Creo

Srin is the Former CEO / Co-founder of Accomable, which was acquired by Airbnb in 2017. He then founded People & Robots, a venture studio and consultancy for AI. He’s also an active angel investor and startup mentor at several accelerators and incubators.

Srin’s background is geneticist turned corporate lawyer at a leading international law firm. He has an MBA and taught himself to code to build prototype web apps (and was the lead developer at his startup Accomable for the first 12 months).

Maggie is an experienced public servant, leading teams in government focused on personnel security and
mitigating insider risk in the national security sector. She is a leading advocate within her organisation for the use
of emerging tech and data to meet growing cyber and personnel risk from adversary states whilst not losing sight
of the human factor.

A qualified cordon bleu chef, earlier in her working life Maggie founded a small high-end catering company
focused on the City of London. Like many founders, she discovered that passion without commercial viability
merely gives you an expensive hobby!

More successfully, Maggie co-founded, with a Turkish partner, the first guide dog association in Turkey, ably
assisted by her then guide dog, Star. Everything needed to be done from scratch from seeking start-up and
follow on funding, through sourcing the puppies, finding trainers outside Turkey and allocating blind partners for
the dogs. Maggie became an expert in advocacy, using her fluent Turkish in frequent TV and media
appearances to gain acceptance for guide dogs in Turkish society and increase accessibility for them and their
partners. She was recognised for her efforts by being named by UK Guide Dogs Association as Most Inspiring
Guide Dog Owner of the Year in 2018 and appeared on BBC Breakfast and BBC Radio 4’s “In Touch”
programmes.

Maggie, who lost her sight to juvenile macular degeneration aged 10, is focused on the “ability” in “disability”,
dispelling myths about the limitations of disabled people through her advocacy and by her example. A graduate
of Sussex University in linguistics and French, the mother of two adult children, accomplished chef (see above!),
producer/director of amateur plays and pantos, English teacher on Vietnamese TV, intrepid traveller (living in
Turkey twice, Vietnam, Pakistan and Malaysia) and national security professional. She sees her role on the
Advisory Council of Creo as a chance to support and inspire the disabled founders of the present and future.
Maggie is married to Sir Richard Moore, KCMG, and they live in Surrey and Soho with her current guide dog,

As CEO of Motability Operations, Andrew Miller oversees the UK’s single largest car fleet. With a proven track record in business transformation through technology, Andrew’s priorities include driving the transformation of Mobility Operations’ electric fleet in line with 2030 targets.

Christine is a disability and age-inclusive inclusive researcher, designer, and innovator. She founded and leads Open Inclusion, which is based in the UK, operating globally. Open is a global leader in disability and age-informed market, social, design and innovation research with specific expertise in emerging technologies.

Martyn is a business strategist helping organisations design accessible and inclusive goods, services and workplaces for the 1.3 billion person disability market. His goal is to help companies connect with the needs of the disability community to transform the way everyone lives, works and contributes. He’s uniquely qualified to lead this transformation. He’s a regular guy who happens to have a disability called Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). This means he can’t walk, or lift anything heavier than a book. Nonetheless he was voted Britain’s third most influential disabled person. Martyn is the co-founder of Purple Goat agency, Accomable (sold to Airbnb), and Disability Horizons magazine (the UK’s fastest growing disability lifestyle publication). He’s also an author, keynote speaker, and podcaster.

Recognised as the UK’s most influential disabled person and the BBC’s 100 Women Laureate of 2020, Dr Shani Dhanda sparks transformative change as a consultant, collaborating with businesses and brands to authentically embrace inclusion and accessibility. Her expertise in disability inclusion has had a profound global impact, collectively reaching over 1.5 million employees worldwide.

Navigating the world as a South Asian woman experiencing disability, her intersectional activism serves as a catalyst for challenging social inequality worldwide through entrepreneurial ventures, founding initiatives like Diversability, the Asian Woman Festival and the Asian Disability Network.

Beyond her TV presence, eight executive and five ambassadorial roles, Shani’s impact extends to over 250 conferences worldwide, sharing stages with luminaries such as Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. Her work as a changemaker has earned her over twenty-five honours and awards.

Alex is a disabled founder who started his company to design a powered wheelchair by combining his lived experience with industry leading design. Alex has extensive experience in founding and growing a company as a disabled person, specifically in: product development and bringing a medical device to market, raising finance through grants and equity, and forming a team.

Patrick joined HSBC Innovation Banking in April 2020 as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for managing the bank’s operations, client service and lifecycle management, technology data privacy & governance, vendor management and first line controls. He is focused on developing, implementing and executing the operational strategy and resilience, streamlining systems and improving processes to better serve the bank’s clients and employees. Patrick has also taken on a vital role of Executive Sponsor for the HINV Employee Resource Group for disABILITY, helping to promote and drive a culture of equity and equality for all in the workplace.

Patrick brings with him over 25 years of experience in financial services, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Santander Corporate and Investment Bank where he was responsible for Middle Office, Governance Operational Risk and Compliance, Business Management and Change, Technology and Operations. At Barclays Investment Bank he held the role of Chief Operating Officer of Global Finance Risk Solutions. He has also held senior operational roles at Nomura and Lehman Brothers.

Patrick started his career in the British Army as an Aircraft Engineering Officer where he served in a variety of front-line and staff roles. He holds a BEng in Electronic Systems Engineering as well as an MBA from Cranfield University.

Carolyn Dawson is Chief Executive of Founders Forum Group, overseeing all FF events and businesses, and steering the strategic development of our global network. Previously, Carolyn was President at Informa Tech, a FTSE 100 UK company championing specialists in their core markets. Carolyn led a global portfolio of Digital Media, Research, Events, and Training across a variety of technology sectors and presided over the joint venture between Founders Forum and Informa Tech, prior to her assuming her role as FFG CEO.

Carolyn was recently appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for her services to London Tech Week, which she’s led for the past seven years. In this time, she built its global profile and advanced its mission to showcase the best of UK tech. Carolyn is passionate about growing a dynamic and inclusive tech community to realise the positive impact of technology on our world and to empower the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Joseph Williams has spent almost two decades building and leading digital, marketing and product teams. He spent his early career in digital innovation and transformation. But after seeing consistent barriers to opportunities for so many bright and brilliant people, took his skillset into HR.

Since then, Joseph has been campaigning and building technology to increase social mobility and equity of opportunity in the job market. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Clu; the skills-based AI platform transforming how companies understand and engage with talent.

He is a Co-Founder of ParaPride and the Access2Funding campaign. He also sits on Advisory boards for Birkbeck University, The Better Hiring Institute, Think Equal, The Mentoring Lab and was Kings College London’s inaugural Activist-in-Residence.

Joseph is a recognised thought leader in the recruitment and inclusion space, with a focus on the future of work, the skills-based economy and improving economic mobility.

Nicolas Simon, Founder and President of Wandercraft.

Nicolas Simon founded Wandercraft in 2012, a global leading deep tech company in autonomous walking exoskeletons that designs and markets exoskeleton robots enabling paraplegic individuals to walk again. The company’s mission is to fulfill the promises of walking robotics to assist people with disabilities in regaining their mobility by developing, manufacturing, and marketing autonomous walking exoskeletons.

Their exoskeletons, named Atalante, have been on the market since 2019 and are used in rehabilitation and neurology in Europe and the USA. In 2022, Wandercraft enabled 600 patients to take more than 3 million steps. Wandercraft is also developing a personal version of the exoskeleton for use in urban environments and at home. A graduate of École Polytechnique, Nicolas Simon underwent multidisciplinary scientific training before specializing in electrical engineering. He then completed his education with an MSc in Computer Science, specializing in the field of Artificial Intelligence and learning at Imperial College London.

Simon is a thought leader, Founder of Sminty Ltd and masterful influencer who uses his intelligence, communication skills and wit to elevate the employment and service provision of disabled people. He has delivered consultancy, training and strategic plans in the field of disability, since the early 2000s.

Simon became a Non-executive Director of Motability Operations in 2018. In 2020 he joined the board member of the National Theatre in London. He is a trustee of Improbable Theatre and of Stopgap Dance. He is an Ambassador to the Business Disability Forum and Business Disability International and helped establish the Disability Media Alliance Project in California.

Mark Esho graduated from De Montfort University in 1994 after obtaining an MBA in Business Administration. Though a Masters degree is a notable achievement for most people, for Mark this marked the culmination of years of hard work battling against the many obstacles that got in his way.

When Mark was five years old, he went from a happy, carefree child to becoming paralysed overnight. He had contracted the poliovirus, which by that point should have been eradicated from the UK. He was initially given a 10% chance of survival but not only did he survive – he thrived.

Mark has overcome what others might perceive as insurmountable obstacles to become the man he is today. His positive, can-do mindset has meant that not only did he finish his studies and graduate from De Montfort, but he went on to become the Founder of several successful businesses – Easy Internet Services, a digital marketing agency, Easy Internet Solutions, a web hosting company, Dreme, a property investment company and in 2019 Access Rating a Community Interest Company (C.I.C). In February 2023, Mark launched Ability Connect CIC. A brand new project, which in collaboration with the University of Leicester Business School, offers training for aspiring disabled entrepreneurs.

In 2018, Mark’s autobiography, I Can. I Will. became a number one bestseller on Amazon. He was highly commended in the IoD Director of the Year (SME) 2016, and in 2019, he was the winner of the IoD Director of the Year (East Midlands) and East Midlands Leadership Awards Winner. Mark was honoured by the Queen in 2022 with an MBE for services to business. In 2023, Mark was awarded a DBA (Doctor of Business Administration) by De Montfort University.

He now spends his time running his social enterprises and public speaking at events.

Mark will teach you that it doesn’t matter what obstacles life throws at you – it’s how you respond that counts!

Matt Pierri is the founder and CEO of Sociability – a disability tech company helping disabled
people to find accessible places. A wheelchair user himself, Matt is passionate about driving
change in the disability space and using technology to remove barriers to opportunity for
disabled people everywhere. Before founding Sociability, Matt was an
Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Schmidt Futures, the philanthropic venture firm of Eric and
Wendy Schmidt, and a Visiting Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of
Oxford, where he researched disability ethics and policy as a Rhodes Scholar.

Eric is Chair of Centaur Robotics, a firm reimagining personal mobility. Eric also volunteers as Aging2.0 UK Ambassador, Chair Open Age, and Advisory Board member to RCA’s Design Age Institute. Eric is an honorary associate professor, De Montfort University. Previously, Eric was Interim Director, Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund Healthy Ageing.