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Technology in an Uncertain World Podcasts

Sponsored by DXC Leading Edge

Continuous innovation in technology, including ever-evolving software platforms, allows for new horizontal business models and promises new ways of working. This is colliding with global uncertainties including increased competition and disruption, supply chain bottlenecks and bullwhips, and a fight for talent with the skills needed in this new world. This podcast from Oxford Analytica will take listeners through what these new platform technologies are and how they’re changing the business landscape in three episodes. 

Ep 1: Platforms and a new way of working | May 9, 11AM ET

What are platforms and how are they transforming business today? We talk with experts about how the possibilities of data-rich platform technologies allow new services and opportunities for businesses. However, reaching these opportunities requires a new mindset and a revamp of traditional org charts, while staying alert to how regulations may be changing across the world.

Ep 2: Supply chains on the platform | May 16, 6AM ET

COVID-19 saw massive disruptions to supply chains, with crises, bottlenecks and price spikes that masked a deeper change shaping the logistics that underpin our global economy. Platforms and big data are presenting new ways to track goods across borders and could upend the usual ways of doing business. Will business take advantage of these new opportunities?

Ep 3: Talent in platforms | May 23, 6AM ET

Do businesses have the talent to utilize new technologies, or will the people using these platforms be too scarce for most companies to dive into this new world? We talk with experts to identify what skills are going to be needed, whether they will come from new employees or upskilling existing staff, and what needs to happen internally for business to thrive in a data-rich world.

Learn more about DXC Leading Edge

Featured Staff

Chris Oates

Podcast Host & Senior Advisor, Oxford Analytica (ep 1-3)

Chris Oates is a former Oxford Analytical analyst with a PhD in International Relations from Oxford University. Experienced political risk analyst with background in US and EU domestic and foreign policy. He is a Lecturer at Boston University’s Pardee School of Global Studies and has served in a senior role on a statewide campaign in Massachusetts. His work at OA includes risk training at the Department of Defense and major thought leadership reports for private companies, international organizations, and governmental bodies.

He is a former DJ at 95.5 WBRU-FM and has hosted and produced digital content on political risk and politics.

Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz

Senior Researcher & Advisor, DXC Leading Edge (ep 1)

Cristene Gonzalez-Wertz is a senior researcher and advisor for DXC Leading Edge. She has experience in a breadth of industries, especially electronics, manufacturing and utilities. She applies an innovation mindset to sustainability and human-technology interaction research. Cristene brings a love of data and interaction design to business stories that span use cases and industries. She is an avid media consumer with her own podcast, Retail Done Right. Prior to joining DXC, Cristene spent over 10 years at IBM’s Institute of Business Value (IBV).

Bill Murray

Senior Researcher & Advisor, DXC Leading Edge (ep 1,2)

Bill Murray is a senior researcher and advisor for DXC Leading Edge, conducting research programs on the metaverse, digital twins, platform businesses and ecosystems, and software-intensive organizations. He contributes to U.K. national efforts in deep technology and cyber-physical infrastructure and is a Zinc fellow. Before joining DXC, Bill was a founder of management consultancy Differentis and held senior roles in strategy and innovation at CSC. He also held strategy consulting roles at KPMG Nolan Norton and Accenture. Bill started his career as a high-energy impact engineer with Arup.

Mark Roboff

VP of Aerospace & Automotive, SparkCognition (ep 1)

As Vice President for Aerospace and Automotive at SparkCognition, Mark Roboff works across both industries to realize the potential of next-generation AI to solve critical problems and unlock new opportunities to save, pivot, and grow business worldwide. Roboff brings over fifteen years of software and AI leadership to SparkCognition, with a career split between startups and technology giants. Prior to joining SparkCognition in October 2017, Roboff was an early leader in IBM Watson Group, serving in global positions across technical sales, business development, and industry solution design. Most recently, Roboff served as IBM’s Global Solution Leader for Aerospace and Automotive, leading the design and go-to-market for transformative cognitive solutions in manufacturing and maintenance optimization. Roboff is a lifelong aviation geek and car lover, and lives to share his joint passions of flying, driving, and delivering next-generation AI.

Dr. Megha Kumar

Deputy Director of Analysis, Oxford Analytica (ep 1)

Megha leads Oxford Analytica’s work on the Global Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sector, advising major corporate and public-sector clients on the commercial prospects, regulation and cybersecurity of digital infrastructure and digital services.

Megha’s work on digital labour platforms was published in a special journal issue as ‘Women gig workers, policymakers and platforms: the pandemic’s impact across several G20 economies’ by Digital Future Society in 2022. Between 2010 and 2017 she led our Asia analysis, specialising in South Asia (particularly India), Indonesia and Thailand, advising G20 governments, multinational corporations and multilateral institutions on these emerging markets. Before joining Oxford Analytica, Megha taught history at the University of Oxford and held the prestigious Past and Present Research Fellowship at the University of London.

She has worked as a journalist in Delhi. Her broadcast appearances include outlets such as the BBC, South China Morning Post, The Diplomat and Time Magazine. Her book Communalism and Sexual Violence in India: The Politics of Gender, Ethnicity and Conflict was published by I.B. Tauris in June 2016. She holds a DPhil and an MSt from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a BA from the University of Delhi.

Richard Howells

VP, Solution Management for ERP, Finance & Digital Supply Chain, SAP (ep 2)

Over the 25+ Years in the IT, Technology space I have worked with many leading global companies to design, build, market and implement software and business solutions in the area of ERP, Supply Chain, IoT and Manufacturing.

At SAP I have driven the market direction and strategy for our extended supply chain solutions and am a spokesperson for SAP at numerous events and social media channels worldwide. I am a regular contributor on Forbes, Huffington Post , The Digitalist, and the World Economic Forum

I am a problem solver at heart and enjoy working with customers and teams to identify and fix business issues. My area of expertise include marketing, product design, public speaking and social media.

Lars Jensen

CEO, Vespucci Maritime (ep 2)

Lars Jensen is CEO of Vespucci Maritime, and is an analyst and thought leader providing expert

assistance in strategic decision making and analysis in the wider container shipping industry.

Lars has 22 years of experience from inside the container shipping industry, whereof the last 12 years has been as an independent analyst and consultant for carriers, shippers, ports. maritime technology firms and financial institutions.

Lars was the author of the book “Liner Shipping 2025” which to a significant degree predicted many of the changes currently gathering pace in the industry and how carriers, terminals, ports, shippers and forwards should navigate these changes to emerge successfully.

Lars Jensen is co-founder of LinerGame providing innovative training and teambuilding in the liner shipping industry with more than 100 sessions held in the past seven years across 20 countries on 3 continents

Simon Wardley

Senior Researcher, DXC Leading Edge (ep 2)

Simon Wardley is a senior researcher for DXC Leading Edge. He is a former CEO, former advisory board member of startups, a fellow of Open Europe, inventor of Wardley Mapping and a regular conference speaker. He uses mapping in his research, covering areas from serverless to nation-state competition, while also advising DXC customers on mapping, strategy, organization, and leadership.

Damian Bunyan

CIO, Uniper (ep 3)

Originally from the UK, Damian moved to Germany in 2004 with EON. In 2006 he joined E.ON’s IT arm where he sat on the board of their internal IT Services business. E.ON chose to outsource significantly and with that Damian and his teams have learnt to work intelligently with a variety of off shore providers including Infosys. With the creation of Uniper, Damian was asked to become CIO of the new Uniper business. He purposefully steered away from a shared service model. His team kept a passion for building partnerships to produce maximum technology benefits at the lowest Total Cost of Ownership.

Uniper exists to help societies master the energy evolution underway, Uniper believes that technology will play a key role in managing and reducing CO2.

Sarah Bankins

Associate Professor, Ethical AI & Work, Macquarie University (ep 3)

Sarah Bankins is an Associate Professor in Ethical AI at the Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University, Australia. She studies the effects of using artificial intelligence in workplaces, on aspects like what people do at work and how they experience their work. She also examines how people understand, explain, experience, and react to AI – including where these technologies make decisions that impact them, such as in healthcare and human resource management.

Sarah Fowler

Analyst, International Economy (ep 3)

Sarah Fowler joined Oxford Analytica in September 2016 and covers international economics. Sarah previously worked for seven years at Oxford Economics, where she was responsible for forecasting the economic outlook for several Asian countries and writing more broadly about global emerging markets prospects. She also wrote on Asian trade and long-term growth prospects. Sarah worked on a number consultancy projects for Oxford Economics and played a key role in launching and establishing a new product evaluating economic and political risk in 2015. She started her career at the fund manager Alliance Trust on the management training programme, gaining experience as a research analyst in several areas including US equities and private equity before joining the economics team.

Sarah holds a BSc in Economics from Bristol University and a MSc in Economics from the University of Southampton. She also holds the investment management certificate.

Dr. Alex Kokkonen

Senior Researcher & Advisor, DXC Leading Edge (ep 3)

Dr. Alex Kokkonen is a senior researcher and advisor for DXC Leading Edge, working with customers to solve their most pressing business issues via research-led advisory interventions. With over 25 years of experience, Alex brings extensive international and multi-industry experience from working in a variety of multidisciplinary leadership positions and diverse cultural settings for major blue-chip companies. She has driven IT and business research concepts into business transformations and holds two doctorates, one in IT and one in business. Prior to joining DXC, Alex held a variety of leadership roles, most recently in KPMG’s CIO Advisory and Technology Enablement practice.