JUDGING PANEL
The Judging Process.
A WORD FROM THE CEO OF THE MCA
As members know the MCA is not involved in the decision-making process regarding the MCA Awards and is only involved in setting the categories, defining the judging criteria and recruiting the judges – then it’s over to our specially selected judges to make their choices according to a strict code of conduct. I’ve been asked how this decision-making process works so here is the inside view! It’s fairly lengthy and involves thousands of papers being marked and scored and then rankings made.
Read More.
Each category, whether individual or project has three judges assigned to it. Two of these judges mark every entry that is submitted for the awards and a number of different scores are given to each entry. For example, there are scores for evidence of impact on the client community and quality of the written submission – each mark is out of 10 and a total is calculated for each entry. At this stage judges also decide if they want an entry to go through to the finalists or not as well. The MCA compiles the scores and comments from both judges and, if further discussion is required, judges meet to discuss their final scores and their final proposed shortlist.
Meet this year’s judging panel.
THE PANEL
The MCA recruits an independent panel of judges for the MCA Awards. They are compiled of hand-picked senior representatives from client organisations, government, academia, industry bodies and the media, and cover the full spectrum of business to ensure that the judging process is objective and fair.
JACKY WRIGHT
Chief Technology and Platform Officer (CTPO)at McKinsey
Jacky Wright is a global technology leader who has made broad impact in business transformation and on social issues. Jacky has extensive experience leading large-scale organizations driving digital transformation and market making solutions.
Her career spans senior technology leadership roles across many industries. As a leader in technology, Jacky uses her broad platform to drive thought leadership not just for the positive impact of digital transformation for business, but also for social, economic and environmental change.
JACKY WRIGHT
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY AND PLATFORM OFFICER (CTPO) at McKinsey
NADUN MUTHUKUMARANA
DIGITAL AI TRANSFORMATION EXECUTIVE
Nadun is a leading global expert in applying Digital and AI technologies to transform businesses. He was a past President of the MCA (2020 -2022) and has over 30 years of experience, having built and led diverse and high-performance teams at leading management consultancy companies in the world, including IBM, Andersen, CSC and Deloitte, helping national and global clients to solve their most complex business issues. He is passionate about helping the next generations of management consultants to shape the future of their industry to be more inclusive and diverse.
NADUN MUTHUKUMARANA
DIGITAL AI TRANSFORMATION EXECUTIVE
LORD VICTOR ADEBOWALE
CHAIR
NHS CONFEDERATION
LORD VICTOR ADEBOWALE
CHAIR
NHS CONFEDERATION
JUSTIN WEBB
RADIO PRESENTER
BBC
JUSTIN WEBB
RADIO PRESENTER
BBC
ROSS WILLIAMSON
MANAGING PARTNER
VALCON
Ross is a highly experienced leader in the consultancy industry, spending over 30 years overseeing and delivering large scale transformation programmes. A chartered engineer and chartered IT professional, Ross leads Valcon’s UK consulting business having held senior leadership positions at Capgemini, Wipro and most recently, Cognizant, where he was Vice President in Banking and Financial Services.
ROSS WILLIAMSON
MANAGING PARTNER
VALCON
DAVID SMITH
GROUP AND UK&ECONOMICS EDITOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES
David Smith has been Economics Editor of The Sunday Times since 1989, where he writes a weekly column. He is also chief leader-writer, an assistant editor and policy adviser. Since 2016 he has also been writing a weekly column for The Times, where he worked from 1984 to 1989.
David Smith is the author of several books, including The Rise and Fall of Monetarism; Mrs Thatcher’s Economics; North and South; From Boom to Bust; UK Current Economic Policy; Eurofutures; Will Europe Work?; Free Lunch: Easily Digestible Economics; The Dragon & the Elephant: China, India and the New World Order; The Age of Instability: The Global Financial Crisis and What Comes Next, and – in 2015 – Something Will Turn Up; Britain’s Economy Past, Present and Future. He is a visiting professor at both Cardiff University and Nottingham University. He has won a number of awards, including the Harold Wincott Senior Financial Journalist of the Year Award, the 2013 Economics Commentator of the Year Award and the 2014 Business Journalist of the Year Award in the London Press Awards.
DAVID SMITH
ECONOMICS EDITOR OF THE SUNDAY TIMES
Maryam Moshiri
NEWS PRESENTER
BBC
Maryam is a chief news presenter on BBC World news, and BBC News Anchoring weekend news programmes to over 100 million viewers on the BBC’s global facing channel.
Maryam joined the BBC in 2003, after starting her career as a Business Reporter for Independent Radio News. During her career she has anchored the main global news on BBC World News, the 8pm News Summary on BBC One and has also worked as a correspondent on network TV and Radio 4.
Maryam has presented and reported on some of the biggest business stories of the past two decades. From the economic impact of the 9/11 attacks to the global financial crisis. Maryam has interviewed some of the world’s top economists, investors and CEOs, including Reed Hastings, Willie Walsh and Jeff Bezos.
MARYAM MOSHIRI
CHIEF NEWS PRESENTER
BBC
BARONESS TANNI GREY-THOMPSON
BARONESS TANNI GREY-THOMPSON
Stephen Woodford
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
ADVERTISING ASSOCIATION
Stephen was appointed CEO of the Advertising Association in October 2016. The AA promotes the role and rights of responsible advertising and its value to people, society, business and the economy. All the key advertising trade bodies, commercial media owners and tech platforms are members of the AA. Prior to joining, Stephen held management roles in four agency groups (Leo Burnett, WCRS/Engine and DDB/adam&eveDDB and Next 15).
He also chairs youth marketing agency Livity, a social purpose-driven business that seeks to transform young peoples’ lives, especially from BAME backgrounds. He is a Governor of Ravensbourne University in London, the UK’s newest creative and technology university. Stephen is a past President of NABS and serves on the board of the History of Advertising Trust. He was IPA President (2003-05) where he led both their first ethnic diversity initiative and launched its professional qualifications for new industry entrants, which over 20,000 people have now passed in the UK and around the world.
STEPHEN WOODFORD
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
ADVERTISING ASSOCIATION
SIMON JACK
BUSINESS EDITOR
BBC
Simon Jack is a financial journalist, broadcaster and Business and Economics Presenter on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme.
Prior to this he was the face of business news for BBC Breakfast on BBC1. During his time at the BBC he has also presented business news on the One O’Clock, Six O’Clock and Ten O’Clock News.
Before joining the BBC, Simon spent ten years in commercial and investment banking in London, New York and Bermuda. He has a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.
During the banking crisis in September 2008 Simon reported for BBC News, BBC News Channel and Working Lunch, covering the Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the bailout of AIG and the Lloyds TSB takeover of HBOS.
Simon has also presented business and financial podcasts for The Daily Telegraph.
SIMON JACK
BUSINESS EDITOR
BBC
TAMARA BOX
MANAGING PARTNER, EME
Tamara Box is a market leading structured finance lawyer, the Managing Partner, EME and a member of the senior executive and the global board at Reed Smith LLP, one of the largest law firms in the world.
Tamara is a member of the Court of Governors of the London School of Economics, a Chartered Manager and member of the Chartered Management Institute’s Board of Companions and its Race Committee, a trustee of gynaecological cancer charity Eve Appeal and a member of the Advisory Board of children’s charity, Theirworld.
Tamara is also a founding member of the Steering Committee of the 30% Club, an influential group seeking to enlist Chairs and CEOs to bring more women into senior management and onto boards. Finally, Tamara has been included in the Global Yahoo Finance HERoes Women Role Model List every year since its inception.
TAMARA BOX
MANAGING PARTNER, EME
FIONA TREHARNE MBE/span>
COO OF THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE
FIONA TREHARNE MBE
COO OF THE EARTHSHOT PRIZE
ROSEMARY SCULLY
DIRECTOR
TANTALUM CONSULTING
Rosemary is an experienced Non Executive Director and serves on a range of public and private sector boards. Her career started as a civil servant in Australia, working primarily in regional and state level management roles. Rosemary then spent over 30 years in the consulting sector, where she led major transformational programmes primarily in the Home Affairs sector, but also transport, aviation, education and central government.
ROSEMARY SCULLY
DIRECTOR
TANTALUM CONSULTING
ANN FRANCKE OBE
CEO
CHARTERED MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
Ann Francke OBE is Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute, the UK’s leading professional body for management and leadership with an international member community of over 200,000. She started her career at Procter & Gamble and has held senior executive positions at Mars, Boots, Yell and BSI.
Ann is an expert in Management and Leadership in the workplace, and speaks frequently in the media and at conferences on this; she is a regular columnist for The London Times. In the New Years Honours list 2020 she was awarded an OBE for services to Workplace Equality. Her book, ‘Create a Gender-balanced Workplace,’ was published by Penguin Business in 2019. Ann also authored the ‘Financial Times Guide to Management’ and has been named in the top 100 women to watch in the 2015 Female FTSE Cranfield report. In 2023, she was awarded the inaugural Memcom Outstanding Contribution Award, for her work in championing, and acting as a role model, in the membership sector.
Ann holds several Board positions and five Honorary Doctorates for her work in management and leadership. She is an ambassador for the 30% Club.
ANN FRANCKE OBE
CEO
CHARTERED MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
HOWARD TOLLIT
Business Consultant
Howard was a successful and respected management consultant with 30 years ‘big-firm’ experience, as well as being a past-President of the MCA.
Functional specialisms included business strategy, technology enabled transformation and customer engagement, all supporting the design and deployment of new capabilities to drive effective beneficial change. Howard’s early consulting career with Coopers & Lybrand focused on environmental sustainability during which time he was a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environment Select Committee. His roles within PwC Management Consultancy Services included leading the PFI practice covering the definition and launch of numerous award-winning Public: Private Partnerships that delivered both infrastructure and technology-based assets and services. With IBM Howard focused on Public Sector consulting, for example the transformation of Defra, and has also worked with a number of private sector clients in utilities, telecommunications and financial services.
Howard recently retired from his role as a senior Partner in a leadership role within IBM’s Global Business Services, during which time he led their Strategy & Transformation service line alongside various Account leadership roles.
HOWARD TOLLIT
BUSINESS CONSULTANT
KRU DESAI
NED / BOARD ADVISOR
Following a 30 year career in management consulting, Kru has been building her portfolio of non-executive roles since August 2018 and currently hold the following positions:
•NED at Serco Plc and member of the Audit Committee and the Corporate Responsibility Committee
•NED at Buro Happold and member of the Audit and Risk Committee and Chair of the Remuneration committee.
•Vice Chair, City, University of London and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee
•Chair of Zinc Network Limited
Until July 2018, Kru led the Infrastructure, Government and Healthcare practice at KPMG in the UK. Her executive experience combines general management roles at Hedra Plc, Atos, Mouchel Plc and KPMG. Her expertise is in leading large, complex digital and technology change and transformation programmes in the public sector. Her clients have included governments in the UK and Sub Saharan Africa and UK Local Authorities, as well as international technology and business services groups.
KRU DESAI
NED / BOARD ADVISOR
SANDRA MACLEOD
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE
ECHO RESEARCH
An Expert Witness in Reputation and cited as ‘among the 100 most influential people in PR’, Sandra is Group CEO of Echo Research and Director of Reputation Dividend, which values reputation for listed companies. From an early career at PA Management Consultants, Sandra set up the first international franchise for media analysis in 1989 before launching Echo.
Ambassador to the International Integrated Reporting Council <IR>, Sandra is also a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Management, member of the McKinsey Women as Leaders’ Forum and Visiting Professor on Reputation at NYU. Founder of the International Association of Measurement & Evaluation Companies (amec) , Sandra has been Trustee and Board Member of the Arthur W Page Society, the Institute of Public Relations, the International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), and University of Oxford’s Public Affairs Advisory Group. Sandra is recipient of the 2018 Page Distinguished Service Award.
SANDRA MACLEOD
GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE
ECHO RESEARCH
JAN GOWER
PARTNER
MEDWAY CONSULTING
Jan Gower is an advisor to several UK Government departments, acting as a critical friend to Programme Boards and providing external challenge and support to the Government’s transformation agenda. She is also an external reviewer for the Infrastructure and Projects Authority of the Cabinet Office.
Jan is a member of the Strategic Advisory Board at the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University where she also leads on improving the performance of the School’s research ratings.
Prior to taking on her current portfolio, Jan was a successful management consultant for twenty-five years and a senior leader at IBM UK. From January 2009 to July 2013, she led IBM UK’s Government industry team across all lines of business, including consulting, systems integration, outsourcing, hardware and software.
During Jan’s career, her clients have included many public sector organisations, both leading large sales and delivery teams and providing strategic Board level advice. Her work focused on transformation, particularly enabling change through the introduction of new systems and ways of working. She also led several consulting businesses to improve their performance and execute new market strategies.
Jan was President of the Management Consultancies Association from 2009 to 2010.
JAN GOWER
PARTNER
MEDWAY CONSULTING
TRACEY BOLES
BUSINESS EDITOR, THE TIMES
Tracey Boles is deputy business editor of The Times where she has worked since spring 2022. Previously she was business editor of The Sun, which is also part of News UK.
In her current role she edits and writes for an industry-leading business section as well as managing a team of reporters and editors.
Other publications she has worked for in her 25 year career as a financial journalist include The Observer and Sunday Business. She has covered most business sectors notably aviation, energy, retail and economics. She first become a business editor three days before Lehman Brothers collapsed and more recently covered the economic fallout from the pandemic.
In 2004, she won an award from the ERA, an airline association, for her reporting on the sector.
Tracey has a postgraduate diploma in journalism from City University. Her first degree is in Biology from the University of Bristol and she retains an interest in science.
TRACEY BOLES
DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR, THE TIMES
MARK ROBINSON
SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR
Mark is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years experience in the technology sector.
He started his career in management consulting before working for Oracle Corporation where he was able to witness first hand their rise from start-up to software giant.
He started his first Consulting firm, Fulcrum Solutions, in 1997 with no external investment, and in just under 3 years it had reached 200 staff with offices in Edinburgh, Manchester, London and New York. It was acquired in November 1999.
Following the successful sale of Fulcrum, he co-founded IT Consultancy Edenbrook, this time with external investment. At the time of its acquisition in 2009 by Hitachi, Edenbrook had reached over 400 people based in the UK and India.
He was a co-founder of Kimble (now Kantanta), a world leading PSA SaaS solution which enables forward thinking consulting firms to manage their entire business process and accelerate their growth. Kimble is used in over 40 countries and is backed by Accel-KKR.
He is now focused on investing and providing strategic advice to a range of organisations.
MARK ROBINSON
SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR
WILLIAM JOHNSON
MANAGING DIRECTOR
OPENSIDE GROUP
William Johnson is the Managing Director of The Openside Group. He has been advising professional services firms on aligning behaviours with strategy for over 25 years. His interest in learning theories and applications began when he was commissioned in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy, where after front line service he became involved in aircrew training. On leaving the Royal Navy he trained as an organisational psychologist and completed an MBA before joining a boutique strategy firm specialising in aligning strategy, structure and behaviours.
In 1990 William began training consultants in IBM in basic consultancy skills and behaviours and his Openside Clients now include some of the world’s leading consulting and professional services firms and also global organisations (including telecoms, FMCG, technology and pharmaceutical companies) looking to adopt the best practices and behaviours from the world of professional services.
William is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, with an MA in Psychology from The Queen’s College Oxford, an MBA from Warwick Business School, and he is a graduate of Harvard’s ‘Leading Professional Service Firms’ programme.
To balance his business life William enjoys squash, snowboarding and using the saxophone as a crowd dispersal tool.
WILLIAM JOHNSON
MANAGING DIRECTOR
OPENSIDE GROUP
DR. DUNCAN ROBERTSON
FELLOW IN MANAGEMENT STUDIES
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
Dr Duncan Robertson is the Fellow in Management Studies at St Catherine’s College in the University of Oxford and an academic at Loughborough University’s School of Business and Economics. Dr Robertson’s research combines strategic management and management science.
DR. DUNCAN ROBERTSON
FELLOW IN MANAGEMENT STUDIES
OXFORD UNIVERSITY
JAMES PECKHAM
HEAD OF SPLUNK STRATEGIC ADVISORY EMEA
James is a highly experienced business strategist passionate about innovation and exploring ways to unlock value through data. James has successfully led the set-up and growth of award-winning consultative sales functions at Splunk, Salesforce and Oracle, building on his formative years with Capgemini and KPMG consulting. After military service, James has spent 20+ years in consulting, technology, business services and software business, developing expertise and interest in digital transformation, innovation and data strategy.
At Splunk, he leads a diverse European team of industry, technical, product and value advisory professionals. Their role at Splunk is to help leadership teams understand future trends impacting their business models, align understanding around strategy and prioritise investments that deliver new value through data.
JAMES PECKHAM
HEAD OF SPLUNK STRATEGIC ADVISORY EMEA
BEV THAKER-FELL
VP HEAD OF GLOBAL INDIRECTS & WORKPLACE SOLUTIONS
HALEON
Bev has had a career in Procurement for 20+ years working for some of the world’s largest and most reputable organisations such as Barclays Bank, Accenture and Interpublic Group. She is currently Vice President of Procurement at Haleon, the world’s first consumer health focused company with a purpose to deliver everyday health with humanity through category leading brands such as Sensodyne, Panadol, Voltaren, and Advil to name a few.
Bev has developed and deployed category strategies to transform the way organisations operate, bringing together cost optimisation and quality of service.
Bev is a strong advocate of diversity and inclusion in corporate organisations. She led the Women in Procurement team at Barclays, increasing female leadership talent into the organisation. She was awarded the CIPS (Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply) award in 2019 for Diversity & Inclusion. Bev’s vast experience of both being a consultant, and heading up consulting categories within Procurement brings a unique set of insights to the MCA and the judging process.
BEV THAKER-FELL
VP HEAD OF GLOBAL INDIRECTS & WORKPLACE SOLUTIONS
HALEON
JEN HARTSHORN
HEAD OF PROCUREMENT
DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS
JEN HARTSHORN
HEAD OF PROCUREMENT
DEPARTMENT FOR WORK AND PENSIONS
ROB GARNER
STRATEGIC ADVISOR
Rob is an advisor, non-executive director and investor within the professional and technology service sector. He specialises in supporting organisations at inflexion points in their development, growth and/or ownership. He is currently Chairman of a health analytics business and a board advisor to the two other professional service organisations. He also recently founded Garwood Solutions an advisory, enablement and delivery partner focused on systems implementation and performance improvement in the professional services sector.
Rob has over of 25 years’ experience in consulting, technology and business service organisations. This includes 15 years in executive leadership roles, during which time he led successfully the set up and growth, or transformation of a range of organisations including his own award-winning business.
Rob concluded his executive leadership career as Interim CEO of the Tribal Group. Prior to that he held consecutively two Managing Director positions in the NHS and before that he was co-founder of Avail Consulting. He spent much of my formative career in KPMG Consulting; the last four years of which as a Partner in the public sector practice.
ROB GARNER
STRATEGIC ADVISOR
JACQUELINE STEIN
PARTNER
KORN FERRY
Jacqueline is a Partner at Korn Ferry specialising in organisational development. She has a proven track record as a trusted advisor collaborating with global organisations, across sectors to shape their talent strategies, co-create leadership and team development journeys to shift cultures enabling delivery of business results, in an increasingly complex, challenging and dynamic landscape.
Her focus is leading two of firm’s key clients. Firstly, leading a diverse team to design and deliver an innovative, world class curriculum to help the most senior UK Civil Servants be fulfil their organisational aspiration ‘to be brilliant’. Secondly, leading an account team to help a global supply chain business to shape their future, ensuring that they sustain high performance. This success in achieving high performance lies in her authentic, pragmatic, fresh and insightful approach. The most common descriptor used to sum up her impact is that she is real; she challenges, is inclusive and always acts with integrity to shape peoples’ lives.
She has had wide-ranging and varied career and lifestyle which has taken her to live and work in UK, Spain and Australia. She is a Reiki Master and Executive Coach with a deep interest and passion in bringing meditation and mindfulness techniques into everyday work situations helping organisations connect with purpose improving wellbeing.
JACQUELINE STEIN
PARTNER
KORN FERRY
PATRICK NEWBERRY
NON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
HISTORIC ENGLAND COMMISSIONER
Pat has spent the majority of his career to date as a management consultant, being a partner in PwC for 25 years. During his consulting career, he focused on the financial sector in the UK and globally, working with clients to develop and implement new strategies and to improve performance.
He held a series of senior roles in PwC’s consulting practice, including Commercial Partner for the consulting business and Chairman of PwC’s Financial Services Regulatory Practice, playing a significant part in the development of PwC’s consulting business in the last ten years.
Since retiring from PwC he has been a Non-Executive Director, presently Chair of Cambridge & Counties Bank, a Historic England Commissioner and a Non-Executive Director of The Brunel Pensions Partnership. He is also Chair of the The Cornwall College Group.
He is a former President of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA).
PATRICK NEWBERRY
NON EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
HISTORIC ENGLAND COMMISSIONER
BERNARD BROWN
CEO AND FOUNDER OF MISSION ADVISORY
Bernard has over 35 years experience both in industry and as a Management Consultant. He has advised boards and worked extensively across a range of sectors, including Automotive, Retail, Manufacturing, Technology, Aerospace, Defence and Government.
Bernard started his career in scientific research at the University of Cambridge before moving to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) as a scientist, then Goldman Sachs investment research. He then had a series of operational management roles at Massey Ferguson, Lucas Automotive and Fisons Pharmaceuticals.
He joined KPMG Consulting in 1996 to build an operations consulting business and in his final role served on the UK Board as a Vice Chair with a focus on Technology, leaving the Firm in 2021. He had leadership positions in the consulting business at Global, European and UK level. When KPMG Consulting was sold to Atos Origin, where he became the Global CEO for Consulting and after four years he returned to KPMG.
Bernard recently founded Mission Advisory, which provides strategic consulting services with a focus on Professional Services Strategy, Digital Transformation (including AI and cyber security) and ‘Cost to Serve’.
His consulting skills include sales, business development, innovation, mergers & acquisitions, change management, technology adoption, cyber resilience, operational management (lean engineering), people development and leadership in professional services.
BERNARD BROWN
CEO AND FOUNDER OF MISSION ADVISORY
PAULINE POTTER
PROCUREMENT DIRECTOR
Pauline was appointed Procurement Director of Hermes Parcelnet in February 2022 after working with the business for over 1.5 years. Hermes is the parcel carrier of choice for over 80% of the UK’s retailers and has experienced both tremendous growth and a number of high pressure supply chain challenges throughout the pandemic which made leading the procurement function a fantastic and unique opportunity. Pauline is looking forward to supporting continued business growth and ensuring the procurement function support the holistic ambitions of the business across cost leadership, service delivery, and their ambitious ESG objectives.
Pauline joined Hermes after 10 years in management consulting, spanning manufacturing, supply chain, and procurement consultancies in the US and UK. Most recently Pauline worked at Efficio Consulting, the procurement experts, where she focused on driving Sustainable Procurement and elevating the role of the procurement function.
PAULINE POTTER
PROCUREMENT DIRECTOR at HERMES PARCELNET
ALAN GUTHRIE
GLOBAL VICE PRESIDENT, TRANSFORMATION AND IT
CALDERYS
Alan Guthrie has 30 years of experience as a leader in transformation and technology, having worked in more than 35 countries. He is currently the Global Vice President of Transformation and IT and a member of the executive management team at Calderys.
His previous roles include: Interim Chief Transformation and Information Officer at Calor Gas, Chief Transformation Officer at Johnson Matthey, Partner at EY and Global Delivery Partner at HCL AXON.
Alan has a BA in Finance and Scandinavian Studies from Gustavus Adolphus College (USA) and an International MBA from the University of St. Thomas (USA).
He is fluent in Swedish and spends his free time travelling and running. Most recently he completed his eighteenth marathon in Buenos Aires.
ALAN GUTHRIE
GLOBAL VICE PRESIDENT, TRANSFORMATION AND IT
CALDERYS
JUSTIN BAINES
COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR AND TRANSPORT CONSULTANT
Justin Baines is an experienced commercial director and transport specialist, having worked in the industry for over 25 years. His understanding of the fundamentals of creating successful commercial strategies and their associated initiatives is evidenced by the senior level roles he has held, including Commercial Director – Chiltern Railways, Interim Commercial Director and Strategic Adviser – Abellio Group and Head of Marketing & Revenue – Govia Thameslink Railway. Prior to his career in rail he was Head of Marketing and Brand for Heathrow Airport and responsible for Airline marketing for all BAA’s seven UK airports. He began his career agency side at Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising working in London and New York across a range of clients including Delta Air Lines and Procter & Gamble.
Justin is an independent consultant and adviser to Public and Private sector businesses specialising in transforming commercial performance through an improved customer experience.
JUSTIN BAINES
COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR AND TRANSPORT CONSULTANT
KATE SPALDING
SENIOR CONSULTING PARTNER
Kate has deep experience of consulting from working in a variety of firms – KPMG, Atos and SMEs – as a Consulting Partner for Public Sector in the UK and across Northern Europe. Kate’s focus is always on the customer experience, creating impact for societal change and using innovative technologies to deal with the future. She has led many groundbreaking programmes which have brought the power of technology to do exactly that, and has first hand experience of what is needed to excel in consulting – having teams that have thrice won MCA awards – including the overall Project of the Year in 2013.
KATE SPALDING
SENIOR CONSULTING PARTNER
KIRSTY BIRKS
STRATEGY DIRECTOR
BOOST DRINKS
Kirsty has spent over 20 years working with businesses to identify and develop business strategies to unlock growth.
She began her career at Guinness Northern Ireland (Diageo), leading the consumer planning division by bringing consumer behaviours and insight to the brand planning process.
She then joined strategic brand consultancy Propaganda where for almost 15 years she worked alongside the senior management teams across a diverse range of client organisations to provide counsel on brand strategy and strategic planning. While at Propaganda, Kirsty was a board member of the MCA and latterly held the position of Vice President.
In 2015, Kirsty joined Boost Drinks as Strategy Director to work alongside the leadership team on authoring the strategy to realise the business’s future growth ambitions in the UK and abroad.
KIRSTY BIRKS
STRATEGY DIRECTOR
BOOST DRINKS
DAN FIGUEIREDO MBA
SENIOR PARTNER – CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
MICROSOFT
Dan started his career with a BSc in Cognitive Science from the University of Westminster has continually straddled the lines between technology and people. Dan has worked in start-ups and various Systems Integrators and now at Microsoft, but the theme of People, process and technology has been consistent.
DAN FIGUEIREDO MBA
SENIOR PARTNER – CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
MICROSOFT
HELEN PRIESTLEY
MARKETING & CATEGORY DIRECTOR FOR MULLER
Helen Priestley is an award winning and commercially minded chief marketer and an experienced CEO with an impressive record of driving growth for some of the World’s most trusted brands.
Helen’s passion lies in delivering performance growth through defining the business trajectory, galvanising the organisation and all partners and stakeholders along the journey.
A whole system thinker and doer her superpower is taking legacy, often complex businesses across FMCG, media and finance on new journeys; helping them to navigate their way out of old behaviours into commercially potent new areas. Utilising product innovation, CX, digital conversion technologies and marcomms effectiveness to drive value growth, Helen is a ‘sleeves rolled -up’ c-suite force.
Helen has been privileged to work for some of the UK’s best loved brands – McCain Foods, The Sun, The Times, First Direct Bank, Capital Radio, as well as periods leading SME’s as CEO and she is currently at Muller Foods.
Helen holds a BSc in Business Management from Oxford Brookes, a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing, is a Qualified Mentor and Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and in her spare time can be found hiking in the beautiful North Yorkshire Moors
HELEN PRIESTLEY
MARKETING & CATEGORY DIRECTOR FOR MULLER
MARK CHESHIRE
DIRECTOR
Mark is an experienced, resilient and pragmatic business leader with considerable experience across a range of disciplines. He is a straightforward individual, confident and will convey his enthusiasm in a manner that engages others. He is an experienced and successful executive coach.
Mark’s commercial background is in financial services. For 30 years he was with Lloyds Banking Group holding a range of executive roles including CEO of the UK private bank, sitting on the UK retail bank board. He had responsibility for the UK branch network and, reporting to the main board, ran the global groupwide integration programme merging Lloyds Bank and TSB. He had 2 years on secondment at the Bank of England working on banking supervision during the post BCCI crisis. On leaving Lloyds in 2009 Mark joined Syndicate Asset Management PLC becoming Group CEO, delivering a significant turnaround in business performance.
Mark is an experienced, resilient and pragmatic business leader with considerable experience across a range of disciplines. He is a straightforward individual, confident and will convey his enthusiasm in a manner that engages others. He is an experienced and successful executive coach.
Since 2012 Mark has run his own consultancy business. He has designed and delivered a range of assignments focussing on C-suite effectiveness and mentoring. He has worked with a range of organisations. He brings to all his interventions a “real world/common sense” approach to executive life. Recent engagements have focussed on business development activities supporting clients enter new markets and build new senior client relationships. He sits on the Advisory Board at GoBeyond Partners.
Mark is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and a member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council. He has attended the “Driving Organic Top-Line Growth” programme at the Kellogg Institute, Northwestern University, Illinois. He has a BA (Hons) degree in geography, is a past delegate of the Cabinet Office Top Management Programme, been media trained by the BBC and has attended Institute of Directors programmes on board governance and the role of the chairman.
MARK CHESHIRE
DIRECTOR
DAVID GERMAIN
GROUP AND UK&I CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
David is RSA’s Group and UK&I Chief Information Officer and leads the long-term technology / transformation vision. David has >25 years’ experience as a leader of global technology and digital strategy. Prior to joining RSA, David worked for a number of world leading Banking institutions in C-suite roles (General Electric, NatWest Group, Deutsche Bank, Close Brothers and London Clearing House).
DAVID GERMAIN
GROUP AND UK&I CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
HEAD OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
DIXIA
Cecil is a Director at award-winning Social Enterprise Foundervine and is the head of Business Intelligence at the rapidly growing Danish Tech Scale-Up Dixa. He started his career troubleshooting problems with hospital database software and progressed over the years into management consulting, start-up creation, and business advisory.
He has worked for Accenture, EY, and Slalom on both large digital transformation to small technology strategy projects across a range of industries including finance, consumer retail, media and more.
Cecil has been recognised by Yahoo Finance and EMPower as a one of 100 top global ethnic minority executives and separately by the Financial times as 1 of the 100 topmost influential BAME Leaders in UK Tech.
CECIL ADJALO
CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
FOUNDERVINE
Alex Hamilton-Baily
Partner, ODGERS BERNDTSON
Alex Hamilton-Baily is a Partner of Odgers Berndtson in the Firm’s Legal & Professional Services Practice. He has worked with the Firm for c.15 years, specialising in Board level appointments and those who support them in the major accounting, law and strategy firms. This work sits across service lines and includes the most senior functional / business service roles as well as lateral hires. Functionally, Alex and the team lead some of the most important General Counsel searches in the FTSE and large private businesses.
In addition, Alex has worked extensively with the major UK and international industry bodies and non-profits at Board level. Alex has also played a leadership role in the development and roll-out of the Firm’s new global CRM in partnership with Salesforce and PWC.
Alex was educated at University College London and enjoyed an early career in systems development in financial services. He is a Trustee of the cancer charity Penny Brohn UK and has recently supported a governance committee of the British Mountaineering Council, a personal passion.
ALEX HAMILTON-BAILY
Partner, ODGERS BERNDTSON
JOHN ZEALLEY
CHAIR, CHARTERED MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT BOARD
THE CHARTERED MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
John is Chair of the Oversight Board of the Chartered Management Consultants, working to ensure the success of the CMI and MCA’s joint commitment to this important industry programme. In addition, John Chairs and advises both not for profit entities, in the education and community arena, as well as start ups in the Consumer and Fintech spaces. Prior to this, John was a management consultant, latterly as a Senior Managing Director with Accenture in their Global Consumer and Interactive practices and previously with McKinsey & Co. He began his career in Marketing with Procter & Gamble.
JOHN ZEALLEY
CHAIR, CHARTERED MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT BOARD
THE CHARTERED MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
MATT ROBERTS
DIRECTOR, CHARTERED MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
THE CHARTERED MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
Matt Roberts is Director, Chartered Management Consultant at the Chartered Management Institute and as such is fully focused on the development of the ChMC award to help it scale up across the industry and ensure that all applicants have a great experience in the process of getting Chartered. Matt has worked for CMI for 11 years and was previously Director of Membership for five years during a period of time where CMI membership grew at record levels.
MATT ROBERTS
DIRECTOR, CHARTERED MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
CHARTERED MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE
NICK OWEN CBE
FORMER DELOITTE CHAIR
Nick Owen is the former Chair of Deloitte’s UK board, and left his position in May 2021, after six years in the role. He was named a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the New Year Honours, with an announcement that his award was for “services to the professional services sector”.
NICK OWEN CBE
FORMER DELOITTE CHAIR
GITTE GANDERUP
Board and Executive Advisor
Gitte is a board and executive advisor with a track of record of starting, growing and exiting leading innovative companies. She has successfully co-founded and exited an innovative AI consultancy, delivering practical AI solutions (and business results) to clients across many industries. She has over 20 years of experience in delivering award-winning transformation and bottom-line results, a trusted partner to the boards and executive teams of some of the UK’s largest companies. Her broad cross sector experience includes retail, technology, infrastructure, financial services and public sector organisations.
GITTE GANDERUP
BOARD AND EXECUTIVE ADVISOR
IAN WALKER
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
DAILY MAIL
IAN WALKER
EXECUTIVE EDITOR
DAILY MAIL
CATHERINE MCGUINNESS
FINANCIAL SERVICES LAWYER, COMMON COUNCILLOR
OF THE CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION
Catherine is a financial services lawyer and an elected member (Common Councillor) of the City of London Corporation. She was the City’s Chair of Policy & Resources 2017 – 2022, leading on its work with the financial and related professional services sector.
An experienced board member and chair, Catherine has a long interest and involvement in education and training. She has served on the Financial Services Skills Commission and is currently chairing a government-commissioned taskforce seeking to boost socio economic diversity at senior levels in UK financial and professional services.
CATHERINE MCGUINNESS
FINANCIAL SERVICES LAWYER, COMMON COUNCILLOR
OF THE CITY OF LONDON CORPORATION
MIKE LANDER
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT PISCARI LTD
Mike Lander is a successful entrepreneur, ex-procurement director and expert negotiator (according to his clients) with a proven track record of buying, growing, and selling businesses. Mike works predominantly with sales teams to help them negotiate more profitable deals, especially when procurement gets involved. Mike is also the Chairman of a successful SEO Agency.
MIKE LANDER
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AT PISCARI LTD
CHARLES NEWHOUSE
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER OF LEIDOS UK AND EUROPE
Charles Newhouse is the Chief Technology Officer of Leidos UK and Europe. In his role, Charles is responsible for shaping the direction of our engineering and technology capabilities, to support our clients achieve their goals, and the delivery of our business strategy.
Charles has also previously run a global consulting practice and is a Chartered Management Consultant.
CHARLES NEWHOUSE
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER OF LEIDOS UK AND EUROPE
ANJUM HAKIM
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
PA CONSULTING
ANJUM HAKIM
MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT
PA CONSULTING
RUPERT HARGREAVES
MANAGING EDITOR
CITY A.M.
Rupert Hargreaves is City AM’s Managing Editor. Before joining City AM, he helped lead the digital team at MoneyWeek, the UK’s best-selling financial magazine. Rupert has over 15 years of experience in financial journalism and holds qualifications from the CFA Institute and the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI).
RUPERT HARGREAVES
MANAGING EDITOR
CITY A.M.
FRANCESCA LAVEY
CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER
101 WAYS
Francesca is the Chief Commercial Officer at 101 Ways, a UK based Product and Technology consultancy. As part of her role, Francesca is responsible for the development of the go-to-market strategy, defining how they partner with clients to solve some of their most strategic and complex technology challenges.
Prior to 101Ways, Francesca has had over 15 years in consulting having worked across a number of organisations including EY, Ciklum and Plexal.
FRNACESCA LAVEY
CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICES
101 WAYS
ANDY SILVESTER
EDITOR
CITY A.M.
ANDY SILVESTER
EDITOR
CITY A.M.
LEON WALKER
UK LEADER
AON INPOINT
Leon Walker is the Aon Inpoint UK leader, responsible for the combined strategic engagement and consulting offering for Aon markets.
Before joining Aon, Leon spent 15 years working across Retail and Wholesale (Re)Insurance holding high profile roles at the Corporation of Lloyd’s, three of the Top 5 Global Insurance Brokers and led the sales function at a high growth SAAS scale-up.
Leon has been recognised by Yahoo Finance as a Global Top 50 Ethnic Minority Future Leader.
LEON WALKER
UK LEADER
AON INPOINT
ROSS WILLIAMSON
MANAGING PARTNER
VALCON
Ross is a highly experienced leader in the consultancy industry, spending over 30 years overseeing and delivering large scale transformation programmes. A chartered engineer and chartered IT professional, Ross leads Valcon’s UK consulting business having held senior leadership positions at Capgemini, Wipro and most recently, Cognizant, where he was Vice President in Banking and Financial Services.
ROSS WILLIAMSON
MANAGING PARTNER
VALCON
GITTE GANDERUP
Board and Executive Advisor
Gitte is a board and executive advisor with a track of record of starting, growing and exiting leading innovative companies. She has successfully co-founded and exited an innovative AI consultancy, delivering practical AI solutions (and business results) to clients across many industries. She has over 20 years of experience in delivering award-winning transformation and bottom-line results, a trusted partner to the boards and executive teams of some of the UK’s largest companies. Her broad cross sector experience includes retail, technology, infrastructure, financial services and public sector organisations.
GITTE GANDERUP
BOARD AND EXECUTIVE ADVISOR
HOWARD TOLLIT
Business Consultant
Howard was a successful and respected management consultant with 30 years ‘big-firm’ experience, as well as being a past-President of the MCA.
Functional specialisms included business strategy, technology enabled transformation and customer engagement, all supporting the design and deployment of new capabilities to drive effective beneficial change. Howard’s early consulting career with Coopers & Lybrand focused on environmental sustainability during which time he was a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environment Select Committee. His roles within PwC Management Consultancy Services included leading the PFI practice covering the definition and launch of numerous award-winning Public: Private Partnerships that delivered both infrastructure and technology-based assets and services. With IBM Howard focused on Public Sector consulting, for example the transformation of Defra, and has also worked with a number of private sector clients in utilities, telecommunications and financial services.
Howard recently retired from his role as a senior Partner in a leadership role within IBM’s Global Business Services, during which time he led their Strategy & Transformation service line alongside various Account leadership roles.
HOWARD TOLLIT
BUSINESS CONSULTANT
MATT FREI
CHANNEL 4 NEWS PRESENTER AND EUROPE EDITOR
Matt Frei is a Channel 4 News presenter and Europe Editor who also has his own show on LBC radio.
Matt is a vastly experienced foreign correspondent having reported from over 40 countries for Channel 4 and before that the BBC. He has the rare distinction of having been Washington Correspondent for both Channel 4 and the BBC. Over the last decade Matt’s Europe brief has seen him frequently reporting on the Russo-Ukrainian crisis from the front line.
MATT FREI
CHANNEL 4 NEWS PRESENTER AND EUROPE EDITOR
KATE SPALDING
SENIOR CONSULTING PARTNER
Kate has deep experience of consulting from working in a variety of firms – KPMG, Atos and SMEs – as a Consulting Partner for Public Sector in the UK and across Northern Europe. Kate’s focus is always on the customer experience, creating impact for societal change and using innovative technologies to deal with the future. She has led many groundbreaking programmes which have brought the power of technology to do exactly that, and has first hand experience of what is needed to excel in consulting – having teams that have thrice won MCA awards – including the overall Project of the Year in 2013.
KATE SPALDING
SENIOR CONSULTING PARTNER
GITTE GANDERUP
Board and Executive Advisor
Gitte is a board and executive advisor with a track of record of starting, growing and exiting leading innovative companies. She has successfully co-founded and exited an innovative AI consultancy, delivering practical AI solutions (and business results) to clients across many industries. She has over 20 years of experience in delivering award-winning transformation and bottom-line results, a trusted partner to the boards and executive teams of some of the UK’s largest companies. Her broad cross sector experience includes retail, technology, infrastructure, financial services and public sector organisations.
GITTE GANDERUP
BOARD AND EXECUTIVE ADVISOR
HOWARD TOLLIT
Business Consultant
Howard was a successful and respected management consultant with 30 years ‘big-firm’ experience, as well as being a past-President of the MCA.
Functional specialisms included business strategy, technology enabled transformation and customer engagement, all supporting the design and deployment of new capabilities to drive effective beneficial change. Howard’s early consulting career with Coopers & Lybrand focused on environmental sustainability during which time he was a Specialist Adviser to the House of Commons Environment Select Committee. His roles within PwC Management Consultancy Services included leading the PFI practice covering the definition and launch of numerous award-winning Public: Private Partnerships that delivered both infrastructure and technology-based assets and services. With IBM Howard focused on Public Sector consulting, for example the transformation of Defra, and has also worked with a number of private sector clients in utilities, telecommunications and financial services.
Howard recently retired from his role as a senior Partner in a leadership role within IBM’s Global Business Services, during which time he led their Strategy & Transformation service line alongside various Account leadership roles.
HOWARD TOLLIT
BUSINESS CONSULTANT