Gavin Poole - CEO, Here East

Gavin is the CEO of Here East London, the key economic legacy driver on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Gavin has considerable experience working within government and the political environment. First as a senior Royal Air Force officer working as a government advisor and then at the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the independent think tank set up by Right Honourable Iain Duncan-Smith MP. Gavin spent 20 months as Executive Director supervising a period of intense business change including changes to a number of leadership positions and the launch of three new major policy initiatives.

Claire Cockerton - CEO, Plexal

Claire Cockerton is a serial entrepreneur having founded and successfully exited businesses in the fields of financial services, technology innovation & sustainable architecture. She is a specialist in tech clusters, innovation services and startup eco-systems.

Claire is CEO of PLEXAL, Europe's largest Innovation Centre based at Here East on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The centre will house innovative companies, big and small, and provide a wide range of services to support new product development, business growth, and collaboration.

Claire was founding CEO of Innovate Finance, a City of London and Canary Wharf Group backed movement for a more balanced, resilient, and accessible financial services sector. Launched by Entiq, 54 fintech founders and the Chancellor, IF's vision was to radically transform every aspect of banking to deliver more choice to consumers and benefit to society.

Co-Creator of Level39, Europe’s largest Technology Accelerator dedicated to fintech, retail and smart cities technologies, Claire headed up the innovation programmes there, such as Cognicity - a world-leading smart city technology pilot programme in Canary Wharf.

An Imperial College MBA alumna, Claire specialised in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Design, and helped establish the business model for Virgin’s ‘Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship’. She advised the Guardian Media Group on their 'Digital First' transformation strategy. Claire founded, grew and sold (2009) ‘Aesthetic Earthworks’, a multi-million dollar sustainable architecture firm based in Toronto, Canada before moving to the UK.

Claire is an active member for Women in Tech, Tech London Advocates and is a member of the Mayor's London Tech Ambassador Group.