CISG-PCMG21

Ian has headed up the Programme & Project delivery Group at Oxford University since 2013 and is responsible for the planning and delivery of a rolling three-year IT investment plan to deliver new and improved services across the University of Oxford.

Adrian Ellison is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor and CIO at the University West London, where he is a member of the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive and responsible for Academic Administration, Academic Registry, Academic Quality and Standards, Library and IT services and the Institute for Policing Studies. He has been in UK higher education for 24 years at four universities. Adrian has written about and spoken widely on the use of technology and analytics in the HE sector.

Following a 12-year career in the Higher Education Sector, John retired from his role as the Director of Computing Services at the University of Liverpool in April 2021. John was responsible for the management, planning and implementation of all Computing and IT related services at the University. His department provided a focal point for all IT support services and promoted the innovation, development and use of new technology and systems to deliver the University’s strategic objectives in Research, Education and Professional Services. John joined the Higher Education sector in 2009 having held several senior management positions within Siemens, the global engineering and technology Services Company, operating across multiple industry sectors in the UK and abroad. Prior to his career with Siemens John worked in the UK Nuclear Industry for more than 10 years, during a period of significant sector growth in the 70’s and 80’s. Outside of his professional activities, John is still heavily involved in Rugby Union through his local club in Lymm Cheshire. Having played rugby for more than 40 years since his school days at Lymm Grammar School, John is now the Chairman of the club. Since retiring in April John has qualified as a vaccinator and supports his local Covid-19 vaccination program on a voluntary basis and is a Trustee on the board of a local Academy, “The Challenge Academy Trust (TCAT)”.

Anthony has worked in Higher Education for all of his career both supporting key services and developing novel educational tools. In his current role as Head of Endpoint Management Systems at UCL he leads a team running the Managed Desktop Service, including up to 20,000 physical devices and a remote desktop service hosting up to 2,000 concurrent sessions.

Lead Education Technologist as part of the Public Sector UK & Ireland team at Citrix Systems UK - Empowering digital learning transformation within Further & Higher Education Institutions through the adoption and use of beneficial Citrix / Citrix supporting technologies. Craig has worked closely with many Universities in the UK, including the University of Cambridge.

Geoff Houlton has been Head of Information Systems at University of Cumbria for the last 10 years, and worked in a similar role at University of York for the 12 years prior, following earlier roles in local government IT. He has participated in ucisa events since 1999 and spent 2 years on the ucisa-CISG committee.

Dean is Trustee Treasurer of ucisa, Director of USL Ltd. and Assistant Director of Digital and Information Services at the University of Aberdeen. With a career spanning over 30 years he is highly experienced leader of strategy, vision and change. Has held a number of senior roles within the University and NHS managing relationships with and between key stakeholders, recent focus has been on business growth and shared services across the city. A chartered IT professional, he was awarded a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors (IoD) in 2009. Currently Director and Chair of Garthdee Alpine Sports, Trustee Director of Sport Aberdeen, Director of Medical Illustration at NHS Grampian and committee member of IoD Aberdeen branch. Dean participates in many sports and enjoys all aspects of keeping active outdoors; he has also gained professional qualifications in fitness training.

Lauriel has been a Project Manager at the University of Aberdeen for 3 years and was the PM for Worktribe implementation. Her career has been varied from PA roles, HR, Incident Management, PMO and finally Project Management. Originally from Manchester, moved to Kent and then to Scotland for the snow!

Dominic is the Head of Implementation at Worktribe. He has experience of implementing costing tools at universities, from both the University side and the supplier side, having worked at two Russel Group Universities and two software suppliers. Dominic worked with Aberdeen as part of their successful Implementation.

Emily is a Project Manager at HESA, who has spent the last 5 years working on the Data Futures programme. She is responsible for the Business Change and Data workstream deliverables, working closely with the internal project teams as well as key external stakeholders within the sector.

Alexia Cambon is a Research Director in the HR research practice and leads the Employee Experience Key Initiative and co-leads of the Future of Work Reinvented KI. Ms. Cambon's areas of focus include hybrid work design, employee experience design and delivery, improving organizational culture, driving employee engagement, and creating a compelling EVP. She has been with Gartner for 8.9 years, specializing in creating compelling research that empower HR executives to work smarter. She is also part of the Women@Gartner London steering committee

Deborah joined UCISA as CEO in May of 2019, bringing with her a wealth of marketing and Higher Education experience, most recently as Director of Student Recruitment at the University of Hull following five years as Chief Executive of Marketing Leeds and 5 years at Leeds Beckett University, where she was a member of the Executive Board. She is no stranger to leading member organisations, having led the Law Society’s regional team earlier in her career, supporting 14,500 solicitors in Yorkshire and the North East and introducing a wealth of new initiatives and services, resulting in her receiving the Yorkshire Enterprise Award and being recognised as Yorkshire Lawyer of the year in 2007 for her services to the profession.

Steve has over 20 years’ experience in information and cybersecurity within the HE/FE sector. Working as part of the HEFESTIS CISO Share for the last three years helping members enable organisational security change.

David has over 20 years experience in cybersecurity predominantly in the public, government and HE/FE sectors. Serving as Security Information Risk/Assurance Adviser to Scottish Government, and Senior Responsible Officer for Secure Information Exchange he has led national programmes of change such as C-me for secure child protection and chaired the National Practice Forum and the National Information Sharing Governance Group before joining CISO Share.

Diane Houston is Pro Vice Chancellor for Education at Birkbeck, University of London. She is a professor of psychology whose research interests lie in social and personal predictors of academic performance, processes of prejudice and discrimination, theoretical approaches to women’s work participation and equality in the workplace. Prior to her appointment at Birkbeck in 2016, Diane was the founding Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Kent and before this Head of the School of Psychology. Diane also spent three years (2003-6) as the academic advisor to the UK Government’s Women and Equality Unit as well as serving as advisor to the Women and Work Commission in 2006. Diane is currently co-chair of the London Higher Teaching and Learning Network and a member of the Universities UK (UUK) Life Long Learning Advisory Group.

Geoff is a Senior Project / Programme Manager, with over 30 years experience in driving and leading transformational IT and business change projects within Government, NHS, Retail, Insurance, Utilities and Financial Services.

Simon is currently the Vice President for Education at Flywire responsible for business in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Having held previous roles as the Managing Director of Uni-Pay and CEL Transact, Simon has specialised in the provision of global payments to the Education Sector for more than ten years. Prior to this, Simon spent over a decade working within the outsourcing and digitisation sectors to secure and manage large contracts with central government departments and multi-national organisations across Europe.

My portfolio is wide ranging from corporate administration to IS strategy and special projects. In March 2019, I was appointed senior lead on the University’s Hybrid Working Programme. My harshest critic is a grumpy black Labrador who has been our biggest hybrid working challenge – as yet unsolved!

Ian has spent 35 years working in the global Higher Education (HE) Sector. Starting his career at Coventry University in Finance and then Business Analyst roles, he was one of the founders of the EA Community of Practice under UCISA, to which he was appointed Chair in 2015. Ian envisaged and led the creation of a UK Capability Model that is today used in many universities around the globe. Ian currently works for Ellucian, where he assists higher education institutions to align strategic and operational goals, and to assess and improve user experiences through enterprise architecture.

My current role is the CEO of Jisc. Jisc is a not-for-profit membership organisation that provides the UK universities, colleges and skills sectors with a shared digital infrastructure. I studied psychology and management studies at the University of Glasgow, and started my career as a researcher studying how communication in the workplace supports innovation. I have since held a variety of Board level leadership roles in higher education, most recently as executive director of corporate services at the University of Sheffield. In Sheffield I had strategic responsibility for all the core corporate services including IT, HR, Communications and Estates and Facilities. Prior to Sheffield, I spent eight years at the University of York, where, I held a variety of roles including deputy registrar and director of corporate and information services. Over the years my work has covered high performance computing for research, library and archives, planning and strategic change, and leading the technology change team at the University of St Andrews. I was a member of UCAS council for 8 years, chair of Universities and College Information Systems Association (UCISA), and chair of the Russell Universities Group IT Directors (RUGIT). In 2017 I was delighted to be named as female CIO of the year by Computing Magazine. I have recently become a governor of York College my local FE provider.

Alex was part of the team that launched the award-winning US airline Virgin America before leading Virgin’s entire digital strategy, including Sir Richard Branson's personal strategy. In speeches and workshops, Alex demonstrates how to create a meaningful bond with customers by showing the human side of brands, building relationships online and in the real world, exploring the psychology of brand loyalty, and revealing some of the best tactics for keeping customers happy and loyal.