Conference Chairs
Sophie Milburn
MSP Channel Insights
Sophie Milburn
MSP Channel InsightsSophie Milburn is an editor, interviewer and podcast host at MSP Channel Insights, working at the heart of the technology channel. She connects with the people shaping the industry, from MSPs and vendors to founders and leaders. As host of Voices in the Channel, she explores the experiences, personalities and stories of her guests, as well as the ideas and issues shaping the industry. She also moderates panels, events and in-person round-tables, creating space for open, thoughtful discussion around the subjects that matter to the channel. Her work brings people and perspectives together, creating conversations that aim to both challenge and connect the channel community.
Will Garside
IT Europa
Will Garside
IT EuropaWill specialises in writing and presenting – producing a huge range of content, ranging from thought-leadership articles to white papers. He started his career as a computer engineer before becoming one of the first producers on Sky TV’s primetime technology show “The Computer Channel” – alongside also covering mainstream business and technology news. He then worked as a product reviewer and technical writer for IT Network before going to Computer Weekly to cover security, telecoms and networking. He worked for several large technology brands including Microsoft and EMC as a technical writer and media consultant and was also the editor at International Broadcast Engineer – a role that saw him deliver a huge number of detailed analysis pieces on emerging video experiences. He has also written a number of books including tech guides for Which? and several "Dummies" guides on topics including big data and storage.
Will is also a highly experienced event moderator, managing content and panels at both the IBC and NAB shows for the last 10 years.
Keynote Speakers
John Hartson
John Hartson (born 5 April 1975) is a former Welsh international footballer who played as a striker, best known for his spells with Arsenal, West Ham and Celtic. Hartson also featured prominently for Wales, earning 51 caps until his international retirement in 2006. He retired from professional football after being released by West Bromwich Albion in January 2008. John was celebrated many times during his career , he appeared for Celtic in 146 games and scored 88 goals. He was voted Welsh footballer of the year 3 times – 1998, 2001 and 2003 and PFA Players’ player of the Year 2005. In July 2009 it was reported that Hartson would undergo chemotherapy after being diagnosed with "testicular cancer which has spread to his brain”. It was later reported the cancer had spread to his lungs and that he remained in a "critical condition" following emergency surgery. Professor Colin Cooper, Head of the Everyman Campaign, still believed Hartson's prospects were good at 60:40 though they would have been 99:1 with an earlier diagnosis. On 11 April 2010 Hartson appeared as a guest in ESPN's "Talk of the Terrace", where he revealed that he had had over two hundred carcinogenic cells in his body but through treatment all of them had been eliminated and not a trace of cancer was left in his body. John is now an estabilished football pundit for both the BBC, on Match of the Day and Football Focus, he also commentates and give his valued opinion for BT Sport. In 2010 John set up his own foundation to suppport individuals who have suffered in the same way he has and to create awareness campaigns to get young men to check themselves for the signs of testicular cancer. John has been involved in many fundraising projects including climbing Kilimanjaro, raising thousands of pounds for his foundation.
As John says “People say I’m a fighter but I was only doing what came
naturally. I’ve got so much to live for.”
Professor Sue Turner OBE
Sue Turner is dedicated to using her expertise in AI governance and ethics to inspire people and organisations to use AI with wisdom and integrity.
With both a Law degree and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, she established AI Governance Limited in 2020 to advise businesses and policy makers on pragmatic AI, data ethics and governance issues, and making a positive societal impact. Her Board development clients range from Fortune 100 and FTSE 350 businesses to small charities, and her reach is global through accredited training programmes and being a founder member of the United Nations AI Skills Coalition. She has been rated in the World's Top 100 Women in AI Ethics and was one of the first 14 people globally to be accredited in the Foundations of Independent Audit of AI systems.
She is Professor in Practice for AI and Technologies at the University of Bristol Business School, and has been a Board Chair and Non-Executive Director for purpose-driven businesses in regulated industries as well as a Mentor on the Turing Institute’s Skills Policy Awards. Her career spans entrepreneurial private businesses and not-for-profit organisations where she has led significant organisational growth, raised £27 million for charity and collaborated to shift power to help people improve their prospects. She was awarded the OBE in 2021 for Services to Social Justice.
Managed Service Providers (MSPs)
Mark Curtis-Wood
Blue Orange IT
Mark Curtis-Wood
Blue Orange ITMark Curtis-Wood is Non-Executive Chairman and shareholder of Blue Orange Group, a North West-based MSP delivering IT services and solutions to the education and commercial sectors. With over 25 years’ experience in strategic leadership, business growth and commercial development, Mark has been involved in more than 21 acquisitions, bringing extensive experience in scaling businesses through both organic growth and M&A.
Working closely with the leadership team at Blue Orange Group, Mark focuses on growth strategy, commercial performance and building long-term business value. A strong advocate of structured, measurable growth, he brings a practical, board-level perspective on the opportunities and challenges facing regional MSPs, particularly around market consolidation, competitive differentiation and sustainable growth.
Paul Billingham
K3 Deal Advisory
Paul Billingham
K3 Deal AdvisoryPaul’s career began in 1993 as a management accountant at Martin Dawes Telecommunications, an independent mobile service provider. He later joined the management team at Opal Telecom, a fixed line operator, which was acquired by Carphone Warehouse. Paul went on to become Commercial Director at TalkTalk Business, where his role included responsibility for mergers and acquisitions.
That blend of operational, commercial and M&A experience became the foundation for his advisory career. In 2008, Paul left TalkTalk and co-founded Knight Corporate Finance with Adam Zoldan, building a boutique advisory firm focused on the technology sector. Knight became part of K3 Advisory Group in 2021 and has rebranded as K3 Deal Advisory.
Across 15 years in industry and 18 years as co-founder of Knight, Paul has worked closely with technology business owners, management teams and shareholders, advising on over 200 transactions in the ICT sector.
Tom Jones
Focus Group
Tom Jones
Focus GroupTom Jones is Head of Corporate Development at Focus Group, where he has helped deliver around 40 acquisitions, supporting the group’s growth across telecoms and IT services. A Fellow Chartered Accountant, Tom previously worked at Knight Corporate Finance and Grant Thornton and has been involved in roughly 90 acquisitions and investments. He brings a practical, plain-English perspective on technology-sector M&A, working with business owners and investors to navigate transactions and build long-term value.
Dave Bennett
Focus Group
Dave Bennett
Focus GroupDave Bennett is Technical Director at Focus Group, one of the UK's leading managed service and telecoms providers, where he has spent over 18 years progressing from junior engineer to senior leadership. In his current role he holds responsibility for technical operations across the full product portfolio, spanning Cyber, Cloud, Network, Voice, and IT, as well as Service Design, Automation and Pre-Sales. With a career built entirely within the MSP sector, Dave has hands-on experience scaling teams from the ground up, leading complex service transformations, and bringing emerging technologies including AI and RPA into practical commercial use. He has led the development of cyber practices, vCTO and vCISO services, and automation programmes, while working closely with product and sales functions to shape how managed services are designed, sold, and delivered at scale.
Toria Walters
ANS
Toria Walters
ANSToria Walters is Chief People Officer at ANS Group and Chair of the ANS Academy, with a career leading people and transformation for some of the UK’s best-known brands, including Samsung, Santander and Dixons Carphone.
She has built her career around creating high-performing teams through significant transformation, with extensive M&A experience spanning more than 50 transactions. Her focus has consistently been on making complex change work in practice, bringing together people, culture, leadership and commercial performance.
Today, Toria is helping shape ANS’s approach to AI adoption and workforce transformation, exploring how AI will change jobs, skills, organisational design and leadership. She is passionate about ensuring technology creates opportunity rather than leaving people behind, and is a strong advocate for diversity, social mobility and creating new routes into the tech industry.
A regular industry speaker, Toria brings a practical perspective shaped by years of transformation: technology can enable change, but people determine whether it succeeds.
Alex Heslip
Novem
Alex Heslip
NovemAlex exited a UK Private Equity backed Telecom/Utilities business in 2021 for £400M+, he is now leading a buy and build in MSP, Telecom & Cyber to UK SMEs. Novem have acquired 5 businesses since June 2023 and have now fully integrated them all into a single operating business. The aim is to acquire 2-3 businesses every year and fully integrate them within 6 months, whilst trying to deliver continuity to customers and retain people.
Speakers
Jenna Vreugdenhil
Kaseya
Jenna Vreugdenhil
KaseyaJenna Vreugdenhil is a Senior Channel Development Manager at Kaseya, where she drives partner growth across the EMEA region by working closely with Managed Service Providers to recruit, enable, and scale their businesses. Since joining Kaseya in 2023, she has built a strong foundation in account management and partner success, helping organizations maximize the value of integrated IT management and cybersecurity solutions. In her current role, Jenna leads go-to-market initiatives, strengthens partner ecosystems, and collaborates with partners to unlock the full potential of a unified IT stack.
A passionate advocate for the IT channel and cybersecurity, Jenna thrives in global communities and is known for navigating cultural differences to build strong, collaborative networks. As a speaker, she brings energy, authenticity, and practical insight to every stage, simplifying complex topics and empowering audiences to take action. Her mission is simple: to help partners grow, strengthen cybersecurity awareness, and make the digital world a little more secure with every conversation.
Jenny Hoffman
Huntress
Jenny Hoffman
HuntressJenny has over 10 years experience working with MSP's, and over 25 years experience selling SaaS solutions to both service providers and end users. Having worked with Huntress for the last 15 months, Jenny specialises in providing cybersecurity solutions for new MSP partners. She focuses on driving successful adoption of the Huntress suite, with a strong emphasis on smooth onboarding and impactful trials.
Juliana Najavas
Arrow
Juliana Najavas
ArrowJuliana Navajas is a Microsoft Solutions Specialist specialising in Cyber Security, bringing over six years of experience across IT and Microsoft technologies.
Juliana works closely with partners to develop Microsoft Security opportunities, from identifying customer needs and potential upsell areas to supporting enablement and solution positioning. Drawing on her previous experience in solution consulting, she bridges technical understanding with commercial conversations to help partners grow their cybersecurity business.
Name to be advised
Megaport
Name to be advised
MegaportAwaiting biography.
Lauren Brown
Huntress
Lauren Brown
HuntressLauren has six years of experience in the industry, spanning across numerous areas of the cybersecurity landscape. She's worked for vendors specialising in email security, SIEM and DLP and is thrilled to have recently joined the Huntress EMEA team. Over the span of her career, Lauren has partnered closely with a number of MSPs and channel partners as a trusted advisor, helping organisations understand modern threats and build practical, effective security strategies.
Matt Aldridge
Opentext
Matt Aldridge
OpentextMatt is a cybersecurity veteran with over 30 years of experience.
Past roles have included building military security software, technical leadership for managed network services at Computacenter (Europe’s largest Systems Integrator) and providing networking & security consultancy to customers and partners in a variety of industries.
In 2014 Matt moved to Webroot BrightCloud (now OpenText Cybersecurity), to work with new customers and partners across EMEA and worldwide. He architects the integration of OpenText Threat Intelligence services & malware detection solutions, with vendor partner engagements across the entire cybersecurity portfolio.
Matt is a cybersecurity evangelist, representing OpenText globally at industry events and in the media, delivering keynote speeches and bespoke presentations on industry topics.
Gavin Roberts
Topsec Cloud Solutions
Gavin Roberts
Topsec Cloud SolutionsMark McInerney
LogMeIn
Mark McInerney
LogMeInMark McInerney is a sales leader at GoTo, specialising in the Managed Service Provider (MSP) and IT management market. With extensive experience helping MSPs navigate the evolving technology landscape, Mark focuses on solutions that enable providers to simplify their technology stack, improve operational efficiency and scale their businesses. His expertise spans remote support, RMM, endpoint management, cybersecurity and automation, with a particular focus on how emerging technologies such as AI are shaping the future of the MSP industry.
Jon-Marc Wilkinson
Watchguard
Jon-Marc Wilkinson
WatchguardJon-Marc has been working within the IT Channel for 23-years and most recently joined WatchGuard in 2010 to raise awareness of the risks posed by cyber criminals. Recently there has been an increasing requirement to guide partners through a process of transformation, from value added reseller to Managed Security Provider. Enabling the UK channel to adopt a managed approached to security, has resulted in a tremendous growth within our partner community, whilst improving our customers security posture; protecting them against the increasing levels advanced threats.
Mark Olding
Bitdefender
Mark Olding
BitdefenderMark Olding is a passionate cybersecurity professional with deep expertise in Channel Enablement, Endpoint Security, Email Security, and Threat Protection. As a MSP Product Specialist at Bitdefender, he helps partners stay ahead of evolving threats through cutting-edge MDR and threat intelligence solutions.
Known for his engaging public speaking and impactful partner training sessions, Mark brings complex cybersecurity topics to life — empowering MSPs and channel partners to build stronger, smarter security practices.
Before joining Bitdefender, Mark worked as a Channel Sales Engineer at Mimecast, driving MSP and distribution enablement for multilayered email security and human risk management. He’s also held senior presales roles at Sophos, Kaspersky, and Symantec, helping organizations and partners elevate their cyber resilience through endpoint, XDR, and cloud security innovation.
Dale Powers
Hornetsecurity
Dale Powers
HornetsecurityDale Powers is an experienced cybersecurity and MSSP channel leader with a strong track record of building strategic partnerships and driving revenue growth across EMEA and emerging markets. He has held senior roles with leading cybersecurity and technology companies, including Hornetsecurity, Zscaler, Sumo Logic, Micro Focus and Hewlett-Packard. Dale specialises in developing managed security service provider (MSSP) ecosystems, partner-led go-to-market strategies, and recurring revenue opportunities across cloud security, MDR, XDR and Zero Trust. He is passionate about helping partners scale their security services, strengthen customer outcomes and navigate the evolving cybersecurity landscape.
Callum Gillespie
Nueworx
Callum Gillespie
NueworxCallum spent years inside an MSP serving large enterprise IT teams, and more recently working on the challenges across service desk, endpoint and identity Nueworx now automates. He went looking for a platform that combined proactive management with AI that could safely act for real users. When he couldn't find one, he co-founded Nueworx to build it. He now leads the company's strategy, vision and commercial direction.
Hugo Smales
Hornetsecurity
Hugo Smales
HornetsecurityHugo Smales is a Pre-Sales Consultant at Hornetsecurity, specialising in cloud security, email threat protection, and Microsoft 365 governance. With a strong background in email security, phishing simulation, and data resilience, Hugo works closely with MSPs, IT leaders, and security teams to design robust defenses against modern cyber threats and streamline tenant compliance.
Elliot Wilkie
Elovade UK & I
Elliot Wilkie
Elovade UK & IElliot is the Product Manager at Elovade UK &I. His key focuses include Microsoft 365 management and DMARC, helping MSPs with both technical and sales support. After launching a key Elovade UK&I vendor, helping it to become the fastest growing vendor partnership in its history, Elliot has also deployed this vendor across the pan-European group.
David Maginnes
Sherweb
David Maginnes
SherwebDavid Maginnes is responsible for partner development at Sherweb, working closely with MSPs across the UK and Ireland to help them grow commercially.
With over two decades in technology sales spanning SMB, enterprise, and public sector, David brings real world experience of building sales teams, taking MSP solutions to market, and navigating the commercial realities of the Microsoft ecosystem. He is passionate about helping MSPs move beyond reactive selling and build repeatable, sustainable sales motion that supports long term growth.
Ed Baker
Netwrix
Ed Baker
NetwrixAt Netwrix Corporation Ed Baker leverages 30+ years of expertise in leadership, strategic sales, channel partnerships and ecosystem strategies to drive market growth. Known for championing an innovative approach, Ed is a self-confessed 'AI Addict' having been a founder and advisor for several AI startups.
Kieron Moore
Acronis
Kieron Moore
AcronisKieron Moore leads strategic partner acquisition for Acronis across the UK and Ireland. He began his career in business continuity and disaster recovery, supporting organisations in the finance, government and charity sectors. Since joining Acronis six years ago, he has specialised in complex, distributed enterprise and retail environments. Kieron helps partners and customers strengthen their cloud transformation strategies through integrated data protection, cybersecurity and automation, with a focus on building resilience and improving operational efficiency.
