Conflicts of Interest Declaration and Appointment Process of Suzanne Ashman

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‍Appointments

Suzanne Ashman has been appointed as Managing Parter at Sovereign AI.

Suzanne was appointed following a 3-month, competitive five stage recruitment process involving over 60 candidates and was judged the strongest candidate on merit against the skills and experience required. The process included interviews with members of the Sovereign AI team, other civil servants within DSIT and external industry experts, on top of numerous reference calls with former colleagues.

Suzanne is a Civil Service appointment and therefore, Ministers were not involved in the recruitment process, nor did they have any decision-making authority in the outcome of this process.

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Interests

As is standard practise, Suzanne is recused from decisions which may cross with any real or perceived conflicts in relation to her personal or financial interests. As common practise the mitigations were discussed in detail and agreed with the Permanent Secretary.