Chris Holmes
Boards are being asked to make large, irreversible bets on AI while the rules governing it are still being written. The people drafting those rules, and the people deploying the technology, rarely sit in the same room. Without a translator between Westminster, Silicon Roundabout and the executive committee, firms either over-invest in the wrong guardrails or under-invest and wait for enforcement to find them.
Lord Chris Holmes is a House of Lords legislator and former Paralympic swimmer who helps organisations read where AI regulation, fintech and inclusive technology policy are heading, and what that means for the decisions they need to make now.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Lord Chris Holmes
- He is the peer behind the Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill, giving boards a direct read on the likely shape of UK AI legislation rather than a second-hand interpretation of it.
- He co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Fintech, AI, Blockchain, Assistive Technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, so he sees the full policy stack in one view.
- His authored Cabinet Office review and his 2017 DLT for Public Good report give him a track record of turning parliamentary inquiry into usable policy recommendations, not just speeches.
- He ran Paralympic Integration for London 2012, a programme delivered on a fixed date with global scrutiny, which grounds his technology arguments in large-scale operational delivery.
- Inclusion sits inside his technology argument, not beside it, so a single session covers AI governance and the workforce implications without stitching two speakers together.
Biography highlights
- Life peer in the House of Lords since 2013, sitting as Baron Holmes of Richmond.
- Sponsor of the Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill [HL], which had its second reading in March 2024 with cross-party support from over 20 peers.
- Member of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee; previously served on the AI, Democracy and Digital Technologies, Financial Exclusion, Social Mobility and Digital Skills committees.
- Co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Fintech, AI, Blockchain, Assistive Technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
- Director of Paralympic Integration for London 2012; Britain’s most successful Paralympic swimmer with nine golds, five silvers and one bronze across four Games.
- MBE (1993); honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Bath (2012); inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame.
Biography
The UK has been trying to decide what kind of AI regulator it wants to be. Lord Chris Holmes has been writing a specific answer to that question inside the House of Lords, most visibly through his Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill, which received its second reading in March 2024 with support from more than twenty peers across party lines.
He sits on the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee and has previously served on the committees for Artificial Intelligence, Democracy and Digital Technologies, Financial Exclusion, Social Mobility and Digital Skills. That run of committee work, alongside co-chairing parliamentary groups on Fintech, Blockchain, Assistive Technology and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, gives him an unusually wide view of how technology policy is being written across Westminster.
Before the Lords, he was Director of Paralympic Integration for London 2012, responsible for making the Paralympics work at the scale of the Olympic Games. The programme hit a fixed date with worldwide visibility, and it informs how he talks about delivering complex technology and inclusion agendas under pressure.
His authored work includes the Cabinet Office review on opening public appointments to disabled people and the 2017 report on distributed ledger technologies for public good. For a board trying to understand what AI governance, digital assets and inclusive design will mean in practice, he offers a view formed by drafting the law itself.
Key speaking topics
- AI regulation and governance
- Fintech and the future of financial services
- The Fourth Industrial Revolution
- Distributed ledger technology and digital assets
- Inclusive technology and accessibility by design
- Diversity and inclusion in the workforce
- Leadership lessons from elite sport
- Delivering large-scale public programmes
Ideal for
- Board and executive committee sessions on AI strategy, governance and regulatory exposure.
- CTOs, CIOs and heads of policy in banking, insurance and payments navigating fintech and digital asset rules.
- CHROs and inclusion leads connecting workforce strategy to accessible technology design.
- Public sector and regulated-industry leadership teams preparing for UK AI legislation.
Audience outcomes
- A clearer view of how UK AI regulation is likely to evolve and what that means for current technology investment decisions.
- A specific sense of where fintech, digital assets and assistive technology policy are converging.
- Practical reference points for building inclusion into product and workforce decisions, rather than treating it as a separate workstream.
- A memorable throughline from elite performance to policy design that leadership teams can use internally.
Talks
A view from inside parliament on what AI, blockchain and assistive technologies will require of serious organisations.
Key takeaways:
- Where UK AI regulation is heading and why the current voluntary approach will not hold.
- How to think about fintech, digital assets and AI as a single policy stack rather than separate files.
- What boards should be asking their technology leaders over the next twelve months.
An argument for treating inclusion as a source of technology and business performance, drawn from thirty years of policy, sport and board work.
Key takeaways:
- Why accessible design produces better products for all users, with examples.
- How to structure teams and procurement to surface under-used talent.
- What organisations get wrong when they treat inclusion as compliance.
A personal account of building and leading high-performing teams in elite sport and on the London 2012 programme.
Key takeaways:
- How shared vision holds teams together under pressure.
- What elite sport knows about recovery and sustained performance that corporate teams often miss.
- The role of leadership in turning a plan into delivery on a fixed date.