2022 Digital Forensics Summit

Tom Gash is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Government and Managing Director of Leapwise, a strategy and decision-making consultancy that supports top teams and national leaders. He works across policing and justice and speaks and writes widely on crime prevention, public sector performance improvement and strategic decision-making. Tom’s work draws on his experiences a senior crime policy adviser in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in the mid-2000s, a strategy consultant with Boston Consulting Group (BCG), as Director of Research at the Institute for Government. Through Leapwise, Tom has supported major criminal justice reforms in the UK, US, and Australia. He contributes regularly to documentaries and the mainstream press (Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian, BBC) and is one of WIRED magazine’s main writers on the future of criminal justice. Tom is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at University College London’s JDI (Security and Crime Science) and his book Criminal: The Truth About Why People Do Bad Things (Penguin, 2016) was a Times ‘Thought’ Book of the Year.

Paul Gibson is a Deputy Chief Constable with responsibility for the East Midlands Specialist Operations unit, which delivers specialist police services to five forces: including forensics, major crime, serious and organised crime, counter terrorism and legal services. He joined Lincolnshire Police in 1998 after studying for a BSc (Hons) in Genetics at Liverpool University, obtaining a first-class degree. Paul won a scholarship from Zeneca Pharmaceuticals and completed a PhD in Medicine at St James’s Hospital, Leeds. He specialised in the field of investigation, enjoying the role of Senior Investigating Officer for major crime, lead for public protection and then the Director of Intelligence, before assuming the role as Head of Crime in 2015. During this time, Paul trained as an accredited performance coach and has since coached extensively; hugely enjoying contributing to the development of others. Paul spent time as Divisional Commander and Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) in Lincolnshire, before attending the Strategic Command Course in 2018. He moved to Derbyshire Constabulary as ACC later in 2018 and assumed his current role in January 2021. Paul is the National Police Chief’s Council lead for Digital Forensics and the Forensics Marketplace.

Julie Henderson is a Detective Chief Superintendent with Bedfordshire Police responsible for People and Workforce Development across the County and is also supports DCC Paul Gibson and the NPCC Digital Forensics Portfolio. She has 23 years police service; the majority of her career was in the Metropolitan Police. Julie left school aged 16 and was inspired to become a police officer as a result of her experience as a victim of robbery when working in a train station kiosk – she chased down one of the suspects and tackled him to the ground. A female officer supported Julie through the prosecution process and inspired her to join ‘the Job’ with the determination to ensure that all victims of crime are helped in the same way that she was. Julie has served across London in a wide range of roles including leading the intelligence response to Westminster Bridge and Finsbury Park terrorist attacks, introduced new technology (DigiVans) across multiple forces designed to improve police response and victim service to crimes involving digital forensics, has been a subject matter expert to the FBI at Quantico, obtained, in service, a Degree and Cambridge Masters and is currently studying for a PhD focusing on understanding the value of digital forensics to police investigations of violence against women and girls. Julie is a keen cyclist, swimmer and reluctant ‘jogger’ and has completed two ‘IronMan’ long distance triathlons along with countless charitable challenges. She is mum to a teenage daughter, wife to a long suffering, endlessly patient partner and proud owner of 3 dogs, 5 goats, a pig and several chickens.

Mike Hill is the Chief Digital & Information Officer for the Cabinet Office responsible for the provision of digital, data and technology products and services to the Cabinet Office business units and Arms Length Bodies. Prior to taking on this role Mike was the Director of Police and Public Protection Technology (PPPT) at the Home Office, with the responsibility for the development, sustainment and operation of national systems on behalf of Policing, Counter Terrorism, Serious Organised Crime and Fire. Mike started his career as an Apprentice in the Royal Signals in the late 80's and served for 13 years in a number of roles as a radio telegraphist, utilising a variety of capabilities from Morse code to satellite systems in support of the operational imperative. The values of leadership, communication and teamwork learnt throughout his early career have been central to Mike in his subsequent roles as a project/programme manager, Account Director and latterly Business Leader; working for organisations such as Vodafone, Cisco, HP and BAE Systems. Mike's career has predominantly been focused on public service; through his time in the Armed Forces, as a District Councillor in local government or indeed delivering programmes into the public sector. Mike brings that passion for public service, people and delivery to his role at the Cabinet Office; supporting the ongoing operations and digital transformation of the organisation.

Chris Jump is Branch Manager at SCC, with a team of external and internal Account Managers and a technical team dedicated to providing support and guidance in areas such as compliant procurement and routes to market, pre-sales and technical assurance, managed & professional services and access to industry leading proven technologies, vendors and service providers. Chris is focused on ensuring each customer experiences real value in every conversation, engagement, and transaction with SCC, with a big focus on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and ESG (Environmental, Sustainability and Governance) and a keen advocate of measurable and demonstrable outcomes.

Spencer Newsham is an experienced Technology Leader. Within IBM, he is focused on the Home Office and Police sector. With over 20 years of experience delivering projects and programmes and helping customers transform their ways of working and achieve challenging digital transformation ambitions. With a focus on using Data, AI and Hybrid Cloud Services to improve outcomes and reduce costs, Spencer and the team at IBM are engaging across the sector to help forces identify those operational challenges around areas such as Digital Forensics and apply IBM technology and use existing investments to improve outcomes.

Darryl Preston was elected Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough on 6th May 2021 and officially took post on 13th May 2021. Darryl has proudly served as both a front-line police officer and a senior detective for 30 years (10 years in the Met and 20 years in Cambridgeshire). After retiring from the force, he joined the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) as a senior policy official where he developed strategic positions and lobbied Government on topics such as serious violence, forensic science, economic and cybercrime. Darryl is currently the APCC national lead for forensics and biometrics.

Gary Pugh’s background is operational forensic science. He was on the team that set up the Forensic Science Service as an Executive Agency becoming a director in 1999. In 2004 he became the Director of Forensic Services at the Metropolitan Police where he led and implemented major programmes of organisational change and scientific innovation. He served two terms as Chair of the National DNA Database Strategy Board. He was a visiting Professor in Forensic Science at Northumbria University, awarded Fellow of Kings College London and the OBE in the 2011. In May 2021 he was appointed the Forensic Science Regulator.

Martyn Underhill was elected twice as the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) between 2012 and 2021. He served both terms as an Independent. Martyn led nationally for PCC's during this time on several areas such as mental health, suicide, Brexit, taser and forensics. He received an MBE in last year's New Year Honours List for services to Mental Health. Martyn announced he was standing down prior to the May 2021 PCC elections. Previously, Martyn was a Detective Chief Inspector with Sussex Police, retiring in 2009 after 30 years’ service. He was commended for his work on the Sarah Payne murder case in 2000. Since leaving politics, Martyn has become a Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University in Forensic Psychology, as well as a Trustee or Chair of several charities locally & nationally. He is an associate of Cityforum and also runs his own consultancy business in policing issues including forensics and digital forensics. Martyn is also a Lay Canon for the Salisbury diocese. He lives near Wimborne with his wife Debs.

James Vaughan spent 30 years as a police officer, serving in three different police forces across the Southwest and leading Dorset Police as the Chief Constable between 2018-21. He served as an operational detective through the ranks and was the Head of Crime for Wiltshire Police before graduating from the Police Strategic Command Course in 2011. He was a member of the Homicide Working Group and was the national lead for child homicide. He completed a Masters at the Institute of Criminology, Cambridge and has published his research surrounding infanticide. James held chief officer roles in Wiltshire, Dorset and Devon and Cornwall Police and led the response to serious and organised crime in the Southwest. He was responsible for delivering major restructure, transformation and change through ten years of significant police reform and economic restraint. James was the national lead for Forensics, driving forward a very challenging transformation programme in response to strategic and structural issues including: market sustainability, raising quality standards and meeting digital forensic proliferation. He was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal in the 2018 New Years Honours. Since retirement from Policing, James has been appointed as the Chair of The Dorset Safeguarding Children Partnership, he is a school governor at his teenage childrens’ school, he volunteers in wildlife conservation and in 2021, joined the teaching faculty at The Centre for Evidence Based Policing, delivering the executive programme at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad, India. He also provides specialist consultancy for executive development and recruitment.

Sam Willis is a specialist criminal barrister at 5 King’s Bench Walk, acting for both prosecution and defence. His practice is focused on serious and complex cases, usually involving violence, weapons, drugs, and fraud. His recent prosecution instructions have included several murders at the Old Bailey, a complex 16-week immigration fraud, and several of the EncroChat drugs-conspiracy cases. Prior to his work as a barrister, Sam was an IT developer specialising in mobile applications and data analysis. He is regularly instructed in cases that require a sound technical understanding of digital evidence and the law that applies to it. He has published several mobile apps which are widely used by solicitors and barristers working in criminal law, and he sits on the Bar Council’s IT Panel. He is currently writing a practitioner’s guide to the uses of digital communications evidence, which is due to be published in early 2023.