9.30 - 10.30
PLENARY 1 - CIL Management Consultants
Mark Jeynes, Partner, CIL Management Counsultants
Mark is an experienced management consultant and executive in the education management industry, and leads the Education & Training Practice at CIL. He has more than 20 years of international experience in strategy consulting (with a focus on the education sector), business leadership and entrepreneurship, gained in professional services and corporate roles. His previous consulting experience includes 12 years at The Parthenon Group and 3 years at OC&C Strategy Consultants. He has extensive strategic advisory experience in higher education, supporting traditional universities, private universities, alternative providers of higher education, pathway providers and OPM providers. The geographical scope of his experience includes the UK, Western Europe, the US, India, GCC, Asia, Australia and Africa. Mark is also the co-founder of Inspiring Futures Education (IF - Inspiring Futures Ltd), which operates two international schools in the UK - Bishopstrow College and Padworth College.
11.00 - 12.00
WORKSHOP 1A - King & Shaxson
Nigel Florence, Fixed Income Treasury Sales, King & Shaxson
A seasoned fixed income sales professional with over 30 years of experience in the financial markets. Nigel has expertise in a wide range of instruments, including government and corporate bonds, asset backed securities and structured products and has worked with a diverse clientele, focused on institutional investors including central banks, pension funds, asset managers, bank treasuries and insurance companies. He is known for having a strong understanding of global fixed income markets and a keen ability to navigate complex financial products, in addition to developing and executing investment strategies tailored to client needs. Nigel is Chartered Financial Analyst (25 years PQE), and outside of work he enjoys rugby (just watching these days!), golf and skiing.
Chris Gardner, Director of Treasury Solutions, King & Shaxson
An experienced and knowledgeable Treasury professional having worked in the financial markets for over thirty years. Chris Gardner is Director of Treasury Solutions at King & Shaxson, offering Treasury consultation services to a number of clients including credit unions and building societies. This encompasses anything from staff training to advice on managing liquidity, funding or interest rate risk, reviewing ALCO and Board packs or attending Board strategy days to discuss the current economic environment and outlook for interest rates. Prior to joining King & Shaxson, Chris was Treasurer at Nottingham Building Society for seven years where he was Deputy Chair of ALCO and responsible for Liquidity Risk, Funding Risk and Market & Interest Rate Risk, and he has spent the majority of his career working in Treasury for a number of building societies.
WORKSHOP 1B - Newcastle University, Accounting 4 Sustainability
Anna Munro, Director of Financial Control, Newcastle University
Anna is responsible for the Financial Control function at Newcastle University covering Group Accounting and Control, Treasury and Endowments, Financial Systems and Services, Procurement, Insurance and Financial Operations. Anna has a broad experience as a financial accountant, specialising in financial control and continuous improvement. She is passionate about team development and has experience of delivering on complex projects and transformation activity. Anna is a Chartered Accountant and holds a BA (Hons) in Business, Accounting and Finance. She trained with PwC where she worked for almost 10 years, she delivered external audit services across a range of sectors, as a senior manager and office group leader. She moved into Higher Education in 2017, working at Northumbria University as Head of Accounting and later Assistant Director of Financial Control.
Zoe Franklin, Senior Manager – A4S Academy, A4S
Zoë is responsible for the delivery, growth and impact of the A4S Academy; a learning and implementation programme designed to equip and empower senior finance professionals with the skills needed for their businesses to succeed in the face of environmental and social risks and opportunities. Before joining the Academy team, Zoë held the position of Project Manager for Capital Markets at A4S. Prior to joining A4S, Zoë worked for a commercial conference and marketing solutions organization as the Head of Insurance, where she developed and ran a portfolio of global events. Zoë has a Masters in International Development, Politics & Governance and a BSocSci (Hons) in Politics & International Relations from The University of Manchester.
Kathryn Jackson, Consultant, Knowledge and Technical Team, A4S
Kathryn brings over 20 years of sustainability and accounting expertise to the Knowledge and Technical team. She leads the content development for the A4S Academy and supports the delivery of a range of projects and activities across A4S including the Finance for the Future Awards, the International Case Competition, CFO meetings and roundtables and various workshops.Previously at KPMG, where she trained as a chartered accountant, Kathryn supported a diverse portfolio of clients in addressing their sustainability challenges across governance, strategy, sustainability management processes, compliance and the robustness of their external reporting. She worked in London and Hong Kong as a Sustainability and Climate Change Senior Manager.Kathryn is a certified coach and holds a Master’s (MSc) in Business Strategy, Politics and Environment.
WORKSHOP 1C - VWV
James Barr, Partner, VWV
James specialises in commercial, IT and technology contracts and is heavily involved in advising clients in the Higher Education sector on their commercial and IT projects. He has extensive experience advising clients at all stages of the procurement chain working closely with clients' inhouse legal and commercial teams. James' wide-ranging experience includes advising on large global outsourcing projects to routine general commercial and IT contracts including IT master services agreements, SAAS solutions and subscription agreements, software development and licensing, ecommerce platforms, managed service contracts, facilities and property management agreements, collaboration agreements and contracts for the supply of goods and services. Much of James' work is for universities and other education institutions as well as tech start up and university spin out companies. He does however work across a number of other sectors and has spent 6 months acting as interim GC for a UK airport providing general legal support on various strategic infrastructure projects and their day-to-day commercial and IT contracts.
Patrick McCallum, Senior Associate, VWV
Patrick is a Senior Associate in our Commercial team and has worked with a diverse range of businesses across a variety of industries, from start-ups and SMEs, regional and national businesses right the way through to internationally listed companies. Patrick is experienced in drafting, reviewing, negotiating and advising on all kinds of commercial contracts, with a particular focus on IT outsourcing, SaaS and PaaS, warehousing, logistics and supply chain, the commercial protection and exploitation of IP as well as data protection. In the past, Patrick has worked closely with an international provider of on-premises and cloud business management software solutions in order to review and overhaul their client documentation, including their standard SaaS Terms of Service, Professional Services T&Cs and Partner/Reseller Agreements.
13.00 - 14.00
WORKSHOP 2A - LGT
Miranda Richards, Senior Investment Manager, LGT
Miranda Richards is a Senior Investment Manager, at LGT. As part of the dedicated charities and institutions team at LGT, which manages over £1.9bn, she specialises in managing investment portfolio’s for charities, endowments and foundations, including a number of university clients. She joined LGT in 2023 as part of the acquisition of the abrdn discretionary business by LGT Wealth Management. Prior to abrdn, Miranda was a career returner at UBS, having previously had an extended career break, during which she honed her skills as a charity trustee and investment committee member. During her career, Miranda has variously held roles as a European economist, market and sector strategist, an investment journalist and a fund manager. Miranda holds a number of trustee roles particularly in the education and higher education sector.
Siobhan Archer, Global Stewardship Lead, LGT
Siobhan Archer is the Global Stewardship Lead at LGT, where she plays a pivotal role in advancing the firm's commitment to sustainable investment. In her role, she leads the strategy and development of the firm’s global voting, engagement activities and policy advocacy. Prior to joining LGT in 2021, Siobhan served four years at the UN Supported Principles for Responsible Investment, advising UK and Irish investors on ESG issues and coordinating the firm's COVID-19 investor response groups. Her background also includes a year as an ESG research and advisory associate at Arabesque Asset Management. Siobhan holds an MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London and a joint BA in Geography and Development Studies from King's College London and SOAS. Outside of work, she is also a trustee for GROW Movement, a charity focusing on connecting business entrepreneurs in emerging markets with business school coaches.
WORKSHOP 2B - Vidett
Mandy Kaur-Sadler, Client Director, Vidett
Mandy Kaur-Sadler is a Client Director at Vidett, with 20 years of specialist experience in pensions. She was previously a Pensions Lawyer at Eversheds Sutherland, where she advised trustees and universities on a variety of pension schemes, including university self-administered trusts (SATs), USS, LGPS, TPS, NHS, and defined contribution (DC) arrangements. Since joining Vidett, Mandy focuses on delivering professional trustee services with an emphasis on strategy and governance. She serves as a trustee for several university SATs, including the University of Manchester, Durham University, the University of East Anglia and Keele University. Mandy is involved in a diverse range of strategically focused and complex projects in addition to her day-to-day management of pension schemes. Her work includes investment strategy reviews, liability management projects, buy-ins and buy-outs, actuarial valuation negotiations, governance improvements, and devising endgame solutions for schemes in partnership with sponsors and advisers.
Phil Williams, Associate Director, Vidett
Phil has 25+ years’ experience in the pensions industry, mainly in actuarial consulting and trustee governance advisory roles. He recently joined Vidett to pursue a career as a professional trustee. Phil is now a fully accredited professional trustee and remains an Associate member of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries. In his previous role, Phil consulted to both trustees and corporates covering all aspects of pension strategy (funding, investments, and operations). Phil also had a focus on governance roles (including scheme secretary positions) and represented his employer on the CBI Scotland council. Phil’s clients included private and near-public sector schemes of all sizes. At Vidett Phil focusses mainly on trustee roles and coordinates the higher education sector team which aims to stay up to date on all issues impacting the sector.
Ash Field, Head of Pensions, University of Manchester
I have worked at The University of Manchester since September 2021 and act as Head of Pensions overseeing the 6 pension schemes which we use which includes USS, NHSPS, LGPS, DC schemes and our own Self-Administered Trust (SAT). I sit on a number of panels and forums in the sector including the Institutions Advisory Panel (IAP) for USS, Directions Body group for the NHSPS and also on UCEA’s Pension Manager Forum. I am also part of the working group that have been working with UCEA in setting up a new sector wide DC scheme. Aside from looking at University policies and other more operational matters, the majority of my time is spent as Secretary to the Trustee supporting the Trustee Board for our SAT. Whilst I am not formally a Trustee, I take an active role in the smooth running of the Scheme, co-ordinating with the Trustees, University, advisers and members to progress Scheme business. This includes setting agendas and writing minutes, but also in being responsible for ensuring the Scheme is well governed and advising the Trustee on the latest developments in the pensions sector, whether that is best practice or new legislations and regulations which need to be abided by. I am keen to bring a fresh perspective to how the Scheme is run and take a particular interest in governance and responsible investment matters. I am a Fellow of the Pensions Management Institute and also still act as a Member Nominated Trustee on a Scheme for a previous employer. I live in Sheffield and aside from looking after my two daughters, am a keen runner, follower of most sports and when time allows, board game player.
WORKSHOP 2C - Jisc
David Batho, Director of Security, Jisc
David is responsible for protecting the education sector from cyber-attacks. Involved in a substantial number of major cyber incidents in the sector over recent years, David is passionate about educating and improving the sector at all levels. With experience as a penetration tester and head of IT for several years in the education sector, David believes that cyber security is everyone’s responsibility, and all have a role to play in protecting their organisations.
14.30 - 15.30
WORKSHOP 3A - CHEIA, KCG
Alison Jarvis, Executive Director of Finance, University of Southampton
Alison has an extensive background in higher education finance. Prior to Southampton she was Chief Financial Officer at Plymouth University, Director of Financial Operations at Cardiff University, and Deputy Director of Finance at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). She has also held a number of roles at the Office for National Statistics, including as Head of Financial Strategy. In her current role she is accountable for the overall financial performance of the University, ensuring that the University and its subsidiaries operate financially effectively, efficiently, and sustainably through a clear financial strategy and an effective financial management framework. She also plays a key role in enabling successful delivery of Southampton's University strategy.
Bridget Bishop, Head of Internal Audit, University of Hertfordshire and Chair, CHEIA
Bridget is the Head of Internal Audit at the University of Hertfordshire and has almost 40 years of Internal Auditing experience. Her current remit covers internal audit for the whole of the University Group as well as the University’s Business Risk Management function. Before making the leap to the HE sector in 2017, Bridget led the Internal Audit team at Cambridge City Council. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and is the current Chair of CHEIA (Council for HE Internal Audit).
David Williamson, Head of Internal Audit Service, University of the West of Scotland
David has almost 25 years of internal audit leadership experience across a range of sectors. He has been Head of Internal Audit at the University of the West of Scotland since 2014 and is a past Chair of CHEIA
Tom Loader, Internal Audit Manager, University of Bristol
Tom is the Internal Audit Manager at the University of Bristol, leading a team of in-house auditors based within the University’s Finance Services division. He has led a wide range of audits and advisory reviews covering topics including strategic governance, risk management and key financial controls. Tom also works closely with colleagues in Finance Services as part of the extended leadership team. He is a qualified and chartered member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA).
Alan Lees, Chief Executive, KCG Audit Limited
Alan is a highly accomplished Chartered Accountant and governance expert with over 40 years of audit and advisory experience spanning the education, government, housing, and charity sectors. He has a track record in strategic leadership, governance enhancement, and risk management, transformational change, fostering high-performing teams, and building collaborative relationships with Boards, Audit Committees, and senior executives. As Chief Executive of KCG Audit Limited for nearly a decade, Alan has led a not-for-profit, shared service organisation delivering tailored internal audit solutions to the higher education sector. Prior to KCG, Alan was a Partner at Grant Thornton and its predecessor, Robson Rhodes, where he led the Not-for-Profit and Public Sector internal audit practice, advising a wide range of organisations on governance, risk, and compliance.
WORKSHOP 3B - Bevan Brittan
Tijen Ahmet, Legal Director, Immigration, Bevan Brittan
Tijen specialises in UK business immigration and supports both organisations and individuals. She advises higher and further education institutions on work sponsorship under the UK points based system and represents both multinational businesses and SME clients, advising on strategic workforce planning and supporting with visa applications for both short term assignments and permanent relocations to the UK.
She also undertakes immigration audits for organisations to assess UKVI sponsor licence compliance and presents bespoke immigration training for HR professionals and in house counsel on work sponsorship and right to work. Her advice to individuals includes applications for partners and family members as well as EU and Brexit issues in addition to settlement/British nationality rights.
WORKSHOP 3C - PwC
Paul Foster, Education Technology Director, PWC
Paul is a Director in our technology team, focused on delivering transformational change, underpinned by technology. Originally a software developer, Paul has worked across many sectors including Health, Financial Services and local Government but has specialised in Higher Education for the last 5 years. He is an Enterprise Architect and Digital, Technical and IT Strategy specialist, working with both IT and business leaders to develop solution roadmaps that align to the broader organisational objectives of the client while helping clients take advantage of new technology innovation in the sector. With a history of delivering programmes that implement these strategies, Paul brings a wealth of lessons learnt and realism to his engagements with clients, while still providing challenge and helping clients to understand the “art of the possible”.
Kerry Appleton-Norman, Consulting Education Sector Lead, PWC
Kerry is the Education Consulting Lead Partner at PwC. Her work focusses on delivering technology enabled transformation across the Education sector. Kerry has led successful engagements across a number of Higher Education organisations and within the Department for Education and Education and Skills Funding Agency.
Sheena Owen, Education Operations Director, PWC
Sheena is a Director in PwC’s Education team with extensive experience delivering transformational change across the sector. She has over 12 years experience at PwC, leading teams to deliver large and complex programmes, manage internal and external stakeholders and deliver effective outcomes. Most recently her work has focused on supporting her clients to identify and implement more efficient and cost effective operational, commercial, and financial processes and implementing alternative delivery models in response to the financial pressures in the sector. She was also one of the co-authors of PwC’s report; ‘Financial Sustainability of the UK Higher Education sector’, published in January 2024. She is also a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA). Prior to working at PwC, Sheena spent three years working in a school in Manchester where she trained and qualified as a maths and science secondary school teacher.
