AI Castle Conversation

David Crozier CBE

Director, AICC

Jayne Brady MBE

Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service

Jayne took up her role as Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service in September 2021 and is the first female and external appointment to this post in the institution’s 100-year history.

She is responsible for the strategic leadership and management of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, an organisation comprising of 24,000 staff and which manages an annual budget of over £20bn. Jayne serves as Secretary to the Northern Ireland Executive and is the most senior advisor to the First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. She led the civil service during the two-year collapse of the NI government and played a key supporting role in its successful restoration in February 2024.

An engineer by profession, Jayne has spent 25+ years in the private sector in advanced technology. She has extensive board experience and a considerable track record of success in blue-chip corporations, start-ups and funding ecosystems both domestically and internationally.

Her previous roles include: Innovation Commissioner, Venture Capital Partner, and co-founder of an AI machine vision start-up.

Jayne has a strong, established professional network. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Directors, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the Irish Academy of Engineers. She was also a member of the UK Government’s Innovation Expert Group which developed the 2021 Innovation Strategy and in 2020 was appointed as an Entrepreneurial Expert for Oxford University. Her contribution to the economy and innovation have been recognised both nationally and internationally, receiving an MBE in 2018 and an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University Belfast in 2019.

As one of Northern Ireland’s most senior leaders and public servants, Jayne is deeply committed to delivering economic and social development through bold and strategic innovation. Her passion is to enable communities to better realise sustainable pathways out of poverty, enhance their economic activity, and foster opportunity and inclusion.

Jayne is married and has three teenage children.

Ian Snowden

Permanent Secretary, Department for the Economy 

Ian took up his current position on 8 December 2023. He has worked in the Northern Ireland Civil Service for 31 years. Prior to joining the Department for the Economy, he had been Chief Executive of Land & Property Services for five years, where he was responsible for Land Registers of Northern Ireland, Ordnance Survey NI, Valuation Services, rating policy and the collection of business and domestic rates.  During the pandemic, he led on the delivery of a major package of rate reliefs and grants for businesses affected by the restrictions to control the virus which provided £1.25 billion in support for the local economy.  He has also worked on creating a register of all land and property owned by Northern Ireland departments and arms’ length bodies and a new approach to asset management.

Before joining LPS, Ian worked the Department for Communities as Head of the Engaged Communities Group, where he was responsible for a wide portfolio that included arts, culture, language policy, sport, museums, libraries, built heritage, community development, community based regeneration and social inclusion policy.

In DfC and the former Department for Social Development, he also worked for almost 18 years in Housing and Urban , working in some of Northern Ireland’s most disadvantaged and segregated communities, including West Belfast and Londonderry.

Since 2015 Ian has led the co-ordination of Northern Ireland’s response to the immediate and longer-term needs of Syrian, Afghan and Ukrainian refugees being resettled in Northern Ireland.  To date, 1,900 Syrians, over 100 Afghans and 3,000 Ukrainians have been successfully supported into new lives here.

Professor Helen McCarthy

Chief Scientific and Technology Adviser, TEO

Professor Helen McCarthy took up the post in June 2024. Her key responsibilities include co-ordinating a regional strategy on science and technology. She will also chair the newly formed NI Science & Technology Advisory Network.

Professor McCarthy is currently Chair of Nanomedicine in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University. After 10 years of research on novel delivery systems for vaccines Helen spun out her technology into pHion Therapeutics. She was CEO for 6 years and secured almost £10million in funding from Innovate UK. During this time, she won INVENT NI and the All-Ireland Seedcorn Awards.

This is the first time Northern Ireland has had an Executive Chief Scientific and Technology Adviser. The role focuses on advising on matters relating to the extensive science and technology network across government and the wider public sector.

Professor Paul Bartholomew

Vice-Chancellor, Ulster University

As Vice-Chancellor at Ulster University, Paul leads on all aspects of university business.

As a dual-focused University delivering excellent teaching and research which spans multiple campuses within a unique geographical and political context, Ulster is one of the UK's most complex large universities. Paul had a clinical career in the NHS as a diagnostic radiographer before moving into higher education in 2001. Since then, he has led on various aspects of learning and teaching and the enhancement of academic quality for the universities within which he has worked.

Paul is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a National Teaching Fellow and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. His academic interests include curriculum design, academic quality, technology enhanced learning, student engagement and all aspects of academic professional development.

His research interests have been centred on video-based discourse analysis, computer supported collaborative learning and academic professionalism. He has taught on UG and PG Diagnostic Radiography programmes and on PG academic staff development programmes (MEd and EdD). Paul has sat on a number of national groups including the TEF Panels.

Under his leadership, Ulster University was named Times Higher Education UK University of the Year in November 2024.

Donnacha Kirk

Deputy Director of AI Technology and Research Services, AICC

Dan West

Northern Ireland Lead, Accenture

Up to December last year Dan was the Chief Digital Information Officer for Health & Social Care in Northern Ireland at the Department of Health. He has moved back to his previous company, Accenture, to work on health and public sector challenges.

Dan is passionate about Northern Ireland as a place, and seizing the opportunity that digital technology, data and AI offers to improve the lives of people who live here, the public services they interact with and the productivity and output of the economy in the region.

He is an experienced Managing Director, Chief Officer, SIRO and board member with a background in engineering and technology.

About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimise their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services.

We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 800,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. Visit us at accenture.com.

Scott Fischaber

Co-founder and CEO, Analytics Engines

A proven leader and entrepreneur, Scott co-founded the company on the back of his research during his PhD at Queen’s University Belfast around image and signal processing. He has a strong engineering background and technical skills, which he uses to translate customer business requirements into technical solutions. Over the last 15 years he has grown the company from spin-out to a leading provider of analytics and AI solutions.

Scott is actively involved with the research community, having led the Company’s involvement across multiple multi-year funded R&D projects and served as the scientific and technical coordinator for a European collaboration to develop a data and analytics platform for healthcare policy makers.

Scott has a keen interest in the responsible usage of technology, and he applies this knowledge with customers across the public and private sector, focusing not only on areas of data ethics, but also the ethical and responsible usage of AI.

About Analytics Engines

Analytics Engines has a singular mission; we serve our customers by unlocking value from data. We firmly believe in harnessing the transformational power of data and artificial intelligence to drive positive outcomes for public sector organizations. Born in the heart of Belfast, our roots are local, but our aspirations and impact are global. By leveraging data and AI, we empower public sector entities to achieve their goals, enhance service delivery, and improve the lives of citizens.

Since 2018, we have been developing complex data analytics and AI solutions tailored to the unique needs of the public sector. Our customer-centric approach ensures that we help organizations improve performance, mitigate risk, and protect their reputation. Public sector clients look to Analytics Engines for creativity, guidance, support, and a long-term approach to crafting AI and data solutions that work for them

Brad Mallard

Chief Technology Officer, Version 1

Version 1 has over 28 years of experience across 13 global locations with 3500+ employees. With a 98% customer retention rate and unprecedented customer satisfaction scores consistently in the 80% quarter on quarter, Version 1 works with customers that demand excellence and valued outcomes from their transformation and innovation investments, across public and private sectors. Positioned at the leading edge of AI innovation, with a dedicated AI Labs made up of teams across global locations that educate customers and explore AI technology, the company’s own workforce is trained to 99% in AI fundamentals.

Recently, the company was recognised in global and European research reports by the industry sourcing and advisory firm ISG, resulting in leadership rankings across AWS Ecosystem, Generative AI, Analytics and AI and most recently Oracle Cloud Technology and Ecosystem.

Partnerships with global technology giants, and having hundreds of in-house, dedicated specialists for these partners such as Microsoft, AWS, Oracle, Red Hat, Snowflake and Outsystems provides deep and broad expertise which has been recognised with accolades including AWS Collaboration Partner of the Year 2024, Global Microsoft Application Modernisation Partner of the Year 2023 and Oracle Innovation Partner of the Year 2023.

All of this is underscored by a strong responsible ethic that follows a robust ESG strategy and roadmap, with a net zero carbon emissions target on track for 2045, supported by validation from the Science-Based Targets Initiative of near-term targets, an A-rating from the Carbon Disclosure Project and alignment of sustainability goals to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs).

Version 1’s approach attracts and retains teams of world-class people who deliver magic for its customers every day, empowering them to confidently face their future and stay connected and relevant to their customers and users. Because change is driven by people, for people – Version 1 simply makes it faster and easier with technology.

Tadhg Hickey

Head of AI and Digital Ethics Policy, AICC

Professor Michaela Black

Professor of Artificial Intelligence, Ulster University

Michaela's career has seen her apply AI and gamification to a wide range of domains including healthcare, finance, education, telecoms and marketing with 70+ publications and securing £30M+ in pedagogic and research funding. She has actively engaged in a wide range of AI projects securing funding from a wide range of funders including coordinating an EU-funded project MIDAS (Meaningful Integration of Data, Analytics and Services) 2016-2020.

This 40-month project, secured €4.5m in funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. It delivered Data Science hardware and software solutions to connect fragmented health data and enable policymakers across 4+ European countries to analysis data and enhance policies across a range of diverse topics such as: mental health, obesity, diabetes and looked after children, as well as sharing and ensuring uptake of Ethics & Governance for data access practices such as MIDAS Honest Broker Service.

She was a member of a consortium of researchers from the public and private sectors of nine European countries who has just secured EC funding for LUCIA: Understanding Lung Cancer related risk factors and their Impact (£12.5M) seeking to improve the outcome of lung cancer by providing in-depth knowledge of the risk factors and facilitating prevention and early diagnosis. Michaela is currently PI of newly launched AI Collaboration Centre (AICC £16.3M), a collaboration between Ulster and Queens focusing on increasing business awareness, skills and adoption of AI technology to boost competitiveness and productivity across all industries in NI.

As an academic lead she is helping formulate the outline business case for City Deal Cognitive Analytics & Digital Robotics Innovation Centre (CADRIC £39M) driving multi-disciplinary innovation necessary to translate the benefits of Ulster University’s leading-edge research in data driven disciplines such as bio-inspired AI and cognitive robotics, into economic, environmental, and social benefits for NI. Michaela is a current co-director of the engage technology, a stakeholder participation system, proven and effective platform for gaining participant input and key consensus on relevant topics using real-time digital technologies.

Engage has delivered successful engagements in partnership with organisations across government, industry, professional bodies, PPIs, NGOs and academia, on the island of Ireland and across Europe. This work has influenced topics such as Brexit, work force planning in Department of Health and Matrix NI Policy on Women in STEM. An active STEM ambassador, Michaela strives to encourage more women to join this field. Actively part of the Athena Swan (AS) team at UU to promote diversity and equality. She secured EPSRC funding with University of Bath Inclusion Matters Scheme, to host a datathon which aimed to improve equality, diversity and inclusion within the engineering and physical sciences.

Jim Fitzpatrick

Broadcaster, Producer and Journalist

Jim Fitzpatrick is an award-winning independent broadcaster, producer and journalist with a specialist interest in economics and politics.

He is currently Consulting Editor at The Irish News in Belfast and presents a weekly business/entrepreneurship podcast, Trading Up.

His investigations work in recent years for non-profit organisations such as OCCRP (Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) and openDemocracy have focused on transparency issues and the intersection of money and politics.

A former Editor of Economics and Business for the BBC in Ireland, he previously fronted much of the BBC NI’s political coverage as the presenter of The Politics Show, Stormont programming and party conferences.  He also led major investigations for BBC’s current affairs.

He has interviewed many leading politicians from Ireland, the UK and US.

Thomas Kenney

Fellow, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University

Thom is a Fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School, focusing on AI, national security, and public policy. A seasoned entrepreneur and technology executive, he has spent over 30 years building and leading international software companies with a strong emphasis on AI, autonomy, and digital transformation.

Previously, he served in the Office of the CTO and as Director of AI and Digital Transformation at Google, where he worked with government agencies to implement AI-driven solutions for mission-critical challenges. He collaborated with public sector organizations throughout his career to apply emerging technologies in defense, intelligence, and broader government operations.

Thom is also a strategic advisor for the AI Collaboration Centre and advocates for responsible AI adoption in the public sector. His expertise spans AI strategy, autonomy, and the intersection of emerging technology with government and national security.