Skills

I am a cognitive computing specialist with 20+ years’ experience of putting person-centered design at the heart of a disruptive approach to information and service management.

Expertise:

• Person-centered design and user experience.
• Digital innovation and transformation.
• IBM Watson AI/Cognitive (Chatbots and WCS).
• Project management, Prince2/Agile/Lean/MVP.
• Information architecture and Content management.
• Full Stack producer/thinker.

Experience

Head of Digital / Arthritis Research UK

2012 – 2017

• Digital lead for UK’s fourth-largest medical charity (Budget: 4M).
• Heading-up IBM Watson cognitive-computing product pathway to curate and automate access to 80 years of medical research and knowledge.
• Leading the team responsible for developing clear, easy-to-use and ‘hands-free’ products for customers with limited mobility.
• Our Health Virtual Assistant (Chatbot) ensures scalable support for a growing customer-base, responds to enquiries quickly and accurately with our tone of voice, and ensures brand values are upheld.
• Leading the organization-wide digital transformation program, with a new digital framework focusing on customer-centered design.

CEO / Slink.net Ltd. 1997 – Current

• Formed own company, Slink.net Ltd., in 1997.
• Specializing in intuitive digital products and solutions.
• Training and Technical authoring for BBC Academy.
• Courses delivered: Design Principles, HTML5, CSS, and Photoshop.
• Slink’s client list has included the BBC, the UK Government Cabinet Office, Demos (UK’s leading cross-party think-tank), Sony, ITV, National Health Service, Number 10, Save the Children, Electronics Industry Charity, and Arthritis Research UK.

Associate lecturer / University of the Arts London 2008 – 2012

I was invited to join the team at the University of the Arts, London College of Communication faculty, as an Associate Lecturer. I taught both degree, and foundation degree students in Convergence Media Journalism Practice.

Teaching and Technical authoring - BBC Academy 1995 - 2012

Working at the BBC Academy ensured I had insight and hands-on experience of BBC processes and systems used to manage its multi-channel product offering. This enabled me to maintain my knowledge of digital publishing innovation, best practice, industry regulation, and application of laws such as the Equality Act of 2010.

I worked on the roll-out of a BBC-wide CMS solution; this was an exciting project involving migrating three million pages of static website content into a database-driven XML repository. This development work supported publishing at scale across multiple TV/Radio program and own-brand services.

I taught and developed learning materials for Digital Design Principles, HTML5, CSS, and Photoshop. I was the Technical Editor for the BBC's HTML manual.

Head of Training and consultant services / Cyberia internet cafes 1996 - 2002

Management and development of International Corporate and Public Internet Training program. Set up franchised training departments in Manchester, Dublin, Rotterdam and Bangkok. Clients included British Telecom, Cable and Wireless, London Underground, DTI, Disney, Mercury Communications, Sony, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Merrill Lynch, and Author Andersen.

Recent Professional Development

Rochester Institute of Technology RITX Cybersecurity Fundamentals 2017

MichiganX Principles of Designing for Humans 2017

New Scientist Live Instant AI Expert 2017

MIT Professional Education Digital Programs Certificate Internet of Things: Roadmap to a Connected World 2016

MIT PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION U.Lab: Transforming Business, Society, and Self 2016

Leadership / Membership

Royal Society of Arts and Manufacture - Elected Fellow

CHARITY COMMS GROUP - HEADS OF DIGITAL

University of London - Alumni Network

Meetups: Artificial Intelligence LV, Internet of Things LV, Silicon Vegas, Las Vegas SEO, Arts Las Vegas, Tech4Good, Las Vegas Agile and Scrum User Group, Kubernetes LV.

Green Badge -  City of London Guiide

Tourist Guiding Institute - member

Education                       

Post graduate certificate of education design technology

Goldsmiths, University of London, 1992 - 1993

Bachelor of arts (hons) THREE-DIMENSIONAL Design 2:1

University of Surrey, 1982 - 1987

City and Guilds Level 2 Award in Welding Skills

South Thames College 1990 - 1991

Recent ibm Watson Chatbot project press

Interviews, publications, professional engagements

• World of Watson speaker – Using cognitive computing to help people with arthritis 2016
• The User Experience, IBM HealthConnect 2016
• Charity Comms conference speaker – Content marketing 2015
• Charity Comms conference speaker – Content publishing using COPE principles 2014
• Charity Comms - Top 10 article: Creating a content strategy in a fast-moving world – 2013
• FastTrain Manchester BBC conference sponsored by BBC and Salford University, Master class in HTML5 ‘the good stuff’, 2012
• BBC TV News ‘South East Today’, interview on impact of Twitter, 2010
• BBC Radio Kent, Interview on John and Jule’s Breakfast Show – YouTube use, 2010
• BBC TV News ‘South East Today’, interview on Using the Internet for campaigning, 2010
• BBC Radio Kent, interview on John and Jule’s Breakfast Show – Using Facebook, 2009
• BBC A+M Festival and Awards, Speaker, Websites, 2007
• Sky TV, 'Really caught in the act' – interview on History of Web cams, 1999
• Government SPIN Conference – 25% and beyond Speaker, 1999
• BBC Breakfast News, interview on Websites for all, 1998
• London Radio Services, interview on Cybercafés, 1998
• BBC World, TV program on using Internet IRC, 1998
• BBC TV program article on ‘Computers don't bite’, 1998
• Creative Technology, Article on HTML, 1998
• Irish Times ‘Netprofit’ Conference, Speaker, 1997
• Sony ‘Women in Technology’ award Speaker, 1997
• BBC Radio 4 interview for ‘Women in Technology’ Series, 1997
• BBC Radio 4 interview for ‘All in the mind’, 1997
• BBC World Service, 20 programs for the 'Network' series (Broadcast Worldwide), 1997
• International German Cybercafé Conference, Speaker, 1997 and 2000
• IRN, EBN, ABN, CNN, Radio 5, Channel One, Interviews, 1996, 97, 98, 99, 2000
• BBC Radio 4 Interview for ‘Books and Company’, 1996
• The Future File, TV article for European Business News, 1996
• Legal Network TV ‘The Internet and Law’ - Legal Training Material, video, 1996
• 'No anorak required' Internet training video - published 1996
• ’Millennium Metamorphosis’ conference, speaker, 1996