CST Data and Digital Transformation Conference 2026

Alex Jones was appointed as Ofsted’s Director, Insights and Research in March 2022. He was previously Head of Evidence and Transformation at 10 Downing Street from 2020 to 2022, following 10 years working at the Department for International Development in roles in the UK, Asia, and Africa. Before that Alex worked across a number roles in central and local government, including for Devon Social Services, supporting children and young adults with disabilities to live independently.

Lorna has been Deputy Director for School Accountability in the Department for Education since May 2024. She is responsible for policy on school and trust performance measures, school and trust inspection and school faith policy. Immediately prior to this she was Deputy Director for Teaching Workforce Strategy and Portfolio, leading development of school workforce recruitment and retention strategies for several years. A civil servant for 25 years, she has spent most of her career working on children’s issues and has worked in a variety of roles in early years, social care and school policy.

Michael Bhaskar works on strategy and communications at Microsoft AI. Previously, he was staff writer at Inflection AI and is a co-founder of fast-growing publishing company Canelo – he also was writer in residence at Google DeepMind.

Michael is the co-author of a major book about AI and the future, the New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller ‘The Coming Wave: AI, Power and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma’ with entrepreneur Mustafa Suleyman. He has also written a landmark exploration of the state of our most radical ideas, ‘Human Frontiers: The Future of Big Ideas in an Age of Small Thinking’, a prize-winning monograph, ‘The Content Machine’, an argument about why the word curation became such a buzzword, ‘Curation: The Power of Selection in a World of Excess’ and is also co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Publishing. His books have been translated into thirty languages.

He has written and talked extensively about AI, technology, publishing and the future of media in many lead publications. He has worked as a digital publisher, an economics researcher, a book reviewer, a technology writer and founded several web initiatives. He is the publisher of hundreds of books, and produced a number of digital firsts including the first ebooks on the iPhone and the first choose your own adventure app. He has worked with organisations including Alphabet, Arts Council England, The Economist, New Scientist, the National Trust and the Wellcome Trust.