Speakers

Dominic Sandbrook is a historian, broadcaster, and columnist, widely recognised for his best-selling series of books exploring life in post-war Britain. His acclaimed titles include Never Had It So Good, White Heat, State of Emergency, Seasons in the Sun, The Great British Dream Factory, and Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979–1982.

He has written and presented several television series, notably The 70s and The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook for BBC Two. Dominic also co-hosts the hugely popular podcast The Rest is History.

Dominic is a familiar face on historical documentaries across ITV, BBC Four, and Channel 4, contributing to programmes on a wide range of topics including airports, advertising, the Beatles, caravans, coronations, the countryside, and Doctor Who, among others.

On radio, his landmark 15-part series on the history of the Post Office—produced by Somethin’ Else for BBC Radio 4—aired in the winter of 2011. In print, Dominic is a regular columnist for the Daily Mail and reviews books for The Sunday Times.

Debbie is a multi-exit entrepreneur, investor, and Chair, co-leading the UK government’s Invest in Women Taskforce, raising over £580m for female-led businesses. She co-founded WJV, advises Smart Society Ventures, and chairs The Better Menopause.

A Non-Executive Director at Channel 4 and Senior Advisor to McKinsey, she also serves on the Mayor of London’s Business Advisory Board and the Women’s Prize for Fiction. 
Debbie co-authored Believe, Build, Become and led the UK’s Sharing Economy Review.

Honoured with an OBE and Freedom of the City of London, she holds an MA in Philosophy and Theology from Oxford.

Alice joined The Future Laboratory in 2023 as a foresight analyst, before being promoted to senior foresight analyst in 2024. She leads the health, wellness and sport verticals, and is the in-house specialist on consumer behaviour – delivering foresight reports and strategies on topics ranging from Gen Z Parents and to The Women’s Sports Economy. A culture-obsessed creative, Alice has written extensively on beauty, lifestyle and internet culture for publications including Dazed, i-D, The Face, GQ and Service95.

 

Carolyn is an experienced leader of technology businesses and is currently Chief Legal Officer at Airalo, an international eSIM company. She has particular exposure to scaling businesses to exit events. She was previously Chief Trust Officer at Trustpilot, and prior to that, Chief Legal Officer at Skyscanner, where she led the sale of the business for £1.46bn, and subsequently became Head of International M&A for Ctrip.

Carolyn is currently a member of the Advisory Board of Scottish Equity Partners LLP and acts as a Non-Executive Director on AIM listed Ten Lifestyle Group, the Scottish National Investment Bank, and flights comparison website, Dohop.

 

Chris has over 20 years legal and commercial experience across global technology and consumer brands. He advises on complex regulatory and strategic matters, enabling innovation and growth in fast-moving markets. Chris has worked for companies such as Proofpoint, ClickSoftware, VCE, the converged infrastructure division of EMC, Vodafone Limited, Sky Sports and Hitachi Data Systems. Chris has also worked as a solicitor for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. He has significant experience of scaling international teams for US technology companies and has built and managed successful legal teams supporting business divisions throughout US, EMEA and Asia Pacific creating collaborative work environments that expect, foster and recognise teamwork.

 

Faye Cottingham is an experienced legal advisor and strategic business leader with over 20 years’ practice in commercial, antitrust, compliance, litigation and brand protection matters. At Bacardi, Faye leads the European Legal & External Affairs team and the Global Supply Chain legal function, helping the business navigate complex regulatory requirements and deliver on its growth goals profitably and sustainably. In her career, she has worked at a top tier international law firm and multinational corporations, giving her a broad perspective on managing risk. She is a great believer in the importance of operational excellence, while adapting to changing business needs and resources, and having some fun along the way.

 

 

Gabe Pereyra is the President and Co-Founder of Harvey, the leading professional services platform engineered with AI for law, tax, and finance. Before founding Harvey in August 2022, Gabe was a Research Scientist at Meta and Google. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California and pursued a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, fully funded by DeepMind, before focusing on entrepreneurial ventures.

Jacqueline de Gernier is Executive Vice President at GWI, a technology company delivering consumer insight data to some of the world’s largest brands and advertising agencies. She leads growth across EMEA, North America, and APAC, working with teams to drive new customer acquisition, strengthen client relationships, and expand existing partnerships.

Jacqueline is a passionate DEI advocate and champion for women in technology. She has spoken at numerous industry events sharing insights on leadership and building inclusive workplaces. In 2025, she led and hosted a Women in Leadership event during the Cannes Lions Festival and was a key contributor to a panel discussion on Inclusive AI Design: Why Women’s Voices Are Crucial, continuing her commitment to amplifying diverse perspectives in tech.

James is the CEO and Co-Founder of brand and digital agency Koto. 130 designers and strategists across five studios in Berlin, London, Los Angeles, New York and Sydney. The team works with industries impacting the present and startups changing our future including Airbnb, Amazon and Google. James has 20+ years of experience working at some of London’s leading studios, for the world’s biggest brands. He delivers talks globally and speaks and writes regularly on brand for news outlets including the BBC, Creative Review and The Guardian.

Tobias Hooton is an internationally recognised technology leader, investor, and strategist with a 20-year career at the forefront of intelligence, entrepreneurship, and investment.

He began his professional career in foreign intelligence before becoming a private security advisor where he provided industry investment insights to shape national technology and economic policy.

Transitioning into the private sector, Tobias has founded and successfully exited five ventures, including building a global connectivity platform, a security consultancy and creating a million-user cloud platform. Over the past two decades, he has established a reputation for curating industry-leading teams that consistently deliver innovation and long-term value creation.

Tobias is a highly sought-after advisor to private equity and hedge funds, where he guides investment into advanced technology platforms, data infrastructure, and AI ecosystems.