Team

Michelle Brook

Until January 2020, Michelle was Vice-President and UK Managing Director of The Democratic Society, before leaving to work as a consultant supporting NGOs and charities to work better with communities and citizens.

She is currently developing and implementing the community strategy for the ground-breaking Icebreaker One project, bringing together financial institutions, academics, and NGOs to explore how open and shared data can deliver innovative financing for a carbon-zero future.

With prior roles at Cambridge University and Open Knowledge Foundation, Michelle is passionate about increasing access to knowledge and social justice, and empowering individuals and communities to have their voices heard.

Andrew Clarke

A principal at global philanthropic organisation Luminate, Andrew focuses on investments in financial transparency and leads its work in Manchester.

Previously, he was advocacy manager at Publish What You Fund (PWYF), where he campaigned for aid transparency by engaging with the US government, the European Union and the World Bank. He also represented PWYF on the International Aid Transparency Initiative.

Before this, Andrew was public affairs manager for political consultancy Ranelagh International. He also worked at the Overseas Development Institute.

Nathan Day

As a co-founder of data startup Rockshore Ltd [LINKin 2004, Nathan was heavily involved in the early open data movement in Manchester, where he worked with national government and the transport sector to liberate real-time information.

Nathan is a member of the Manchester Tech Trust and is active in a number of mentoring programmes, nurturing local talent and developing local businesses.

Jane Eckford

Jane is known for her pioneering approach to improving customer service and community engagement in the public sector, which focuses on getting actionable insights by combining empathy and open data.

She has long-advocated for better practice here, and has contributed to standard-setting efforts within the industry, regionally and nationally, as well as in central government.

After 30 years working in local government and joint-venture companies, she’s now supporting Age Concern in Sefton, Liverpool as a non-executive director and is part of the organising team behind the People’s Powerhouse. She’s also an executive coach.

Linda Humphries

Linda is founder and chief executive of Paper Frogs Ltd, which provides digital and open-standards advisory services. She was former digital chief-of-staff at Co-op Group and head of The Federation in Manchester, a space where digital and social innovators work, and collaborate.

Previously, she was a senior technology adviser at the Government Digital Service, where she devised the UK government’s Open Standards principles and worked to ensure interoperability across Europe.

Linda is chair of 360Giving’s stewardship committee, which maintains an open-data standard for charities’ decision-making.

Doctor Caroline Jay

Caroline Jay is a reader in computer science at the University of Manchester. She is both a qualified psychologist (BA, CPsychol) and a computer scientist (MSc, PhD), and undertakes research crossing these domains. Caroline is the research director of the UKRI Software Sustainability Institute, and is an advocate for open and reproducible research.

She is also a fellow of the city’s Alan Turing Institute, and leads her university’s arm of the BBC Data Science Research Partnership.

Alison MacKenzie-Folan

Alison is Wigan Council’s chief executive. She is passionate about public services and is determined to make a difference for her residents. That’s why she’s committed to collaboration, innovation and technology, and inspiring new female leaders.

Alison is a board member of Unify Credit Union and a digital spokesperson for local government network SOLACE. She was named in Northern Power Women’s 2017 Power List and, in 2019, Wigan Council won the Large Organisation award for its diversity work, as well as being named Local Government Chronical’s Council of the Year.

Professor Farida Vis

Director of the Visual Social Media Lab, where she leads interdisciplinary research on social media images at the intersection of academia and industry. She has researched social media since 2005.

She is Professor of Digital Media at the Manchester School of Art. Prior to this she was a Faculty Research Fellow for five years in the Information School at the University of Sheffield.

She has a PhD in Media and Communication from the Manchester School of Art and is a regular public speaker. She grows her own food and for the last ten years has on and off been training to become a horse whisperer.

Jamie Whyte

Jamie has been a director since Open Data Manchester became a community interest company. Before this, he helped run the community’s activities.

Jamie has worked with open data for eight years, first in local authorities, now through Propolis, his own company. He has advised on and delivered projects with government, charities and companies.

As a civic technologist, Jamie is passionate about making sure people understand that data is used to make decisions about them – but they can use it to support their own goals.

Jamie has three children, cooks and walks, and is a trustee of a local multi-academy trust.

What we do

Learn more about what we do at Open Data Manchester.

Impact

Find out more about the impact of our work.

Who we are

Find out who we are at Open Data Manchester.