GX Talks - Leadership Dialogues with Mohamed Bin Taliah, Shai-Lee Spigelman, Theo Blackwell and Tanya Filer

"Regenerating public services for an evolving world: Leadership lessons and experiences from changemakers"

The next wave of digital citizen services: What will they look like and offer citizens? How can they help us confront some of the greatest global challenges ahead, from the climate crisis to cybersecurity? Will they be truly "new", or work with what we've got? And what role do startups and innovation ecosystems have to play?

To reflect upon this and more, GX Talks brought together four illustrious global thought leaders and practitioners to talk about what they have done, lessons they have learnt, and how they see public service delivery evolving in the next decade. This special session was the third edition of the Leadership Dialogues series and was conducted in collaboration with StateUp, UK. 

Dr. Tanya Filer moderated the conversation between HE Mohamed Bin Taliah, Chief of Government Services, Government of UAE; Shai-Lee Spigelman, Director General, Ministry of Science and Technology, Israel & Theo Blackwell MBE, Chief Digital Officer, London.

In this section, you can watch the entire session, see the highlights and read the session summary report. 

GX Talks is a dialogue series created and hosted by the Prime Minister’s Office of the UAE. GX Talks unites government decision-makers, global practitioners and renowned innovators to re-examine and re-define government experience for the future. Watch more talks at GxTalks.com.

Selected Quotes:

• “Sometimes when I hear some super excited national politicians talk about the potential of AI to transform public services, I'm like: fix the plumbing first.” - Theo Blackwell
• “In the pandemic, we were able to roll out services certain services and do some shifts and changes to adapt to the situation in times that were maybe 10 times faster than we would do it in normal times.” - Mohamed Bin Taliah
• “In any digital national strategy, the notion of digital inclusion must be kept part of the strategy.” - Shai-Lee Spigelman
• “Technology has both kept many public servants going, like the rest of us as well, but even more so it has become mission-critical to serving citizens.” - Dr. Tanya Filer

How to Watch?

Watch the full session here.

Watch the session highlights here.

 

Learn more about the future of government service delivery on GX.ae

 

Speaker Profiles

His Excellency Mohamed Bin Taliah is the Chief of Government Services of the United Arab Emirates Government, and the Assistant Director General for Government Services Sector at the Prime Minister’s Office in the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, where he oversees the Emirates Government Service Excellence Program aiming to raise the efficiency of government services by focusing on customers and enhancing government efficiency. He also oversees Khadamati system and the Best M-Government Award, an international annual award aiming to motivate government agencies and students to create innovative solutions in the field of smart phone applications, mobile phones and wearable smart devices.

Bin Taliah served in several managerial positions in both public and private sectors for more than 16 years in the field of IT, Cyber Security and governance. He worked as the Chief Support Services Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at Abu Dhabi Media Company, and was a Member of the Board of Directors at United Printing and Publishing. He also worked with Emirates Global Aluminium Company at the Program Management Office and Governance, where he led the development of the governance framework and risk management in IT sector. He developed a Cyber Security program and implemented the security surveillance of the industrial control system and critical infrastructure. In addition, he managed the Information Security Department at Thuraya Telecommunications Company, where he was in charge of the development and implementation of cyber security controls and information protection on the international communication and satellite networks. From 2014 to 2019, Bin Taliah served as the Assistant Director General for Corporate Services Sector at the Prime Minister’s Office in the Ministry of Cabinet Affairs, where he oversaw developing strategic projects and initiatives in the Sector as well as cultivating a corporate culture aiming to achieve efficiency and excellence in the Prime Minister’s Office.

Bin Taliah holds an executive management degree in leadership and management from MIT Sloan School of Management, a M.Sc. degree in Project Management from the British University in Dubai, and a B.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi.

Shai-Lee Spigelman currently serves as Director General of the Ministry of Science and Technology. As part of her role, she leads the formulation of the Government's national long-term strategy in science, technology and innovation and its implementation. In her previous role as Head of the Israeli National Digital initiative, Shai-Lee led the formulation of the Government's National Digital Plan, and its implementation in collaboration with various government Ministries.

Shai-Lee has extensive experience in the High-Tech world, and has served in her last position before entering the Government as VP of Marketing at Microsoft's R&D Center in Israel and was jointly responsible for building relations with the start-up industry in Israel. Shai-Lee has a Bachelor's degree in Law from Tel Aviv University, and a Master's degree in Public Policy from Harvard University in the United States.

Appointed in 2017 as London's first Chief Digital Officer, Theo Blackwell leads on London-wide digital transformation, data and smart city initiatives at City Hall; and provides strategic leadership on the digital transformation agenda for London’s public services. As London’s first Chief Digital Officer, Theo plays a leading role in realizing the Mayor’s ambition to make London the world’s smartest city, ensuring that the capital’s status as a global tech hub helps transform the way public services are designed and delivered, making them more accessible, efficient and responsive to the needs of Londoners.

As Cabinet member for Finance, Technology & Growth at Camden council, Theo established Camden as London’s leading digital borough through its use of public data. He’s worked at GovTech accelerator Public Group, advising start-ups on the growing market in local public services, and was previously Head of Policy & Public Affairs for the video games industry’s trade body, Ukie. He is an alumnus of University of Oxford and University of Cambridge.

Tanya Filer PhD, is Founder and CEO of StateUp, the international, multi-disciplinary insights and advisory firm for public-purpose technology. She has worked widely with public sector organisations, international organisations, startups and research institutes across Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East on shaping their digital governance, GovTech, and technology policy agendas. Tanya also leads the Digital State programme at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, a research unit of the University of Cambridge. Tanya's work focuses on government innovation and digital government more broadly, and she is widely published in academic and media publications, including Wired, NS Tech and Brookings Tech Stream, where she is Contributing Author. Tanya teaches across several postgraduate programmes at Cambridge, including the MPhil in Public Policy, and has taught at Yale and Oxford. She is also Academic Director of the Internet and Digital Economy Parliamentary Scheme, a year-long programme for MPs in the UK. 

Tanya sits on the Steering Committee of the Cambridge Trust and Technology Initiative and Advisory Board of the Information Law and Policy Centre, School of Advanced Studies, University of London, and served on the Council on the Future of Information and Entertainment at the World Economic Forum. Tanya was a UK-Israel British Council fellow in Cyber research in 2018, and has held fellowships at Harvard, Yale, and the Library of Congress. She is a graduate of Oxford, Cambridge, and UCL.