Central Government Council Members
Council Members
techUK Central Government Council, starting from January 2023:
Abigail Wyndham
Account Director, William Alexander Consulting
Abigail Wyndham
Account Director, William Alexander Consulting
Abigail Wyndham is an Account Director at William Alexander Consulting, an SME supplier delivering Technology and Change Professional Services to both the Public and Financial Services Sectors.
Abigail has been working in Technology and Change for over 22 years, and specialises in building teams with the exact blend of specialist skills and experience required for client projects, most recently within central government on major Digital transformations.
Abigail acts as a strategic partner with my clients to create tailored solutions and designing bespoke professional services engagements.
At William Alexander Consulting, their teams have a blend of both private and cross government experience who upskill client teams to help bridge the current skills gap faced by the Public sector.
Abigail's has a passion for inclusion and diversity and takes a leading role in shaping William Alexander’s Social Value proposition and the William Alexander Fund, which supports grass roots charities and community groups in Sussex.
Adrian Peachey
Enterprise Architect, BAE Systems
Adrian Peachey
Enterprise Architect, BAE Systems
Adrian is an Enteriprise Architect with decade’s worth of experience delivering solutions within Central Government and Transport. Adrian is responsible for shaping digital and data solutions (people, process and technology) for their customers and forging strong relationships with DDAT leaders in organisations like the Home Office, FCDO and Network Rail.
Adrian has a breadth of knowledge and experience with the latest technologies from Serverless cloud architectures to complex real-time data solutions and even low earth orbit satellite clusters. Crucially Adrian aims to help our government customer’s digitally transform by identifying and validating their business problems, maintaining laser-focus on the impacted users and their needs, and adopting best-fit technologies.
Andy Rowe
Director of Central Government, BT Group Plc
Andy Rowe
Director of Central Government, BT Group Plc
Andy is an experienced technology executive with significant experience both working in and delivering for UK Government.
Andy is currently the Director of Central Government for BT, where he has responsibility for the sale and delivery of a significant portfolio of complex technology managed services to a wide array of government departments, agencies and public bodies. These services include network connectivity, mobility, contact centres, cloud, IOT, messaging & critical communications, digital services, and cyber security. Many of these services form part of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure. Prior roles include general management roles technology and business operations, including for MoJ.
Andy maintains an active network across Central Government with customers, key stakeholders, technology leader peers and other interested parties. Andy lives in Cheshire with his wife Emily, a hospital doctor, and his two young children. Weekends include family activity, watching Manchester United and a rare round of golf.
Anna Inman
Head of Bid Management, TPX impact
Anna Inman
Head of Bid Management, TPX impact
Anna Inman is Head of Bid Management for TPXimpact, bringing 20 years experience working in organisations that use technology and service design to transform public service delivery. Her career has spanned sales operations as well as presales and bid management across the IT, Telecoms, Defence and Financial Services industries, always focused on driving revenue growth and social value delivery.
Keen to ensure that social value outcomes are delivered alongside service transformation, Anna has contributed to the techUK, WCIT and UK APMP social value committees. She believes that we should all give back to our communities and has been a mentor for FemMentored and volunteers for the Imperial War Museum where she is helping with the digitisation of the War Memorials Register. Anna has a BA (Hons) in Politics and International Relations from the University of Reading
Barley Laing
UK Managing Director, Melissa
Barley Laing
UK Managing Director, Melissa
Barley Laing joined Melissa in 2014 during an exciting expansion phase of the California headquartered company.
As Managing Director, with 24 years of technology and data industry experience, his role is focused on meeting the customer onboarding, data quality and ID/compliance needs for organisations in the UK and worldwide.
The team that Barley heads up provides sales, data consultancy and technical support for their wide range of software solutions, which help organisations to achieve efficient data verification and management; and meet ID, Know your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements.
Under his leadership Melissa’s UK office has experienced double digit growth over the last five years in a row, including 21% in 2021. Over this period he has significantly grown the UK client base, which includes: the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; GCHQ; Financial Conduct Authority (FCA); BBC; BAE Systems; GSK and Mars.
Chris Farthing
CEO, Advice Cloud
Chris Farthing
CEO, Advice Cloud
Chris is the CEO of Advice Cloud, with an extensive background of over 25 years within the Public Sector. Advice Cloud specialises in helping Tech firms become more buyable in this ever changing market. Having worked with over 500 tech businesses (71% SME) helping them win over £1.5bn of Public Sector work as a direct result of our services.
Chris Gledhill
CEO, PDMS
Chris Gledhill
CEO, PDMS
Chris co-founded PDMS in 1993 and the company is now a stable and respected organisation specialising in software development, professional services and service innovation. PDMS has a history of long-term partnership with the UK public sector organisations. Chris has also worked closely with many central and local government customers in the UK and with governments in other countries.
Chris has just completed a two-year term as an SME representative on the Central Government Council and also previously served on techUK’s Public Services Board for two years in 2014 and 2015. Chris is a founder of the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce IT committee and former Chairman of the Manx ICT Association.
Daniel Roach-Rooke
Director Professional Services, Shaping Cloud
Daniel Roach-Rooke
Director Professional Services, Shaping Cloud
Dan has more than 25 years’ operational IT experience across diverse industry verticals, including NHS, Gov, Financial Services, Pharmaceutical and Media. Dan is Director of Professional Services for Shaping Cloud, a UK-based SME that provides consulting and managed services to enterprise customers. Shaping Cloud provides services to three central government departments, punching well above its weight, and Dan has led on all three of these relationships.
Edward Duval
Central Government Relationship Manager, Triad Group Plc
Edward Duval
Central Government Relationship Manager, Triad Group Plc
Edward is now in his 25th year at Triad, but started, when the world was a different place! Edward began by supporting Triad's government projects, bringing on board qualified associates to supplement full time staff. This was before the age of using Email, Voice Mail and paperwork was either printed and faxed, or posted to clients! Fast forward to 2022, Edward now looks after Triad’s relationship with its Central Government clients.
Triad’s a Top 20 supplier of Digital Services (via the Crown Commercial Services Frameworks https://bit.ly/2R6lgYb) and an SME to boot! Triad now employs over 100 full time staff and works with the MoJ, BEIS and DfT as a few examples. Edward helps ensure they deliver their commitments on time, budget, and to the Deliverables set out within their clients Statements of Work. Edward also presented with CCS to DoS suppliers on how to make best use of the framework
Ginevra Pedrotti
Business Development Manager for Central Government, Canon
Ginevra Pedrotti
Business Development Manager for Central Government, Canon
Ginevra studied law in Italy and then successfully completed her masters in business and law at the Queen Mary University of London.
Ginevra started her career with the International Centre for Parliamentary studies, where she acquired knowledge on Public Sector and Central Government. Ginevra then joined Canon as Business Development Manager for Central Government in June 2022; supporting Canon’s Public Sector Team by growing new relationships whilst maintaining strategic engagement with existing partners, key clients, and decision-making bodies.
Moreover, Ginevra seeks to understand organizations’ needs and objectives to help them benefit from digital technologies and achieve their transformation through innovation. Indeed, Ginevra promotes Canon’s initiatives and values, whilst being their expert in the sector. As a result, Ginevra collaborates with Canon's tender team to ensure Canon’s best positioning when responding to Central Government tenders.
Gordon Morrison
Senior Director for EMEA Government Affairs, Splunk
Gordon Morrison
Senior Director for EMEA Government Affairs, Splunk
Gordon is Senior Director for EMEA Government Affairs for Splunk Inc and a company director of Splunk UK. He spent the early part of his career as a scientist at the Atomic Weapons Establishment and later as a project engineer in MOD Abbey Wood specialising in technical security solutions. He then held a number technical and senior management roles in the UK defence and secure government sectors. Most recently, he was a Director at the UK trade association for technology, techUK and spent two years with McAfee UK as Director of Government Relations. Gordon has been internationally published, most recently with the World Economic Forum, has given evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees and has spoken at major international events. Gordon is also currently Chair of the techUK Central Government Council, a member of the techUK Public Services Board and a member of the ADS Security Sector Board.
Graham Williamson
Chief Technology Officer for UK&I Public Sector, ServiceNow
Graham Williamson
Chief Technology Officer for UK&I Public Sector, ServiceNow
Graham leads ServiceNow's UK&I Public Sector CTO and Enterprise Architecture engagements, establishing technology executive relationships at the highest levels of government and PS, ensuring that government strategy is understood and responded to by ServiceNow’s value proposition, and providing thought leadership and guidance through individual and x-government discussions, round tables, briefings, and white papers.
Graham has held senior leadership positions in a number of medium to very large enterprises and organisations, including Global Vice President of IT/CIO for Ciklum, Technology Strategy Director and Head of Strategy & Architecture for Interserve (significant supplier to public sector), and Head of Enterprise Architecture for UCAS. From this, Graham brings a wealth of experience formulating strategy and driving transformation across diverse organisations and cultures.
Henry Rex
Government Relations Director, Opencast Software
Henry Rex
Government Relations Director, Opencast Software
Henry is the Government Relations Director at Opencast, a UK-based technology company working at the heart of government to help make public services as great as they can be. Previously he worked in the Central Government team for Microsoft, working with the Cabinet Office and across departments to ensure that Microsoft are responding to Governments strategic requirements and being the best partner possible to the public sector. Prior to joining Microsoft in January 2022, Henry spent 5 years at techUK, where he ran the Government and Health programmes. Henry's role was to build relationships with Government departments to get them engaging with the market more strategically, to help Government become a more intelligent client for tech and make the most of the innovation out there in the whole techUK membership, from the large suppliers to the smallest SMEs.
Before joining techUK, Henry worked for the University of Cambridge, building mechanisms for academic expertise to inform Government decision making.
Ian Harris
VMware Tanzu Labs, Practice Director – Public Sector, VMware
Ian Harris
VMware Tanzu Labs, Practice Director – Public Sector, VMware
Ian leads the VMware Tanzu Labs engagement with UK Public Sector, Defence and Healthcare. Ian brings over thirty years of experience in software development and delivery, service transformation and technology innovation. Prior to this, Ian led the IBM GTS (now Kyndryl) <£10M services business for central government departments.
Ian has held sales and partner leadership roles at companies including Citrix, Symantec, Veritas and Sun Microsystems. Ian has also worked with cloud technologies for the past twelve years, and whilst maintaining a healthy admiration for the innovation that the hyperscalers have delivered, Ian has kept a ‘cloud-cautious’ approach to any transformation project.
Ian believes in empowering his clients to make informed, balanced decisions, enabling Public Sector and Defence staff to overcome the acute shortage of digital skills which exists within civil service and ministerial teams today.
Outside of working hours, Ian is a keen motorcyclist and proud father to three sons.
Kieran Blackstone
Managing Director, Tecknuovo
Kieran Blackstone
Managing Director, Tecknuovo
Kieran is the Co-founder and Managing Director of Tecknuovo, a challenger SME consultancy partner. Kieran has spent the last 8 years building the business from scratch, bringing a consulting model to market that focuses on closing the digital skills gap through technical deliveries and transformations.
Kieran has owned and delivered the strategy that has seen Tecknuovo recognised in the Sunday Times 100 and FT1000 two years in a row, with Public Sector customers responsible for more than 65% of that growth. He has also led all of Tecknuovo’s key public sector engagements, including the delivery of National Critical Infrastructure during EU Exit.
Kieran advocates a people first approach to transformation work. Whilst smart technology choice is important, ultimately it’s the people who will make it a success.
Mark Goossens
Director, Central Government, IBM
Mark Goossens
Director, Central Government, IBM
Mark Goossens is the IBM Director for Central Government and is responsible for IBM’s strategy & engagement with these clients across Great Britain. IBM are a significant supplier to the UK Government, who spend around $700M with IBM annually. Mark has been with IBM since 1999 in a number of roles across Public Sector, Prior to that he worked for 3 other international IT suppliers in various roles including Public Sector Sales Director and as part of the country management team.
Mark holds a BSc Honors Degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering. He enjoys family life; he and his wife, who hails from the Kingdom of Kerry, have four children (young adults), who they hope will soon stop treating them as cash dispensers. His hobbies include motorsport and photography.
- LinkedIn:
- https://bit.ly/3IkrH36
Paul Maddox
Head of Central Government, Virgin Media O2
Paul Maddox
Head of Central Government, Virgin Media O2
Paul has been in the Telecommunications and ICT industry for over 30 years, and specifically in Public Sector for 15 years. Working for a variety of companies, he also took a break from corporate life for three years to run his own business focused on energy reduction in the public sector. This gives him an appreciation of SME challenges.
Paul is Head of Central Government for Virgin Media O2, which includes a strong base with clients including Cabinet Office, NHS England, Ministry of Justice, and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Passionate about making a difference, Paul was proud to work with NHS England to implement and manage the non-clinical ICT equipment for the COVID-19 vaccination sites. With short timescales and high pressure, it allowed Paul and his team to contribute meaningfully to the pandemic response. In addition, he arranged for Virgin Media O2 to fund the apprenticeships of eight nurses, in partnership with Health Education England and the Apprenticeship Levy scheme.
Richard Clarke
Director, Fivium
Richard Clarke
Director, Fivium
Richard has worked within the technology sector for over 20 years, the last 16 of which have been focused on working with UK government, Richard has held senior leadership positions at 1E, Huddle, SAP and Objective Corporation.
Following a career break in 2017 to complete a full time MBA, Richard is now an executive director and member of the board at Fivium’s, working with its cofounders to manage and sustainably grow one of the UK’s largest SME providers of bespoke digital platforms and correspondence case management solutions to Central Government and the wider public sector.
In addition to Richard's day-to-day professional life, Richard is passionate about levelling up the status of and opportunity landscape for SMEs in our industry, brining innovations to market and helping the public sector to deliver critical services and social value to our country.
Rob Anderson
Research Director, GlobalData
Rob Anderson
Research Director, GlobalData
Rob is Research Director at GlobalData (formerly Kable), the leading market intelligence agency that has provided research and insightful analysis on UK Public Sector ICT procurement and usage for over 30 years. His primary focus is central government, examining the intersection of policy and technology, briefing clients on technology-led transformation within the sector.
With many years’ experience of both public and private sectors, Rob has supported diverse organisations in driving change, through his roles within IT suppliers and as a public servant. His career has covered many aspects of technology adoption across the spectrum of hardware, software and services, providing him with a broad knowledge of effective business solutions.
Rob has delivered keynote addresses and chaired discussion panels at industry events and is often found promoting discussion on pertinent topics across social media platforms. A former Crown Commercial Representative, he has a strong understanding of both technology and commercial matters.
- LinkedIn:
- https://bit.ly/3E4rP4a
Steve McCready
Associate Director – Accenture Health and Public Service, Accenture
Steve McCready
Associate Director – Accenture Health and Public Service, Accenture
Steve is a digital and technology transformation leader and has spent much of his career working within the public sector as a client (Cabinet Office, Newcastle University) and supplier (Accenture, Cognizant, IBM).
Steve currently works within the Health and Public Service client group at Accenture, supporting the growth of the business and delivery of transformative change across central government. Steve applies his in-depth knowledge of government digital and technology priorities to build and maintain effective relationships across the sector.
At the Cabinet Office, Steve led a team of Senior Technology Advisors who worked with senior leaders across government to ensure that digital and technology development was innovative and leveraged the best capabilities of emerging technologies, ensuring departments demonstrated industry best-practice, working in line with government standards and delivering sustainable digital transformation. Steve was also a lead service assessor for some of the most complex digital services that government launched.
Sue Holloway
Business Development Director, NEC Software Solutions
Sue Holloway
Business Development Director, NEC Software Solutions
Sue Holloway is Business Development Director at NEC Software Solutions a leading provider of software and services to public sector markets. This is a key role developing the business and requires strong relationships with customers, understanding their challenges and developing propositions to support outcomes.
Sue is Senior Responsible Industry Executive for several Central Government projects including HGV Road User Levy for Department for Transport / DVLA and the Discretionary Assistance Fund, a service supporting individuals and families in need, on a national basis for Welsh Government.
Sue's role at NEC includes management of the bid function hence she is familiar with the challenges and opportunities offered through procurement and frameworks.
Prior to NEC Sue worked in the public sector at a local authority and before that as a Marketing Manager in Financial Services for Nat West. Educational qualifications include a degree in Production Engineering and a Diploma in Management Studies.
- LinkedIn:
- https://bit.ly/3YPvv1H
Vincenzo Rampulla
Director, WPI Strategy
Vincenzo Rampulla
Director, WPI Strategy
Vincenzo is a consultant with over 15 years of experience in public policy, technology and regulation. He has distinct experience in cross-departmental policy agendas and highly regulated markets.
He is currently a consultant within the Digital team at Gemserv, a successful SME professional services consultancy. Gemserv has worked with several government departments, including BEIS and the Cabinet Office, to tackle digital and cybersecurity challenges, and has a successful track record in helping clients manage digital challenges.
Before joining Gemserv, Vincenzo worked at BEIS to develop the government’s data-sharing initiative Smart Data. In addition, he developed cross-departmental links to other data initiatives and delivered a multi-million-pound business case securing funding for industry-facing work programmes.
Vincenzo has also worked at the regulator Ofcom during several periods of intense regulatory change. In particular, he worked on policy development and government engagement on the Online Harms and Digital Markets regimes.
- LinkedIn:
- https://bit.ly/40UXZJk
If you have an issue that you’d like the Council to take up, or you’d like to learn more about their work, please contact a member of techUK’s Central Government team.
Our team
Heather Cover-Kus
Head of Central Government Programme, techUK
Heather Cover-Kus
Head of Central Government Programme, techUK
Heather is Head of Central Government Programme at techUK, working to represent the supplier community of tech products and services to Central Government.
Prior to joining techUK in April 2022, Heather worked in the Economic Policy and Small States Section at the Commonwealth Secretariat. She led the organisation’s FinTech programme and worked to create an enabling environment for developing countries to take advantage of the socio-economic benefits of FinTech.
Before moving to the UK, Heather worked at the Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and the Central Bank of The Bahamas.
Heather holds a Graduate Diploma in Law from BPP, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from LSE, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Macalester College.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-cover-kus-ba636538
Ellie Huckle
Programme Manager, Central Government, techUK
Ellie Huckle
Programme Manager, Central Government, techUK
Ellie joined techUK in March 2018 as a Programme Assistant to the Public Sector team and now works as a Programme Manager for the Central Government Programme.
The programme represents the supplier community of technology products and services in Central Government – in summary working to make Government a more informed buyer, increasing supplier visibility in order to improve their chances of supplying to Government Departments, and fostering better engagement between the public sector and industry. To find out more about what we do, how we do this and how you can get involved – make sure to get in touch!
Prior to joining techUK, Ellie completed Sixth Form in June 2015 and went on to work in Waitrose, moved on swiftly to walking dogs and finally, got an office job working for a small local business in North London, where she lives with her family and their two Bengal cats Kai and Nova.
When she isn’t working Ellie likes to spend time with her family and friends, her cats, and enjoys volunteering for diabetes charities. She has a keen interest in writing, escaping with a good book and expanding her knowledge watching far too many quiz shows!
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 020 7331 2015
- Twitter:
- @techUK,@techUK
- Website:
- www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx,https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx
Austin Earl
Programme Manager, Central Government, techUK
Austin Earl
Programme Manager, Central Government, techUK
Austin joined techUK’s Central Government team in March 2024 to launch a workstream within Education and EdTech.
With a career spanning technology, policy, media, events and comms, Austin has worked with technology communities, as well as policy leaders and practitioners in Education, Central and Local Government and the NHS.
Cutting his teeth working for Skills Matter, London’s developer community hub, Austin then moved to GovNet Communications where he launched Blockchain Live and the Cyber Security and Data Protection Summit. For the last 3 years he has worked with leaders in Education across the state and independent schools sectors, from primary up to higher education, with a strong research interest in technology and education management.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Phone:
- 07891 743 932
- Website:
- www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-spencer-earl/,https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-spencer-earl/
Annie Collings
Programme Manager, Cyber Security and Central Government, techUK
Annie Collings
Programme Manager, Cyber Security and Central Government, techUK
Annie joined techUK as the Programme Manager for Cyber Security and Central Government in September 2023. In this role, she supports the Cyber Security SME Forum, engaging regularly with key government and industry stakeholders to advance the growth and development of SMEs in the cyber sector.
Before joining techUK, Annie was an Account Manager at a specialist healthcare agency, where she provided public affairs support to a wide range of medical technology clients. She also gained experience as an intern in both an MP’s constituency office and with the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed. Annie holds a degree in International Relations from Nottingham Trent University.
- Email:
- [email protected]
- Twitter:
- anniecollings24
- LinkedIn:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-collings-270150158/
Ella Gago-Brookes
Team Assistant, Markets, techUK
Ella Gago-Brookes
Team Assistant, Markets, techUK
Ella joined techUK in November 2023 as a Markets Team Assistant, supporting the Justice and Emergency Services, Central Government and Financial Services Programmes.
Before joining the team, she was working at the Magistrates' Courts in legal administration and graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2022. Ella attained an undergraduate degree in History and Politics, and a master's degree in International Relations and Security Studies, with a particular interest in studying asylum rights and gendered violence.
In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, watching true crime documentaries, travelling, and making her best attempts to become a better cook.
- Email:
- [email protected]
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