Stephen Anning

With a career traverses the operational and technical domains, Dr Steve Anning works in developing Responsible AI for Defence and Security. He began as an Infantry Officer in the Army where he specialised in Capability Development for Defence Intelligence. Upon leaving the Army, he joined the reserves where he led on developing a response to modern slavery in conflict. As a reservist, he now works with the Army AI Centre in developing AI literacy and Skills. His career in business started with i2 in IBM where he worked with UK police on responding to cyber crime and modern slavery. Laterly, he worked extensively on product managing an application to tackle child exploitation. His PhD research focussed connecting theories of violence and natural language processing to rethink hate speech detection as hostile narrative analysis.

Katerina Hadjimatheou

Dr. Katerina Hadjimatheou is a criminologist and applied ethicist and Director of Essex University’s Centre for Criminology. Her work examines the use of new technologies and data-driven approaches for policing, particularly in the field of crimes of abuse. Her research has been funded by the British Academy, Home Office, ESRC and European Commission amongst others. Kat has provided independent ethics consultancy and expertise to the Foreign Office, Cabinet office and ACE, and regularly acts an ethics reviewer for large technology research projects, mainly for the European Commission. She has also been a member of ethics committees including for the National Crime Agency, HMRC, MoD, College of Policing, and MET Police. Kat is currently the Chair of Essex Police's Data Ethics Committee.

Sophie Marlow

Sophie Marlow is a lawyer and policy professional, bringing together both her specialisms within her current role as head of the legal prosecution policy team and head of the priority policy team in the Policy Directorate of the CPS. She jointly chairs the AI Working Group which is considering both the threats and opportunities presented by AI across the Criminal Justice System. She works closely with both technical experts, lawyers, operational colleagues and cross-government policy officials to draw together the CPS’s position on this new and emerging technology.

Nakshathra Suresh

Nakshathra is a cyber criminologist, criminal justice expert, academic and the co-founder of the safety tech consultancy eiris. As a digital safety advocate and speaker, Nakshathra has spoken at various conferences around the world regarding artificial intelligence safety and how harm reduction principles need to be incorporated in new and emerging technologies.

She has been a finalist for several awards, including the 2024 Women's Agenda Leadership Awards 'Emerging Leader in Tech', the Australian South Asian Centre’s Stellar South Asian Women Awards ‘Global Impact’ and the Female Factor's 'A Voice for a New Era of Leaders'.

 Matt Whalley

Matt  heads up strategic digital innovation activity across Police Digital Service (PDS), drawing on experience gained from working in a variety of operational, intelligence and investigation roles, spread across a number of policing organisations as well as the private sector. He combines his passions for policing and all things digital, data, and technology by leading a portfolio of innovation projects across a broad landscape. Matt harnesses expertise from policing, industry, and academia to support protecting the public.

Claire Beaumont

Claire is the Head of Delivery Management in the Digital & Information Directorate at CPS. She has been a civil servant for 28 years, with the last 7 years focused on digital delivery.

She oversees delivery across various programmes, including the replacement of CPS’s case management system and AI initiatives. She led the team that delivered Witness Expenses, which was 'highly commended' at last year’s IT Industry awards. Building effective teams and enabling opportunities for delivery and innovation within CPS and across the justice system is a passion.

Giles Herdale

Giles has worked at the National Policing Improvement Agency, College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council. Giles is an active member of the Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group, the Home Office expert advisory group on ethics and emerging tech. 

Tamara Polajnar

Tamara is the CEO of herEthical AI, a startup specialising in AI solutions that optimise organisational performance and culture in the Criminal Justice System in order to improve the experience for survivors of domestic abuse and gender based violence. She has a PhD in computer science and extensive AI experience. 

Anna Vartapetiance

Dr. Anna Vartapetiance is CEO and Co-Founder of Securium, an AI-for-good company specialising in solutions to detect and prevent online harms/crimes, including violence against women and girls, with services provided to the likes of Met Police, NCA and the Home Office.

She is also a founding member/director of the Online Safety Tech Industry Association (OSTIA), a non-profit organisation championing the global adoption of such tech.

Recognised for her impactful work, Anna is a recipient of InnovateUK’s purple plaque (located at the Alan Turing building at the University of Surrey), for tech innovations to protect vulnerable online.

Anna holds a PhD in Computational Deception Detection from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Surrey, with expertise in natural language processing, cybersecurity, and data science.