Laura Sandys - Challenging Ideas

Laura Sandys runs a consultancy firm, Challenging Ideas, advising on new business models and innovative public policy solutions across the energy, food and resources sectors. Laura is Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency and runs the 21st Century Energy Regulatory Commission with Imperial College and the Energy Systems Catapult. She was appointed as a member of the Advisory Panel for the Government’s Cost of Energy Review, is on the Council and taskforce for Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage and has a regular column in Utility Week.

She is also an advisory board member of the Carbon Capture and Storage Group at Imperial College, co-founder of POWERful Women, a Visiting Senior Fellow at Kings College and a Fellow of the Energy Institute.

She was previously a Member of Parliament for South Thanet and was a member of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Energy and Climate Change. Described by The Times as ‘one of the sanest of all MPs’ and as ‘lateral-minded, original and free-thinking’, when in Parliament she served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Energy and Climate Change.

Before politics, she founded and ran two companies in marketing, communications and public affairs; advised the Georgian Government regarding the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline; and worked for the consumer organisation, Which? She was a Trustee of Open University and chair of OpenDemocracy.net.

Endorsements

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Startup Showcase winner

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Richard Hallewell - CPRAS

"a pioneer in Blockchain and emerging technologies and a champion for women in blockchain. She is an accomplished policy analyst and writer and is a leader in the London Blockchain ecosystem, especially exploring industry verticals like health."

Dr Jane Thomason - Fintech Worldwide

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Christian Hasker, CMO - Hedera

"An excellent event in all ways"

CEO - Proxime Solutions

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Programme Manager, Health and Social Care - techUK

"Superb content and speakers"

NHS Consultant

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Jenny Creed Geraghty - Clinical Genetic Scientist

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James McKay - McKay Research

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Frontier Technologies Association

"Unblocked continues to curate exceptional events on how industries and processes can be enhanced with the introduction of Distributed Ledger Technologies"

Start up Founder

"A truly worthwhile event"

Bridget Greenwood - The Bigger Pie

"I had the pleasure of meeting Helen Disney last year when she organised what I would have said was the premier event in Blockchain."

Genevieve Leveille - Founder, 0tentic8

"One of the best curated series in London - or globally. A great opportunity to learn new things and going ons in the space."

Blockchain startup founder

"An extremely high quality, cutting edge event with expert speakers and well informed audience - thoroughly enjoyable and excellent learnings"

Dr Jane Thomason - CEO, Fintech Worldwide

"a rich, intelligently designed agenda and a chance to network with go getters"

Healthcare Unblocked 2018 attendee

"a seminal event"

Chair, Frontier Technologies Association

"A really great and informative session with a lot of impressive speakers"

Big Innovation Centre

"World-class events"

Founder - Braxxis Partners

"Healthcare Unblocked was the first healthtech event we’ve attended that truly covered new ground, spoke in line with the sector, and exhibited extremely well-informed speakers and audience."

Imogen Bunyard - Co-Founder and COO, Qadre

"One of the best conferences ever with a level of relevant and real-world examples that are not always found"

Conference Speaker, Healthcare Unblocked

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Conference delegate, Healthcare Unblocked

"Your healthcare event was brilliant. Glad to see that London still leads the way in terms of international innovation."

Matthew Gardiner - Catch London

"The most succinct explanation of what Blockchain could do for our sector to date"

Centrepoint

"Very interesting and a proper glimpse into the not-too-distant future. The talks felt particularly relevant to my area of work so I'll be investigating further."

MS Society

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