
Speakers

Dr. Aditi Desai
Co-founder and CEO, iCount
Aditi is NHS Consultant Maternity & Gynaecology at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust and founder of iCount, an innovative patient safety solution designed to prevent the problem of items accidentally retained in the body after childbirth and surgery. She believes in systems resilience and design, making it easier for healthcare professionals to do the right thing and deliver care safely.
Aditi has worked in women’s healthcare since graduating in 1995 and has led many NHS improvements. She was the college tutor for postgraduate doctors for several years, has many research publications and loves to sing in her free time.

Alex Cole
CEO, TIN Ventures Ltd.
Alex is CEO of TIN Ventures, which is a venture builder and micro-investment business focused on improving social mobility through employability, addressing fuel poverty and climate sustainability.
He serves as Chair of the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce – Black Business Collective, as an Entrepreneur in Residence at The Open University, a NED for Brixton House cultural theatre venue, Solo Housing the homelessness charity, and an Advisory Board Member of the Innovation Alliance of the West Midlands, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Art.

Francisco Gomez
IP Hatch Program Lead, Nokia
Francisco leads the IP Hatch Program at Nokia, where he drives investments in early-stage startups through Nokia’s intellectual property. With a decade of experience in the IP world, he has been involved in multiple partnerships and deals related to IP strategy and commercialization.
Previously, Francisco spent seven years in blue-chip consumer goods companies, holding roles in marketing and strategy. He also worked as a management consultant at Bain & Co., advising on business growth and transformation.
Francisco holds a BA in Industrial Engineering and an MBA from IMD in Switzerland.

Iveta Pudilova
CEO and Co-founder, Happy Autistic Lady Ltd.
Iveta is a proud neurodivergent CEO and co-founder of Happy Autistic Lady Ltd and National Neurodiversity Training, a family-owned business inspired by her sister Vera’s autism diagnosis.
Known for award-winning neurodiversity training and awareness campaigns, they enable companies and universities to boost retention, reputation, and satisfaction. Expanding their reach internationally, they partner with organisations like Transport for West Midlands, several universities, and various international tech companies.
Iveta is also a speaker on neurodiversity and disability and a mentor for young aspiring female and neurodivergent entrepreneurs, actively raising awareness and inspiring future generations by sharing her lived experiences and expertise.

Dr. James Elliot
Delivery Manager - Business, West Midlands Combined Authority.
Jamie Elliott has over fifteen years of experience as an Open Innovation strategist and consultant. Prior to joining the West Midlands Combined Authority as their Innovation Lead in 2019, Jamie played an instrumental role in implementing the IXC Consultancy service in 2006 which supported high tech innovation in companies.
Jamie has worked in companies ranging from micro SME’s to multinationals, operating across diverse industry sectors such as food and drink, automotive, defence and FMCG. Jamie is currently the Delivery Manager-Business Programmes for the West Midlands Combined Authority overseeing the delivery of business support programmes.

Katherine Fuller
COO, TechWM
Katharine manages the business of TechWM, a not-for-profit cluster body supporting businesses, organisations and individuals in the region to grow a £100bn tech economy by 2030. Over 15 years she has specialised in emerging digital tech and cleantech, supporting many businesses from start-up to sustainable profitability. She has also specialised in challenge-led innovation, finding tech solutions to societal and corporate challenges, involving public-private partnerships regionally, nationally, and transnationally in Europe, US and Asia.
Katharine is an independent expert for the EU Commission and an assessor for Innovate UK. She studied Economics and gained an MBA with prestigious ‘triple crown’ accreditation.

Dr. Lisa Page
Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper
Lisa is a partner in the intellectual property team at Penningtons Manches Cooper and specialises in the life sciences sector. With a client base ranging from pharmaceutical companies to biotech start-ups and spin-outs, she advises on all stages of the drug development pathway including regulatory, pre-clinical and clinical development as well as on multi-party collaborations and spin-outs. She has particular experience in the development stage of new products, covering pipeline, co-development, out-licensing and in-licensing arrangements.
Lisa has a PhD in molecular microbiology and direct practical experience of working in the pharmaceutical industry managing clinical trials before re-training as a solicitor.

Louis Daillencourt
Director of Housing and Energy, Novoville
Louis is the creator of Novoville Shared Works, the software solution designed to revolutionise building improvements for homeowners, contractors and local authorities.
The web app was created in collaboration with the City of Edinburgh Council, Birmingham Council, with support from the Scottish Government and others. It offers an end-to-end journey for repairs, maintenance and retrofit works, including coordination of multiple stakeholders, a property logbook, thermal modelling, an integrated marketplace for procurement, and aggregated analytics.
Louis is Technical Lead at the National Retrofit Hub and has published research for the Scottish Government on national building databases.

Magdalena Karlikowska
CEO, Cytecom
Magda is the CEO of Cytecom, a University of Warwick spinout focused on revolutionising medical diagnostics. With a PhD in Microbiology and over a decade of research experience, she leads Cytecom's development of a rapid diagnostic test for antimicrobial-resistant infections. Passionate about advancing healthcare solutions, her work aims to improve patient outcomes globally.

Mani Hayre
Economic Growth Officer and Innovate Dudley Lead, Dudley Council
Mani Hayre has 15 years’ experience in sales and account management before moving to public sector life in 2020. She is currently Economic Growth Officer at Dudley Council. Her passion to help individuals and businesses are what drive her. She currently oversees Innovate Dudley an initiative set to increase innovation awareness, support, and funding in the Dudley borough.
Working closely with innovation partners, such as Innovate UK Business Growth this is being driven through a series of events and roundtable discussions to engage with businesses in the borough and fly the flag for innovation in Dudley.

Marc Pearson
Founder and Community Engagement Manager, EPIC Futures
Marc’s journey has been defined by roles that connect him to young people’s lives: as an Anti-Social Behaviour Officer for housing associations, a Schools Engagement and Young Person Officer for West Midlands Police, and in community engagement roles supporting youth facing adversity, disenfranchisement, and disadvantage.
EPIC embodies this vision. Its mission is to equip young entrepreneurs with the tools, confidence, and resilience they need to succeed, one step at a time. By fostering growth, ambition, and a sense of purpose, we empower the next generation to transform challenges into opportunities and their potential into success.

Mark Thompson
Co-founder and CEO, AceOn Group
Mark stands at the forefront of one of the fastest moving technology industry trends: Battery Specialised Products & Renewable Energy particularly Battery Energy Storage Systems. He’s spent the past seven years passionately advocating a commercial/ industry-wide shift to energy storage.
His drive, enthusiasm long experience equips him for the new emerging markets for Electric Vehicles (practically for 2nd life EV batteries for reuse) and Energy Storage Solutions. A calculated risk-taker with deep industry knowledge, Mark has championed his enterprise with key supply chain providers, developed opportunities with major blue-chip companies and sits on the Government Faraday Battery Challenge Advisory Board.

Norikazu Ikeda
Manager, Intellectual Property Division, NEC Corporation
Mr. Ikeda has over 20 years of experience across diverse industries, including manufacturing, trading, and global supply chain, particularly focusing on intellectual property management and strategic innovation. At NEC, He leads initiatives under the IP Hatch Program, leveraging open patents to foster collaboration with startups and drive co-creation projects.
He has facilitated the transfer of NEC's open patents to startups in USA, Asia and EU, generating substantial equity-based returns. He leads negotiations with technology platform startups and is actively exploring opportunities with UK and Hong Kong innovation networks and has established strategic alliances with international incubation and startup communities.

Dr. Pam Waddell OBE
Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands and Venturefest West Midlands
Pam is the founding Director of the Innovation Alliance for the West Midlands, a partnership working to stimulate innovation across the West Midlands through building a vibrant innovation ecosystem and catalysing collaborative activity focussed on demand-led innovation. She is also a founder and Executive Chair of Venturefest West Midlands.
A recognised authority in innovation as a driver for economic growth and improved public services, Pam has designed and delivered the WM Innovation Programme with WMCA and multiple business-facing partners. She was awarded an OBE for ‘services to innovation in the West Midlands in 2019.

Petros Kkolas
Innovation Scout, Arup
Petros is a civil engineer and innovation scout at Arup, identifying early-stage scaling companies that could benefit from Arup's expertise across strategic, technical, and commercial development. He focuses on the Midlands, specializing in technologies that enhance sustainability and reduce carbon emissions in the built environment.
Petros’s experience includes major projects e.g. High Speed 2 and Public-Private Partnerships across Europe as a Lenders' Technical Advisor. He has held leadership roles within Midlands and European engineering groups, actively organizing conferences and roundtables on commercial aspects of the industry and advocating for professional development, conducting workshops e.g. on personal branding.

Steve Harrison
Business Development Director, FuturEnergy Limited
FuturEnergy has developed a range of successful small-wind-turbines. Recently, after developing a successful advanced pyrolysis system, (now entering series production), the company has repositioned itself. Units derive purpose-engineered solid, liquid and gaseous products from waste materials and are commercially and environmentally sustainable.
Steve’s background includes roles in aerospace gas turbines, rotary wing vibration control and supply of test systems for gas turbines and IC engines for aircraft, automotive and marine applications and end-of-line vehicle test.
Atmospheric carbon reduction via commercially sustainable processes is a company mantra.

Terry Monkton
Founder and CEO, Simworx Limited
Terry established Simworx in 2005 with a continual innovative R&D strategy. Simworx is a world leading specialist in the turnkey design, manufacture and supply of immersive media based attractions (AGV Dark Rides, Flying Theatres, Dynamic Motion Simulators etc). They have supplied 125+ installations used by 60+ million people/ year to theme parks and visitor attractions worldwide, working brands including Dreamworks, Ferrari, Sony Pictures, Marvel, BBC and many more.
Terry is also works with the Department of Business and Trade to promote UK Creative Industries to overseas markets and Chair the British Association of Amusement Parks, Piers & Attractions.





