GAAD 2021 - Speakers
GAAD 2021 at Atos
Speakers
Christopher Patnoe
Head of Accessibility Programs and Disability Inclusion, Google
Christopher Patnoe is the Head of Accessibility Programs and Disability Inclusion for Google. He leads Google’s efforts around the accessibility of product, people (both Googler and end users) and partnerships. He has more than 20 years experience in Tech working at companies like Apple, Sony Ericsson and Disney where he’s built hardware, software, and services. His current passion is Accessibility at the intersection of immersive technologies (AR/VR) and consumer hardware. He is the chair for the Immersive Captions Community Group with the W3C, is a co-Chair of the XR Association Accessibility Working Group, and sits on the Board of Trustees for the American Foundation for the Blind. Christopher has a degree in Music from UC Berkeley.
David Sneddon
Vice President, gTech Professional Services, EMEA, Google
David is the Vice President for gTech Professional Services in EMEA [gPS]. He started his career in London at global advertising agency, Ogilvy and Mather, later moving to the sister company Mindshare UK and in 1999 transferred to help set up the Mindshare Ireland and GroupM office. He first joined Google in 2011 where he spent 7 years in Large Customer Sales EMEA in a variety of roles until he joined gTech in February 2019. David is a board director of many Google EMEA entities and is passionately committed to diversity/inclusion issues.
Rajiv Arora
Global IT Hub Lead – Business Consulting and Digitalization, Siemens
A Global Business Transformation leader with 30+ years of experience with expertise in leading Digitalization Initiatives with large multinationals both in Manufacturing & Financial Services Sector.
Currently as Global Head of IT Global Hub he is driving IT Digitalization Initiatives and leading the IT operations for all Siemens businesses and corporate functions across 24 lead countries and 5 regions. Also in the Siemens New Normal initiative, he is Global Program Lead for Mobile Work Program. He is responsible for digitalizing the workplace and business processes for all businesses worldwide.
During his experience Journey, has worked on global assignments in corporate strategy, management consulting, program & engagement management, systems integration. Has been a trusted Advisor to CXOs of diverse group of clients in both private and government sectors in Asia, Europe, and the United States. Also led the strategy and implementation for large Shared Services Center for different multinational organizations both in Singapore and India.
Philippe Mareine
Chief Digital & Transformation Officer and Head of CSR, Atos
Prior to his current position, he was Deputy Manager in the French Treasury department’s Inspection Générale des Finances unit and, previously, he was in charge of Human Resources in the Public Accounts department of the French Ministry for the Budget. From 2005 to 2007, he was technical adviser in charge of employee relations and reform in the office of the French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry. He held several managerial positions at the French Tax Administration. He joined Atos in 2009 as General Secretary of the Board of Directors in charge of legal functions, compliance, audit, security and social responsibility policy. He was Head of Human Resources. He is today Head of Siemens Global Alliance and Chief Digital & Transformation Officer. Mr Mareine is also in charge of Group CSR. He is a graduate from the Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale d’Administration.
Lydia Montandon
Business Development Director, Atos
Lydia Montandon is currently business development director for the Atos Research and Innovation (ARI) group. Her role is to look for opportunities to commercialize R&D projects’ outcomes. She has more than 20 years of experience in coordinating collaborative R&D projects mainly in the fields of educational technology, eInclusion, and eHealth. She contributes to the innovation management strategy, facilitates innovation workshops and was head of the digital transformation consulting practice in 2019, promoting Atos accessibility offering. She is a member of Atos Scientific Community and of the Immersive Experience Expert Community.
Jean Philippe Courtois
Executive Vice President and President, Global Sales, Marketing & Operation, Microsoft
As executive vice president and president, Global Sales, Marketing & Operations, Jean-Philippe Courtois leads Microsoft’s commercial business across 124 subsidiaries worldwide. From Cloud services to AI and mixed reality, Courtois is responsible for driving strategic planning, growth initiatives, national digital transformation partnerships and running Microsoft global commercial business. Courtois is passionate about enabling businesses to digitally transform with the right strategy, skills and technology to ignite new innovation, new ways of working, new business models and new revenue streams. He helps build vibrant ecosystems with small businesses, start-ups, public sector entities, partners all the way to global industry leaders.
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Adrian Gregory
SEVP, Global Head of Financial Services & Insurance and Global Head
Atos Syntel, Atos
Adrian Gregory is Group Senior Executive Vice President, member of the Group Management Committee. He is Global Head of Financial Services & Insurance and Global Head of Atos Syntel.
An Engineer by trade, Adrian started his career in the Oil Industry. He then switched to IT and has over 25 years’ experience in technology and business transformation, working for several global blue-chip companies.
Adrian is an approved person with the Financial Conduct Authority and non-Exec Chair of Atos’ regulated entity. He is a member of the Chairs’ Committee of the Confederation of British Industry, the leading business group in UK.
Adrian is big supporter of The Prince’s Trust. He is National Chair of the Million Makers Competition and a member of the Technology Leadership Group.
Élie Girard
CEO at Atos
Elie Girard is a graduate of the École Centrale de Paris and of Harvard University. He began his career as auditor at Andersen, before joining the Ministry for the Economy, Finance and Industry in the Treasury department. Between 2004 and 2007, Elie Girard worked for the Office of the Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry in France. He joined Orange in 2007 and was appointed Chief of Staff to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. From 2010 to 2014, he was Senior Executive Vice-President in charge of Strategy & Development of the Orange group, member of the Group Executive Committee. In April 2014, Elie Girard joined Atos as Deputy Chief Financial Officer of Atos Group. He was appointed Group Chief Financial Officer in February 2015 and Group Senior Executive Vice President in February 2018. In March 2019, Elie was appointed Group Deputy Chief Executive Officer. He became Chief Executive Officer of Atos in November of the same year.
June Lowery
Head of Unit at DG Connect, European Commission
June Lowery is Head of Unit and Deputy to the Director at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content & Technology (DG CNECT). She has worked for the EU institutions in Luxembourg for the past 25 years in a wide variety of fields. Her current responsibilities include web accessibility, language technology and online safety for children, and she is the CNECT equality coordinator. She is passionate about her job, and making the digital world more accessible, secure and inclusive.
Caroline Casey
Founder, The Valuable 500
Caroline Casey, Founder of The Valuable 500, operates at the frontier of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I). She is frequently invited to contribute at ground-breaking events such TED, Davos, World Economic Forum, One Young World and Skoll.
Comfortably straddling the worlds of business and activism, she has the ear of business and access to one of the world’s largest community of CEOs to shape a society where everyone is free to be fully themselves.
Caroline has a unique ability to bring together the intersection of head and heart. Whether she is being interviewed or working as a panellist or speaker at an event, she moves people to accept themselves and others, make positive changes, realise their own value, and be vulnerable and authentic.
Her passion and drive are rooted in a very unique personal story of trying to fit in with a secret. As a former management consultant and daughter of a successful entrepreneur, Caroline recognised the power of business to make change happen. Today her work is catalysing business leaders to take full ownership of their inclusion agenda and to shed the constraints that stop inclusion from becoming a reality.
Neil Milliken
Global Head of Digital Inclusion – Group CSR, Atos
Neil Milliken is Global Head of Digital Inclusion at Atos, an invited expert for the W3C Cognitive Accessibility Taskforce , member of the Atos Scientific Community & Atos Distinguished Expert. He is co-founder of AXSChat Europe’s largest twitter chat with a focus on Accessibility & Inclusion. Neil is a member of the Board of Directors for World Institute on Disability, Non Exec Chair of the Board at Genius Within, Chair of the Diversity Board for Institute of Coding & Member of the Advisory Board Valuable500. Neil was named in the top ten of the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 list in 2018 and was named D&I practitioner of the year in the 2019 Disability Smart Awards. Neil is dyslexic and has ADHD, he advocates for people with neurodivergent conditions as well as other disabilities and additional needs.
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Dr. Bernd Schramm
Head of GIZ Global Project “Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities”, GIZ
Bernd Schramm (PhD) currently heads the GIZ Global Project “Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities”, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Before that, he worked many years for the German development agency GIZ and a consulting firm in South-East-Asia. As a social scientist focusing on social coherence as well as universal access to public services, he strongly advocates for the principle of ‘leaving no one behind’ and the need for empowerment of marginalized groups, including persons with disabilities.
Tanja Gönner
CEO at GIZ
Tanja Gönner is Chair of the Management Board of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH since July 2012 and is holding various mandates in supervisory boards, advisory councils and business associations. She studied law and worked as a partner for a law firm before she became member of the German Bundestag. After that, she headed various ministries in the state of Baden-Württemberg as a minister and was member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg.
©GIZ/Photothek
Dr. Axel Klaphake
Director for Economic and Social Development, Digitalisation, GIZ
Axel Klaphake (PhD) worked with research institutes, think tanks and consulting companies in Germany, USA, and Brazil on issues linked to economic development and the sustainable management of natural resources. In GIZ he worked as head of regional and bilateral programmes in Uganda and as the GIZ Country Director in Uganda and Ethiopia. Currently he heads the Division Economic and Social Development, Digitalisation in the global department at GIZ.
Udo Littke
Head of Central Europe, Atos
Udo Littke is Head of the Central Europe region of Atos. In this position he is responsible for the entire business of Atos in Germany, Austria, Switzerland as well as the Eastern and Southern Europe region (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia). Udo Littke is a member of the General Management Committee of Atos SE.
The core topic of his career is the development of a value system of leadership in large, complex and heterogeneous service organizations. His special focus lies on the management, integration and development of employees in changing environments.
Mark Wilcock
Accessibility Specialist, Atos
Mark Wilcock is an Accessibility Specialist at Atos, CPWA Certified, an ex-contributing member of the W3C WCAG Working Group for WCAG 2.1 and W3C Cognitive Accessibility Taskforce and an Atos Expert for Immersive Experiences.
He is the co-chair for the development of the Digital Accessibility Specialist Apprenticeship standard, the first global apprenticeship standard dedicated to Accessibility.
Rama Gheerawo
Director at The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design
Rama Gheerawo is an international and inspirational figure within design. He is a serial innovator in the fields of Inclusive Design, Design Thinking and Creative Leadership having personally led over 100 projects working internationally with governments, business, academia and the third sector. He won a ‘Hall of Fame’ award for his work at the Design Week Awards in 2019 and was named a 2018 Creative Leaders by Creative Review alongside Paul Smith and Björk.
Empathy is at the heart of his practice. As Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, he uses design to address society’s toughest issues from ageing and healthcare, to ability and diversity. Rama sits on a number of advisory boards and committees for awards, universities and organisations
Chris McGinley
Senior Research Fellow, Leader of Age & Diversity Space, The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design
Chris is a Senior Research Fellow at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD), based in the Royal College of Art (RCA), where he leads the Age & Diversity Research space. He is a principle researcher/designer on a range of projects, and leads on all ‘age and diversity’ projects for a host of major global private, public and third sector companies. He was instrumental in developing the proposal for the new Design Age Institute (DAI), where he has a role linking work between HHCD research and DAI implementation.
He is an award-winning people-centred designer, researcher and writer having worked in the field of inclusive design for over 15 years on a broad range of projects, which have been successfully commercialised, exhibited and disseminated internationally.
Gareth Ford Williams
Accessibility Director, The Readability Group
In 2005 Gareth founded the BBC’s Digital Accessibility Team. Over the course of the first 3 years the Accessibility Team worked as an integral part of iPlayer’s core Product Team ensuring BBC iPlayer V1.0 launched as an accessible product. The accessibility team became part of UX when the BBC’s UX Design Team was founded in 2008. He went on to found the BBC’s UX Design Research team in 2010.
Bruno Maag
CEO, The Readability Group
Bruno Maag is an expert typographer with over forty years of expertise in his field. He founded and led Dalton Maag Ltd, the world’s leading studio for typeface design where he worked with some of the best known brands: Amazon, Nokia, Intel, HP, AirBnB, Netflix, Facebook, DHL, FedEx, ABB, BBC, Rakuten amongst many others. All these brands have in common that their typography needs to be as accessible as possible to the clients’ audiences.
Bruno has been researching the neuroscience of typography and its impact on reading, and recently had a paper published on a project carried out in conjunction with the University of Brighton.
Isabelle Warnier
VP, Head of Scaler, the Accelerator & Head of Influencers Program, Atos
Isabelle is a Vice President at Atos, responsible for the Influencers Program and for the Global Start-Up Accelerator. Scaler was launched in July 2020. Scaler is a recent but already successful program. This is a win-win pragmatic approach : Atos help the startup go international as we introduce them to our tier1 customers while they accelerate our time-to-market , enriching our portfolio with very specific industry use cases, in a secured and unique decarbonized approach.
Neil Barnfather MBE
VP Europe, Goodmaps
Neil has been recognised as one of Britain’s most accomplished entrepreneurs. Alongside his business successes he is well known on the international disability stage, himself being blind.
GoodMaps revolutionary indoor navigation solution transforms the built environment into an inclusive space for everyone. Making a wide variety of locations; office, transport hub, educational setting, hospital, shopping mall; along with countless other examples, entirely accessible. Delivering upon the Access For All ethos celebrated in Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
Gavin Neate
Founder & CEO, Neatebox
18 years working directly with disabled people in the charity sector combined with his determination to address the challenges his clients were facing on a daily basis led Gavin start his own solution led company. His unique skills and passion for positive change make him a superb evangelist for equality, diversity and inclusion.
Rene Perkins
CEO & Co-founder, CityMaaS
Rene Perkins, CA MSc BA(hon), top 50 BAME founder under 50, is a serial entrepreneur dedicated to using technology for solving pressing problems of society and the environment. CEO and Co-founder of CityMaaS with the vision to make the world accessible for all online and offline using data and machine learning.
Antonio Santos
Social Media Business Evangelist & Senior Immersive Technologies Expert, Atos
Antonio Santos is a Social Media Business Evangelist and Senior Workplace Expert, at Atos, focusing on Digital Inclusion, Social Media Engagement, and Social Business. He is a Sociologist with expertise on Applied Research; he previously worked in the Media, Military, Public Sector and Telecom before joining Siemens IT in 2006 in Cork and Atos in 2011.
Patrick Stolpmann
Head of Technology and Transformation, International Paralympic Committee
Patrick is a seasoned senior executive with over 15 years of international corporate and non-profit experience and a true role model for Diversity & Inclusion. He is responsible for driving the IPC’s organisational technology strategy and transformation to enable the IPC and Paralympic Movement to achieve its aspiration “To make for a more inclusive society for people with an impairment through Para sport”.
Niyati Bharucha
Change Management Coordinator, International Paralympic Committee
Niyati has been with the International Paralympic Committee for over 2 years, in the capacities of Change Management and Digital Transformation. While tying together her two biggest interests – sport and technology – this dream job has also given her the opportunity to take the topic of Digital Accessibility forward in a workplace that embodies diversity, inclusion and accessibility. Her previous experience includes 8 years of advertising, communication, digital content management and marketing in India, supported with a Sport Management MSc at Loughborough University.
Nicole Windmann
Head of Inclusive Design, SAP
Nicole Windmann joined SAP’s Accessibility Competence Center in 2012. She owns the guidelines for accessible product development and design, and is SAP’s central contact point for questions regarding the accessibility of SAP products. Before she joined SAP, she led international public funded projects for economic development in Europe, Asia and South America.
Thomas Frantz
Senior Manager of Accessibility Public Relations and Partnerships, Salesforce
Thomas Frantz is an accomplished organizational accessibility leader and disability rights activist. He began his career failing college multiple times and had no idea he would become a 10-year veteran of the tech space, working for prominent companies such as Intel, Amazon, Uber, Facebook, and Salesforce. He’s proud to be open about being neurodiverse and speaking about the hard truths of accessibility.
Sophie Proust
CTO at Atos
Sophie has been the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Atos since January 2019. She joined the Atos group in 2014 following the acquisition by Atos of Bull, where she held the position of Head of Research & Development. At Atos, Sophie was head of the Research & Development for the Big Data & Cybersecurity division, from 2014 to January 2019. Alongside this, Sophie is part of the Atos Quantum Advisory board. Before Atos, Sophie held various technical managerial positions at Bull in the mainframe, IT administration solutions and HW server design. In 2010, Sophie headed the Tera100 Project which delivered the CEA with the first Petaflops-scale calculator in Europe. She has been a member of the board of directors of Worldline since December 2016 and a member of the board of directors of the Université Technologique de Troyes (UTT) since December 2018. Sophie Proust is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité “Supélec” of Paris.
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Nataliya Kosmyna
Research Scientist, MIT
Nataliya is passionate about an idea of creating a partnership between AI and human intelligence, fusion of a machine and a human brain. She obtained her Ph.D in 2015 in the domain of non-invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs). Nataliya works for the past 12 years on designing solutions for cognitive enhancement and healthcare applications. Some examples of her work include control of drones using brain activity; cognitive state monitoring to predict fatigue; control of home appliances for people with locked-in syndrome.
Tara Moss
Bestselling author, documentary maker and human rights advocate
Tara Moss is an author of 13 bestselling books, a documentary maker, and outspoken advocate. As a disabled woman and ambulatory wheelchair user with CRPS, Tara has used her public profilee to help de-stigmatize disability, mobility aids, chronic illness and chronic pain. Her latest book is the internationally best-selling novel The War Widow, featuring feminist 1940s PI Billie Walker and her disabled war vet assistant, Sam Baker.
Kate Nash
Creator & CEO PurpleSpace
Kate Nash OBE is creator & CEO of PurpleSpace (www.purplespace.org). Established in 2015 it is the world’s only professional development membership hub for disability employee resource groups [ERG] / networks.
PurpleSpace delivers leadership know-how to ERG / network leaders and is the go-to global community of disability ERG / network leaders across all sectors. The community of change agents was born by demand following the publication of her book ‘Secrets & Big News’ in 2014.
Denise Reed Lamoreaux
Global Chief Diversity Officer, Atos
Based in Rochester, New York, Denise has been involved in diversity and learning-related endeavors for 30 + years. Her career has encompassed Secondary Education, Professional Leadership Coaching, Leadership, and Instructing at both the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School and Monroe Community College’s Corporate College program. She has served as Global Chief Diversity Officer at Atos for 5 years, and has won over 40 International D&I awards for the programs and policies she has implemented.
Dr. Megan Lawrence
Sr. Accessibility Evangelist, Co-lead Microsoft Employees with Mental Health Conditions, Microsoft
Dr. Lawrence has over 15 years of experience working with the disability community. She builds trusted relationships with customers, NGOs, and Assistive Technology partners to further Microsoft’s mission of empowering every person and organization to achieve more through the lens of inclusion.
Ineke Vermeulen
Global Head of Digital Workplace Marketing, Atos
Born and raised in Belgium, based in Munich, Ineke Vermeulen has over a decade experience working first at Siemens, later Atos in roles from Software Developer, over Portfolio Manager to Marketing. Since 2013 she also lectures; motivating students to strive for excellence. In her spare time, she does stand-up comedy.
Jim Smith
Senior Accessibility Specialist, Atos
Jim is a Senior Accessibility Specialist at Atos with over 15 years of experience in the IT outsourcing industry, the last 7 of which in delivering Accessibility service to Enterprise clients. He is IAAP CPWA Certified and contributes to the IAAP UK&I Chapter as well as the Business Disability Forum Technology Taskforce.
As a Senior Expert in the Atos Expert Community, he contributes to the Immersive Experience tracks and has been a member of the Atos Scientific Community since 2017 where he has led two tracks on Accessibility and Inclusion.
Prior to working in Accessibility Jim worked in Learning and Development and is passionate about creating a society that is truly inclusive.
Melanie de Vigan
Digital Workplace Portfolio Director, Atos
Mélanie is the global domain manager responsible for defining and developing digital workplace outsourcing offerings. She is a member of the Atos Scientific Community since 2014. Throughout her career, Mélanie has held multiple positions in outsourcing and consulting at Atos. Relying on a core expertise in mobility and workplace services, she focuses on getting the most value out of technology to support the digital transformation of the business.
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Yanica Ilieva
IT Program Manager Accessibility, Business Solution Architect HR & WFM, Atos
Yanica Ilieva is a proud member of Atos IT team. Her passion is in leading projects helping HR & WFM teams transform and utilize the power of technology to solve problems, help them be benchmark on the market: better, faster, more agile and competitive. Prior to joining Atos, she spent around 10 years in Business Process and Applications trainer, project manager, pre-sales, consultant, team manager roles at Unify, HP, Coca Cola Hellenic & SAP Implementation Partner companies. Her new mission is the revised framework for Accessibility for internal central applications used by Atos employees (mission she takes whole-heartedly). She has founded the HR & People Analytics chapter in Sofia, Bulgaria in July 2019 and co-founded the Hacking HR chapter in Sofia, Bulgaria in October, 2019. She dreams big, works hard & smart and networks with passionate, knowledgeable and inspiring professionals around the globe!