Abhijit is bringing machine intelligence to life at the Lloyds Banking Group. He is accountable for achieving business goals tied to the Machine Intelligence Program as part of the Group’s £3bn strategic transformation agenda. He is also setting up an Academy to democratise AI skills across 75,000+ employees of the Group. He sits on the Expert Advisory Panel of the All Party Parliamentary Committee on Artificial Intelligence in the UK.

Earlier, at McKinsey & Company, Abhijit engaged with leaders from large enterprises across Europe, Asia, and North America to help them take strategic and investment decisions, build new digital business models, and drive above-market growth. Previously, at HCL Technologies, Abhijit built and led tech-enabled businesses in Europe and Asia.

An engineer by training, Abhijit has an MBA from London Business School with exchange at MIT Sloan.

Ben is head of European delivery for the Visa Data Science Lab, with a professional data history of over 20 years; including data architecture, business intelligence, and data sciences.

Whilst enjoying mathematical patterns, Ben also has a particular passion for finding a story in data and for creative methods of visualisation.

Online marketing expert with a computer engineering background and a MSc from Stanford University.

Eleonora leads Engagement for B2B Marketing in Google EMEA. She drives customer engagement through online channels across >30 countries. She specializes in using advanced analytics and machine learning solutions to solve marketing challenges through better insights, messaging, prediction and automation.

Kenneth Cukier is Senior Editor, Digital Products and Data Analytics at The Economist where he oversees data analytics and manages their new digital product development. Prior to this he was Data Editor following a decade at the paper covering business and technology. Kenn is host of The Economist’s weekly tech podcast, Babbage.

Kenneth’s talks are fast-paced and witty, fact-filled and insightful. And they are packed with real-world examples of how pioneering companies are applying new technologies to reap substantial business advantage. He reveals trends, explains how technologies work, shows what they mean for business. He gives leaders new ideas and inspires teams to do great work. He demystifies what AI is, how it works, and why it’s so important, in a funny, fast-paced talk that’s riddled with memorable stories and real-world examples, for business leaders who want to know what’s next in society and the economy.

From 2002 to 2004 Kenn Cukier was a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, working on the Internet and international relations. From 2007 to 2012 he was the Japan business and finance correspondent, and before that, The Economist’s global technology correspondent based in London, where his work focused on innovation, intellectual property and Internet governance. Previously, he was the technology editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal in Hong Kong and a regular commentator on CNBC Asia. Earlier still, he was the European Editor of Red Herring and worked at The International Herald Tribune in Paris.

His writings have also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Prospect, The Financial Times and Foreign Affairs, among others. He has been a frequent commentator on business and technology matters for CBS, CNN, NPR, the BBC and others.

Mr. Cukier is a trustee of Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In 2007-2018 he was a director of International Bridges to Justice, which fosters legal rights in developing countries, and served on the board of advisors to the Daniel Pearl Foundation. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

More information is available at: http://www.cukier.com/

Linden Glen is the Digital Transformation Director of Analytics & Data at Mars, where the team he has built defines & runs the global analytics & data platforms, drives the self-service program and spans both Advanced Analytics and BI/Scale Up delivery. In this role, Linden is driving a user centric transformation, focusing on the new & old problems to be solved along with the Product Owner and using Data & Analytics to solve at speed. Critical to the transformation's success has been the introduction of enterprise scale technologies, building a new team of Data Scientists, Business Translators, Engineers & strategic partnerships and importantly embedding new methods & mindsets across the business and IT such as Agile, Design Thinking and DevOps. With an "open" mindset, architecture and operating model Mars is successfully federating the creation of analytics products beyond the center, solving problems close to the users, customers and consumers.

 Linden is currently based in the UK, previously having lived and worked in China and Australia over his 17 years with Mars.

Martha serves CIOs and other tech leaders, helping them understand the impact of emerging technologies on their business. Martha provides in-depth coverage of blockchain technology and business intelligence (BI), as well as analytics and artificial intelligence at a strategic level. In her blockchain research, Martha focuses on demystifying this emerging technology, helping CIOs and strategy teams identify appropriate use cases and navigate the broad ecosystem of startups and established providers offering software and services. In her BI research, Martha analyzes the effect of emerging technologies and business pressures on the way BI capabilities are managed and delivered, and she helps CIOs and their business partners develop data and analytics strategies fit for the digital age.

Previous Work Experience

Prior to rejoining Forrester in early 2013, Martha provided custom research studies for tier 1 CIOs, covering topics ranging from big data to the role of the CIO in the transition to the digital economy. In the preceding years, she held a variety of senior management and individual contributor positions at Freeform Dynamics and various companies within the Informa Group, where her main focus area was financial services. Martha's first analyst role was as a vice president at Giga Information Group, which was later acquired by Forrester, where she became research director for financial services. Before joining Giga, Martha's roles included head of advanced technology at Prudential and manager at Price Waterhouse's World Multimedia Unit.

Education

Martha earned an M.A. in English literature, American studies, and modern history from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in Germany. A qualified translator, Martha is fully bilingual in English and German.

Role

Leads US-consulting for Financial Services and Media-Telecom and Digital. Focused on solution development, client management and helping client gain maximum benefit from the engagement with Fractal.

Experience

Prior to joining Fractal, Arpan was a management consultant for financial services at Booz & Co where he was focused on developing growth strategies and operating model transformations. He was also an analytics consultant for retail financial services at Inductis, delivered marketing and risk analytics for US cards at American Express, and marketing analytics for US mortgages at HSBC.

Education

Arpan received his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, and Bachelor of Science degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Analytics Interests

Bringing man and machine together to solve the real tough problems out there

Role

Business head of Cuddle.ai – an AI-powered platform for Business Analysis

Experience

Natwar has been part of the leadership team of Fractal for more than a decade now. Over these years, he has been instrumental in building our CPG practice & consulting with several Fortune 500 companies across industries. During these years, he has built Fractal Sciences, our data science & technology lab of Fractal that led to various products like Concordia, Trial Run, Customer Genomics.

Natwar is now building Cuddle.ai, an AI business incubated within Fractal Analytics. With Cuddle.ai, we aspire to tell you What you need to know at work before you ask – bringing the power of AI to the world of BI.

Education

MBA, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta and B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay

Analytics Interests

Shaping the future of work through data

Priyank has a passion for developing creative solutions to commercial challenges. Drawing on his considerable experience in Asia and Europe he is now the Head of AI & Machine Learning at M&G Prudential. Here he is leading a fast growing community of data scientists and machine learning enthusiasts to find bold and innovate ways to get closer to the consumer of today and the Future. The team has built their own cloud infrastructure, data and proprietary algorithms to solve real commercial challenges ranging from predicting the most promising real estate investment postcode in Manchester to reducing time taken for investment analysis from days to seconds. Priyank holds a degree in computer engineering from Indian Government’s College of Engineering and an MBA from the Said Business School, Oxford University. He describes himself as a fussy vegetarian.

Role

Leads Algorithmic Decision Making at Fractal.

Experience

16 years of experience in analytics including:

• Algorithmic decisioning making, Customer Loyalty and Analytics at Fractal Analytics
• Structured derivatives, FX, Interest trading, Market and Credit Risk at HDFC Bank, Barclays India.
• Revenue management and analytics for Wyndham Europe and US

Education

• M.S. Electrical Engineering and Mathematics, Purdue University
• Executive MBA, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta
• Bachelor of Engineering, Mumbai University

Analytics Interests

Drive deep impact with clients through the trifecta of AI, Engineering and Design. Specific analytics interests include Deep Learning, Reinforcement learning, Evolutionary algorithms, Distributed AI

Role

Leading Fractal’s Strategy & Transformation. Drive strategic investments and inorganic growth, lead high-priority growth initiatives and help clients on AI led transformation of their businesses.

Experience

Sameer is a seasoned analytics & AI evangelist for Fortune 500 global companies and has won multiple awards as a top business leader in the analytics industry. Prior to Fractal, Sameer held leadership positions at Cognizant Technology Solutions as Global Business Leader for Analytics & Data Sciences, Fidelity National Financial as Country Head, and Genpact as Vice President - Analytics. In his role at Cognizant, Sameer built and scaled Cognizant’s analytics & data sciences business to be a leading market player in the industry.

Education

Executive Program in Business Management – Indian Institute of Management – Calcutta, Design Thinking Approach Program - Sloan School of Management, Strategic Innovation Program – London Business School

Analytics Interests

Applying the sophistication in algorithms to accelerate digital revolution and accentuate decision making across enterprises.

Role

Srikanth Velamakanni is the Co-founder, Group Chief Executive of Fractal Analytics. He is responsible for overall growth of the Fractal businesses, including the core business of providing analytics services to Fortune 500 companies, along with Fractal’s AI based product businesses: Qure.ai, Trial Run and Cuddle.ai.

Experience

Srikanth is passionate about helping Fortune 500 companies leverage AI together with the power of behavioural sciences to make better decisions. Srikanth is a recognised thought leader in the AI space and heads NASSCOM's AI & Data Sciences Council. He has also served on Government of India appointed AI initiatives.

A former investment banker, he co-founded Fractal 19 years ago.

Education

Srikanth has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad and a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.

Analytics Interests

Srikanth considers himself a lifelong student of mathematics, behavioural economics, neuroscience and consumer behaviour.

Pranay is the Co-Founder and CEO of Fractal Analytics. He has led Fractal to be one of the most respected analytics companies in the world. He derives his passion for analytics from his belief that data & analytics are making the world a better place.

Pranay believes in pushing the existing boundaries around AI technology to build a better world around everything we do. He is a key driver positioning Fractal as a platform for companies to reinvent their business models in today’s age. As CEO of Fractal, he has the vision to transform traditional companies into future-proof, AI-enabled enterprises, regardless of the industry. He has years of experience in the area of business analytics with deep roots within the analytics ecosystem and is a well-recognized expert and speaker within the analytics industry.

Fractal’s international client base includes CPG, financial sector, and companies in telecommunications, among others. But his ambitions go far beyond: a firm believer in integrating machine reasoning and machine learning, Pranay is continually challenging the present thinking around AI.

Pranay’s multifaceted engagement with AI makes him a much-respected speaker and thought leader on issues of global significance like a machine-man relationship, the way society is using AI, and how the technology needs regulation in certain places.