Date: 11, 12 and 13 November 2024
Blended approach: SDF Zoom, Advance HE connect and Regional Networks
Keynotes
Professor Christina Hughes, Women-Space
About Christina
Professor Christina Hughes is Founder and CEO of Women-Space Leadership, a consultancy designed to support women who work in universities to flourish. She is an Honorary Professor at the University of Kent and Visiting Professor at Coventry University. She has held senior roles at the University of Kent (Deputy-Vice-Chancellor); Sheffield Hallam University (Provost) and University of Warwick (Pro-Vice-Chancellor). Her research focuses on feminist and gender issues and has covered areas such as stepfamily life, education, and career progression.
She has published over 15 books through her career and her 2020 edited collection Transdisciplinary Feminist Research, London, Routledge (with Carol Taylor and Jasmine Ulmer) was shortlisted for the American Educational Research Association prize ‘Outstanding Book of the Year 2021’.
Over her career she has won around £1.5m in external grant capture. Her upcoming publications are International Perspectives of Leadership in Higher Education (2022, with Alasdair Blair, Darrell Evans and Malcolm Tight) and the Routledge Handbook of Feminist Transdisciplinary Research (2023, with Carol Taylor, Jasmine Ulmer and Michelle Salazar Perez).
Fiona Lennoxsmith, Advance HE
About Fiona
Fiona Lennoxsmith is Lead Consultant, Leadership, Organisational Development and Research at Advance HE, where she leads a team of senior consultants to design and facilitate innovative leadership interventions, programmes and thought leadership for the Higher Education sector. Fiona is currently a lead on Advance HE’s Leadership Framework design.
Fiona brings over 20 years of higher education experience at London Business School, and a passion for designing and delivering programmes and supporting the development of students and staff, from senior executives to recent graduates.
Fiona holds a BA (Hons) in English Literature from Anglia Ruskin University, and an MA in Literature, Representation and Modernity from London Metropolitan University. She holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology from Open University and an MA in Consulting and Leading in Organisations: Psychodynamic and Systems approaches from the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust. As a coach, Fiona has a Post-graduate Certificate in Executive Coaching awarded by Henley Business School and has ACC accreditation from the ICF.
Charles Knight, Advance HE
About Charles
Charles is Assistant Director, Knowledge & Innovation; an academic leader with a proven track record of delivery in the areas of learning and teaching and enterprise. Prior to joining Advance HE, he was Associate Dean (Student Experience) at Salford Business School where he worked with colleagues to introduce a series of innovative practices including short technical qualifications, block teaching and an increased emphasis on the use of simulations and experimental learning. He was also involved in setting up a North-West Attainment Gap group to bring together business schools.
As an educator, he was nominated as ‘most innovative teacher in Higher Education’ at the 2016 THEAs and was nominated in Edge Hill University’s Student Teaching award each year between 2012-2019 and won three times. He has worked extensively with a range of universities at the strategic level to develop and rationale their portfolios.
While at Edge Hill University, he was a director of the ERDF funded Productivity and Innovation Centre. The centre worked with a range of organisations to develop new products, services and pricing models based on data driven insights.
Over the last ten years he has been involved in both ‘pure’ research projects and commercially funded work on a consultancy basis. He has undertaken a range of strategic consultancy projects for both higher education and commercial organisations around issues such as micro-qualifications, process re-engineering and portfolio review.
Charles has a PhD in information Systems from the University of Leeds where he was employed as a researcher by the AimTech Research Group. While at the Business School, He was involved in a range of projects around information management and the impact of innovative or disruptive technologies.
Donald Taylor, Chair, Learning Technologies Conference
About Donald
Donald H Taylor is a veteran in the fields of learning and development and learning technologies, with experience at every level from design and delivery to chairman of the board.
Donald has worked in learning and technology since the mid-1980s. He has chaired the Learning Technologies Conference in London since 2000 and writes and speaks world-wide about Learning and Development (L&D). His annual L&D Global Sentiment Survey, started in 2014, provides a unique perspective on L&D trends from over 100 countries. From 2010 to 2021, he chaired the Learning and Performance Institute.
He chairs the Workforce Development board for VC firm Emerge Education, and advises several EdTech start-ups.
The author of Learning Technologies in the Workplace, Donald is a graduate of Oxford University and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from London’s Middlesex University
Facilitators
Andry Anastasis-McFarlane, The Learning Moment
About Andry
Meet Andry Anastasis McFarlane an accredited Executive Coach, facilitator, consultant, Coach Supervisor, and Author with a passion for supporting people, teams and organisations. Imagine having access to a learning space that sparks innovative thinking, fosters new habits, and drives continuous improvement.
That’s precisely what Andry offers – the opportunity to learn, succeed, and thrive in your workplace. Andry’s expertise extends to guiding teams through innovation frameworks and embarking on transformative innovation journeys.
Her journey into innovation began with MIT’s ground-breaking MOOC u.lab, where she honed her skills and went on to collaborate on a local project addressing food poverty. This endeavour gained positive national and global attention, leading to a European-wide project focused on innovation and collaboration with one of MIT’s learning partners.
In addition to innovation, Andry is passionate about cultivating resilience, coaching, and wellbeing within organisations. Her book on "The Really Resilient Guide – a comprehensive guide to resilience at work – has earned recognition on BBC Radio and iMagazine.
Harriet Attwood, Jisc
About Harriet
Harriet currently works as head of Talent Development for Jisc.
Prior to this she has worked as head of learning and development for the NHS and in social care with a particular focus on designing and implementing leadership programmes.
Harriet is a qualified coach, action learning facilitator and teacher and is passionate about helping people to reach their full potential.
Charlotte Axon, Tailored Thinking
About Charlotte
Charlotte is a Lead People Scientist at Tailored Thinking, a positive psychology, wellbeing and HR consultancy striving to make work better, and make better work. Charlotte has worked in a variety of HR, inclusion and organisation development roles across the Higher Education sector, having led and supported projects relating to culture, change, inclusion and recruitment.
She has a specialist interest in inclusion and belonging, which she has applied in university contexts, both internally and as an external consultant. Charlotte is passionate about making work better for everyone, in particular, through finding opportunities for personalisation of the employee experience, and bringing this to life through coaching.
Charlotte has partnered with multiple universities during her time as a consultant business psychologist, drawing on her experience of people analytics and how to practically use and apply these insights to make positive change.
Charlotte has presented at the 2023 SDF festival, the Women’s Higher Education Network (WHEN) Conference, and Universities HR (UHR) Annual Conference.
Sara Bacon, NTDC, University of Sheffield
About Sara
Sara is National Technician Development Centre (NTDC) manager, based at the University of Sheffield, providing technical services and expertise to universities and research institutions. Sara is also involved in event and lab management of Outreach activities in Higher Education, including development and delivery of science events for Widening Participation students.
She is a Postgraduate research chemist with project management experience for a large chemical company; Sara is also a Qualified Science teacher in all key stages in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire schools.
Neal Chamberlain, University of Manchester
About Neal
Neal Chamberlain worked in human resources, for organisations including AstraZeneca, Unilever and Tata, before making the transition into learning and organisational development at the University of Manchester.
Neal is currently leading the Learning and Professional Development project; working with colleagues in conducting a full review of all the learning resources – digital, courses, and programmes – provided by the University’s Organisational Development team, to ensure these are aligned to the University’s strategic objectives.
Matt Clarke, Jisc
About Matt
Matt works as a Learning & development consultant at Jisc having joined the team from a data and marketing background in 2023. His primary areas of responsibility within the organisation are looking after staff careers, mental health, and our virtual People manager community which was formed in the spring of 2023.
Matt enjoys trying to improve things and helping people to live the best lives they can. He is currently studying for an ILM level 5 accreditation in Coaching and Mentoring and can often be found being walked by his pet working cocker spaniel in his spare time.
John Drysdale, No Guru
About John
John is a speaker, executive coach, facilitator, and Managing Director of No Guru td, a learning & development consultancy working extensively across Higher Education.
John enjoys helping people be the best version of themselves and has coached and trained thousands of people to communicate, present, influence, and engage. He has recently written an eBook on how to have difficult conversations and overcome fears and barriers to discussions that matter.
With a particular interest in how teams think, John has facilitated countless team away days and strategy meetings and developed a team thinking model that generates tangible outcomes and actions.
A writer, ‘cold water’ swimmer, and musician in his free time, he wants others to have successful and rewarding careers and have time to do the things they love doing most.
Victoria Brown, Belbin
About Victoria
Victoria commissions and oversees internal and external research projects and leads the analysis, refinement and innovation of the Belbin inventories and reports. In 2022, she edited the third edition of Meredith Belbin’s Team Roles at Work, authoring a new chapter on the subject of virtual and hybrid teams.
Victoria has authored a range of content across the business, including white papers on Belbin in different cultures, virtual and hybrid teams and more. Her thought leadership pieces have been published in HR Director, the International Association of Project Managers, the Staff Development Forum and the Charity Learning Consortium, and she has featured as a guest speaker on a number of HR webinars and podcasts.
Gary Hosey, EI Company
About Gary
Gary Hosey’s journey started with emotional dysfunction: His family didn’t practice self-awareness about feelings, moods, and emotions and their impact on us and how we relate to other people, the skills that we now understand as game-changer emotional intelligence (EQ).
In 1999, Gary embarked on a personal and professional journey of self-discovery through EQ. This transformative experience led him to become EQ-i 2.0 certified in 2003. For over twenty years, he’s had the privilege of working with over 10,000 leaders from more than 100 global organisations, making a significant impact with his insights as a coach, speaker, and trainer. His unique approach, EQ Influence®, is a testament to the profound wisdom he has distilled from countless one-on-one conversations with leaders worldwide.
Rebecca Fielding, GradConsult
About Rebecca
Rebecca Fielding has over twenty years’ global experience in strategic people leadership development. Holding multiple board, advisory, policy and professional body positions, Founder and MD of Gradconsult, Fellow of the Institute of Student Employers, Fellow of the RSA, Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, an international conference speaker and frequent media commentator. Rebecca draws on her extensive leadership experience from across various sectors and from around the globe.
Founder of Gradconsult, a Fellow of the ISE, the RSA and the Chartered Fellow of CIPD. Former People Development Manager at Sheffield Hallam University & Head of Leadership & Culture at Asda. Leadership development expert, writer and international conference speaker.
Joanna Le Bohec, GatenbySanderson
A
bout Joanna
Jo is a Principal Consultant within the Leadership and Talent Consultancy practice at GS. Her areas of expertise areas of expertise include organisational and leadership development, performance optimisation, relational coaching and individual growth, social and action learning, agility and sustainable innovation, and learning proficiency.
Prior to joining GS Jo worked as a Global Learning Consultant in professional services within WPP, with responsibility for modernizing working practices and upskilling teams to meet emerging consulting, management and leadership demands. Jo brings deep expertise in executive coaching, organisational and relational dynamics, leadership development and action-based and applied learning. Jo holds a PGCE, Executive Coaching for Organisational Consultants, Hult Business School and is a certified Scrum Master.
Eszter Molnar-Mills, Formium Development
About Eszter
Eszter Molnar Mills helps people and organisations enhance their performance by applying positive solutions to leadership, learning and organisation development. Her current focus is how we can equip our teams, managers and leaders with the skills and strategies they need to meet the challenges of the future workplace.
Prior to founding Formium Development, Eszter held a number of Learning and Development and HRD roles, including as Head of Organisational Development for the University of London. In recent years she has delivered coaching, training and development for many universities, central government departments, NHS bodies, charities and multinational companies – as well as being a visiting lecturer for several management and leadership courses at the University of Debrecen, Hungary.
Eszter’s particular interests include harnessing the power of positive psychology and strength-based approaches to help individuals and organisations make enduring and effective change.
Jenny Tester, GatenbySanderson
About Jenny
Jenny is a Senior Consultant, Leadership and Talent Consultancy within Education. She brings over 10 years’ experience working with Higher Education institutions across areas including board diversity and inclusion, equality, diversity and inclusion, leadership development and inclusive research cultures.
She joined GatenbySanderson from Advance HE where she held a number of roles, most recently as Head of Membership working with universities in the UK and internationally. Her work included supporting Higher Education institutions to navigate challenges and adopt best practice in equality, diversity and inclusion, leadership development, governance and teaching and learning.
Prior to this, Jenny spent five years at an executive search firm, first as a Researcher, and subsequently supporting clients as a Consultant and Senior Consultant. Her specialism focused on academic and research roles in Higher Education, and roles internationally including in Europe and Central Asia.
Jenny holds BSc in Psychology from University of Bristol, MSc in Occupational Psychology from Birkbeck, University of London and is currently working towards a Professional Doctorate in Occupational Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London.
Rachel Salmon, GradConsult
About Rachel
Rachel has a passion for developing the best in people and has honed her skills working in and with a range of very different organisations (Sheffield Hallam University, Wilko, the British Museum, Save the Children International, Allianz, IMI etc) supporting them in developing the knowledge, skills and mindset they need to grow and thrive within some very complex and changing contexts. She has over 20 years experience in learning, leadership, and culture development and enjoys taking different approaches to learning. She is a skilled facilitator and coach and is a firm believer in the power of practical, experiential learning (best evidenced by her role with Save the Children where she designed and delivered week-long immersive experiential learning events for humanitarian responders.) She has a BSc in Psychology from the University of St Andrews, an MSc in Human Resource Management from Sheffield Hallam University and the ILM Level 7 certificate for Executive and Senior Level Coaching and Mentoring.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-salmon-902bb8a5/
Katie Stagg, Jisc
About Katie
Katie is a dedicated Learning and Development Consultant at Jisc, where she manages the coaching and mentoring network. She is currently working towards her ILM Level 5 coaching qualification. As an action learning and 360 feedback facilitator, as well as an Insights practitioner, Katie brings a wealth of expertise to her role.
Katie also manages the leadership programme at Jisc, fostering the growth and development of emerging leaders within the organisation. In addition to her coaching responsibilities, she co-manages the mental health first aiders at Jisc. She is deeply passionate about supporting individuals with their wellbeing and resilience and is committed to empowering them to achieve their highest capabilities.
Julie Stock, Open University
About Julie
Julie Stock – Learning Manager Compliance, Coaching and Mentoring.
Julie has been at the Open University for 35 years – no-one do the maths!
Julie has had various roles across the University, but in her early 30s moved into the world of HR. Becoming a generalist before specialising in Learning & Development, with a focus around personal and leadership and management development.
Julie has been a coach for about 15 years, setting up the OU’s Coaching Service 8 years ago, which she continues to manage. Julie is also a mentor and coach supervisor.
Julie’s current interests in coaching and mentoring are around personal effectiveness, wellbeing and positive self-reflection.
Julie has a Masters in Human Resource Management, a Chartered member of the CIPD, Associate of the Association for Coaching. Julie is also a Master Strengthscope Practitioner and Insights Discovery Practitioner.
Jimi Wall, Upwrd
AboutJimi
imi is CEO of Upwrd and an ICF-accredited Leadership Coach and Facilitator, with deep Higher Education sector experience.
Jimi believes that everyone deserves to love their work. He is passionate about developing managers and leaders in Higher Education and beyond to lead themselves and to lead their people with confidence, compassion and courage.
Prior to founding Upwrd, Jimi worked as Executive Client Director at London Business School in Executive Education. In this role he collaborated with Chief People Officers, HR Directors and Talent Management Leaders at FTSE 100, S&P 500 and Euronext 100 companies, to diagnose learning needs and to co-design and deliver bespoke leadership programmes with a heavy emphasis on action-oriented development via coaching.
The Upwrd team now works with the Organisational Development and Staff Development teams at a number of Higher Education Institutions and Business Schools in the UK and Europe. Jimi also works in the Organisational Development team at City, University of London.
A native of Yorkshire, Jimi has been based in London since 2010 and lives with his wife, daughter and cheeky cockapoo.
Ian Tidmarsh, Manchester Metropolitan University
About Ian
Ian is Deputy Director of Technical Services at Manchester Metropolitan University. Through strong partnership working with senior colleagues (both academic and Professional Services), Ian is accountable for delivery of an aligned service to ensure delivery of University strategy and local academic plans. The role includes planning & project management, responsibility for 230 staff (£10m), operations, budget management and legal compliance.
Technical Services at Manchester Met deliver 5 key business activities:
- Practical Skills Training
- Leadership & Management
- Resource Centres
- Core Research Facilities
- Research Delivery
Marianne Webb, University of Manchester
About Marianne
Marianne Webb has spent nearly 20 years working as a senior communications professional for organisations including the Environment Agency, Network Rail and the University of Manchester.
She recently made the move into Learning and Professional Development to further develop her skills in supporting leaders through coaching and learning interventions. As part of this role she is supporting a full review of the learning resources provided by the University’s Organisational Development team, to ensure these are aligned to the University’s strategic objectives.