Caro Dean

Director of Commercial

Oxford Quantum Circuits

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Caro Dean is Commercial Director at Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC), where she leads global commercial strategy, customer engagement and partnerships. Working at the intersection of quantum technology and business, she helps organisations explore how quantum computing can address challenges, with a particular focus on financial services, security and defence. Her work spans international market development, strategic collaborations and translating OQC’s technical roadmap into commercial opportunities. Prior to OQC she worked in the UK Government. She holds an MBA from Imperial College, London.

Speaking At

10:00–11:30amMon 16 NovPublic-Private RoundtableRoundtable Room 3Open
Shaping Tomorrow's Innovation

Preparing for the Quantum Advantage: Lessons Learnt from Early Experimentation and Pilots

Public-Private RoundtableRoundtable Room 3Open
About this session

Quantum computing's impact on financial services is beginning to expand beyond its initial focus on security implications to early experimentation and pilots for potential use-cases, from portfolio optimization to risk management and derivative pricing. Early pilots have demonstrated real value, but the timeline for live deployments remains in the horizon, raising a difficult question: are institutions building use-cases before the technology is mature enough to justify it or is this early investment what makes tomorrow's readiness possible?

The work so far has also relied on open collaboration between banks, regulators, and technology providers, but as quantum applications start to carry real commercial value, that openness gets harder to sustain. This session looks at what these early efforts have actually taught the industry — what worked, what didn't, and what the next phase of experimentation should prioritize as the window for open collaboration closes.

The session will explore questions such as:

1. Is developing use-cases now premature given how immature the technology still is, or is that the only way real readiness gets built?
2. Should current funding prioritize talent pipelines over experimentation, or do the two need to grow together?
3. As quantum applications become commercially valuable, what keeps competitors willing to keep collaborating?
4. What would genuinely long-term, system-wide collaborative action look like beyond individual pilots?

Speakers

Caro Dean

Speaking At

Preparing for the Quantum Advantage: Lessons Learnt from Early Experimentation and Pilots