PROGRAMME & SPEAKERS

I am a military historian with research interests in PME and organisational culture. Other research interests cover contemporary conflict, defence resilience and wargaming. I lead the MA Wargaming and Resilience Planning at Brunel and have published on military history and contemporary security issues.

Wing Commander James ‘Ted’ Taylor-Head has spent 27 years in the Royal Air Force delivering across a wide variety of roles. Initially a Tornado GR4 pilot, he has instructed Tactics on the Hawk T1, delivered T&E for Typhoon, supported both the Red Arrows and BBMF as their Senior Operator and commanded 100 Sqn in the Aggressor role. Ted is currently Officer Commanding the Air Battlespace Training Centre at RAF Waddington, as the RAF’s synthetic environment hub for distributed synthetic collective training.

Colonel Orlin Nikolov has served as Director of the Crisis Management and Disaster Response Centre of Excellence (CMDR COE) since 10 January 2019. The CMDR COE acts as a catalyst for strengthening NATO, Allied, and partner crisis management and disaster response capabilities through collaborative partnerships.

As Director, Colonel Nikolov leads the Centre’s strategic development and delivery, overseeing priorities, activity planning, and implementation of the CMDR COE Programme of Work. He previously held senior appointments across the Bulgarian Ministry of Defence and General Staff, including Chief of the Capabilities Branch at CMDR COE, and various leadership roles in training, doctrine, and modelling and simulation.

Since co-founding the Space Skills Alliance in 2019, Heidi has become recognised as a leader in space skills, having successfully delivered a number of regional and national projects. Previously, she led the Cornwall Space and Aerospace Technology Training programme, where she led the team developing the first national HNC and HND curriculum. She has been a member of the UK’s Space Skills Advisory Panel and the skills working groups in the UK Telecoms Innovation Network and the Association for Geographic Information, and the steering group of the Cornwall Space and Data Cluster.

Alex Woodman’s career spans decades of public service – ensuring public interest and safety inform strategic leadership decisions during emergencies and critical incidents.
Beginning his career with the Metropolitan Police, Alex joined the City of Westminster Council nearly two decades ago where he worked tirelessly on community-focussed projects and frontline services; earning himself the reputation as a highly effective negotiator and co-ordinator and working at the heart of the strategic response to Covid 19 in London and the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Wim HUISKAMP is Chief Scientist Modelling & Simulation in the M&S department at TNO Defence Research in the Netherlands. He leads M&S research programs on behalf of Dutch MoD. Wim is the current Chairman of the NATO Modelling & Simulation Group (NMSG) and served before as Chairman of the NMSG M&S Standards Subgroup (MS3). Wim is liaison of the NMSG to the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization SISO.

Elçin Ada Sayın is Co-Founder of Radius Defence and Chair of NATO STO SAS-HFM-208 on Inclusion of Generation Z+ to Defence Organizations. A researcher within NATO STO SAS-172 on Multi-Domain Wargaming, she specialises in AI-enabled wargame design for complex operational environments.

She previously led the award-winning Hybrid Threat Rising wargame under the Women in Command Project, earning the International Serious Play Awards Gold Medal, the 2022 MS&T Award, and the Women in Defence UK – Woman in STEM Award. She has also designed and facilitated high-level tabletop exercises with international stakeholders, including work with the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.

Her current work through Radius Defence and the NATO ACT Innovation Continuum focuses on Large Language Model (LLM)-facilitated multi-domain wargaming and civil–military coordination in hybrid crises. She is also in the executive boards of both Women’s Wargaming Network and Fight Club International.

Hear what Dr. Josine van de Ven will be discussing at DSET: “Our vision is Simulation and Data-driven Command lead to future proof operations. We started this new roadmap last year. We want to share our work and knowledge and are looking for other teams that want to collaborate with us on this topic”

Patrick joined London Fire Brigade (LFB) in 1997 serving at several fire stations in Central and East London. Rising steadily through the ranks he served as Borough Commander in Islington and Tower Hamlets, before being promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Special Operations Group (SOG). He is currently the Assistant Commissioner for Operational Resilience and Control (OR&C) and the Deputy Chair of the London Resilience Forum.

Maj. Łukasz Wójciak is a Senior Lecturer and the Head of the Territorial Defence Department at the General Tadeusz Kościuszko Military University of Land Forces (AWL) in Wrocław, Poland. He is currently a PhD candidate at AWL’s Faculty of Security Studies, preparing a dissertation on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the command process. His research and instructional work focus on the application of Emerging and Disruptive Technologies (EDTs) on the future battlefield and in officer training, as well as on the tactics of light infantry units.

Brigadier Elizabeth Mortimore, a University of Leeds graduate, was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals in 2002 and has held various command and staff roles, including operational deployments to Iraq. She lead the 1st Signal Regiment during the pandemic, overseeing over 500 soldiers in various UK resilience operations. She advanced through roles focused on personnel policy, capability development, and program management, earning a Master’s Degree in Defence Studies with Distinction and completing leadership training at Oxford Saïd Business School. She promoted to Brigadier in 2024 and currently leads a £6 billion program delivering digital capabilities for the British Army. She also serves as a director on the Royal Signals Charity board.

Colonel Colin Thomas is a senior British Army officer with more than 25 years’ experience leading, training, and transforming Reserve and Regular forces. Commissioned in 1997, he has served in a wide range of command and staff roles across the RLC, the ARRC, and the Land Warfare Centre. His career includes commanding the Army’s largest Reserve logistic unit, directing officer training at the Land Warfare Centre, and deploying on operations in Afghanistan at both formation and unit level, where he contributed to information operations and combat logistic planning. As Assistant Head (Transition) at the Land Warfare Centre, he now leads the delivery of new training capabilities to ensure the Army’s Land Training System (LTS) remains modern, adaptive, and aligned to a complex operating environment. A former secondary school teacher and Head of Design Technology, he brings a unique blend of leadership, education, and operational insight to audiences.

Rich Byfield was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals in 1994. He has served across a range of deployable formations, HQ Army, and with Other Government Departments. Operationally he deployed on multiple occasions to Bosnia, Kosovo and Iraq. Brigadier Byfield started as Army Head Digital and Data in October 2024, responsible for Army AI and Data Governance, Data Protection, Business IT, C4I training and Digital Skills. He is the Army’s Chief Data Officer and SRO for two Programmes (Defence Learning & Management Capability, and Enhanced C2 Spearhead (Defence AI experimentation)). From April 25, he became Chair of the Royal Signals Institution, a forum for promoting professional dialogue and recognising technical achievement.

Chris is a Watch Commander with West Midlands Fire Service and currently serves as an Innovation Manager. The majority of his 25-year career has been spent on the frontline, leading crews at operational incidents and developing practical experience in real-world decision-making under pressure.

His work sits at the intersection of operations, innovation, and culture change — translating ideas from other sectors into practical tools that frontline firefighters can actually use.

Dr Joe Burton is Professor of International Security in the School of Global Affairs, Lancaster University. He joined the university in July 2023 as part of the Security and Protection Science initiative. Joe is the author of NATO’s Durability in a Post-Cold War World (SUNY Press, 2018), editor of Emerging Technologies and International Security: Machines the State and War (Routledge, 2020), and his work on Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security has been published in a range of leading scientific journals, including International Affairs, Journal of Global Security Studies, Technology in Society, Asian Security, Defence Studies, the Cyber Defence Review, the RUSI Journal and Political Science.