Networkshop 2026 keynote speakers
Networkshop welcomes a world-class community of IT experts and decision-makers exploring how to stay connected, adaptable and resilient beyond today’s challenges and into a sustainable future.
Fred Walker
Associate director, Verizon Business Group
Fred has over 20 years’ experience in helping large enterprises build and manage IT infrastructure to cope with the rapid growth in data volumes and turn it into competitive advantage and business value.
After studying data communications, he started his career in hands-on operational and support roles, giving him first hand insight into the challenges of running complex corporate infrastructure. He now leads a team of global integrated solutions experts that help clients build the adaptable infrastructure they need to support ongoing business transformation as organisations move to the next generation model 'The Autonomous Enterprise'.
Fred will present the keynote 'The autonomous enterprise' on day one of Networkshop.
Sudheer Matta
SVP products, HPE Networking
Sudheer Matta leads product strategy and roadmap for wifi (Juniper Mist and Aruba), Juniper Switching and Juniper NAC, delivering a unified, AI-native full-stack networking experience. He also leads the AI for networking specialist field product teams, driving technical excellence across HPE’s campus and branch portfolio.
Sudheer has held leadership roles across engineering, product management and sales at Cisco, Juniper, and multiple startups — including leading Cisco’s $2.2 billion wireless controller product management organisation. He has spent a decade contributing to the IEEE and Wi-Fi Alliance and holds six patents in the wireless domain.
Sudheer will present the keynote 'The AI-native campus network and the journey to self-driving: why UK universities need it now and how HPE and Juniper convergence changes the game' on day one of Networkshop.
Peter Halifax
Chief technology officer, University of Leeds
Peter is a senior technology leader with over 20 years’ experience in leadership roles across large and complex global organisations. As chief technology officer at the University of Leeds, he is responsible for the university’s technology strategy and operational delivery, ensuring IT services support world-class teaching, research, and student experience.
His career has focused on building resilient, customer-focused technology organisations that combine operational excellence with strategic transformation. With extensive experience leading large-scale teams and complex service environments, Peter is passionate about developing high-performing teams, driving service improvement, and enabling organisations to adapt and evolve through technology.
Peter will present the keynote 'The AI-native campus network and the journey to self-driving: why UK universities need it now and how HPE and Juniper convergence changes the game' on day one of Networkshop.
Lisa Siuda
Head of technology operations, University of Leeds
Over the last 20 years, Lisa has held senior technology leadership roles focused on operational excellence, service delivery, and large-scale infrastructure transformation across complex international environments. With responsibility for live IT services across EMEA, she has led multidisciplinary teams spanning networking, voice, operations, and service management, helping organisations deliver resilient and customer-focused technology services.
Lisa now leads the delivery of core technology services across the University of Leeds. Her remit includes infrastructure, networking, storage, servers, cloud services and data centres ensuring technology enables teaching, research, and the wider student and staff experience.
Lisa will present the keynote 'The AI-native campus network and the journey to self-driving: why UK universities need it now and how HPE and Juniper convergence changes the game' on day one of Networkshop.
Tom Cheesewright
Applied futurist
Tom helps organisations around the world to see the future more clearly, share their vision, and respond with innovation. He's worked with more than 30 of the Global 500 largest firms as well as many third sector, education, and government bodies, including NASA.
Tom is the author of two books for adults titled High Frequency Change, and Future-proof Your Business, and one for children, See Inside The Future. He is a frequent face and voice on TV and radio, appearing on shows such as BBC Breakfast and Sunday Brunch, and is currently the resident futurist on BBC Radio 4's Dough.
Tom will present the keynote 'Learning machines: humans, computers and the future of education' on day two of Networkshop.
Dr Katy Ellis
CMS / Tier 1 liaison, Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Katy has a PhD in experimental particle physics and has worked in industry and other scientific areas before returning to particle physics. Katy’s expertise is in data management and data movement for CMS and other LHC experiments. She is co-coordinator of the Data Organisation, Management and Access (DOMA) group for the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid, which organises computing for Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments and more.
Katy will present the keynote 'The WLCG and SRCNet: towards exabyte-scale data movement over Janet' on day two of Networkshop.
Dr James Walder
Systems architect, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
James specialises in large-scale data movement for scientific research. He focuses on understanding requirements and designing high‑throughput, resilient architectures that enable efficient data transfer across distributed research infrastructures. His work supports the reliable movement of petabyte‑scale datasets, accelerating data‑driven science and enabling collaboration across national and international research networks.
James will present the keynote 'The WLCG and SRCNet: towards exabyte-scale data movement over Janet' on day two of Networkshop.