I started adult life as a scientist, studying biology and chemistry, and then going on to do a masters in biotech entrepreneurship.
As part of my masters I was involved in a start-up looking to solve the emotional deficit sometimes seen in autistic children. We were using voice to text technology to help autistic children learn about different emotions and how they are expressed. This was where I developed my love of using technology to solve tangible real world problems.
Following my masters, I joined BAE Systems Graduate Programme. I selected BAE Systems because of its national security and defence mission – which hugely appeals to me as a highly tangible problem to be working on. I have loved working with government and law enforcement organisations over the last three years. Learning about how to solve complex problems to catch more criminals and defend more victims.
At the end of the Graduate Programme, I joined BAE Systems Futures, an innovation team charged with coming up with new product ideas to develop from the ground up. I currently am leading the development of one of our new anti-financial crime product ideas called the FinCrime Testing Service. Currently criminals are exploiting vulnerable people to generate cash for themselves. They hide that criminal money within the financial system, and are then free to use their criminal money to live lavish lifestyles, leaving victims and vulnerable people behind. If we can find that criminal money, we can catch more criminals and protect more victims. The FinCrime Testing Service understands how criminals hide their money in enough detail to simulate that behaviour. By simulating that behaviour we are helping financial institutions distinguish criminal money from legal money.
