Seminar: Made Smarter Innovation | Digital Supply Chain Hub

Tim is Director of Digital Supply Chain at Digital Catapult leading a £30m programme to build a Digital Supply Chain Hub to accelerating digital innovation in UK Supply Chains funded through Made Smarter Innovation and Industry.

Tim has extensive experience in improving global supply chains working within the Automotive, Consumer Goods, Aerospace, Defence, Construction, Life Science and Industrial Sectors. His experience includes 25 years in supply chain consultancy, leading companies to deliver transformation in their business and operations focused on strategy, operating model and organisational design, digital supply chain, restructuring and performance improvement. He has extensive global experience having worked across 16 different countries in Europe, US and Middle East advising over 50 different companies in that time.

An inspirational thought leader, Tim develops leading insights into global supply chain management, digital and manufacturing and is regularly quoted in the press and speaks on these topics at conference platforms across Europe.

Esther is a Product Owner at Digital Catapult, with experience in AI startups and supply chain innovation ecosystems.At Digital Catapult, she works on impactful projects, including CM-NICE (Critical Minerals - Network Insight Collaboration Environment), which supports collaboration across supply chains by enabling trusted and privacy-preserving data sharing. She also plays a key role in building and delivering features for Veritable, a platform for digitising trust relationships in the supply chain, via facilitating secure, verifiable B2B communication, empowering businesses to manage their digital identities and data sharing with confidence.

Hassan is an AI/ML scientist with 15 years of experience across academia and industry, all in AI/ML. At Digital Catapult he leads the Cutting Edge AI Technologies Team. Prior to that, he worked as a data scientist in industry and built and deployed first of its kind machine learning systems in sectors such as anti financial crime and supply chain control and optimisation. He has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was a research fellow in AI/ML at the Australian National University and the University of Edinburgh. His interests and  research covers a broad spectrum of AI/ML, from foundational theory, to practically effective methods and to robotics.

With over 20 years of experience in digital engineering and advanced manufacturing. Leading projects within the UK’s Digital Supply Chain Hub, Ben focuses on developing and applying Model-Based Enterprise (MBE) practices and Digital Thread strategies that improve data flow, interoperability, and collaboration across complex supply chains.  

In Ben's current role, he draws from a strong background in CAD and CAM for (both for composites and beyond), covering areas like advanced fibre placement, design for manufacturing, and automated programming. Ben's work has supported industry leaders like BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, and Siemens Digital Industries Software, using MBE to solve real challenges in data accuracy and process efficiency. Ben has also led efforts to create MBD standards, conducting nearly 14,000 tests to ensure interoperability and data integrity across different software platforms. 

 Ben is passionate about driving smoother, more reliable data exchange across the manufacturing lifecycle, helping suppliers of all sizes adopt MBE practices. Through practical, standards-based solutions, Ben is committed to advancing UK industry towards more connected, digitally driven processes. 

Tim Stephenson has an extensive background in supply chain management and digital innovation in the European steel industry. Having joined Digital Catapult earlier this year, Tim is working in the Digital Supply Chain Hub, leading the development of a portfolio of innovative digital solutions to meet industry challenges. Collaborating with industry, technology developers and academics, Tim is part of a team working to transform manufacturing through digitally empowered supply chains that are more efficient, resilient and sustainable.