Speakers

Jeff Watkins

CTO
Business AI Alliance

Jeff Watkins is a seasoned CTO and CPTO with a track record of leading multi-disciplinary technology, product, and AI organisations through periods of rapid growth and transformation. Across his executive roles, he has steered engineering, product, AI strategy, cloud, and cybersecurity teams, translating bold ideas into secure, human-centred digital experiences for household-name brands.

A lifelong technologist and veteran chief engineer and architect, Jeff brings over 25 years of experience across financial services, healthcare, public sector, and retail. He has founded and led multiple cybersecurity teams, championing secure-by-design approaches for generative-AI systems and embedding threat modelling, ethics, and safety into modern product delivery. He holds an MSc in Cybersecurity and is completing a second Master’s in Artificial Intelligence, with research focused on anthropomorphised LLM agents and deception detection.

On the international circuit, Jeff is a sought-after keynote speaker, headlining events such as Webinale (Berlin), AppDevCon (Amsterdam), the International JavaScript Conference (London), and Edinburgh Napier’s PlusEquals5 summit. His candid, story-driven perspective on where AI and cybersecurity collide with culture, trust, and human behaviour has made him a favourite with diverse audiences—from engineers to executives.

Jeff co-hosts the multi-award-winning “Compromising Positions” podcast, interviewing psychologists, anthropologists, UX researchers and security leaders to bring fresh outsider insight to cyber. His thought leadership has appeared in Wired, Forbes, Raconteur, IT Pro, Business Cloud and Information Age, and he is a regular voice for the broader technology and security press.

Whether mentoring emerging leaders, building prototypes, or demystifying AI and cybersecurity on stage, Jeff’s mission remains constant: to build technology that elevates people—never the other way around.