John Amaechi is a respected organisational psychologist, a New York Times best-selling author and CEO of APS Ltd, a strategic consultancy that works across Europe, Asia and North America. John was recently named to 2019’s list of the most influential thinkers in HR that includes Simon Sinek, Amy Cuddy and Patrick Lencioni.

John partners with organisations to help leaders deliver on the promise of authentic, transformational leadership. He focuses on improving performance through an evidence-based practice: solving seemingly intractable people problems and creating thriving workplaces in the face of inevitable challenges and disruption.

John coaches individuals and consults with organisations to improve communication, leadership and teaming and enhance culture as a way to grow, improve and achieve goals. His psychological insight helps people understand the barriers to high performance and overcome them. He understands motivation and personal development and the roots of success that enables these traits to flourish. He also considers the nature of competition, the importance of cognitive diversity in organisational achievement, and aligning personal and business values and ethics.

John’s experience is unique – he created a masterplan for his own radical, personal transformation from an overweight British schoolboy to the first British NBA (National Basketball Association, USA) star to psychologist – and his experience and approach appeals to people from all walks of life.

In addition to running his own international strategic consultancy, John is also a Chartered Scientist, an elected Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and a Research Fellow at the University of East London and he holds various additional board and trustee positions.

Dave Ayre is the Property Networks Manager for the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and advises on asset management, partnering and wider property issues throughout the UK. He is a member of CIPFA’s Housing Panel and manages CIPFA’s Housing Advisory Network, Highways Asset Management Planning, Strategic Assets and Property Training Networks and advises on asset management, partnering and wider property issues throughout the UK.

david.ayre@cipfa.org

CIPFA Property: www.cipfa.org/services/property

Sessions :

Alix Bedford is a strategic risk professional with over 16 years’ experience working both with and within the public sector. Alix’s current role involves looking at the key emerging and evolving areas of risk impacting the public sector now and in the future, talking to risk professionals within the sector about the challenges facing their organisations and working within Zurich to ensure our risk proposition enables our customers to understand and manage these risks effectively.

Alix started her career as a Strategic Risk Consultant before spending 7 years as the lead officer for risk and performance management at a Unitary Local Authority.  Prior to her current role, Alix managed the Public Services segment within Zurich Municipal, further increasing her knowledge and skills of the sector and how ZM can meet its needs. Alix has experience in a variety of fields including strategy and policy development, corporate planning, performance management, programme and project management and business resilience. Alix is a member of the Institute of Risk Management and was their Certificate qualification student of the year for 2016.

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John Bloomer has been Chief Finance Officer (Section 151 Officer) at Staffordshire Police since joining in March 2018 and is responsible for Finance and Commercial services, with a net revenue budget of more than £200 million.

He began his career at Staffordshire County Council in 2010, moving to work for Cornwall Council in 2015 as Strategic Finance Manager for Education, Health and Social Care. Following two years in this role, he returned to Staffordshire to spend a short spell as Deputy Director of Finance at North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust, before moving into the policing world. John has been a CIPFA member for 10 years

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Dominic joined Horsham District Council as Head of Finance from Grant Thornton five years ago, having trained at the Audit Commission. Since arriving in local government, he has advocated transformation and improvement in both his team and across the council.

Finance was the first service in Horsham District Council to adopt a SaaS platform in the form of TechnologyOne.

Sessions :

John Burn-Murdoch is the chief data reporter at the Financial Times, where he has been leading coverage of the Covid pandemic and its impacts on health, the economy and wider society. He also uses data and graphics to tell stories on topics including politics, economics and sport, and is a visiting lecturer at the London School of Economics.

Andrew Burns is a Past President of CIPFA having served as President in 2017/18 and former Chairman of the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB).

Until December 2018, he was Director of Finance and Resources for Staffordshire County Council (SCC) with strategic responsibility for Finance, IT, Digital, Property, Commercial and Customer Services and was Treasurer of the Staffordshire Pension Fund. Andrew led the financial transformation programme that delivered £200m savings and significant service improvement in Staffordshire.

For his CCAB role Andy took leadership of the group representing the main UK accountancy bodies, which has a combined membership of over 380,000 professional accountants worldwide.

Andy has an MBA from Aston Business School and is also a Past President of the Society of County Treasurers.

Sessions :

Zoe Charlesworth, Director of Policy and Operations at Policy in Practice, has worked in the field of welfare benefits for over 20 years and has a comprehensive knowledge of benefit policy and regulation. She has practical experience and policy knowledge of council tax support schemes including administrative processes, drivers of scheme design, award calculation, and service delivery.

Zoe has an extensive understanding of regulation and practice of both legacy benefits and Universal Credit. She has previously been a Benefit Manager and a Revenues and Benefit Manager with responsibility for council tax support and benefit delivery, at three local authorities. She understands the business of local government and the role of local delivery of support through her work in local authorities, the Association of District Councils, and the Local Government Association.

Zoe has published numerous articles on welfare benefits and has spoken extensively on the impact of welfare policy and the impact of Universal Credit on localised council tax support.

Sessions :

Saffron is NHS Providers deputy chief executive, part of the senior management team and sits on the NHS Providers board. She has extensive experience in policy development, influencing and communications and has worked in the healthcare sector since 2007. Before moving into healthcare, Saffron was head of public affairs at the Local Government Association, the voice of local councils in England. Her early career focused on influencing EU legislation and policy development, and she started working life in adult and community education.

She has a degree in Modern Languages from the University in Manchester, for ten years was a board member and then chair of a 16–19 college in Hampshire and is a trustee of GambleAware, a leading charity committed to minimising gambling-related harm.

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Nicky’s 35 years of Local Government experience started as a junior in the “rates” department  before moving into Housing Benefits. She studied AAT before her first accounting role at Oxfordshire County Council. Nicky has significant experience of district council life and has held several roles within Huntingdonshire District Council.

Current Nicky is the Councils Systems Accountant (with a side order of VAT and Treasury Management thrown in for good measure). Nicky has been working with the TechnologyOne OneCouncil solution for 2 years.

Sessions :

Gareth Davies was appointed C&AG on 1 June 2019. Before his appointment as C&AG, he was Head of Public Services at Mazars, a global accountancy firm specialising in audit tax and advisory services. Prior to this, he was managing director of the Audit Commission’s Audit Practice. He’s also a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Stephanie is the Executive Director of Business Resources at National Museums Liverpool (NML), an arms length body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) which runs eight museums and art galleries across Merseyside as well as a commercial retail, events and conference business. Her responsibilities include Finance, Risk & Governance, HR (people), Estates (including Health & Safety) and Information Systems.

Stephanie joined NML in May 2020 from the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA).  She was both a Deputy Director of GIAA and Head of Internal Audit for the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury and National Savings & Investments (NS&I) and led a team of Internal Auditors who delivered internal audit services to sixteen customers across the Centre of Government. Prior to joining the Civil Service, Stephanie  was the Head of Internal Audit at Merseytravel (Passenger Transport Executive) and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.

Stephanie is a CIPFA Member and currently CIPFA North West Region President. She recently stepped down as chair of the CIPFA TIS (Technical Information Service) Editorial Board for Internal Audit and is a member of the CIPFA Diversity & Inclusion Working Group.

She has a degree in the History of Art from the University of Edinburgh.

Sessions :

Mike joined the Department of Health & Social Security in 1979 straight from school, and spent his first 6 years in the Civil Service delivering services to customers. He then moved into regional management and thereafter fulfilled a range of policy and finance roles.

He is a CIPFA qualified accountant, and has held a variety of FD roles, both corporate and operational. He was promoted to Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at the Department for Work & Pensions in 2012. From 1st April 2016, he was appointed the CFO for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and on 1st June July 2017 also became the Head of the Government Finance Function, HM Treasury, where he is driving the agenda to substantially strengthen the finance function’s critical role at the heart of government, ensuring better political and business outcomes.

In addition to his core roles, he has a range of additional responsibilities. Within the MoJ, he is the Accountant General of the Senior Courts of England & Wales and a Commissioner for the Reduction of the National Debt. Across Government, he is a member of the Commercial Function Oversight Board and a Non-Executive Board Member of Shared Services Connect Limited. To drive forward the finance profession,he is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy (CIPFA) Council and Chair of the CIPFA Governance & Financial Management Panel.

Rebecca Evans was first elected to the National Assembly for Wales in May 2011 to represent the Mid and West Wales region. In 2016 she became Member of the Senedd for Gower.

Rebecca received a degree in History from the University of Leeds, and a Master of Philosophy degree in Historical Studies from Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge. Before being elected, Rebecca worked in the third sector.

Rebecca has served on the National Assembly for Wales’ Environment and Sustainable Development Committee and its Common Agricultural Policy Task and Finish Group. She has also served on the Health and Social Care Committee, and the Children, Young People and Education Committee.

In June 2014, Rebecca was appointed Deputy Minister for Farming and Food, and in May 2016 she became Minister for Social Services and Public Health. In November 2017, she was appointed Minister for Housing and Regeneration, and in December 2018 she joined the Cabinet as Minister for Finance and Trefnydd.

Chris started his career at City of Wolverhampton Council training as a CIPFA accountant, working in various teams with a focus on year end and housing. Currently he works at Bromsgrove and Redditch shared service and has spent the last 18 months driving a modernisation agenda within finance and customer services at the council. Part of this modernisation includes the implementation of the TechnologyOne solution which is currently being built.

Sessions :

David currently serves as Leader of the Somerset County Council.  In addition to being a County Councillor David has also been Chair of his local Parish Council, a Governor at a large C of E primary school and for over ten years has chaired a very successful fund raising committee in his own village. In business David has a wide range of operational experience including manufacturing, Childrens Homes and Older People care.  Most recently he has been Director of HR for a large family owned South West employer operating across 38 sites.

In addition to his first Degree, David is a fully qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Warwick University.

Sessions :

Mark Gibbison is the Global Head of Public Sector for Unit4 and is responsible for setting the go to market strategy across all areas of this key vertical. He is passionate about helping public sector organisations deliver improved services at a lower cost using modern enterprise technology. He has previously held senior positions in Local Government working in IT, Corporate Policy and Performance Management as well as with technology vendors such as SAP and Objective Corporation where he was Head of UK Enterprise Sales.

Sessions :

Pete has over 35 years’ experience in public sector finance and leadership, having held Chief Finance Officer, Resources Director and Head of Paid Service roles. A CIPFA qualified accountant, he has been Chief Finance Officer at three local authorities and two police forces. During this time he has become renowned for both service transformation and for implementing alternative service delivery models, including innovative partnerships with the private sector.

His currently portfolio at Surrey and Sussex  police forces includes Financial Services,  Procurement, Estates/Facilities and Feet Services.  He is also the SRO for the Police National Commercial Board, and chairs the People sub-group of the Achieving Finance Excellence in Policing programme.

Will Goodchild is a Finance Business Partner at Essex County Council and serves as President of the CIPFA Student Network.

Sessions :

Neil leads the Counter Fraud and Investigation team at the GIAA, an Executive Agency of HM Treasury. His team provides services across UK government on matters of fraud, bribery and corruption. Neil sits on a number of cross-Government boards and has led a number of high profile fraud investigations and leak inquiries.

Over the past four years, Neil and his team has played a pivotal role supporting the development of the Government Counter Fraud Function and Profession. Beyond conducting criminal and civil investigations, Neil’s team have already supported more than 70 separate government organisations to improve their counter fraud response and compliance with the Government Counter Fraud Functional Standard.

His team have won two awards for their contribution to the UK Government fight against fraud.

Philip Hammond has been a UK Cabinet Minister and key member of the British Government for almost a decade. Leading four departments over nine years and rising to the second most powerful job in government, he is one of only three people to serve continuously in the UK cabinet from 2010 to 2019, serving under Prime Ministers David Cameron and Theresa May.

Taking on the role of Chancellor of the Exchequer shortly after the 2016 Brexit Referendum, Hammond took charge of the British economy at a time of unprecedented uncertainty. Philip Hammond has always strongly held the view that nobody voted for Brexit with a view to becoming poorer or less secure, and thus believes the best way of honouring the result of the referendum is to negotiate a deal with the European Union that keeps the UK and EU close economically, after the 2020 transition period has come to an end.

He fought strongly for this approach within the cabinet and has continued to do so since leaving government. He also focused on the needs of businesses and particularly the need to protect London’s global financial markets.

Philip Hammond has focused on the challenges faced by developed economies, specifically: the technological revolution and how it is already transforming the way we work and live our lives; climate change and how to harness the market economy to deliver decarbonisation; demographic shifts and the challenges of an ageing population, and particularly in the UK, the challenge of raising productivity.

Through his roles as Chancellor and as Foreign Secretary, Hammond has considerable experience of working with China, and clear views about how to manage the integration of China as a major economic and strategic power into the global system. He also has strong connections in the Gulf region. He was part of the “E3+3” team that negotiated the JCPOA nuclear arms control deal with Iran in 2015. During his tenure as Defence and then Foreign Secretary, Hammond built strong links with the US and other allied counterparts, both civilian and military, and was a frequent visitor to Afghanistan during the campaign.

Philip Hammond retains a close interest in the strategic challenges facing the Western Alliance and then interrelationship between economic and strategic influences. Hammond grew up in Essex, England, and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at University College Oxford. Before entering Parliament in 1997, he ran a number of successful businesses. He stepped down as the Member of Parliament for the Surrey constituency of Runnymede and Weybridge in November 2019.

Andy is Chief Executive Officer of University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW).

Andy was appointed Chief Executive Officer in 2010.  For the six years prior to that he was Chief Finance Officer of UHCW, as well as Deputy Chief Executive Officer from 2008 – 2010.

In addition, Andy sits on a number of Boards including the following West Midlands Academic Health Service Network, CIPFA, Warwick Business School Faculty Advisory Board and NHS Elect.

In January 2016 Andy was appointed Professor of Industry at the University of Warwick.

In addition to his Chief Executive Officer role, Andy was appointed as Senior Responsible Officer of the Coventry & Warwickshire STP Footprint in March 2016.

Andy is also a Director of Albany Theatre Trust, Coventry.

Sessions :

Ayesha Hazarika is a political commentator, writer and comedian who served as Chief of Staff to Harriet Harman, Labour Deputy Leader and twice Acting Leader of the Labour Party. She was a senior Labour adviser for more than eight years in Government and in opposition.

As well as working alongside Harriet, Ayesha prepared Ed Miliband for Prime Minister’s Questions, conference speeches, interviews and the televised Leaders’ debates during the 2015 election. She wrote speeches, questions and responses for both, as well as delivering the landmark Equality Act onto the statute book and leading Labour’s response to the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking and press ethics.

Before politics, Ayesha worked with the chairman of music giant EMI and was a civil service press officer at the Department of Trade and Industry, Home Office and No 10. Before that, she was an award-winning comedian who toured the country and played the Edinburgh Fringe. A career she has returned to (at least in part), only now with a more political theme.

Ayesha lifts the lid on Westminster and how the parties operate from the deals and plots to how best to attack your opposite number across the floor. She looks at the serious and the entertaining sides of politics such as how it felt to watch Ed Miliband flounder on live TV, how policy is drafted, and the disconnection between Westminster and voters. She also reveals the important role her Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood and Natalie Bennett impressions played in the leaders’ debate rehearsals.

As well as a political overview and analysis Ayesha looks at the role of women in politics and the challenges they often face in the careers. She considers how politics works, how messages are communicated (successfully and unsuccessfully), and how government policy is formed and influenced. She also addresses the future of culture, media and the creative industries in a climate of cuts and unequal opportunities.

Ayesha is a regular commentator on the BBC, Sky and ITN as well as writing for national newspapers and magazines including the FT, Guardian and New Statesman.

Elizabeth Honer was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA), and Head of Government Internal Audit, on 1 October 2018.

Her career spans over 25 years in the public sector, including in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Houses of Parliament and the National Archives. She is a qualified accountant (CIPFA), with substantial expertise in strategy, governance and risk management at Board level. She seeks to maximise the contribution of internal audit in delivering better outcomes, drawing on her previous experience both as a manager and customer of the function.

Elizabeth is a champion of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, actively seeking different perspectives and regularly mentoring women and BAME emerging leaders. She has an MSc in Managing Organisational Performance (Cranfield School of Management) and has published research articles on performance improvement and managing reputational risk.

When not at work, she enjoys cycling (many overseas tours with her husband), classical music (including choral singing) and cooking.

Ebony is a Director at IMPOWER, CIPFA qualified, she has extensive experience in shaping and supporting the delivery of transformation in some of the most complex environments across local government. Ebony believes that councils should take an outcomes-driven approach to financial sustainability, and enjoys helping leaders to surface and tackle the real obstacles to positive and lasting change.

Sessions :

Mike is Director of Investment at Lancashire County Council responsible for Treasury investment and debt management as well as a broader commercialization brief.  Mike was Chief Investment Officer for Lancashire County Council, Lancashire County Pension Fund since 2009 and LPP until 2017, having previously held a similar role with Cornwall County Council and was responsible for the joint venture with LPFA which became LPP, ahead of the Governments pooling agenda. Mike graduated in Physics with Economics from Imperial College London, and has over 39 years of experience as a, rates, currency and fixed-income proprietary trader and market maker, as well as debt/capital markets experience having established the Euro-Commercial Paper and Euro-Medium Term Note operations at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Mike has held a number of senior posts across a wide range of rates proprietary trading, market making, debt origination, structuring and risk management positions at Bank of America, UBS, Merrill Lynch, SG Warburg and Morgan Stanley.

Sessions :

Alan Johnson became Deputy President in November 2018, having served on the IFAC Board since November 2015. He was nominated by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Mr. Johnson is a former Non-executive Director of Jerónimo Martins SGPS, S.A., a food retailer with operations in Portugal, Poland, and Colombia, having completed his board mandate in 2016. He is currently the independent Chairman of the company’s Internal Control Committee. Previously he was Chief Financial Officer of Jerónimo Martins from 2012 to 2014. Between 2005 and 2011 he served as Chief Audit Executive for the Unilever Group. Mr. Johnson also served as Chief Financial Officer of Unilever’s Global Foods businesses and worked for Unilever for 35 years in various finance positions in Africa, Europe and Latin America.

Mr. Johnson was a member of the IFAC Professional Accountants in Business Committee between 2011 and 2015, a member of the ACCA’s Market Oversight Committee between 2006 and 2012 and chair of the Accountants for Business Global Forum until 2018. He was a member of the board of Gildat Strauss Israel between 2003 and 2004. Mr. Johnson is the chair of the board of governors of St. Julian’s School in Portugal and chairs its Finance & Bursaries Committees. In October 2016 he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the International Valuation Standards Council and chairs its audit committee. Between July 2018 and September 2020 he was a non-executive director of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and chaired its Audit & Risk Assurance Committee.

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Sessions :

Ewan King joined SCIE in September 2014 and leads the organisation’s business development, marketing, research, consultancy and communications functions. Ewan is currently leading a programme of work for the Department for Health and Social Care on Covid-19 recovery.

Ewan leads SCIE’s work on integration of health and social care, personalised care, asset based approaches, innovation and children’s social care. Ewan was until recently on the executive team responsible for setting up the DfE funded What Works Centre for Children’s Social Care.

Ewan has been Director of Research at the OPM Group, an employee owned research organisation and consultancy. Before joining OPM, Ewan worked as a researcher for the Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP. Ewan was until recently a Trustee of the Charity Penrose, which seeks to re-integrate ex-offenders and people with mental health conditions into society. He was educated at the London School of Economics and Warwick University

Jeffrey Matsu is Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). With extensive experience in connecting policy with practice through evidence-based research, he works with partner governments, accountancy bodies and the public sector around the world to advance public finance and support better public services.

Previously, Jeff was responsible for market analysis and thought leadership at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and co-led the economy theme at the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE).

He was also a senior economist at Morgan Stanley and served on the research staff at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in Washington DC.

Jeff holds degrees in economics from the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University.

Sessions :

June is a Managing Director of PFM Financial Advisors LLC and leads PFM’s efforts in the UK.  June brings over 30 years of experience providing her expertise on credit strategy, risk assessment, financing options and cash-flow optimisation to local and regional governments. She also has a wealth of experience in assisting universities navigate the complex areas of strategic and capital planning. June and her team currently serve as the managed service provider for the UK Municipal Bonds Agency.

June earned her degree in International Economics from Georgetown University and holds an MBA in Finance from Boston University.

Sessions :

Marc is the Head of Counter Fraud for the CIPFA Counter Fraud Centre and is CIPFA’s representative on the Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally Board, the governments Cross Sector Advisory Group and the CCAB’s Economic Crime Panel.  He has been an accredited counter fraud specialist since 1998 with over 24 years’ experience of counter fraud work in the public sector. Prior to joining CIPFA in 2017 he was Counter Fraud Group Manager at a London borough Council.

He is passionate about making a significant impact in the fight against fraud and as a thought leader, developing policy and transformational change to aid the UK in effectively tackling fraud.

Sessions :

Christine is a senior civil servant in the Scottish Government.  After taking a short career break from the role of Chief Finance Officer for Health and Care, she returned at the start of the Covid outbreak to take on the role of Director of Finance for NHS Louisa Jordan – the Scottish version of the Nightingale Hospitals.   Whilst retaining this role, Christine is now also Director of Planning for Health and Care, with responsibility for the safe restart of services, and co-Director of the Scottish Testing Programme.

Prior to this Christine has held a number of senior finance roles in NHS Scotland and has worked as a management consultant, working with a variety of UK public sector organisations.  Christine’s career began as an NHS Finance Trainee and she is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant and previous chair of the Cipfa Scottish Branch.

Christine is also a Charity Trustee with Carnegie UK and Corra Foundation.

Megan Mclean is a Senior Policy and Data Analyst for social policy led software and data analytics business, Policy in Practice.

Megan leads the CTRS modelling and consultation service at Policy in Practice, working with a large number of local authorities to measure the cost and social implications of their current scheme. She uses her data-led insight to design models that meet council objectives and target support to people in need.

She has written evidence on Universal Credit that was submitted to Parliament and presented evidence on benefits take up to the Scottish Social Security Committee in January 2020.

Sessions :

Hashi Mohamed is one of the UK’s leading junior barristers in planning and public law, including environmental, human rights and commercial litigation. He is a Special Adviser to Max Hill QC, the Independent Reviewer or Terror Legislation. He also presents on BBC Radio 4 and writes across leading publications, including The Times, The Guardian and Prospect Magazine.

One of 12 children, Mohamed’s father died when he was 9. Soon after, Mohamed came to the UK as an unaccompanied child refugee from Kenya in the summer of 1993. When he arrived he spoke basic English, attended failing schools and was raised exclusively on state benefits in a deprived area of North West London. Today, at 33, as a barrister and broadcaster, Mohamed has attended both Oxford University and Bar school on a full scholarship.

His story is one of hope and ambition, aspiration and inspiration. He uses his personal journey to draw powerful conclusions for business and enterprise, public sector and central government – about better devising policy, about resilience, focus and the ability to adapt in the pursuit of success. The lessons to be drawn are multifaceted and relevant to many people and industries.

Mohamed stimulates motivation and inspiration as well as chairing events and panel discussions in the UK and abroad.

Ashleigh is Corporate Communications Manager for CIPFA, with responsibility for media relations, social media and stakeholder relationships. She previously worked in media relations for the Department for Transport and before that at Hampshire County Council. She is a graduate of the LGA’s National Graduate Development Programme, where she gained experience in public service transformation and policy development. In her spare time, she volunteers in communications and events with independent film festivals.

Sessions :

Sarah Mukherjee is the CEO of IEMA.  She was the BBC’s Environment Correspondent for many years, presenting on national and international BBC radio and television news, working – and winning awards – across the world.   Since leaving the Corporation, she has had leadership roles in utilities and agriculture.  She was a panel member for the National Parks Review and sits on the National Food Strategy Advisory Panel.  She is a Trustee of the Woodland Trust and a governor of Harper Adams University.

Sarah has been a Campaign for Real Ale beer judge and a rugby reporter in the past – two activities she still enjoys – and is a runner and yoga addict.

Sessions :

Jayne’s 30 year career to date has been rooted in the public sector, with experience across local government, police and crime, devolution, and public sector reform. She is currently Finance and Resources Director at North Wales Housing and CIPFA Junior Vice President. This and previous roles involve significant complexity, with accountability for multi-million budgets and advising on the deployment of these resources. Areas of expertise include treasury management, financial planning, audit, procurement, commissioning, value for money, organisational transformation and effective governance.

Ian is a Cipfa fellow who started his local government finance career many moons ago “just after CCT became a thing” and qualified as an Accounting Technician before studying for Cipfa and qualifying whilst at Preston City Council.

On leaving local government Ian worked for the DWP before moving into consultancy and has spent the last 21 years at several suppliers providing a variety of solutions and transformational services to the public sector with a significant focus on Local Government ERP.

Sessions :

Don is a qualified accountant and leads CIPFA’s policy and technical work.

Don’s background is local authority finance, having trained initially at a Scottish local authority. He also worked for Audit Scotland prior to joining CIPFA in 2002 as Policy & Technical Officer becoming Policy & Technical Manager in 2004 before becoming Head of CIPFA Scotland in November 2013.

In April 2014 Don also became CIPFA’s Head of Devolved Government and in April 2015 assumed further responsibility for Financial Management in CIPFA.

In 2014, Don led on the Institute’s work on the Scottish referendum and that same year was appointed as the expert budget adviser to the Welsh Assembly’s Finance Committee for the 2015/16 budget process.

Don has led CIPFA’s work on local taxation in Scotland and was a member of the Commission on Local Tax Reform which reported in December 2015.  In September 2015, he was appointed to the Scottish Parliament Budget Review Group.

In January 2018, Don was appointed Head of Policy & Technical and leads CIPFA’s team of technical and policy experts and is responsible for all of CIPFA’s codes of practice and guidance and ensuring that CIPFA’s ‘policy voice’ is prominent.

Outside of work Don is happily married with 2 grown-up sons.  At weekends Don will usually be on the golf course or can be seen ‘walking down the Halbeath Road’.

Twitter: @PeeblesDon

Sessions :

Joanne Pitt is an experienced policy advisor with a proven history of working in a wide range of areas within local government. She has recently overseen the introduction of the CIPFA Financial Management Code – the first new CIPFA Code in 15 years.

Much of her work involves supporting senior leaders around the local government policy agenda, putting financial sustainability at the heart of the message.

Joanne is the author of a number of publications including “Balancing the Budget” and “Investing in Council Housing”, writes articles for both national and trade press and often represents the Institute as a national speaker across the UK.

Caroline was the Accountable Officer of NHS Mid Essex CCG (since 2014) and the Joint STP lead for Mid and South Essex.

Caroline has been qualified CIPFA since 1990 and has held board level roles in both local and national organisations for 20 years. These have spanned a variety of roles from Director of Finance, Commissioning and Procurement to Deputy CEO and CEO.

Caroline spent the first 15 years of her career in local government starting at the Corporation of London and then working at London Borough, District Council and County Council level.

Moving to health at the turn of the century offered new and exciting opportunities for Caroline including working at health authority level and national level in 2 private companies owned by the Department of Health – Community Health Partnership (CHP) and NHS Property Services.

Caroline has been on the CIPFA Council now for five years, is a member of the Health and Social Care Board and is the current Chair of the Student and Members Board.

Caroline has a passion for ensuring that the population understand the benefit of health and wellbeing, supporting this she is a non-Executive Board Member and the Chair of the Audit Committee of Active

Sessions :

Sir Tony Redmond has had a long and substantial career in public service, in particular in local government, most recently leading the independent Redmond Review into local audit and financial reporting.

He was Chairman and Chief Executive of the Commission for Local Administration and Local Government Ombudsman for nine years. Prior to that, his principal roles included the posts of Chief Executive of the London Borough of Harrow, Treasurer to the West London Waste Authority, Finance Director and Deputy Chief Executive of Knowsley Council and Treasurer to the Merseyside Police Authority.

Sir Tony is a former CIPFA President and a member of CIPFA Council, a fellow of the Institute of Revenues and Rating Valuation, and a fellow of the RSA. He is currently Vice Chair of the Consumer Council for Water and a Course Director for Public Administration International dealing with training for dispute resolution in African and Asian countries. He is also Chair of CIPFA’s Charities and Public Entities Board.

Alan has over 15 years risk management experience. While with Zurich he has delivered a range of risk and resilience consultancy services for our customers. Invariably this means working with senior managers on risk and resilience, and includes projects on enterprise risk management, business continuity, crisis and incident management, supply chain risk, and horizon scanning. Alan is trained in facilitation, training others, and PRINCE 2 project management. Previously Alan worked for 2 blue chip companies, spending 5 years in financial services and telecoms, as well as a short time in the charity sector.

Sessions :

Lee Scott served as a councillor in the London Borough of Redbridge from 1998 to 2006, including three years as Cabinet Member for Communities, Planning and Regeneration.  He was elected to Parliament as MP for Ilford North in 2005, serving until 2015.

During his public service career, amongst other roles, Lee served as parliamentary private secretary to Philip Hammond and chaired the Regulation Reform Select Committee.  From 2018-19, Lee was special advisor to the Rt Hon James Brokenshire, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

Amongst his other charitable work, Lee runs a charity to help young people with special education needs into employment.

Sessions :

Paula Surridge joined the University of Bristol in October 2002 and has been a Senior Lecturer there since 2007. Prior to this she was a Lecturer at University of Aberdeen between 1996-1999 and University of Salford  between 1999-2002.

Paula is interested in social and political values, both their links to positions in socio-demographic space and their influence on political behaviour.  Research primarily uses large-scale quantitative data sources to investigate how these values have influenced voting behaviour at general elections, and more recently at the EU Referendum.

Another interest of Paula’s  is the role of education in social values, particularly understanding how education ‘liberalises’ and the effects of an expanding HE sector in shaping political discourse and preferences.

Paula is also keen to supervise research students working in the areas of social attitudes, values and political behaviour, particular those who are interested in working with advanced quantitative analysis techniques.

A chartered accountant by background, Al has spent the past 15 years delivering change in complex local public services. Having worked with over 50 local authorities and health and care systems he has developed a passion and expertise for people services and leads IMPOWER’s national Valuing Care programme. Involving ten local authority areas so far, Valuing Care is one example of how IMPOWER’s approach to complexity is used practically to deliver better outcomes which cost less.

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Before joining the Kings Fund, Sally had extensive experience in health, care and population health policy and delivery, in central and local government. Sally was Director for Social Care at the Department for Health and Social Care, Director of Programmes at Public Health England and Deputy Chief Inspector (for social care and registration) at the Care Quality Commission. She was also Director at the Cabinet Office, leading a project on social care funding for Budget 2017.

Most recently, Sally worked at the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs as Director of the Agri-Food Chain, and latterly Director of EU Exit Preparedness and Response.

Jon Watkins is Group Editor of Public Finance magazine. He has nearly 20 years’ experience working as a finance and accounting journalist, having also edited Financial World, Financial Management and Business Life magazines. He has also worked on a number of magazines and digital campaigns for financial services firms, and regularly hosts webinars, podcasts and events in the finance and accounting space.

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Nick Watt has worked in national journalism for 30 years, reporting on UK and EU politics.

In 2016, Nick became the Political Editor of Newsnight on BBC2. Before joining the BBC, Nick worked as the Guardian’s Chief Political Correspondent and as its European Editor based in Brussels. He started his career at the Times where he worked as a Political Correspondent and as Ireland Correspondent based in Belfast.

Nick has become a familiar figure on television reporting on the drama of the Brexit crisis as it claimed the careers of two Prime Ministers. His lively nightly updates have won widespread praise for providing illuminating insights into the rows behind the scenes.

Jack Blanchard, who writes the Politico London Playbook, has described Nick’s reports as ‘always immaculately sourced and well worth a listen.’

Nick was a well known broadcaster on BBC and Sky News before joining the BBC full time. He was a panelist on BBC1’s Sunday Politics presented by Andrew Neil and also provided humorous summaries of political events for This Week.

Nick’s interests have long extended beyond Westminster. He helped to anchor the Guardian’s coverage of the war in Kosovo and the Iraq war. As the Guardian’s Europe editor he travelled round Eastern Europe examining the impact of the EU on the new members states.

Nick has covered seven UK general elections, two Scottish referendums and two UK-wide referendums. He likes to joke that the downfall of Margaret Thatcher marked his debut in political journalism. As a trainee he was dispatched to describe her arrival at her new home in Dulwich on the day of her resignation.

In recent years Nick has gained extensive experience speaking at and chairing events in the political sphere and beyond. He has won praise for his witty and authoritative approach.

Rob Whiteman was appointed as the chief executive of CIPFA in September 2013. Before joining the Institute, he was a senior civil servant who worked as the chief executive of the UK Border Agency and had previously led the Improvement & Development Agency. Between 2005 and 2010 Whiteman was CEO of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Prior to this role, he was director of resources at the London Borough of Lewisham.

Graduating with a BA (Hons) in Economics and Government from the University of Essex, Whiteman started his management career at WH Smith plc, before moving into the public sector. An accountant by profession, Rob qualified with CIPFA early in his career whilst working at the London Borough of Camden. He has since held several local government finance advisory roles for the Local Government Association and CIPFA, and for many years served as secretary to the Society of London Treasurers.

Rob was awarded a CBE for services to public sector financial management in the 2020 New Year Honours list.

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David was first elected to the County Council in 2013 as the member for Harpenden North East and has previously served as the Cabinet Member for Resources, Property and the Economy, Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Education and Skills and Chairman of the Hertfordshire Local Government Pension Scheme Pension Committee. He became Leader of the Council in November 2017, is the chairman of the Hertfordshire Growth Board and sits on the board of the Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership.

A determined champion of local collaboration and partnership across the public sector, David chairs the Hertfordshire Public Sector Leaders’ Steering Group and is co-chair of the Hertfordshire Emergency Services Collaboration Board.

Nationally, David is the chairman of the County Councils Network – a cross party grouping for the 36 county authorities that represent some 26 million people in England, cover 86% of the landmass and are responsible for 41% of the country’s Gross Value Added. David is also a deputy chairman of the London Stansted Cambridge Consortium – championing the UK’s Innovation Corridor, a member of South East Strategic Leaders and the leaders’ group of England’s Economic Heartland.

Born and educated in North Wales, David enjoyed a career in retail banking and has an economics degree from Cardiff University and an MBA from Henley Business School.

Gareth was most recently Chief Executive Officer of PHS Group, a leading provider of outsourced workplace services in the UK. Gareth is an experienced CEO and NED, with a consistent record of reinvigorating and reinventing listed and private equity backed companies through creative growth strategies. He has a strong record of driving transformational change in large, complex and federated organisations.

Before joining PHS, Gareth was CEO of Charter International, the FTSE 250 engineering group, until its successful sale to Colfax Corporation in 2012. Prior to that, he was CEO of Capital Safety Group Ltd, since sold to KKR, and CEO of Vitec Group plc, the supplier of broadcast and photographic equipment and services. Originally trained as an engineer, his early career was in operations management at STC and Lucas. Gareth gained his MBA from INSEAD in 1989, following which he joined Bowater (now Rexam) for his first managing director roles. After a spell in the US, he joined BPB as Director of Central Europe in 1996.

Gareth is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute, a Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. He is on the Council of FFI, the world’s oldest international conservation organisation.

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