Invited Speakers

Juma Assiago

Juma Assiago is an urbanist and social scientist and a graduate in Sustainable Urban Development from the University of Oxford.

Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman

Amanda joined West Mercia Police in 1992 and throughout her career has held various posts.

Greg Fell OBE

Greg Fell is the Director of Public Health in Sheffield. He graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in biochemistry and physiology in 1993.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dr Alison Heydari

Alison joined Hampshire Constabulary in 2000 and is now a chief officer in the Metropolitan Police Service on secondment to National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

Paul Johnston

Paul was appointed as Chief Executive of Public Health Scotland in March 2023.

Professor Simon Lindgren

Simon Lindgren is a Professor of Sociology and director of DIGSUM, an interdisciplinary academic research centre for the study of social dimensions of digital technology.

Alison Lowe OBE

Alison Lowe is the Deputy Mayor for Police and Crime in West Yorkshire. She started her role in July 2021 and was appointed by the new Metro Mayor, Tracy Brabin.

Professor Ingrid Nyborg

Ingrid has worked in development research and education for the past 30 years, first in Africa, and then in South Asia.

Assistant Chief Constable Catriona Paton

Catriona has over 30 years policing experience having joined Central Scotland Police in 1989 as a Police Cadet.

Professor Kate Pickett

Kate Pickett OBE FRSA FFPH FAcSS is Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Science & Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change University of York.

Gary Ritchie

Gary Ritchie is a Managing Partner in the Global Consortium Group (GCG). Prior to this he was an Assistant Chief Constable with Police Scotland for 33 years, retiring in 2025.

Chief Constable Sir John Robins QPM DL

Sir John is one of the longest serving and most experienced Chief Constables in the UK.

Dr Amy Stevens

Dr Amy Stevens is a Public Health Consultant in Yorkshire with a degree in International Health and a Master’s in Public Health.

Associate Professor David Thacher

David Thacher is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan.

Professor Jennifer Wood

Jennifer Wood is a Professor of Criminal Justice and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA.

Gary Ritchie

Gary Ritchie is a Managing Partner in the Global Consortium Group (GCG). Prior to this he was an Assistant Chief Constable with Police Scotland for 33 years, retiring in 2025. During his time as a member of the Police Scotland Executive team he oversaw portfolios and directorates for Organisational Change; Partnerships, Prevention and Community Wellbeing, International Policing Development and Operational Support.

He was appointed Assistant Chief Constable in 2019 and during his tenure he oversaw directorate of Partnerships, Prevention and Community Wellbeing where he developed new public health led approaches in partnership with other public services to reduce and prevent harm and achieve better outcomes for communities and vulnerable people. As head of Drug Strategy, he compiled the first specific drug strategy for Police Scotland, shifting the emphasis from enforcement to harm reduction. As part of this new approach, he led the roll out of Naloxone (Narcan) to police officers which has resulted in Scotland becoming the first nation in the world to equip all its frontline police officers with nasal Naloxone. Since then, police officers have regularly used Naloxone in cases where people have taken overdose, helping to save hundreds of lives.

He also led on the establishment of Police Scotland’s International Academy, founded on the principles of police senior leadership development through international study, engagement and networking. He established several internal policing leadership development programmes with police agencies in the USA, Australia, South East Asia, South America and Africa based around principles of values based/adaptive leadership, strategic incident command, leadership modelling for conflict de-escalation, policing culture and international collaboration.

Gary also sat on the board of the Scottish Institute of Police Research, a nexus of eight Scottish universities in partnership with policing and supporting postgraduate research reflecting the most prominent policing and societal issues in order to assist policing in the development of evidence-based policy and practice. He has recently taken on the Chair of SIPR’s International Board.

He was awarded the King’s Police Medal in 2025 and, in recognition of his collaboration with academia over the past few years, he was made an Honorary Professor of Edinburgh Napier University.

Following his retirement from policing he emigrated to Australia and lives in Sydney.

Chief Constable Sir John Robins QPM DL

Sir John is one of the longest serving and most experienced Chief Constables in the UK. Under his tenure as Chief Constable:

crime across West Yorkshire has reduced,
offenders being brought to justice have increased, and
high standards of service to victims and witnesses have continued.

The positive performance of the force has been acknowledged during inspections by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMICFRS) over the last seven years. As well as being Chief Constable of one of the largest forces in the country, Sir John is also responsible for a variety of regional and national collaborations and he also holds several national policing appointments.

Sir John is in his 36th year of policing. Uniquely, he has completed all his service in just one force; moving from Constable to Chief Constable within West Yorkshire Police.

In 1990 Sir John was appointed as a Constable. He worked in a variety of roles across West Yorkshire. For many years he was a nationally trained Hostage Negotiator, dealing with numerous suicide interventions, kidnaps and criminal sieges.
In 2003 Sir John was posted to Bradford as the Superintendent in charge of Operational Policing. He dealt with many high-profile events, lead numerous policing operations as a firearms and public order commander and assisted the community to recovery after many periods of heightened tension.
In 2006 Sir John was promoted to Chief Superintendent at the Force Headquarters, overseeing Criminal Justice.
In 2008 he became the District Commander of Kirklees, once again dealing with sensitive policing operations that attracted both local and national media coverage.
In 2012 Sir John became an Assistant Chief Constable, taking the lead for Workforce, Development and Standards. He subsequently took charge of Local Policing across the Western side of West Yorkshire.
In 2014 Sir John became the Temporary Deputy Chief Constable, leading on Professional Standards, Ethics and Equality. In 2017 he was appointed as Deputy Chief Constable.
In 2018 Sir John became the Temporary Chief Constable for West Yorkshire Police and in July 2019 he was appointed as Chief Constable.

Nationally, Sir John leads the largest police collaboration in the country; the National Police Air Service (NPAS). This provides aviation support to policing across all of England and Wales through 19 helicopters, four aeroplanes and is piloting the use of beyond visual line of sight drones.

He is also the lead Chief Constable for the national Child Abuse Image Database (CAID), the Police National Legal Database (PNLD) and the Video Identification Parade Electronic Recording systems (VIPER). He is the Vice-Chair and the longest serving Chief Constable on the Counter Terrorism Co-Ordination Committee (CTCC) and sits on several National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) boards to represent policing.

Sir John has recently overseen the national roll out of Police Education (PolEd). PolEd is an innovative education programme in schools, written by teachers for teachers in schools to deliver. Its purpose is to keep children safe by developing their understanding of risk, consequences and the law and to develop their resilience and ability to help each other.

Since 2021 Sir John has been the national Chair of the Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association (CPOSA) which provides advice, guidance and professional support to chief officers across the country and seeks to positively influence policing in the UK.

Regionally, Sir John leads one of the largest counter terrorism units outside of London; Counter Terrorism Policing North East (CTPNE) protects communities across the Yorkshire, Humber and North East of England. Sir John also has responsibility for Regional Scientific Support Services (RSSS) across Yorkshire and Humber and the Regional and Organised Crime Unit (YHROCU).

Sir John has been an ambassador for many national police charities, highlighting his support for frontline police officers, staff and their families across the UK. Sir John is a trustee of several charities: the Police Treatment Centres (PTC), the Police Children’s Charity (TPCC) and the Police Remembrance Trust (PRT). He is a Vice-President of the Police Mutual Oversight Committee. In 2025 Sir John was appointed as the Acting Chair of Trustees for the Care of Police Survivors (COPS) charity.

Sir John holds an Honorary Fellowship at Leeds Trinity University and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates at both the University of Huddersfield and at the University of Bradford. In 2019 Sir John was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal (QPM) for ‘distinguished service’. In 2022 he was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of West Yorkshire. Sir John became a Knight Bachelor in the King’s New Years 2026 Honours list for ‘services to policing’.