The Quality Engineering Charter founding signatories

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As a technology leader, Adam’s passion lies in enabling the delivery of valuable technology solutions while supporting and maturing the quality industry standards. With a pragmatic approach, he strives to innovate effectively, embedding education and automation throughout the delivery lifecycle. 

An experienced professional with a wealth of Testing and Analysis skills developed in a regulated financial environment, Angela is currently a Delivery Lead at Roq.  With ISTQB qualifications and PRINCE 2 accreditations, Angela specialises in Test Management practices (including Agile and Waterfall methodology) and has experience throughout the change delivery life cycle having previously worked in test management roles for big names such as The Co-operative Bank and Swinton. She is driven to achieve quality outputs in every scenario. 

An advocate of driving quality outcomes in every environment, Cat oversees the hosting and coordination of the Quality Engineering Forum and manages the digital platforms and administration for the Quality Engineering Charter. Currently Chief Marketing Officer at Roq, she brings 25 years of marketing experience from a versatile background spanning Quality Engineering, datacentre services, IT field engineering, ITSM, Break/Fix, and Networks. 

Darren is an accomplished Board level transformational Executive leader who has led, and delivered, large-scale organisational re-design and restructuring, end-to-end strategic technology and business transformation, enterprise change and innovation functions, global tech platform builds and major service improvement programmes. He is hugely experienced in building commercial platforms, transforming IT and operations and designing and leading £200m+ business and technology transformational change programmes. Darren is also the Founder of The S&A Transform Group, a leading European business and technology transformation company, The S&A Academy, an Ofsted regulated provider of funded apprenticeships and commercial training in Technology, Science & Business and an active investor in multiple fintech, web3 and AI based companies through his VC fund.

Erica is a senior testing professional with a real passion for quality.  Currently in a Quality Engineering Leadership role, she has over 25 years of experience in Quality Engineering. Industry experience includes Wealth and Health Administration, Energy, Telecoms, Retail, Banking, and Central Government. Erica also has a wealth of experience in leading Agile QE transformation, and holds qualifications in Agile Leadership (ICAgile ICP-LEA) and is a Certified SAFe Agile Practitioner. 

Head of Quality, Test and Release at Alliance Healthcare, Ian is a meticulous QA and Test professional with exceptional DevOps, Agile and Waterfall skills backed by ISTQB, PRINCE2 and ITIL certifications. With a quality-focused career spanning around 25 years, he has a proven track record of delivering rigorous IT solutions, enterprise transformations and strategies, coupled with a wealth of experience gained in roles such as Director of QA, and Head of Digital QA, Test and Release amongst others, at big brand organisations such as Kantar, Specsavers, Dyson, Fujitsu, and the Home Office.

James has 20+ years’ industry experience across Finance, Insurance and Legal sectors, and he is now applying his career learnings, knowledge, and development into his role of Chief Delivery Officer at Roq where he is accountable for the Quality Engineering services delivered to Roqs clients/customers. James loves the challenge of working in an industry that continuously evolves and believes the adoption of a quality-first mindset from inception of a business need/requirement enables sustainable solutions to be defined, built, validated, and deployed more efficiently and effectively, delivering business benefits quicker. The publication of the Quality Engineering Charter is a significant step forwards for our industry and provides the foundations from which Quality Engineering can be built into every business operating model. 

Experienced testing professional Joanna is Head of Software Testing at a global online gambling company. She has a strong, demonstrated history of working in Gambling, Insurance, Healthcare and Public Sector industries having worked in a wide gamut of roles at organisations to include LSG, iSOFT and DWP. An Agile Scrum Master skilled in Test Management, Project Portfolio Management, Test Planning and all phases of the Software Development lifecycle she is passionate about delivering quality solutions to lean timescales, and is a keen advocate for digital skills careers having launched the bet365 Software Testing Academy, the first Academy in its Technology business. 

John is a Senior Quality Engineering Manager with a wealth of quality assurance experience gained from over 24 years within the QA and Testing arena. His expertise has been aggregated largely from roles, projects and programmes in the Financial Services sector, working with companies such as AXA, Experian and the Royal Bank of Scotland.  John has a well-rounded and extensive professional qualification portfolio including ITIL, Prince 2, ISTQB and SCRUM Master. He enjoys the challenges presented throughout and within Quality Engineering and thrives on delivering benefits and lasting improvements to projects and clients alike.

Kara is a Senior Quality Engineering Manager and Team Leader with over 25 years' of experience in QE and test management having previously worked at clients such as Tesco, British Airways, LOVEFiLM, RBS, Sky and National Lottery, to name a few. She’s a highly professional and efficient individual, with a passion for delivering results in technology through meticulous attention to detail. Kara has a passion for driving through technology solutions to the highest quality whilst ensuring stakeholder management and continual service improvement is maintained. 

Senior Quality and Automation professional Mark is currently responsible for Quality Engineering at Zenith Vehicles.   ISEB/ISTQB Practitioner Certified in Software Testing Management, he is a seasoned speaker, talking all things Agile transformation, test automation, and Test/DevOps collaboration.  Mark is passionate about building the digital skills workforce of the future, better workplace readiness in computing skills in education, and a strong advocate for Software Testing Academies and Apprenticeships.

A quality engineer leader whose career spans over three decades across Insurance, Payments, Telecommunications and Finance industries. Alongside her role as a Head of Quality Engineering Michelle is extremely privileged to be a judge at the European Software Testing Awards, collaborating with the other judges giving back to the Quality Engineering community is a fantastic opportunity, recognising the innovation, continuous improvement achieved by so many and helping our industry to grow and development is amazing. Michelle believes we cannot stand still as individuals or as a Quality Engineering industry publishing our Quality Engineering Charter is a real step change for our community.  

Naseem Kamdar-Yarwood currently works at the BBC, as a Senior Program Test Manager. She has several years of industry experience from Government, Gas and Oil to Banking, obtained whilst working at DXC and Hewlett Packard. In summary, Naseem is a Strategic thinker, Quality-first hero, Security champion, Lead singer, Holistic tester, Team 'glue', OAT optimiser, Business analyst collaborator, UX orientated, yoga lover and WiSTEM mentor.

Paul is a Delivery Lead with a wealth of quality engineering experience gained from over 27 years within the QA and Testing arena.  His expertise has been gained largely from roles, projects and programmes in the Military, Blue-light, Utilities and Finance Services sector, working with companies such as Northrop Grumman, Hexagon and Intellect Design Arena.  Additionally, Paul has provided consultancy services to companies such as St James Place, EADS and Bank of England to name a few.  Paul has attained a well-rounded and extensive professional qualification portfolio that included ITIL Foundation, Prince 2, ISTQB Advanced Test Manager and SCRUM Master.  He enjoys assisting organisations towards improved product delivery and excellent quality solutions delivered to the end user.

Head of Quality Engineering at C.Hoare & Co., Philip has an extensive career in Quality Assurance and testing having gained experience in a full breadth of roles both in consultancy and corporate side at organisations that include Centrica, Environment Agency and AppLabs.  He is a true advocate for Quality Engineering and a strong promoter for everybody having a responsibility for quality, the need for early test involvement and collaboration across technology and business functions.

Sarah is the Chief Operating Officer for Quality Engineering consultancy Roq.  As a Traction integrator who is also ISTQB® Certified, she is at the forefront of a company-wide commitment to quality technology outcomes.  With a strong background in HR and People leadership, the cultural and employee engagement aspects of quality engineering resonate deeply for her.  When viewed through her strategic COO lens, Sarah’s belief in the transformative impact that QE can have on operational excellence, makes her a true advocate of all things ‘Quality’. 

A highly experienced technology professional, Simon is currently Head of Tech for QA & Process Automation at The Very Group.  With a great track record of delivering major technology initiatives and transformations in both established and emerging technologies working in all major methodologies, his career spans 20+ years in Programme Test Management and Architecture at companies The Very Group (Shop Direct), CapGemini, and EDS.

Simon leads the Quality Engineering teams at easyJet, with a career that has encompassed a variety of IT roles and industries. He's passionate about refining the QE and testing processes to optimise the quality of the products and processes, coupled with a dedication towards developing and mentoring his team. Simon is a recognised speaker, podcaster, conference organiser and advocate in the Software Testing field, and also promoting the importance of advocating for Neurodiversity in companies. His efforts led to his recognition as Testing Manager of the Year at the European Software Testing Awards 2021.

With over 25 years of experience in the Quality Engineering industry, Stephen, CEO and Founder of Roq has a clear vision for the future of his quality engineering consultancy as well as what organisations should be aspiring to in terms of high-quality technology delivery.  Stephen recognises the value of collective thinking and pioneered the idea of the Quality Engineering Forum, which with a huge team effort has launched the Quality Engineering Charter.  The vision of this is to enable organisations to go on a journey of continuous improvement, resulting in business success.

Steve is a skilled technical professional with over 25 years of industry experience, adept at developing novel solutions to complex problems in software delivery from overall strategy all the way to low-level component testing. He is a vocal advocate for building quality into every phase of the delivery lifecycle and has presented case studies on quality engineering in software development and delivery at industry events and tech communities. For Steve, the Quality Engineering Charter represents guidance from the collected experiences and wisdom of a group of like-minded professionals who want to make businesses prosper through the successful delivery of technical projects. 

Su Clarke is the Head of Software Development & Testing at Linklaters a role she has held since 2016. With a career spanning over 28 years in the technology sector, Su brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to her field. Her expertise encompasses a range of pivotal positions including Software Development, Test Management, Release Management, and Customer Support Management. Notably, Su is a certified Scrum Master, Agile Tester, and Advanced Test Manager. A testament to her skills, she has thrived in the industry without the traditional university background, underpinning her strong belief in practical experience and continual learning. As a respected people manager, Su leads her teams to innovate and excel in delivering cutting-edge solutions.