AI Strategy for Scotland Launch

Zoe Kleinman is a trailblazing journalist who made history as the BBC’s first Technology Editor in 2021. With nearly 20 years of broadcasting experience, she has become a leading voice in making complex tech topics accessible to mainstream audiences across national and international platforms. From her engaging segments on Radio 4’s “Today” programme to her appearances on the BBC’s other flagship news shows, Zoe covers a wide range of subjects, including artificial intelligence, gadgets and the intricacies of cybersecurity.

In 2023, she played a pivotal role in the BBC’s coverage of the UK government’s AI Safety Summit, tackling critical issues in the tech world. Zoe’s insightful interviews with the world’s leading tech bosses, including Apple’s Tim Cook, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and Google Deepmind’s Sir Demis Hassabis, along with her exclusive reports on topics such as cryptocurrency and gaming, have made her a respected authority in her field.

Richard Lochhead has represented the Moray Constituency in the Scottish Parliament since 2006. Prior to that, Mr Lochhead represented Northeast Scotland from 1999 to 2006.

He attended Williamwood High School in Clarkston and Central College of Commerce in Glasgow, before graduating in Political Studies from the University of Stirling. Immediately prior to his election, he worked as an economic development officer for Dundee City Council.

Mr Lochhead previously served as Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Food and the Environment between 2007 and 2016, and was appointed Minister for Small Business, Innovation, Tourism and Trade in March 2023. Mr Lochhead was appointed as Minister for Business in May 2024.

Gillian Docherty is Chief Commercial Officer at the University of Strathclyde. Prior to joining the University in 2022, Gillian was the Chief Executive of The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence with a mission to help Scotland maximise value from data.

Gillian was appointed a CBE in the King’s New Years Honours 2025 for Services to Business and Technology. Gillian was appointed an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2019 for Services to Information Technology and Business. Gillian was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2024 and is Chair of CodeBase.

Albert King is the Chief Data Officer at NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), where he leads efforts to harness data for improving health and social care outcomes across Scotland. He has held this role since 2022, following a distinguished career in the Scottish Government, where he also served as Chief Data Officer.

Mr King has over 20 years of experience in data and technology across both public and private sectors. His career began in financial services and he has worked in a diverse range of industries and sectors before becoming the Scottish Government’s Chief Data Officer in 2020. During his tenure, he played a pivotal role in launching Scotland’s first AI Strategy and the Data & Intelligence Network.

Michael Rovatsos is Dean of Research and Innovation at the University of Edinburgh’s College of Science and Engineering and Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University’s School of Informatics. He has previous held key leadership roles at the University as Director of The Bayes Centre, Deputy Vice Principal for AI, and institutional lead on AI adoption.

Professor Rovatsos currently serves on the Scottish Government’s Tech Council, the Board of The Data Lab and acts as academic University liaison at the Alan Turing Institute. He has over 25 years of experience in AI research, where he develops algorithms to support collaboration between human and/or artificial agents, with a particular focus on responsible and ethical AI.

Prosper (The Scottish Council for Development and Industry) brings together business, industry, trade unions and civic society to grow Scotland’s economy. Since taking the helm in 2019 Sara has widened and deepened the Council’s cross-sector membership ensuring that it continues to be a trusted voice for government and business. She represents members interests on the Scottish Business Growth Group and Scottish Government’s New Deal for Business Group. Sara is a former Director for the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in Scotland and member of the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland. She chaired the Green Heat Finance Taskforce and her non-exec roles include Construction Scotland Innovation Centre (now BE-ST).

David Tuck, an award-winning CEO, has spent the last 25 years growing some of the most well-regarded consultancies in the technology sector.

With a background in sales, David has worked for companies such as Gartner, Thoughtworks, Scott Logic, The App Business and Kin + Carta.

David is now Chief Executive of Waracle, a strategic design and technology consultancy with over 250 employees working with large enterprise organisations such as IG Group, Royal London, Roche, and The People’s Partnership. Their mission is to create digital products trusted by millions of people. He is leading their growth strategy, which involves investing in new capabilities, such as data and AI, and expanding into new markets.

David is a passionate advocate for fostering a strong, inclusive people and culture focus across the business.

Nicola Anderson leads efforts to scale innovation across Scotland’s economy and accelerate growth of future industries and high-potential companies. Prior to this role, Ms Anderson was Chief Executive of FinTech Scotland, where she led the development of Scotland’s fintech cluster, helping establish it as a globally recognised cluster of excellence through collaboration between industry, startups, academia, government and regulators.

Earlier in her career, Ms Anderson held senior roles at the Financial Conduct Authority, working across financial services policy and regulation. She brings deep expertise spanning financial services, technology, innovation, policy and regulation. She also serves as a Board Member of the Scottish Police Authority, providing oversight of Police Scotland.

Kelly de Azevedo Dent joined SSE in September 2025 as Director of Development in the Thermal Business. Prior to that Kelly worked for over 25 years in Shell and had an international career. In her last few roles Kelly led the UK Energy transition team, was the Vice-President for M&A/Business development for Europe, Russia and Caspian, Vice President Commercial for the Gulf of Mexico and Project Director for an LNG project in Dubai. Ms de Azevedo Dent has worked in several countries including Brazil (her home country), UAE, Iran, UK, The Netherlands, and the US. Through her career she has driven growth, portfolio upgrades and enhanced business performance. She has been in the UK since 2019 and is based in London.

Outside SSE, she is a non-executive director at Port of Tyne in Newcastle, a mentor for Powerful Women (an initiative seeking to address underrepresentation of woman in the UK energy sector), and a volunteer for ‘Inspiring Futures’ which supports students in understanding career opportunities in the energy sector.

Ritchie is Deputy Director of EPCC, the National Supercomputing Centre (formerly the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre), where he is responsible for its overall operation and strategic direction in partnership with the Director.

Prior to joining EPCC, he was Head of Strategy for the Data Innovation Initiative, part of the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, having been a member of its Leadership Team from its inception in 2017.

Ritchie has 30-years’ experience across a wide range of government policy, project and programme management roles in planning, economic development and business development, company start-up and programme development and delivery, and more recently in academia, with technology, compute and data a thread throughout.

Nick Reid joined CoreWeave in January 2025 and leads the company’s government, policy, and regulatory engagement across Europe. In this role, he focuses on the full landscape of policies shaping AI, cloud, and digital infrastructure – ensuring CoreWeave is actively engaged on issues critical to its growth and operations.

Prior to joining CoreWeave, Mr Reid held similar roles at Intel and Pfizer, as well as in consultancy, and spent several years working in Westminster. His experience spans corporate affairs, regulatory strategy, and public policy across both industry and government.

Eduardo Salgado is co-head of Brookfield’s open-end core infrastructure fund. In this role, Mr Salgado oversees the origination, execution, and asset management of the firm’s infrastructure super-core investments.

Prior to joining Brookfield in 2011, Mr Salgado worked in the power and infrastructure practice at a major Canadian investment bank.

Mr Salgado holds a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Science degree from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico.

Santosh Takoor leads strategy and execution to accelerate cloud adoption and AI innovation across government and public services. With over two decades of experience spanning technology leadership roles at Microsoft, Salesforce and SAP, Mr Takoor brings deep expertise in digital transformation, security, and intelligent applications. In his current role, he focuses on enabling public sector organisations to harness Azure and AI capabilities for improved efficiency, resilience, and citizen outcomes with the moto: Smarter Services for a Stronger Society.

Kate is the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for the Economy and Gaelic. She is the Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch constituency.

Ms Forbes is from Dingwall, although she spent part of her upbringing in Glasgow and India. Until she was elected as MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch, she was employed as an accountant in the banking industry. Prior to that she studied History at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh.

First elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2016, Ms Forbes was re-elected as the constituency MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch in May 2021. She first joined the Government in June 2018, as Minister for Public Finance and Digital Economy. She subsequently served as Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy from February 2020 to March 2023.

Colin Cook has been Director of Economic Development since 2021. Prior to his current role, he spent over four years as Director of Digital, responsible for delivering Scotland’s national digital strategy, including work on the digital transformation of the public sector and public services, Scotland’s data strategy, digital connectivity and the IT shared services used by up to 16,000 public servants in Scotland.

Mr Cook began his career in marketing within the packaging and chemical industries, going on to become Marketing Director of Royal Mail and Assistant to the Chairman and Chief Executive of The Post Office.