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship and a member of the NSW Minister for Health’s China Advisory Committee. Professor Hall has been a board member on 18 state and national corporations and not-for-profit entities.

Professor Anne Graham

Anne Graham is professor of biochemistry at University of Bradford and she leads the Faculty Research & Knowledge Transfer agenda. She was appointed to her current role in 2016 after completing the role of Director of Postgraduate Research for 5 years. In addition to her role as an active researcher into mechanisms of inflammation in cardiovascular disease, she is passionate about development and success of early career researchers (postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers). In 2018 Anne set up a Faculty Early Career Forum for networking between early career researchers and academics. She leads the institutional working group developing our action plan to demonstrate how we meet the obligations of the Researcher Development Concordat, after the institution became a signatory in spring 2020.

Mr Jake Godfrey

Jake has been an Academic Account Manager at Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for nearly seven years. He works closely with universities to inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community, supporting technology innovation to meet the needs of society.

Mr Martin Ferguson

Martin is Director of Policy & Research for Socitm – the leading UK professional association for those working on redesign and digital transformation of local public services. His current work covers innovation in government services, health and social care integration, diversity and digital skills in the workforce, and cyber security. He represents Socitm on a number of national boards in these fields and is programme manager for the Local CIO Council. A graduate of the Universities of Wales, Waterloo (Canada) and Birmingham, his local government career spans planning, housing, leisure and recreation, IT and information services. He is a past president of Socitm. In Brazil and central Asia, he has contributed to the British Council’s e-governance programmes. He has served as an associate lecturer for the University of Birmingham’s Public Service MBA in the UK and Hong Kong, a senior lecturer for the Open University Business School and an external examiner for Henley Business School. Currently, he sits on computer science, customer services and industry advisory boards for the universities of Hertfordshire, Kingston and Loughborough.

Dr Maria Dolores Duran Garcia

Dr. Dolores Duran is president of the Engineering Faculty of the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico since June 2017. Before that she held the position of academic vice president.

Dolores field of research is sustainable energy systems, particularly exergetic analysis of renewable energy systems and solar plants. She have published over 30 articles, books chapters and conference in some international congress.

She has also directed some research projects Master and PHD thesis.

Dr Olivia Feng

Dr. Olivia Feng is Founder & CEO of ICAN Future Star ltd., a young but ambitious edtech company disrupting the international student recruitment market with innovative mobile solutions to empower universities and applicants worldwide.

Originally from China, Olivia studied in the U.K. for 10 years completing her PhD in Behavioural Accounting.

Olivia is proud to employ team members from all over the world and champion women in technology building open and honest company culture and welcoming diversity. The team have extensive experience studying or working abroad and feed their first hand challenges into product development. Our vision is to make studying abroad an easier and more rewarding experience for ambitious young people. Our long-term plan is to be a streamlined end-to-end platform for all study abroad application needs.

The company is the official provider for the University of Glasgow’s HelloUofG app and Coventry University’s HelloCoventry app for engaging and attracting its prospective applicants. ICAN is the market leader providing application and conversion solutions for universities and prospective applicants worldwide. Our HelloUni B2B2C platform is a customisable cloud-based enterprise solution which uses machine learning to connect applicants with universities and help universities optimise applicant engagement and conversion. hellouni were awarded a SMART R&D grant for a machine learning university finder app.

Kersten England

Kersten took up post as Chief Executive of Bradford Council in August 2015. Bradford has one of the youngest populations of any City in the UK and an ethnically diverse and entrepreneurial population. The District is enjoying a period of economic growth; growth of indigenous companies and inward investment, major capital schemes and opening of the regions 3rd largest retail centre. Her key challenges are to ensure that growth in the Bradford economy is sustained and that there is a significant uplift in levels of educational attainment within the District.

This takes place against a backdrop of dramatic reductions in central government funding for local government, devolution to City Regions and huge pressures in the delivery of social care and health.

Prior to taking up post in Bradford, Kersten was Chief Executive of York for six years. In this time the city, recovering after recession, experienced strong growth, with ‘functional full employment’ and high levels of business start up. Key highlights of the six years included the introduction of the living wage by many employers in the city, development of the first ‘gigabit city infrastructure’, designation of the city as a UNESCO ‘City of Media Arts’ and hosting of a stage start of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in 2014.

Kersten is the lead Chief Executive for innovation and growth in the Leeds City Region, a trustee of Nesta (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), a member of the Council of the University of Bradford and of the National Media Museum’s Advisory Board.

Kersten’s career has included work in the voluntary sector, higher education, central government as well as 21 years in local government. She is passionate about community capacity building, diversity and equality, supporting civic leadership and sustainable urban growth.