Helena Hill is a strategic experience design leader and AI consultant with over two decades of shaping digital products and customer journeys across aviation, financial services, and the public sector.

As a long-standing mentor with Northumbria University’s Student and Graduate Enterprise programme, Helena has spent the past seven years guiding entrepreneurs and start-ups, sharing her expertise to help them with the challenges of building and scaling businesses with a strong customer focus.

 

Through her consultancy, Helena Hill Consulting, she partners with organisations to tackle complex problems and create user-centred, insight-led experiences that deliver measurable impact. From leading research and service design programmes to developing training that equips SMEs to harness generative AI tools, Helena is known for balancing strategic thinking with practical delivery.

 

Helena’s work spans everything from manufacturing and subsea engineering to global fintech platforms and major airport operations. A frequent speaker on AI, UX, and digital transformation, she also runs Gate Forty Nine, an aviation-inspired brand and content platform that explores her passion for the aviation sector. When she’s not designing better journeys or mentoring founders, you’ll likely find her creating products for avgeeks or walking her four large dogs.

Oliver Evans is an ex-industrial designer turned digital and business innovation strategist with close to a decade of experience transforming organisational goals into impactful digital products and services.
 

Blending creative thinking with user-centred design, Oliver helps businesses uncover their biggest challenges and reframe them into clear, actionable strategies. His work sits at the intersection of UX design, service transformation, and design-led innovation. Whether that’s shaping a high-fidelity prototype for a startup pitch or guiding a public sector team through a design sprint.
 

Having worked with clients across government, consultancy, education, and enterprise, Oliver brings a grounded, collaborative approach that balances insight with execution. He believes great design isn’t just visual, it’s about aligning user needs with business goals to create measurable impact. When away from the digital screen, he enjoys getting his hands dirty repairing old engines and equipment, hiking through the Welsh mountains or bowling strikes down the alley.