Sharold Palmer
Speaker, Founder & Chief Vision Officer • Seven Palms Consultancy
United Kingdom •
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About
I am a board-level advisor and former digital transformation leader at the Financial Times, where I've led large-scale product, platform and commercial transformation across international markets. Today, as Founder of Seven Palms Consultancy, I work with organisations navigating one of the most critical challenges of our time: how to invest in AI and digital transformation in ways that deliver real value, not just activity. I am a speaker who challenges without alienating, who grounds complex ideas in real stakes and who leaves rooms thinking differently about technology, about people and about what responsible and inclusive leadership actually looks like right now.
Speaking Topics
Signature Programs (1)
AI is advancing faster than the structures designed to govern it. But regulation alone cannot tell leaders what they should build, where AI should be used, whose interests it should serve or when human judgement must take precedence. In this provocative and practical signature talk, Sharold Palmer challenges organisations to move beyond compliance checklists and place people, accountability and values at the heart of AI leadership. Drawing on more than 20 years of international digital transformation and product leadership, Sharold introduces her Capability Before Complexity approach: a framework for building the visibility, ownership, human oversight, workforce confidence, vendor accountability and evidence required to adopt AI responsibly. She also makes a clear case for women and diverse voices to be central to the leadership and development of AI technologies, not simply using the systems or living with their consequences, but shaping what is created, how it is governed and whose future it represents. Audiences leave with a more demanding set of questions, a practical route from AI ambition to accountable action, and a powerful central message: regulation establishes the minimum standard, but values determine whether AI earns trust, strengthens human capability and creates progress worth having.
Key Takeaways
- 1. Regulation is a starting point, not an AI strategy - Understand why compliance alone cannot create trust, responsible adoption or sustainable value and how leadership values must guide decisions where regulation cannot. 2. Build capability before adding complexity - Apply six practical governance priorities: visibility, consequence, accountable ownership, human oversight, vendor accountability and evidence. 3.Put people at the centre of AI development - Recognise why women and diverse voices must help design, develop, fund and govern AI technologies, not simply use them or experience their consequences. 4. Govern AI by what it can do, not what it is called - Assess systems according to the decisions they influence, the actions they can take and the potential consequences for employees, customers and communities. 5.Turn trust into operational infrastructure - Strengthen workforce confidence, inclusion and organisational judgement so that responsible AI becomes a source of resilience, adoption and long-term value.
Format
Duration
60 mins
Delivery
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