9.30 - 10.30
PLENARY 2 - CIBC
Jeremy Stretch, Head of G10 FX Strategy, CIBC Capital Markets
Jeremy is Head of G10 FX Strategy, based in CIBC ‘s European headquarters in London. In a career spanning over 25 years, Jeremy has held a number of senior roles at UK and European banks prior to joining CIBC. Jeremy has operated within both economic and strategy roles, in the latter he has operated as both a fixed income and FX strategist; in his role in the latter he has been recognized as the top G10 currency forecaster by FX Week in both 2017 and 2018. Jeremy is frequently quoted in the financial press and is regular contributor on Bloomberg news, CNBC and also the BBC.
Dan Sutin, Head of Alternate Solutions Group – UK/Europe/APAC, CIBC Capital Markets
Daniel Sutin is responsible for leading strategic partnerships across CIBC’s Global Payment Platforms, with a dedicated focus on the Higher Education sector. Dan works directly with Higher Education Institutions globally to understand their unique needs and business challenges, and has successfully implemented customized solutions that add value to both the student and institution alike.
11.00 - 12.00
WORKSHOP 4A - Cabinet Office
Sam Russell, Senior Policy Lead, Commercial Policy Team, Cabinet Office
Sam is a Senior Policy Lead in the Commercial Policy Team at the Cabinet Office, working on the Procurement Bill. He joined the Government Commercial Function in 2021 and has been working on areas to support SMEs, conflicts of interest and implementing international trade agreements on procurement.
WORKSHOP 4B - Isio
Sophie Ash, Director, Actuary and HE pensions specialist, Isio Group
Sophie leads Isio's work in the Higher Education sector and is a qualified actuary with over 35 years' experience and retains a Scheme Actuary accreditation. Her clients include pre-92 universities, with their own schemes, and post-92 universities using the statutory schemes, and USS across the sector. Pension strategy and benefit design has been a key area of advice. Many of Sophie’s clients operate a ‘pensions committee’ to oversee the pensions strategy for the organisation through the lenses of finance, people and governance. In recent times, employee communications, including USS, has had additional focus since the 2020 USS valuation and part of this included the provision of explanatory videos on the covenant support mechanisms. In addition to the HE sector, Sophie’s clients include housing associations, charities and private sector organisations with public sector involvement. Outside of day-to-day work, Sophie is a regular bell-ringer and park-runner - not at the same time.
Jonathan Gilbey, Director and Reward & Benefits Specialist, Isio Group
Jonathan is a pensions professional with over 20 years’ experience advising organisations and trustees across a wide range of pension issues. Jonathan is one of Isio’s defined contribution team leaders and has a wide range of clients across all sectors. This includes working with a number of universities, including post-92s introducing parallel pension options. Jonathan supports clients across all aspects of DC strategy, design and governance, including auto-enrolment compliance. Due to the recent developments in the DC market place, Jonathan has supported many clients with the whole aspect of DC change and procurement of new pension schemes. Jonathan is passionate about how Isio can support our clients in designing an inclusive financial wellbeing proposition for employees, including financial guidance. Jonathan is part of Isio’s wider Reward team working closely with its clients in designing this growing area. Outside of day-to-day work, Jonathan is a keen cricketer and golfer, although has sporty children so spends most of his time on the side lines supporting them rather than playing himself.
WORKSHOP 4C - UMAL
Paul Cusition, CEO & Director, UMAL
Paul joined UMAL as CEO in January 2018. Paul began his career as an Accountant in private practice, qualifying in 1981. He then joined Sun Alliance (now RSA) where, following a number of roles, he became a Director for their Global Risks Division, which encompassed their Major Clients and London Market Operation. In 1999, he joined Travelers, a major US Insurance Group, where he became their Chief Underwriting Officer for their International operations, covering UK, Lloyds, Ireland and Canada. He was also a Director of their Lloyd’s Managing Agency.
In 2012 Paul was recruited to become the Active Underwriter of a Lloyd’s Syndicate which had been purchased by Private Equity Investors. Following a successful turn round of this business Paul established a Managing General Agency writing business on behalf of Munich Re which was sold in December 2017. Paul has over 35 years of experience in a wide range of Insurance operations and has been an FCA approved person since 1998.
Paul Francis, Head of Claims, UMAL
Paul has been Head of Claims at UMAL since April 2020. He has worked in the insurance industry since 1987 when he started his career at Eagle Star. Paul joined Travelers (then the St Paul) in 1998 where he performed several roles including Technical Claims Manager for a private and public sector book of business including private hospitals, utilities, NHS Trusts and local authorities generating EL, PL, products liability, medical malpractice, motor and property claims before becoming Senior Claims Manager for the Employers' Liability and Public Liability claims function across the UK and Ireland. In 2016 Paul joined Haven Claims as their Technical Claims Manager, managing a large team of technical claim handlers responsible for high value and complex motor claims including personal injury claims of the utmost severity. Paul is an ACII qualified Chartered Insurer.
WORKSHOP 4D - ATFS
Carl Fleet, Director Financial Services, ATFS
Carl joined ATFS in December 2021 working in banking, payment service reviews and tender related services. Carl spent the last 10 years in card acquiring, helping clients with all types of payment requirements from card payments all the way through to open banking. Previously he spent 10 years in banking assisting clients with a wide range of banking products and services.
Annabel Grey, Head of Sustainability, Altair Ltd
Annabel leads on Altair’s Sustainability service and has track record in supporting her clients drive a net zero organisational transformation, as well as ensuring the sustainability golden thread runs throughout to help achieve a state of ESG readiness. Her experience starts with supporting Committees and Directors to set and agree their direction of travel, through to refreshing key organisational strategic documents, right down to the essential elements of their operating model, this to achieve the required changes across their people, processes, policy, financing, technology, and customer offer. Annabel is a PRINCE2® qualified Project Manager and Practitioner of IEMA. 
Adam Ashcroft, Sales Director, ESG and Sustainable Finance, S&P
Adam works in S&P Ratings commercial ESG team focused on business development with issuers and intermediaries and has worked in sustainable finance for eight years. Prior to joining S&P Adam worked for Vigeo Eiris and then Moody’s ESG Solutions focusing on investor sales and integration post-merger. Adam’s background is in the international development and humanitarian sectors having worked for the UN World Food Programme in the Middle East, from where he was deployed to humanitarian emergencies around the world including Iraq and the Philippines. 
Lucia Pitteri, Associate Director Business Development - Corporates and International Public Finance, S&P
Lucia is an Associate Director in the commercial team at S&P Global Ratings. As part of her role, Lucia focuses on business development activities in the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands covering the public finance sector for both credit ratings and sustainable finance. Her portfolio includes universities, housing associations, and local authorities.
Prior to joining S&P in 2019, Lucia worked in the financial sector in Frankfurt and in Brussels. Lucia holds a Bachelor’s Degree in International Business and a Master’s Degree in International Finance.
13.00 - 14.00
WORKSHOP 5A - 4C Associates
Ross Hodgkins, Senior Manager, 4C Associates
Ross has worked in public sector procurement for over 10 years; most recently at Cardiff University. He has worked in various strategic and operational procurement roles including Category Manager, Procurement Manager and Subject Matter Expert on a multi-million pound technology transformation. He is co-author on the 4C book Private Sector by Head, Public Sector by Heart.
Joe Gibson, Head of Digital, 4C Associates
Joe has worked in both public and private sector procurement for over 12 years. He has worked on various large digital transformation initiatives in both an advisory and deployment capacity. Joe is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply and often provides data/digital thought-leadership to several leading UK Universities.
WORKSHOP 5B - BUFDG
Andrea Marshall, Tax Specialist, BUFDG
Andrea’s tax career spans over 30 years, beginning in 1988 when she joined HM Customs & Excise as a VAT Control Officer. She then spent over 20 years in practice specialising in VAT, initially working with corporate clients, and from 2004 advising the housing association sector. Andrea joined the University of Worcester in 2013 as its in-house Tax Officer before moving to BUFDG as its Tax Specialist in March 2020 - just a week before lockdown. Her role now involves updating the HE sector on current, relevant tax issues, of which there have been many since she joined BUFDG!
Julia Ascott, Employment Taxes Specialist, BUFDG
Julia joined BUFDG in October 2019 as Employment Tax, Payroll and Global Mobility specialist, after working at Deloitte, Grant Thornton and, more recently, in her own business where she was first introduced to the HE sector. Her experience within the world of employment taxes spans almost 20 years, and she will happily chat about employment status issues for hours. Her role at BUFDG is to inform and assist the HE sector on current, topical tax issues as well as highlight broader issues to HMRC on behalf of the HE sector.
WORKSHOP 5C - abrdn
Miranda Richards, Head of Charities (London), abrdn
Miranda Richards was recently named Woman of the Year – ESG by Professional Adviser, and has over 30 years’ experience of financial markets, as an economist, strategist, journalist, fund manager and client adviser. She joined abrdn in 2020 and heads-up the Charities Team in London, managing portfolios for several institutions and universities. Prior to that, she was at UBS where she led the charities team and worked with a number of health and university clients.
During a career break, Miranda was involved in financial journalism and served on several charity boards and investment committees including the Varrier Jones Foundation and the United Westminster Greycoat Foundation, an educational charity. She holds the Investment Management Certificate, and the Investment Advice Diploma. Miranda was born and educated in Newcastle, graduated from the University of St Andrews with an MA in Economics with International Relations and now lives in Norfolk. Miranda maintains her links with Scotland through her role on the Investment Committee of the University of St Andrews.
Julie Hutchinson, Visiting Professor in Governance and Innovation, Edinburgh Napier University, and Charity Governance Specialist, abrdn
Julie Hutchison has over 20 years of experience in specialist roles across law, tax and investments. After graduating with a First in Law from the University of Edinburgh and qualifying as a lawyer, Julie specialised in private client work, including philanthropy and the creation and management of charities. Julie joined the firm in 2004 and has been the Charity Governance Specialist with abrdn since 2015. Julie facilitates online workshops for institutional clients on a range of governance themes including the role of an investment policy statement. She also leads on the Listening Stream work with clients, enabling stakeholder engagement in policy development.
Julie has a broad range of cross-sector experience. In 2019 she undertook a part-time secondment to the Scottish Government to chair the Review of Governance of NHS Endowment Funds. Julie previously spent time with OSCR, the Scottish Charity Regulator, and co-authored its first investment guidance for charity trustees in Scotland. Julie is a board member of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Visiting Professor in Governance and Innovation, Edinburgh Napier University. At the University of Cumbria, she co-delivers a course on Strategic Collaboration. Her international academic work includes guest lecturing at a university in Munich.
WORKSHOP 5D - Hays
Catherine Hill, Business Director, Senior Finance Public Service Team
Catherine is a Business Director leading the Senior Finance public sector team in Leeds and the wider public sector team across Yorkshire. Catherine has worked for Hays for over 20 years and in that time has managed teams across the Yorkshire region, beginning her career in South Yorkshire in 2002. For the last 12 years, she has worked in the Leeds office specialising in finance recruitment and over the last 5 years she has focused on public sector appointments with particular expertise in the education sector. 
Matt Lewis, UK&I Director Hays Public Services
Matt has worked for Hays in specialist recruitment since 1994, the last 10 years of which have been in public services focussed senior leadership roles. Responsible for defining Hays’ overall UK public services sector engagement strategy, he works closely with key customers in developing approaches to optimise talent attraction in what has become the most challenging talent engagement market in recent history. An active member of the CBI Public Sector Partners committee, Matt is as passionate about public services and the sector’s contribution to society as he is about people and the maximising of their potential.
14.30 - 15.30
WORKSHOP 6A - BUFDG
Bridget Walker, Consultant, WPM (a Flywire company)
Bridget Walker is a Consultant with WPM, a Flywire Company. She works with higher and further education institutions to improve payment acceptance, payer experience and staff efficiencies. Bridget has also worked alongside the education sector through Special Interest Groups to agree and document best practice, primarily focussed on fraud and anti-money laundering. Through the SIG she has developed sector specific fraud and anti-money laundering guidance and training.
WORKSHOP 6B - QMPF
Graeme Aithie, Partner (Education), QMPF
Graeme helps lead QMPF’s Higher Education advisory team and has 15 years of experience in the sector. He specialises in strategic funding advice, support in arranging debt facilities, delivery of major capital projects and managing the Net Zero transition. Graeme recently advised the University of Hull on its ‘Green’ financing framework and £86m private placement.
Peter Lyons, Partner (Education), QMPF
Peter provides specialist corporate finance and strategic advice with a focus on the Higher Education sector. He has worked alongside a range of clients on several types of debt raising transactions including various forms of ESG-linked facilities such as the sector’s first sustainability-linked private placement for King’s College London. He has also raised various ESG linked debt facilities for the likes of the University of Essex and Manchester Metropolitan University.
Andrew Wilkinson, Partner (Energy), QMPF
Andrew leads QMPF’s energy advisory team and has a background in renewables and infrastructure financing, having also worked in the principal investment teams at the UK Green Investment Bank and Macquarie Capital. Andrew works across the energy space, with a range of renewables investors and developers. He has also recently advised several universities on projects such as low-carbon district heating, rooftop and ground-mounted solar PV, and financial modelling to support net zero strategies.
WORKSHOP 6C - BUFDG
Andrea Marshall, Tax Specialist, BUFDG
Andrea’s tax career spans over 30 years, beginning in 1988 when she joined HM Customs & Excise as a VAT Control Officer. She then spent over 20 years in practice specialising in VAT, initially working with corporate clients, and from 2004 advising the housing association sector. Andrea joined the University of Worcester in 2013 as its in-house Tax Officer before moving to BUFDG as its Tax Specialist in March 2020 - just a week before lockdown. Her role now involves updating the HE sector on current, relevant tax issues, of which there have been many since she joined BUFDG!
Julia Ascott, Employment Taxes Specialist, BUFDG
Julia joined BUFDG in October 2019 as Employment Tax, Payroll and Global Mobility specialist, after working at Deloitte, Grant Thornton and, more recently, in her own business where she was first introduced to the HE sector. Her experience within the world of employment taxes spans almost 20 years, and she will happily chat about employment status issues for hours. Her role at BUFDG is to inform and assist the HE sector on current, topical tax issues as well as highlight broader issues to HMRC on behalf of the HE sector.
WORKSHOP 6D - TEC
Adam Clarke, Managing Director, TEC
Starting his career in commodity trading and asset optimisation, Adam has over 20-years of UK Trading and Energy Management experience. Adam made the switch from Wholesale trading to Energy Retail in 2012, developing energy trading and risk management products for the Industrial & Commercial sector. In March, Adam joined The Energy Consortium (TEC) as MD to lead the team in the development of a range of products and services which will enable the Higher Education and UK Museums sectors to achieve ambitious Net Zero targets.
Stephen Creighton, Head of Member Services, TEC
A highly experienced energy and procurement professional who has had a significant impact on the way the public sector buys its energy. Having worked on both the energy buyer and supplier side, Steve has focused on large scale risk management solutions, renewable projects and commercial sustainability solutions. Steve joined TEC in 2013 bringing his skill set to the university sector and supported establishing TEC as the recognised centre of excellence for energy procurement in their member sector.
Duncan Wyatt, Senior Trader, TEC
Duncan has 25 years of experience analysing and trading commodity markets, with 20 of those spent in the energy industry. Having worked in energy retail, generation and trading organisations, Duncan has developed a wide range of energy and asset risk management strategies and tools, as well as contract optimisation through the whole energy supply chain.
Duncan joined the trading desk of The Energy Consortium in August, leading the implementation of enhanced risk management programmes on behalf of the TEC membership.
