The Collective xChange Conference: Speakers
Caroline Norbury OBE is the Chief Executive of Creative UK, the independent network for the UK’s Creative Industries working to support and invest in creative talent and businesses, and unite the UK’s creative industries.
Caroline sits on the Creative Industries Council and chairs the Investment for Growth sub-group of the Council. She is a non-executive director of Crowdfunder, the UK’s largest rewards-based crowdfunding platform; a member of BAFTA and the Royal Society of Arts and a trustee for the PRS Foundation, a charity supporting new music and talent. Caroline is also Chairwoman of The Music Works, a charity in Gloucestershire changing the lives of young people through music. She was awarded an MBE in 2012 for services to the film industry, and has recently been awarded an OBE at The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022 for her leadership and advocacy in shaping the creative sector’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Caroline is one of our keynote speaker at xCHANGE 2023 on 21st November and will be talking about ‘The Creative Economy: Putting investment in culture and people at the heart of growth’.
Sir Chris Bryant has been the Member of Parliament for Rhondda since 2001. He is currently the Shadow Minister for Creative Industries and Digital and was previously Deputy Leader of the House of Commons and Minister for Europe and Latin America in the last Labour Government.
Prior to entering Parliament he was a priest in the Church of England, serving as a curate in High Wycombe and a youth chaplain in Peterborough diocese and then ran an educational charity, Common Purpose, before becoming Head of European Affairs at the BBC, based in Brussels.
Chris read English at Oxford before completing two further Oxford degrees in Theology (including History of the Church) as part of his preparation for ordination. A former member of the Select Committee for Culture Media and Sport, he has written several books on parliamentary history. From 2020 to 2023 he was Chair of the Committee on Standards and Privileges.
Chris Bryant was the first gay MP to celebrate his civil partnership in the Palace of Westminster.
Chris is one of our keynote speaker at xCHANGE 2023 on 21st November.
Nick is Deputy CEO of MHP Group, PRCA Large Communications Consultancy of the Year.
A corporate reputation specialist, Nick has advised technology and media companies, including Ericsson, Sky, Spotify, CBS, The New York Times, The Economist Group, beIN Media Group, Wayve and many others.
Nick runs MHP’s Networked Age research programme, working with partners including Cambridge University, UCL and Influence At Work to develop new strategies and tools to navigate an increasingly polarised, activist and complex world.
Nick is one of our keynote speakers at xCHANGE 2023 on 21st November. He will be talking about ‘The Rise of the ‘Super Distruster’.
Ruth Morgan
Vice Dean (Interdisciplinarity and Entrepreneurship), UCL Faculty of Engineering
Professor Ruth Morgan is Vice Dean of the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Director of the UCL Centre for the Forensic Sciences, and co-founder and co-director of the UCL Arista Institute which seeks to transform how research engages with the world.
Ruth works at the intersection of science, technology, and the humanities, with a focus on bringing creative and imaginative ways of thinking, seeing and doing to solve real-world challenges.
Ruth is one of our speakers at xCHANGE 2023 on 21st November. She will discussing how ‘Disruptive thinking takes a meadow’.
Marie-Shireen works with leadership teams and their people to find the right solution to move people to do great things. A skilled facilitator and coach, she enjoys bringing creativity and a touch of fun into her work, as she believes that often the best ideas come from the most unexpected places. With a MSc in Management and Governance from the London School of Economics, and a background in transformation, people and change from KPMG, Marie-Shireen understands the complex challenges that organisations and societies face during time of change. This is complemented by a personal understanding of the role cultural differences can play when working in a global environment, having lived in four countries to date and speaking four different languages.
Marie is our keynote speaker at xCHANGE 2023 on 21st November and will be talking about ‘The Creative Economy: Putting investment in culture and people at the heart of growth’.
Preben Kjær Kristensen is the Head of IP at Ørsted Wind Power A/S which develops, builds, and operates wind turbine parks on top of energy storage and carbon capture solutions.
In addition to degrees in Engineering and Business, Mr. Kristensen has more than 20 years of IPR experience in a multitude of different positions and has been selected as a Technical Judge at the Danish Maritime and Trade Court for patent litigation cases.
Abhishek is the CEO and co-founder of NumberEight, a London-based startup specialising in behavioural intelligence by using Edge AI to help advertisers target without using personally identifiable data. He is an ex-Apple, Palm, and Blackberry engineer with multiple US patents to his name and has lived and worked in the US, Canada, the UK, and the Netherlands. He holds an MSc. in Electrical Engineering from TU Delft and a BA Sc. in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
Abhi is joining our panel discussion at xCHANGE 2023 on 21st November, You Have The Power – AI in creative businesses.
Ken Lythgoe is Head of Corporate Development at DAACI. Ken has extensive experience in various roles related to corporate development, business development, and commercial operations.
Ken has demonstrated a strong focus on technology and AI-driven solutions, particularly in the fields of music, media, and artificial intelligence. Ken’s experience spans various industries, including fintech, music, media, and power transmission & distribution.
Ken is joining our panel discussion at xCHANGE 2023 on 21st November, You Have The Power – AI in creative businesses.
Timo Kunz
CEO, AudioStack
With a background in research (a PhD in Optimization), enterprise software (SAP) and hands-on Data Science (mainly customer behaviour modelling), Timo founded AudioStack – leveraging the latest advances of generative AI to build the world’s most powerful AI audio production infrastructure.
AudioStack is on a mission to make commercial audio production scalable and automatable; making it possible to produce high quality, and amazing sounding audio in seconds rather than weeks.
Timo is joining our panel discussion at xCHANGE 2023 on 21st November, You Have The Power – AI in creative businesses.