Ambassadors - Silicon Canal

Faye Pressly

Women in Tech Lead

Faye Pressly

Women in Tech Lead

Faye is a people-focused business leader who is on a mission to transform how we think about organisational productivity, purpose, profit and people’s happiness so we can move beyond insular focus on shareholder value. As COO for Vanti, one of the UK’s only Master System Integrators with a Smart Building reference site, Faye is currently working with the best and brightest minds to collaboratively imagine and engineer technology solutions that positively change the way people live, learn and work. As Chair of Birmingham’s ‘Women in Tech’ working group, she is a key advocate for encouraging women and girls to enter careers in Technology. “Helping to drive a more diverse technology workforce in the Midlands, is a huge passion of mine. It’s not about employers having a ‘tick-box’ mindset to diversity, but truly appreciating that ‘diversity in thought’ is far more important and key to business innovation and people growth. “However, unless we break down some of the barriers and proactively work to improve and widen the pools we can choose our talent from, things will only remain the same. To be able to work with like-minded, determined people helping to drive real change, is something I’m incredibly proud of – I can’t wait to look back in a few years’ time and see just how many women and people we’ve inspired to join our industry!”

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Joel Blake

Diversity in Tech Lead

Joel Blake

Diversity in Tech Lead

Michael Smith

Marketing Lead

Michael Smith

Marketing Lead

Tom Goodman

Events Lead

Tom Goodman

Events Lead

Simon Jenner

Board Member & Investment in Tech Lead

Simon Jenner

Board Member & Investment in Tech Lead

After a few years working for large enterprises the entrepreneurial bug bit. Aged 26, Simon started Trinity Security Services, a Cyber Security services company. Trinity delivered Cyber Security solutions to customers such as Cadbury Schweppes, Bank of England, RSPB and Tesco. A successful exit of Trinity via trade sale took place in 2008. In 2008 Simon launched Adventures in Business, a vehicle for creating and advising start-ups. Simon is now involved in multiple businesses including Urban an independent retail Cafe chain. Simon has a passion for supporting other entrepreneurs and for the last 10 years Simon has been working with entrepreneurs from across the world firstly through running Birmingham’s only technology incubator and then moving to become the CEO of a leading technology accelerator. The technology accelerator was voted a European top 10 accelerator by the Guardian newspaper. Simon has helped over 50 startups go from idea to investment, raising in excess of £10 million equity investment. Simon’s passion for entrepreneurs and particularly technology entrepreneurs goes beyond the day job and has seen him found Birmingham Entrepreneurs (the largest entrepreneurs group outside of London) and Co-Found Silicon Canal, Birmingham’s answer to London’s tech city. In 2016 Simon was listed in the Maserati 100 for his work with entrepreneurs and listed as a Power 250: The West Midlands’ most influential people in creative and digital.

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Molly Thompson

Community Engagement Officer

Molly Thompson

Community Engagement Officer

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Dave Evans

CTO at Mini Screen Pictures Ltd

Dave Evans

CTO at Mini Screen Pictures Ltd

Entrepreneur and Software Design Engineer. Xamarin and Microsoft MVP.

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Jagdeep Bhaura

CEO, mypeoplebiz

Jagdeep Bhaura

CEO, mypeoplebiz

Corporate Technology Innovator, Entrepreneur, 30 years playing, learning & working in tech across a broad set of companies both here in the UK and US.

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Mike Morgan

Director - Hays

Mike Morgan

Director - Hays

Jamil Shabir

Director - Bootcamp Media

Jamil Shabir

Director - Bootcamp Media

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Wei Wu

Simon Emms

Hannah Quinton

Creative Director at CloudTeach

Hannah Quinton

Creative Director at CloudTeach

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Martin Owen

SVP, Products, erwin

Martin Owen

SVP, Products, erwin

Martin is responsible for driving product management, product strategy and customer support at erwin. Prior to joining erwin, Martin was co-founder at enterprise architecture provider, Corso, organizing strategy, direction and the evolution of SaaS product lines.In his prior role at IBM, Martin served as world-wide director of product management for enterprise architecture, portfolio management and asset management tooling, responsible for overseeing product life-cycles and their growth and success. Martin also served as vice-president of enterprise architecture at Telelogic (acquired by IBM) and was director of professional services and product management at Popkin Software.Martin has spent over 25 years in Data and Enterprise Architecture and was the original co-author of the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) which is now a world-wide industry standard.Martin has also worked on the strategy for the IBM Jazz initiative for the new generation of web based collaborative software tools.More recently, Martin has been innovating within erwin and with key customers around a new breed of technologies supporting data management including Big Data, Governance, Enterprise Architecture and Data Modeling.

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Andrew Ward

Director @ Digital Waffle

Andrew Ward

Director @ Digital Waffle

Studied at University of Birmingham and lived in Birmingham for 15 years. 12 years experience in the technology recruitment field and now Director of Digital Waffle. Here at Digital Waffle we are passionate about the Birmingham tech network and love working with many enthusiastic and talented Midlands based businesses.

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Raj Dhokia

Harry Griffiths

Director @ Digital Waffle

Harry Griffiths

Director @ Digital Waffle

Ambassador for Silicon Canal via Digital Waffle - trying to help connect the tech community by any means possible. Digital Waffle are a JQ based recruitment agency specialising in the Digital & Tech space. We offer a unique approach to recruitment for the SME market, tailoring our services to individual client requirements.

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Herman Fung

Service & Applications Manager

Herman Fung

Service & Applications Manager

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Paul Rhodes

Peter Chatterley

MD The Talent Hackers.com

Peter Chatterley

MD The Talent Hackers.com

Recruiter to the stars, well Ursa Major, works with startups and scaleups to help them build employer brand, optimise direct hiring process, undertake searches on a innovative pay as you go model. Disrupting the recruitment space. Occassionally blogs on the economics of recruitment.

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Peter Cripps

Cloud Architect, IBM

Peter Cripps

Cloud Architect, IBM

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Henry Jinman

Mike Bandar

Jon Allen

Clare Streets

Board Member

Clare Streets

Board Member

Clare launched into the tech industry after she took part in the brilliantly successful School of Code Bootcamp. Clare spent more than a decade working in the superyacht industry before taking a 7 year maternal career break and found returning to flexible work in a new industry a difficult landscape. She took part in the 16 week School of Code Bootcamp in order to pursue a career in tech. She went on to win Silicon Canal Graduate Developer of the Year and found that her new tech skills combined with her previous operational and project management skills gave her all the tools to find the rewarding and flexible career she was looking for. Clare is now Associate Director at B13 Technology. Clare wants to continue the legacy of School of Code by ensuring that the tech industry can attract and retain a more diverse workforce. Her work at B13 Technology ensures that they are industry leaders in attracting diverse talent which is key to a successful technology company. Working with Tech Talent Charter, Time To Change, Working Families and being a STEM ambassador are all key factors to this strategy. Clare is excited to have the opportunity to promote such initiatives for the whole of the region and wants to ensure that Silicon Canal's Tech Eco-system can achieve all the potential that Birmingham and the West Midlands has to offer.

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Matt Chan

kevin13

Director

kevin13

Director

I work with leaders, managers, and teams in tech and tech driven companies to successfully address the challenges they face working in fast-paced environments that don’t readily foster effective collaboration and disruption for change. I also mentor micro-business leaders in marketing their services. Prior to my current position I have worked as a performance and project management specialist for British Telecom, the NHS in national, regional and trust based roles, and Mercer.

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Mary Matthews

Philip Steele

CEO & Founder nCube Home

Philip Steele

CEO & Founder nCube Home

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rich-ww

Shammi Raichura

Uber Technologies Inc | Operations & Funnel Conversion

Shammi Raichura

Uber Technologies Inc | Operations & Funnel Conversion

Part of the Operations team in the West-Midlands for Uber since 2015. New Entrepreneurs Foundation Alumni.

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Javier Miranda

Managing Director @ Studio Victoria Limited

Javier Miranda

Managing Director @ Studio Victoria Limited

Multitalented and self-taught individual with 20 years' experience in Software Development, Photography, Videography, and Graphic Design, who has worked across a wide variety of companies and industries in the United Kingdom and Spain. Exceptional at manipulating highly complex and dispersed data to present it in easy-to-understand formats for any device or platform. Partial to PHP, Symfony Framework, Adobe Creative Cloud, and FOSS. Let's unlock the potential of your business! Call +44 (0) 121 647 3627

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Victoria Masso

Director at Behaviour Hackers and ecosystem builder

Victoria Masso

Director at Behaviour Hackers and ecosystem builder

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Anthony Chaffey

Managing Director, Ballyhoo

Anthony Chaffey

Managing Director, Ballyhoo

Brummy born and bred, Anthony has been working in web design and development for over a decade since founding his first startup during his time at Birmingham Uni. His digital agency, Ballyhoo, has been going strong since 2009 and is based in the newly regenerated Longbridge area of South Birmingham. Anthony's focus is on streamlining processes, understanding user habits and getting websites and online apps to work hard, and smart, so your organisation can thrive.

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Mez

yiannismaos

Leigh Purnell

I founded and run Petalite, a startup that has developed the World's Fastest Charging Battery System, 100% recharge in under 15 minutes, I also have been on other ludicrous expeditions which has led me to write a book, blogs and magazine articles about them, do public speaking at various events and consult on Expedition Logistics and acquiring Sponsorship for Expeditions.I am a seasoned project manager, innovator and have a keen interest in energy technologies and implementations; both throughout my working and academic life. Petalite Limited was founded in 2014 to expand on these ideas and interests.I co-founded and project managed a Guinness World Record breaking global expedition; raising £20,000 in donations and awareness for the British Red Cross and generating over £80,000 in advertising revenue to support the expedition.Became a Double Guinness World Record Holder:-World’s Longest Journey by Taxi-World’s Highest Journey by Taxi

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andrew

Scorchsoft Ltd

andrew

Scorchsoft Ltd

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Mit

Product Manager at Arrowvale Electronics

Mit

Product Manager at Arrowvale Electronics

Engage Working Group Lead. Helping companies to connect and get the best of Silicon Canal. Give me a shout! I love tech and have always been involved with it, from fixing my xbox's, to building computers in my teens to later becoming a software engineer. Now working as a product manager and trying to do my bit for the community. Helping others brings a great sense of satisfaction. So, i'm doing the best i can, to support where i can. Connect with me here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miteshparmar1/

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Gary Lennon

Investment In Tech Lead

Gary Lennon

Investment In Tech Lead

tomjackson

Senior Legal Technologist & Lawyer, Eversheds Sutherland

tomjackson

Senior Legal Technologist & Lawyer, Eversheds Sutherland

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derry.holt

Oliver Hills

Who's Here Lead

Oliver Hills

Who's Here Lead

I run Updates Media, a pioneering digital local media business. Our flagship site, Birmingham Updates is the most engaged local media outlet in the West Midlands with 480,000 followers of our social media channels. I also work on Zento, an image recognition business which recognises product usage for major sports brands at mass participation events.

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Paul Adams

Commercial Director, Goldfish

Paul Adams

Commercial Director, Goldfish

Goldfish provide entrepeneurs-for-hire to large organisations who want to start new ventures but lack the skills or capacity to turn an idea into reality.

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Camille Fenton

Developer at Talis

Camille Fenton

Developer at Talis

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martin113

Managing Director at Digital Gaps

martin113

Managing Director at Digital Gaps

Martin has been in IT for 20 years. He has worked across sectors fixing IT services, developing people and making things happen. Digital gaps exists to help connect small technical companies find work within the public sector by advising on the suitability of solutions and helping navigate through the hoops and bureaucracy. Martin has also created and delivers The CIO Download. A 2 day training course in managing IT services and teams.

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Darren Guest

CEO and founder of Gna and Influential Marketing

Darren Guest

CEO and founder of Gna and Influential Marketing

Experienced and innovative company Director with extensive sales, media and business skills.High personal integrity, with an ability to relate to all levels of employeeArticulate, confident and persuasive team builder, able to motivate and communicate to achieve exceptional business performance.Dependable and reliable in supporting and enabling team effort and experienced in driving businesses forwardPersistent and flexible approach to the mutually beneficial achievement of business plans and personal goals of staff, customers and suppliers.

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Alistair Hammerton

Senior Associate - Shoosmiths

Alistair Hammerton

Senior Associate - Shoosmiths

Alistair advises on all aspects of corporate law with particular speciality around M&A, venture capital, private equity and joint venture arrangements. Alistair is one of the country’s leading and most active venture capital lawyers and has acted for the likes of Octopus Ventures, BGF and Oxford Capital, as well as for investee companies, on over 25 investments in the last 12 months.

Joe Kibbler

Jack Capel

Consultant @ Mortimer Spinks

Jack Capel

Consultant @ Mortimer Spinks

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s.collins3

Employer Engagement Executive, Aston University

s.collins3

Employer Engagement Executive, Aston University

Name: Sarah Collins Bio: Working with businesses to solve skills and recruitment needs. Aligned primarily to support with connecting to talent from our School of Engineering and Applied Science and Aston Business School.

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Matthew Bennett

Drew Smith

Andrew Waldron

Producer, Packt Publishing

Andrew Waldron

Producer, Packt Publishing

Producer and Acquisitions Editor for an International Publishing House that specialises in Technology Publishing. The Expert Network Team is responsible for acquiring Expert, high profile authors, leaders, pioneers in their areas of technology, and business leaders, thought developers, along with some of the world's finest academics.

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James Sharp

Business Engagement Partner - The University of Birmingham

James Sharp

Business Engagement Partner - The University of Birmingham

As a Business Engagement Partner at the University of Birmingham, I work closely with leading academics to identify how advances in research can benefit industry. Based in the College of Social Sciences, I cover the areas of Business, Education, Social Policy, and Government & Society, operating as part of a broader team traversing the entire university. I have a growing specialism in the development of research which partners with industry to explore AI, automation and disruptive tech, spanning the adoption of new technologies in the workplace, through to the ethical and economic considerations. My professional background spans Higher Education, the charitable sector, the automotive industry, and journalism, as well as an active role in Birmingham’s independent retail and photography scene.