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Those signing up will be contacted with more details closer to the event.
Come and be inspired!
We have a range of excellent Alumni speakers who will give insight to their data science roles, tips and advice, and highlight potential opportunities at their companies!
14.00 — 14.10
Welcome and Introduction
14.10 — 14.55
Keynote Talk 1: Owen Daniel
Data Scientist and Deputy Director at the Office of National Statistics
15.00 —16.00
Inspirational Talks
Breakout 1
Breakout 2
Breakout 3
Breakout 4
Ian Hamilton
Analyst and Manager at EDF
David Whitcombe
Founder of Data Vision Services
Josh Hounsome
Lead data analyst at Playground Games
Freddie Brown
Analyst at UK Sport
Cristina Manoila
Data Scientist at Jaguar Land Rover
Nathan Kettle
Data Scientist at National Situation Centre (COBR) Cabinet Office - UK Government
Samuel Hine
Software Engineer at Skyral
Sebastian Graban
Senior Data Scientist at Stonegate Group
16.05 — 16.50
Keynote Talk 2: Sam Hancock
Global Head of Data Science, Octopus
16.50 —18.00
Networking and Refreshments
Owen Daniel
Owen Daniel (BSc Mathematics 2011, MSc Mathematics 2011, PhD Mathematics 2015) is Deputy Director of the Central Data Science and AI Unit at the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Owen sets the strategic direction for embedding data science across the production of ONS's official statistics, including GDP and population estimates. His teams’ work spans leveraging new data sources, applying machine learning and AI to enhance the quality of statistics, and adopting modern data engineering practices to ensure statistics are robust and reproducible.
Before joining the ONS, Owen worked in a number of government departments applying data science to improve policy and operations — from optimising prison and court operations, to developing decision-support tools that informed fisheries access negotiations during EU Exit.
Sam Hancock
(MMath Mathematics, 2006) Sam is the Global Head of Data Science at Octopus Energy Group.
His team drives the data and AI strategy that accelerates the energy transition - from unlocking insights for grid-scale investment, to optimising how millions of Octopus customers help balance the grid, to pioneering the use of AI across the business.
Sam began his career in credit risk analytics at Capital One and startup HD Decisions, before moving into autonomous vehicles, where he set the strategy for AI Operations at Waymo.
Over the past five years, Sam has focussed on tackling the climate emergency, serving as COO at two climate tech startups before joining Octopus Energy in 2024.
Breakout 1
Ian Hamilton
(MSc Statistics, 2018 & PhD Statistics, 2023)
Ian is Senior Manager for Pricing at EDF Business Solutions (EBS). He leads a team responsible for pricing energy contracts for large businesses and public sector organisations in the UK. After completing a MSc and PhD in Statistics at Warwick, he chose to start a second career in the Energy sector, drawn by an industry with plentiful data, meaningful challenges and abundant opportunity. Prior to choosing to return to university, he had a first career in foreign exchange trading, where he held senior roles in London and Singapore.
Cristina Manoila
(MSc by Research Computer Science 2023) is a Data Scientist at JLR with a strong focus on AI, including machine learning. She contributes to the end-to-end development and deployment of advanced data-driven solutions for vehicle prognostics and product quality improvement. Her work focuses on transforming complex vehicle data into meaningful insights through predictive modelling, diagnostics, and visualisation tools that support decision-making within the company. She also plays an active leadership role within her team, guiding, mentoring, and helping graduate engineers apply modern analytical methods to real-world data to support their technical and professional growth.
Cristina is passionate not only about upskilling herself but also about helping other graduates do the same. She believes networking is part of human nature, as exchanging knowledge and information helps people grow their skills. She also enjoys working with cutting-edge technologies and continuously seeks opportunities to introduce new methods and modern AI approaches that deliver real-world impact.
Breakout 2
David Whitcombe
(BSc MORSE, 2014) David is Founder and Managing Director at Data Vision Services, a Consultancy focused on helping companies make better decisions using data. At DVS, he and his team create tools to connect disparate data systems and create a single source of insight around revenue and costs - helping to set decisions around pricing, marketing and other key areas. They focus predominantly on UK and European businesses backed by Private Equity Prior to founding DVS, David spent four years as a Data Scientist at IBM and four years as a Strategy Consultant at OC&C Strategy. He is passionate about helping Maths and Statistics graduates find careers in business and commercial settings.
Nathan Kettle
(MMORSE, 2024) is a Statistician at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), currently working on supply chain shock analysis. Nathan joined the Civil Service Fast Stream in October 2024 after completing his MMORSE degree at the University of Warwick. His first posting was in the Cabinet Office, where he worked as a Data Scientist in the National Situation Centre (COBR). There, he contributed to real-time crisis response by developing data pipelines and dashboards to support decision-making at the highest levels of government.
In October 2025, Nathan moved to DBT to focus on understanding and mitigating risks to UK supply chains. He enjoys applying statistical thinking to complex policy problems, especially where data can drive resilience and strategic planning.
Nathan enjoys developing his technical specialism in an environment where he can contribute to meaningful real-world change.
Breakout 3
Josh Hounsome
(MORSE, 2016) Lead Data Analyst at Playground Games.
Josh started his career in analytics through the Virgin Media Graduate Programme (2016). After rolling off the scheme he created and grew the Commercial Analytics function at Virgin Media, before moving into a Product Analytics role at Just Eat Takeaway (2021), eventually taking both commercial and product experience to Playground Games (2022).
Since joining Playground Games, Josh has been knee-deep in telemetry, combining hundreds of event-level touchpoints to provide visibility on how Forza Horizon 5 performs technically, as well as providing insight into the player experience. During this time, he has completed analysis on matchmaking flows, built pipelines, and in-game features.
Josh is a strong advocate for data literacy, supporting others to better understand data. He combines a rigorous approach to analysis with a healthy level of scepticism, so that any data shared is informative, not misleading.
Samuel Hine
(BSc Data Science, 2019) is a Senior Software Engineer at Skyral.
Sam joined Skyral in 2021, and works in the Production Engineering team which oversees the company’s Software Development Lifecycle, as well as many of Skyral’s core platform components. Skyral is a modelling and simulation company which utilises large scale pattern of life technologies to help their customers make informed decisions about problems with many unknowns.
In his role, Sam makes use of platform engineering technologies such as Terraform and Kubernetes, as well as languages like Python and Typescript for application development.
Prior to working at Skyral, Sam was a Data Analyst at a number of esports organisations, such as FlyQuest, developing applications and data processing techniques to assist coaches and players in analysing their historic performance, and preparing for upcoming matches.
Breakout 4
Freddie Brown
(MMORSE, 2018) is the Games Services Manager for the British Paralympic Association and has worked across data and insights for UK Sport, TeamGB and ParalympicsGB.
Freddie joined UK Sport, the funding agency for elite sport, in 2018 as a Sport Intelligence Analyst, working on data projects with the likes of UK Athletics, British Swimming and British Rowing. In 2021, he became a Performance Insight Analyst, using statistical modelling techniques to track GB’s medal prospects ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This culminated in him leading the live provision of GB performance intelligence during the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Following Paris 2024, Freddie took a 6-month career break to travel around Southeast Asia andAustralasia, and has recently started a new role with the British Paralympic Association, supporting the delivery of sport projects ahead of the Milan-Cortina 2026 and LA 2028 Games. He’spassionate about all things sport and discovering new insights using data.
Sebastian Graban
(BSc Computer Science, 2021) is a Senior Data Scientist at Stonegate Pub Group. He works on a wide range of data science projects from designing a new Bayesian framework to evaluate A/B tests, building machine learning models to evaluate promotions ROI, and forecasting sales. Prior to joining Stonegate, he worked at Jaguar Land Rover working on projects ranging from Formula-E to finance.
Sebastian is passionate about supporting students and graduates having mentored and managed graduates through their data science rotations at JLR, providing them opportunity to get hands on with Data Science solutions to real life problems.
