Jon Downing is a technology leader at the intersection of heavy industry, sustainability, and organizational transformation. He holds a PhD from Imperial College London and is a former National Academies Fellow (NIST, Washington D.C.). His academic focus was solar panel development and advanced sensing. Since leaving academia, he has led data science teams in Jaguar Land Rover, in UK Government and prior to his current role he led the data scientist team at Anglo American.

Currently Jon leads on Risk and Governance with the Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence at Anglo American. His work ensures that the adoption of AI technologies is responsible, operating in line with Anglo American's values and serving the company purpose — to re-image mining to improve people's lives. Jon is an advocate for AI as an accelerating force toward sustainability and believe strongly that the future of heavy industry requires new human-centric systems of work. He is excited about guiding cultural change, turning complex challenges into opportunities, and about the role and impact of new tools/technologies in mining (digital twins, learning systems, drones, and robotics).