We are at the forefront of providing support to boards, governors and staff such as clerks and secretaries to improve governance effectiveness. All institutions need high performing boards equipped to determine the strategic course of the organisation. The effectiveness of a board depends on strong foundations, exhibiting the right behaviours, high quality information, sound processes and skilled governance professionals.
To help us form and deliver our support our governance experts and associates are vital. Below you will find the profiles of the people who work on our governance portfolio.
Our governance experts and associates
David Bass
Director of EDI
David is responsible for providing organisational leadership in Advance HE’s work on EDI, both internally and externally.
Dan Tinkler
Governance Development Manager
Dan joined Advance HE in January 2020 and has been in the post of Governance Development Manager since October 2021. Dan works on developing our approach to supporting Advance HE’s member needs across our governance portfolio of work.
Kim Ansell
Senior Consultant, Governance and Strategic Transformation
Kim has worked across higher and professional education providing support to groups at all levels including senior leadership teams and Boards, to facilitate change, strategic thinking, planning and performance improvement.
Aaron Porter
Associate Director (Governance)
Aaron leads on Advance HE governance activity through the delivery of our national Governor Development Programme which engages with around 900 governors across the UK on an annual basis. He has extensive experience leading reviews of over 25 governing boards. Aaron was previously President of the National Union of Students (NUS) and also chair of trustees for the organisation.
John Rushforth
Senior Governance Associate
John is a nationally recognised expert on UK University governance. He is responsible for the key documents that underpin the governance of all publicly funded UK HE institutions namely the CUC HE Code of Governance, the HE Senior Staff Remuneration Code, a range of illustrative practice notes e.g. Academic Assurance, Recruitment of VCs, etc and a Leadership Foundation publication on the relationship between Vice Chancellors and Chairs.
Keith Bartlett
Senior Associate
Keith has over thirty-five years’ experience in higher education and the creative industries and provides consultancy in the areas of strategy, governance and management, organisational change and development. He is a Senior Associate in Advance HE’s strategic consultancy group and has led governance effectiveness reviews of a number of specialist and general HE providers, including the University of the Arts London, Arts University Plymouth, Arts University Bournemouth and the Northern School of Contemporary Dance. He is also an executive coach with clients in senior leadership roles in higher education and the creative industries.
Suzanne O’Brien
Principal Lecturer
Suzanne is an experienced non-executive director with extensive senior leadership experience. A qualified accountant and tax consultant with over thirty years’ experience in business, primarily Financial Services, she now has a portfolio career. An advocate for social justice, she champions equity for all.
Ella Ritchie
Emerita Professor of Politics and former Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Newcastle University and Associate
Ella is an experienced Higher Education academic, senior manager, consultant and advisor in the areas of university governance, values and structures, widening access to higher education (where she established a national network, Realising Opportunities), academic structure, the student experience and university partnerships.
Kay Renfrew
Associate
Kay Renfrew is an experienced consultant and researcher who has delivered assignments for clients in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She has a Masters degree in information management. Kay has expertise in data analysis and reporting, to assess project impact and performance.
Alison Allden
Associate
Since retiring as Chief Executive Officer of the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), Alison has developed a non-executive portfolio and consultancy career. She is currently Deputy Chair of Regents University London Ltd and on the Board of Study Group UK. She is also a member of the Bar Standards Board responsible for the regulation of barristers.
Carol Burns
Associate
In all, Carol has 20 years experience working with governing bodies across HE, the public and not for profit sectors. Her early career was spent in the private sector, including three years as a management consultant at KPMG and three years at the Financial Times. She then ran her own media and marketing consultancy before joining the HE sector.
Lydia McClelland
Associate
Lydia McClelland is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing a Chartered Marketer and a qualified Executive Coach. Lydia holds a Diploma in Corporate Governance and is a member of the Corporate Governance Institute in Ireland. Lydia has 16 years' senior management experience working across a range of sectors including economic development, the arts, higher education and visitor attraction/science centre sectors in Northern Ireland and now runs a Business, Marketing and Governance Consultancy.
Jan Juillerat
Associate, Governance
Jan Juillerat, MBA, is an experienced Associate with Advance HE, leading governance effectiveness reviews for a wide range of UK institutions and contributing to governor development programmes, workshops and guidance. Jan has worked in education and research in the UK for over 25 years, with leadership and Executive roles in Further and Higher Education and the UK Research Councils/UKRI.
Samantha Budd
Associate
Sam is a specialist in inclusion and cultural transformation. Sam’s work focuses on inclusion and cultural transformation with a particular emphasis on racial equity in the workplace. She supports senior leaders and boards to develop competence in racial literacy in order to confidently lead a strategic response to tackling institutional racism.
Nick Smith
Associate
Nick Smith has over ten years’ experience of supporting leaders, volunteers and staff in charities and higher education institutions. His work developing the model governing documents used by over 200 Students’ Unions was used as an example of good practice in the House of Lords.
Zulum Elumogo
Associate
Zulum Elumogo is Managing Director of TC & Friends, an international design agency based in London, UK specialising in graphic design, branding and visual communications. As Managing Director, Zulum Elumogo leads on business development, strategy, project management and communications. Previously Special Advisor at Freuds Communications, Zulum worked with clients such as Bolt, Comic Relief, Dior, Premier League and Vogue on their communications strategies and public presentation.
Tessé Akpeki FCG
Senior Associate, Governance & Leadership
Tessé, a non practising solicitor, governance strategist, coach, mentor and facilitator combines cutting edge governance and leadership approaches with pragmatic wisdom, curiosity, cultural approaches and behavioral strategies. An evangelist of the benefits of the impact of behaviors, relationship, values, culture and sustainability. She is a special advisor to the Bishop of London and a Ministerial Development Review (MDR) Consultant for the Bishop of Willesden.
David Langley
Associate, Governance and Leadership
David Langley brings 35 years of experience from globally leading higher education institutes, private sector, Research Council, and Government and he was until recently Chief of External Engagement and Partnerships at New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE).
Jo Chaffer
Key Global Associate
With in-depth Higher Education expertise, Jo works with HEIs, HE agencies and Ministries internationally supporting and enabling leadership development, strategic approaches to leadership and governance with a particular interest in feminized leadership.
Sarah Connerty
Associate
Sarah is a governance professional with 20 years experience in the education section working across general Further Education, Sixth Form and HE governance. Sarah has expertise in mergers, board self-assessments and reviews, interventions and working with Chairs and CEOs to ensure the highest standards of governance.
Diane Dimond
Associate
Diane is an Associate with Advance HE and the Education and Training Foundation. Her consultancy work focuses on supporting Further Education College senior leaders and undertaking governance effectiveness reviews.
Trusha Lakhani
Associate, Governance
Trusha Lakhani is a qualified accountant with over 30 years experience, spending the past couple of decades in senior finance and Board roles. Trusha currently works as a consultant in her own business, where she supports organisations as a Fractional CFO and with Board governance.
Josie Stephens
Associate, Governance
Josie is a strategic communications consultant at WA Communications. She is a specialist in education and skills policy, and currently advises Newcastle University, Brunel University, City & Guilds and Ecctis on how to navigate, shape and leverage the external landscape to meet their strategic aims.
Ruth Fee
Associate, Governance
Professor Ruth Fee is Professor of Public Services Education and Subject Director for Policing within the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Ulster University. She began her career at Ulster in 1992, working with a range of collaborative partners of Ulster University, including the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the NI Prison Service and Health and Social Care Trusts, to develop a range of tailored professional and accredited academic courses. She was appointed to the Head of School of Criminology, Politics and Social Policy in 2010 and continues to maintain and expand links with the public sector, with a specific focus on the criminal justice sector.
Tony Haren
Associate, Governance
Tony Haren is an Associate Director, Credit Risk in the RBS/NatWest Group he has over 20 years’ experience of risk assessment and management in complex organisations with multi-million-pound funding requirements. He is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant who has worked on 100’s of projects to improve small, medium and large businesses, charitable organisations and social enterprises – business plans; strategic plans; funding proposals; governance improvement; board effectiveness; board governance workshops; governance, financial and HR investigations.
Hillary Gyebi-Ababio
Associate, Governance
Hillary Gyebi-Ababio is the former Vice-President (Higher Education) at NUS UK. She currently works as a Project Manager in the Social Research sector. For over three years, she has worked specifically on EDI projects, curriculum transformation and quality assurance and enhancement. She has served on the boards of the QAA and OIA and has a great wealth of experience engaging with colleagues across the Higher Education sector. Her main focuses are in liberation and inclusivity, social justice and promoting the importance of education and making it accessible for all.
Jon Scott
Co-optee
Jon is a higher education consultant with extensive experience in academic governance, quality assurance and developing practice in learning and teaching. He has ongoing expertise in undertaking institutional reviews having served as a reviewer for the QAA for over 20 years as well as being an Accreditor for Advance HE and for the Royal Society of Biology.
Carol Adams
Associate, Governance
Carol Adams’ work is concerned with the role of accounting and reporting in the relationships between business, society and the environment. For over two decades she has sought to advance practice and policy with respect to integrating sustainability considerations into organisations through applied research, leadership, standard setting, advisory work and educating the next generation of business leaders.
Katie Phillips
Associate, Governance
Katie is a recent MSc Society, Environment, and Global Change student and has a (BA) Geography degree from Swansea University. She was awarded the Terry Fenge Prize by the Swansea University Geography department for demonstrating the greatest commitment to social and environmental justice. She was previously elected President, Welsh Affairs Officer, Trustee, and Director of Swansea University Students’ Union, as well being a member of Swansea University’s Council.
Andrea Bolshaw
Associate, Governance
Andrea has worked in the HE sector for her entire 20+ year career. Having begun as a graduate trainee at the University of Sheffield, she has held roles including Administrative Head of Education at the University of Birmingham College of Medicine and Dental Sciences; Academic Registrar at the University of Coventry; and University Registrar and Secretary to the Council at Birmingham Newman University. Andrea is now successfully working in the Interim Executive space having a role first at Leeds Beckett University. She is currently at the University of Brighton providing strategic leadership for the university’s professional services and is also responsible for supporting university governance.
Dawn Turpin
Associate, Governance
Dawn is an experienced governance consultant with extensive expertise across higher education and the wider education sector. She has led governance effectiveness reviews for a diverse range of institutions, including chartered, post-92, specialist and private providers, and supports institutions in strengthening governance practice through the provision of professional development for governance practitioners.
Victoria Aurora Bennett-Salvador
Associate, Governance
Victoria is the Founder of ConsultVABS and an Advance HE Associate. She has two years of experience working with a post-92 University as President of the Students’ Union. During the pandemic, she was an active and prominent university governor developing relationships and influencing change, notably as a member of the governance and change steering committee. Victoria has five years of experience within the student activism movement and understands the true reality of differing student experiences.
Lynn Robinson
Associate, Governance
Lynn has been a higher education consultant since 2020 after a career leading professional services teams in HE, latterly as Deputy Registrar at the University of Bristol. She has been undertaking governance reviews with Advance HE since 2022 with a particular focus on student and staff voice, institutional change, risk and compliance, and the relationship between academic and corporate governance.
Dr Jack Aitken
Associate, Governance
Dr Jack Aitken has held positions at the University of Glasgow for over 20 years. He has been Director of Academic Services there for four years, with responsibility for academic policy and governance, academic and student learning development and administration and for managing delivery of the Learning and Teaching Strategy. He has extensive experience of team building and reorganisation. He previously held appointments at post-92 universities.
Aranee Manoharan
Associate, Governance
Aranee is an HE professional with experience across teaching, student success, educational development, EDI, and Board-level governance. She has contributed to governance at various levels of the university environment having served on the Faculty and University Research Degrees Committees, Senate (a.k.a Academic Council), and the University Board. A committed advocate of equity, inclusion, and social mobility, Aranee specialises in inclusive practice in curriculum and student journey design, postgraduate research (PGR) student support, early careers strategy development, leadership development, and governance.
Christine Fraser
Associate, Governance
Christine Fraser is an experienced higher education and public sector leader with extensive expertise in governance, compliance, risk management, organisational transformation and executive leadership. She has held a number of senior executive positions across universities and local government, leading major programmes of organisational change, strengthening governance and regulatory compliance, and supporting institutions through periods of significant challenge and transformation.
Vicky Lewis
Associate, Governance
Dr Vicky Lewis became an independent consultant in 2013 and specialises in advising higher education institutions on international strategy development. She has completed over 50 consultancy projects for institutions at various stages of internationalisation, mainly in the UK but also in Australia, US, Malaysia, Israel, Sweden, France and Germany. Sector-level clients have included the British Council and GMAC Europe.
Joanna Price
Associate, Governance
Joanna has had a career as a clinician, research worker, teacher and administrator which has led to her being an experienced strategic leader in Higher Education. As Vice-Chancellor of the Royal Agricultural University (RAU), Joanna was the first woman to lead this specialist institution, where she remains Professor Emeritus.
Rae Tooth
Associate, Governance
Rae Tooth is highly experienced in developing and delivering evidence-led, strategic approaches to social inclusion. Rae is the CEO of Inclusion-Revolution, a consultancy and thought leadership organisation.
Alison Green
Associate, Governance
Professor Alison Green has over 20 years experience of working in Scottish Higher Education, following a successful corporate legal career. She has held senior institutional leadership roles for over 10 years, through which she has delivered academic leadership and institutional change projects.
Chris Ennew
Associate, Governance
Christine has extensive experience of academic leadership, domestically and internationally. For 7 years, she was Provost at the University of Warwick where she led the development and delivery of the University’s academic strategy. She was responsible for all aspects of academic performance with a particular focus on finances, human resources and space. She also provided leadership in relation to recruitment/admissions, online/distance delivery, EDI/inclusion and sustainability.
Joy Carter
Associate, Governance
Professor Joy Carter was formerly the Vice-Chancellor of The University of Winchester. She is an academic with research based in Geochemistry and Health and was a former President of the international society in her field.
Julie Kelly
Associate, Governance
Julie Kelly is an experienced higher education consultant who was previously the Academic Registrar at the University of Hertfordshire and Chair of the Academic Registrars Council Admissions Practitioner Group.
Carrie Weston
Associate, Governance
Professor Carrie Weston is an experienced leader within the Higher Education sector and has been working in universities for over 25 years. Carrie's experience includes holding posts as Deputy CEO of an HEI, Executive Dean, Head of School and Director of Learning & Teaching. She brings a wealth of board-level, governance, quality assurance, academic leadership and curriculum development experience, always focussed on tackling challenges with positivity and concern for the human aspects of development and change.
Peter Ptashko
Associate, Governance
Peter Ptashko FRSA is a social entrepreneur, funder and sustainability expert and CEO of Cambio: House of Social Change, a world-leading sustainability consultancy working with arange of clients across the Public and Private sectors. He holds a series of leadership and board-level positions across these two sectors.
Alastair Sim
Director of Universities Scotland
Alastair Sim has been Director of Universities Scotland since July 2009, joining from the Scottish Civil Service. Since 2009 he has navigated the Scottish HE sector through two Scottish elections, two general elections, a referendum on Scottish independence, several spending reviews and a funding gap.
Sharon Jones
Associate, Governance – Higher Education Consultant and Researcher
Sharon Jones BSc, MSc, LLM is a seasoned professional with over 25 years in higher education, recognized for her transformative work in UK and Irish institutions. Specializing in project management, international partnerships, and strategic governance, she has led significant projects, including the merger of University College Cork with the Irish Management Institute and the establishment of Kent Medway Medical School.
Marian O’Sullivan
Associate, Governance
From January 1st 2024 to July 31st 2024, Dr Marian O’Sullivan filled the post of interim Director of Governance (Deputy Corporate Secretary) at University College Cork (UCC). Her role was to enable the University Community to meet its ever-growing governance requirements, including supporting the work of the newly appointed Governing Authority (GA), the Audit and Risk Committee, and other sub-Committees.
Maria Hinfelaar
Associate, Governance
Maria has spent twenty years at CEO level in higher education in the UK and Ireland, building on several years as an academic in her native country The Netherlands prior to that. She brings extensive board level and executive leadership experience, both in education and in wider civic roles.
David Ashton
Associate, Governance
David has 16 years’ executive-level experience at four universities in the UK in roles supporting the achievement of academic, corporate and charitable objectives. He has 15 years’ non-executive director experience in the schools and further education sectors, in charities and civic organisations and at two prominent higher education sector agencies.
Sharon Bailey
Associate – Finance & Governance
Since 2018, Sharon has been the Bursar and Chief Financial Officer in University of Galway leading the University’s Financial Planning, Financial Accounting and Research Accounting teams. Sharon supports the development and execution of University of Galway’s strategic plans through the strategic management of the University’s finances, investments, research support, and business support.
Sarah Smith
Associate, Governance
Sarah has strengths in strategic thinking, people development & leadership, and corporate governance. She has experience as a senior leader in large and complex organisations – most recently, Vice-Principal Governance and Strategic Change and University Secretary, University of Edinburgh, and Vice-Principal Leadership Development, University of Edinburgh.
Amelia Doherty
Associate, Governance
Amelia Doherty is the former Academic Officer of the University of York Students' Union (2023/24). She has worked in both University and SU settings across finance, inclusive education, and decolonisation. She also has experience of reorganisation of institutions, including both founding and closing new faculties, supporting through SU officer changes, and work in access and participation.
Zaid Mahmood
Associate, Governance
Zaid Mahmood has been involved at all levels of university governance, ranging from Council, Senate and relevant committees to strategy programme board and localised task forces for key projects. He is a champion of student voice and has held the roles of SU President at the University of Kent, Chair of the Board of Trustees at Kent Students’ Union, and student representative on the University Council and Senate
Awesome Olasope
Associate, Governance
Awesome is a dynamic and results-driven leader with extensive experience in higher education and institutional development. He has a proven track record of leading impactful initiatives, advocating for student welfare, and working closely with senior management on strategic governance projects. Awesome is skilled in project management, policy development, and stakeholder engagement, adept in presenting to boards, managing cross-functional teams, and driving transformative change to deliver sustainable solutions.
