Category: Delegate

Abid Hussain

Councillor Abid Hussain became an elected member for the Keighley Central ward in 2010 and is currently Chair of the Education Appeals Panel. He is also Deputy Chair of the Keighley and Shipley Area Planning Panel, a member of the Regulatory & Appeals Committee and the Joint Health and Social Care & Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Hussain is greatly interested in helping to improve Council services and boosting the district’s profile and has a keen interest in educational matters.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Zeppenfeld

Professor Zeppenfeld was born in Werl/Germany. After having passed the Abitur (higher education entrance qualification in Germany), he studied computer sciences with mathematics as a minor subject at the University of Paderborn. Afterwards, he was employed as scientific assistant at Osnabrück University, where he also earned his doctorate. Subsequently working as a senior consultant for Capgemini (formerly: sd&m – software design & management AG), Professor Zeppenfeld was in various projects responsible for the holistic development of individual software solutions for key account customers.

In 1997, he accepted the position as a professor of computer sciences at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Dortmund/Germany, where he was appointed vice dean of the department in 1999, before being dean from 2005 to 2009. In this function, he helped to determine the orientation of the computer science department. In 2009, the Ministry of Science in North Rhine-Westphalia appointed Professor Zeppenfeld as founding president of Hamm-Lippstadt University of Applied Sciences. His second term as university president lasts until 2021. Since 2021 he is back as a teaching and research professor in the fields of practical computer science and software engineering at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Dortmund/Germany.

Besides his activities as a university professor, he also acted as a scientific director and as a chairman of the supervisory board in different companies and has written several scientific textbooks. He is also a member of an international jury panel for the annual Hamdan Bin Mohammad Award for Smart Government in Dubai since 2014.

Since October 2021, Professor Zeppenfeld was awarded as a Lifetime Fellow in the WTUN (World Technology Universities Network).

Mr Paul Waller

Paul Waller is pursuing research interests in the impact of information technology on politics, democracy, government, public policy design and administration, and public sector innovation. He is also undertaking research, advisory, and speaking engagements for international bodies, public authorities and companies. Formerly he was a UK senior civil servant working on policy development and delivery in e-government. Prior to leaving the civil service, in 2012 he developed and directed implementation of the Government’s ICT Capability Strategy. At other times in his civil service career, he led e-government work for the UK Presidency of the EU, including the development of European policy, and hosting the Manchester ‘Transforming Public Services’ ministerial conference. He has held a number of IT-related policy and strategy posts including being head of IT Management in the former Department of Transport, leading the Government’s Year 2000 policy and e-democracy policy, and directing a five-year national programme within the local government sector to transform front line public services to challenging and disadvantaged groups through the innovative use of ICT. He has acted as a Project Assurance Reviewer for high risk government projects and a Review Team Leader for major government policy initiatives. Paul was also a judge at the 2009 eEurope eGovernment Awards. He started his career in the telecommunications industry, leading an advanced technology group, moving on to be an IT industry analyst and managing director of an international IT consulting company prior to joining the UK Civil Service.

Professor Vishanth Weerakkody

Professor Vishanth Weerakkody is Associate Dean of International and Enterprise at the Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences and Chair of Bradford Business and Social Enterprise Board. He was formally Dean of Faculty and is a Professor of Digital Governance in the School of Management at the University of Bradford. Before moving to the University of Bradford, he held various senior management roles at Brunel Business School.

His current research and teaching are multidisciplinary and centred around public sector policy implementation, process transformation through digital technologies, social innovation and the implementation, diffusion, and adoption of disruptive technologies in society. Focusing on the evolving role of technology, Prof Weerakkody closely follows and critiques digital-enabled service transformation efforts in government that fail to deliver public value and meet citizens’ expectations. He was called to the House of Commons in 2018 as a scientific expert to provide evidence on UK’s digital transformation efforts in public administration. His passion for solving societal problems through research and innovation has allowed him to attract over £25 million of R&D funding over the last few years from the EU, ESRC, Qatar Foundation, British Council and UK Local Government.

As a research-active academic, Prof Weerakkody continues to publish in the Chartered Association of Business Schools 3* and 4* journals. Prior to joining academia, Prof Weerakkody worked in several multinational organisations including BAT Industries and IBM.

Associate Professor Dr Anan Tongraar

Associate Professor Dr. Anan Tongraar is currently the Rector of Suranaree University of Technology (SUT). Regarding his administrative experiences in research, for example, he was appointed as the Director of the Institute of Research and Development, SUT, for 8 years, and as the Vice Rector for Research, Innovation and Technology Development, SUT, for 4 years. As the Rector of SUT, Associate Professor Dr. Anan Tongraar has proposed a so-called SUT 2025 policy to drive SUT to become an Entrepreneurial University, to become the university with excellences in all dimensions, including academics excellence, research excellence and excellence in entrepreneurship.

Leon Thompson

Leon joined the CBI in May 2017, Prior to joining the CBI he spent 8 years working in several management roles within commercial supply chain engaging and partnering with regional and national companies.

Professor Paul Thorning

Paul is a Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practice and Director of Bradford-Renduchintala Enterprise Ecosystem (BREE) in the University of Bradford School of Management. Paul leads the University of Bradford Accelerated Entrepreneurship Programme, which provides opportunities for students, researchers, staff and community members to establish and grow successful business and social enterprises. Paul also directs the UK-China Healthtech Open Innovation programme, which has secured over Â£11m for collaborative research and innovation between UK/EU and Chinese academics, clinicians and companies.Paul is also a co-founder and CEO of CrystecPharma, a University of Bradford technology spin-out company focused on improving the performance of medicines, working with industry clients world-wide as well as developing its own portfolio of differentiated pharmaceutical products. The company has operations, joint ventures and strategic partnerships spanning the UK, Europe, Switzerland, China and the US. Paul has broad technical and business experience from the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, where he held engineering, research, product development and commercial roles to executive level. He also has experience of establishing and running NGOs and spent three years as a Director of a UN refugee health programme in Tanzania. He has been involved in establishing, growing and exiting several business, has run his own dynamic strategy consulting company, has held executive advisory and board roles in companies, trade associations and NGOs, and was appointed by the UK government as the National Focal Point for Health and Innovation with China. Paul speaks four languages (and is learning Chinese), holds an MBA, professional membership of the Institute of Marketing, is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Vivi Søgaard

Vivi Søgaard is a sociologist by background (Aalborg University, Denmark). She has worked at VIA University College since 2005. She is currently a Ph.D. student. Her PhD-project focuses on motherhood, social class and the use of social robots in welfare interventions in Denmark. The research questions in her PhD are: 1) How are motherhood, gender and class constructed and negotiated in the encounters between marginalized women and social- and healthcare professionals participating in robot baby projects, 2) How do young women understand, interact and create mother-child relationships with robot babies. Vivi Søgaard is a member of the Health Technology and Welfare Centre. The Health Technology and Welfare Centre specializes in research concerning the social and ethical aspects of health technology including social robotics, telemedicine, augmented reality and AI. The commitment to strengthen and enrich the education in the health professions are at the core of the centre’s activity.

Professor Jacqui Taylor

Jacqui is recognised as one of the 100 most powerful UK entrepreneurs. After implementing a banking regulatory change programme with Web 3.0 tools she co-founded FlyingBinary a web science company which changes the world with data, one of the original 250 Tech City companies. She is a high profile mentor in the world’s number one digital hub, Tech City.

Her company FlyingBinary has been recognised with an Internet of things (IoT) international techtrailblazer award. She is personally recognised as one of the 34 IoT Influencers on twitter and one of the 20 global entrepreneurs to watch as part of #GEW2016.

Jacqui collaborated with data-journalism thought leaders to produce her fourth publication, a new PhD primer for journalism using her web science work which connects 34 million citizens across the web. She has articulated the global future of the data journalism industry, she co-founded. As a Visiting Professor at LSBU she is articulating the contribution of the Internet of Things to the New and Convergent Media domains.

Her company has been successfully awarded all nine frameworks under H. M. Government’s industry leading cloud initiative, G-Cloud. FlyingBinary’s latest innovations are underpinning Secured European Cloud Services for Big Data and IoT, which implement GDPR and have no reliance on Privacy Shield arrangements.

She is an expert lead for the British Standards Institute (BSI) team with international colleagues on the top level ISO technical Committee and is the editor for two ISO Smart City standards. As the technical author for the latest British Standards Institute Smart City standard she has articulated the future role of IoT data and services and their value in the domain.

Professor Wichit Srisa-an

Professor Dr Wichit Srisa-an, Thailand’s former Minister of Education, is a prominent and respectable figure in the education administration, development, reform, and innovation in Thailand. He received a BA from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand and a PhD in Education Administration from The University of Minnesota, USA. Among numerous achievements that have earned him national and international recognitions and accolade, he established 3 universities in Thailand including Thailand’s first distance education university, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU), and the first public autonomous university, Suranaree University of Technology (SUT) where he is currently serving as the Chairman of the University Council, and Walailak University (WU). Moreover, he is also the Founding President of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) and the Association of Universities of Asia and the Pacific (AUAP), to name a few. His other political services included appointments as Permanent Secretary of the Minister of University Affairs, Member of the Senate, Member of the House of Representatives, and Chairman of the House Committee on Education in the National Parliament. Professor Dr Wichit Srisa-an is bestowed the title ‘Father of Thai Cooperative Education’ by the Ministry of Education for his introduction of Cooperative Education as an education innovation to Thailand at SUT, which has been a model for other universities nationwide to follow. He also founded the Thai Association for Cooperative Education (TACE) of which he is at present the President. On the international front, he is invited to serves as an Executive Committee member of the World Association for Cooperative Education (WACE) and has delivered speeches at various Cooperative Education events. Recently, he established Engagement Thailand in collaboration with the Knowledge Network Institute of Thailand (KNIT), and is serving as the first Chair of Engagement Thailand. For this pioneering role, he has been invited to give keynote speeches and talks on university-community engagement both at national and international events.