Amanda Brock

Amanda Brock (born August 19, 1969) is a Scottish technology executive, writer and lawyer, known for her work in open source software and AI policy and governance. She is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of OpenUK, a United Kingdom-based industry and policy organisation focused on open source software, open hardware, open data, open standards and AI openness, and instrumental in the set up of its international sister, OpenHQ in 2025, of which she is also CEO.

Early life and education

Brock is originally from Crieff, Scotland. The first in her family to attend university, she studied law at the University of Glasgow before completing a Master of Comparative Jurisprudence at New York University and a Master of Laws (LLM) in intellectual property law and information technology law at Queen Mary University of London.

Personal life

Brock was married to architect Ross Duguid in 1996 and divorced in 2012. She ran a hobby business, Caledoniart, selling Scottish art in London for a decade.

Career

Brock began her career as a lawyer specialising in technology law and intellectual property. Brock qualified as a lawyer in Scotland and England and Wales. During the early development of the commercial internet, she worked on internet and e-commerce law and policy, including being part of the team of 12 which created the Freeserve ISP.

She later served as the first General Counsel at Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu open source operating system, where she established and led the company's global legal function and built deep ties in open source.

In 2019, Brock became CEO of OpenUK, co-founding it as a non-profit organisation spearheading the advancement of open technology as an industry organisation setting policy around contributing to public policy discussions and industry collaboration relating to open source software and digital infrastructure.

Her policy influence spans international as well as UK policy, with her joining events such as the UN's AI governance day, both the Paris and Delhi Global Leaders’ AI Summits and speaking at COP 29, hosting one of the largest tech events at COP26 and seeing her sign the Green Digital Declaration on behalf of OpenUK at COP29.

Brock has held many advisory roles across the technology sector, including involvement with the Open Invention Network, Oasis Standards Body, Open Source Initiative, KDE, and chairing the UN's first open source advisory panel, as well as participating in initiatives related to digital policy. She is a board member of the Mojaloop Foundation, building open source payment platforms in Africa.

She has been an advisor to a number of commercial organisations including Beamery, Everseen, SpaceAye, Mimoto and Scarf.

She has participated in a number of UK public sector advisory boards, including the Cabinet Office's Open Standards Board, UKRI's Exascale Advisory Board and UKRI's Digital Research Infrastructure Advisory Board. She is listed by the OECD as an AI expert, https://oecd.ai/en/community/amanda-brock and is an open source expert to the ITU.

Publications

Brock is the editor of Open Source: Law, Policy and Practice (2022), a multi-author work on legal and governance issues in open source software and author of "E-Business the Practical Guide to the Laws", 2000.

Brock has written and commented extensively for the tech press including:

Computing - https://www.computing.co.uk/feature/2026/rolling-out-ai-that-works-the-trust-factor ITPro - https://www.itpro.com/software/development/is-software-optimization-a-lost-art

Speaking

Amanda is an accomplished speaker, regularly keynoting international conferences across Europe, the US, Asia and Africa. Her speaking includes:

Financial Times Future of AI conference 2025 - London, United Kingdom Open Source Summit Europe 2025 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands Kubecon Europe 2025 - London, United Kingdom AI Action Summit 2025 - Paris, France India AI Impact Summit 2026 - New Delhi, India

Recognition

Brock has been included in industry rankings for several years such as the Computer Weekly list of most influential women in UK technology, Computing's UK tech leaders and Raconteur's 50 leading CEOs.

She is listed as one of 23 “Women Who Will” as part of the 2023 Women who Will in Law report.https://obelisksupport.com/women-who-will/2023-report/

She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards in 2022.

Brock was made an Honorary Professor Industrial, by the University of Bristol in 2026.