Rachel Stockton

I'm a former British Army Officer, with experience spanning the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), McKinsey & Company, Meta (previously Facebook) Conjecture (an AGI start up) and now the Surgical Data Science Collective. My work experience spans leadership roles, people management, operations, and scaling organizations across industries and regions. My interest lies in the field of emerging technology and my desire is to serve and work in this area. As an undergraduate, I studied Law and the Bar Vocational Course at University and was called to the Bar as a Barrister (equivalent to U.S. JD and Bar) in 2006. However, as a sponsored Army Bursar, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst beckoned and I was commissioned in December 2007. As a Captain, I was deployed on HERRICK 14 to Afghanistan and whilst there received a 1* Commander’s Commendation for valuable service developing innovative solutions in the deployment of female engagement teams in counter-insurgency operations. In 2013, I left the Army for the FCDO, where I advised Ambassadors and Deputy Heads of Mission in the MENASA region, but primarily in hostile locations including Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen, partnering on leadership, organizational and culture initiatives. Additionally, I served as a Rapid Deployment Team Leader and led teams to support distressed British nationals during two deployments—the Annurpurna storm crisis and the earthquake--both in Nepal. With a desire to broaden my experience and gain private sector work experience, I left the FCDO and joined McKinsey & Company in their Dubai office, before emigrating to the U.S. in 2017. With a burgeoning passion for the technology industry, I then spent nearly four years working with senior leaders and executives in Silicon Valley at Meta (Facebook). In 2022, I joined Conjecture, an Artificial General Intelligence start up, focused on building interpretable, scalable and reliable AI. Currently I work at the Surgical Data Science Collective where we connect communities of surgeons and scientists through machine learning and data science tools to improve the practice of surgery. I'm a dual British/American citizen. I hold a MSc from Southampton University; a LLM from Georgetown University in Tech Law and Policy; contributed to the CAIDP's “Artificial Intelligence and Democratic Values Index 2021" and serve as Vice Chair of the Board of Governors at my former secondary school. Spare time is currently spent learning the piano (ABRSM - Grade 1: Dec 2023, Grade 2: Jun 2024, Grade 3: In progress!)