The former national newspaper editor is building an AI career team to help people discover what they could do next. Ahead of her closing keynote in Sheffield, Sue Douglas discusses the purpose behind Veer – and joins a summit line-up spanning innovation, investment and the North’s technology ecosystems.
Sue Douglas has spent much of her working life trying to understand what makes people tick. First, that meant finding stories they wanted to read. Now, it means helping them find work they might never have imagined doing.
The former Sunday Express editor and Sunday Times deputy editor is co-founder of Veer Technologies, an Oxford University spinout developing AI tools to help people explore careers, prepare for interviews and recognise strengths that a conventional CV might overlook.
It is a considerable change of industry, but Sue sees a clear connection between the two. Reflecting on what she achieved during her media career, she says: “I like to think I made people think twice.”
At Veer, the ambition is to encourage a different kind of rethinking. Rethink what someone can offer, where they might belong and whether a difficult experience of looking for work has to define their future.
Sue will deliver the closing keynote at Northern Tech Summit 2026, taking place at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre on October 21–22. Prolific North is a media partner of the TECH SY event, which is expected to bring together more than 500 founders, investors, policymakers and technology leaders under the theme “Collaborate to Compete”.
Her journey brings a perspective shaped by newsrooms around the world, commercial publishing and the practical challenge of turning research into a business.
Understanding people, applying the science
Sue’s media career included senior roles at Condé Nast and Trinity Mirror, publisher of the Daily Mirror and northern brands such as the Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo. Moving into digital publishing meant learning how different the experience of consuming content online could be from reading its printed edition.
Later, while developing consultancy work around understanding public sentiment, she encountered a challenge that helped steer her towards technology – how could the instincts of an experienced journalist become something a business could use at scale?
Hearing Sir Nigel Shadbolt speaking on Radio 4 prompted her to seek him out. Now Veer’s fellow co-founder, he is Chair of AI at the University of Oxford and Executive Chairman of the Open Data Institute which he co-founded with Tim Berners-Lee.
Their early work explored how technology could connect business decisions with a better understanding of people’s interests and concerns. Recruitment offered another application, allowing them to look beyond whether a CV matched a job description to consider the person behind it.
Their work secured investment from both Reed and the University of Oxford to begin building a movement to transform the world of work.
Sue describes her role in the partnership through the questions she keeps asking: “How do we apply that science? How do we make that actually have traction? And where is it going to do most good?”
That led to work with Reed in Partnership, developing interview support for people seeking help into employment. Sue says the aim was to give advisers more insight into the people they were supporting, while allowing participants to practise and explore possibilities beyond their scheduled appointments.
Someone’s caring responsibilities, setbacks or informal experience might reveal capabilities that never make it onto a CV. Equally, repeatedly applying for unsuitable roles can undermine confidence rather than build it.
For Sue, getting a job matters, but so does recovering the belief that there is something you can do. “The reality is, the best ROI in the world is that you’ve grown in confidence that there’s something for you,” she says.
A career team in your corner
Sue said a six-month trial involved 500 people across the Southeast, alongside workshops and feedback that helped the business understand what users and advisers needed.
Veer is now developing a team of specialist AI agents covering different parts of the career journey. Its website describes roles including job searching, interview practice, tailoring CVs and suggesting unexpected career directions, with human friends, mentors or advisers able to contribute too.
Sue said four AI agents had been completed – an interview helper, a job searcher, a CV tool and a “wild card” designed to suggest possibilities someone might not have considered.
The intention is to make human support go further and make public services more accessible. Advisers have limited time; people seeking work may lack access to professional networks, family guidance or someone who can help them prepare for an interview late at night. With many others – especially young people – finding it difficult to access physical services because of transport issues, care responsibilities, or physical and mental disabilities.
Being able to explore those questions beforehand and at-home using technology could make the next conversation with an adviser more useful.
Making support work locally
That practical application also shapes Sue’s interest in regional decision-making. Different places face different challenges, she argues, and support should be able to respond to those circumstances.
Her ambition is for local leaders to have tools that extend the capacity of the people already helping school and college leavers, people leaving care and others who need support into work.
Sue describes discussions with several regions, highlighting interest in the West Midlands. The wider proposition is relevant to a summit asking how the North can connect its research, businesses, investment and talent: technology’s value also depends on how effectively it reaches the people who could benefit from it.
“And if we can do that, and as soon as we can, then we can actually grow the economy bottom up, and we can actually make a difference, even if it’s just to one person at a time,” Sue says. “And that’s worth doing.”
She is candid about the pressures of building a startup, including the financial runway required to develop the next phase. But the ambition she returns to is personal rather than a valuation target.
“It’s not about wanting to make millions and create a unicorn company,” she said. “I want to make a difference.”
Who else is taking the stage?
Sue joins a programme bringing together entrepreneurs, regional ecosystem leaders and organisations involved in financing and commercialising innovation.
Yoram Wijngaarde, founder and CEO of Dealroom, will open the second day’s business programme with a report into the technology landscape across the North. He founded the data intelligence platform in 2013 after working in investment banking in London and New York. Dealroom tracks high-growth companies and venture capital ecosystems, and raised $7m earlier this year to support its growth plans.
Tom Adeyoola, Executive Chair of Innovate UK, will deliver the first day’s keynote. His experience includes growing fashion technology business Metail to exit after raising £25m, alongside board roles with businesses including Elvie and Verco. He also co-founded Extend Ventures and co-authored the “Start-Up, Scale-Up” review for Rachel Reeves while she was in opposition.
The opening regional ecosystem panel will bring together Katie Gallagher OBE, Managing Director of Manchester Digital and Chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group; Matt Snowden, Programme Development Manager at TECH SY; Deb Hetherington, Director of Leeds Digital Festival and Tech West Yorkshire; and Aoife Morrin, Head of Ecosystem Growth at Dealroom. It will be hosted by David Dunn, CEO of Sunderland Software City and Dynamo North East.
Ana Avaliani, Director of Enterprise & Place at the Royal Academy of Engineering, will address what the North’s ecosystem must do next, with the second day also examining how to make better use of Northern research.
Investment will be explored through the Raising the North panel, hosted by Stuart Leslie, Director of Local Authority Advisory & Lending at the National Wealth Fund. Joining him will be Joanne Hosker, Head of NG Innovation Services at Northern Gritstone; Joséphine Kant, Head of Ventures at Sovereign AI; Mark Sterritt, Managing Director of the Local Growth Team at the British Business Bank; and Estella Nouri, Direct Origination Manager at Hypha Private Equity.
The civic line-up includes South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, alongside a fireside chat between West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin and Katharine Hammond, chief executive of South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority.
Northern Tech Summit 2026 takes place on October 21–22 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, with the Northern Startup Showcase at Trafalgar Warehouse on the first evening. Two-day and single-day summit tickets are available; the showcase is ticketed separately.
