Advance HE governance experts and associates

We are at the forefront of providing support to boards, governors and staff such as clerks and secretaries to improve governance effectiveness. All institutions need high performing boards equipped to determine the strategic course of the organisation. The effectiveness of a board depends on strong foundations, exhibiting the right behaviours, high quality information, sound processes and skilled governance professionals.

To help us form and deliver our support our governance experts and associates are vital. Below you will find the profiles of the people who work on our governance portfolio.

Our governance experts and associates

Andy Shenstone

Executive Director of Consultancy and Commercial Solutions
,
Advance HE

Andy offers a deep understanding and experience of UK and international HE policy, governance and management. He is Advance HE’s Director of Business Development and Delivery, and an experienced Higher Education (HE) consultant with 20 years’ track record of successfully working with Universities, sector agencies and Ministries in the UK and overseas.

Victoria Holbrook

Assistant Director, Governance
,
Advance HE

Victoria joined Advance HE in February 2019 from the Office for Students and after 11 years at its predecessor the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). As Assistant Director, Governance she leads the development and delivery of Advance HE’s approach and work to support good governance to ensure it meets the needs of its members and clients in their rapidly evolving operating environments.

Dan Tinkler

Governance Development Manager
,
Advance HE

Dan joined Advance HE in January 2020 and has been in the post of Governance Development Manager since October 2021. Dan works on developing our approach to supporting Advance HE’s member needs across our governance portfolio of work. He has also undertaken governance effectiveness reviews leading projects with students’ unions. Prior to this he worked with supporting leaders in college HE, independent providers and specialist institutions.

Aaron Porter

Associate Director (Governance)
,
Advance HE

Aaron leads on Advance HE governance activity through the delivery of our national Governor Development Programme which engages with around 900 governors across the UK on an annual basis. He has extensive experience leading reviews of over 25 governing boards. Aaron was previously President of the National Union of Students (NUS) and also chair of trustees for the organisation.

Kim Ansell

Senior Consultant, Governance and Leadership
,
Advance HE

She has worked across higher and professional education providing support to groups at all levels including senior leadership teams and Boards, to facilitate change, strategic thinking, planning and performance improvement. Kim has recently led the Advance HE membership themed month on the topic of Transforming Organisations from student to board.

John Rushforth

Senior Associate
,
Advance HE

John is a nationally recognised expert on UK University governance. He is responsible for the key documents that underpin the governance of all publicly funded UK HE institutions namely the CUC HE Code of Governance, the HE Senior Staff Remuneration Code, a range of illustrative practice notes e.g. Academic Assurance, Recruitment of VCs, etc and a Leadership Foundation publication on the relationship between Vice Chancellors and Chairs.

Keith Bartlett

Senior Associate
,
Advance HE

Keith has over thirty years’ experience in higher education and the creative industries and provides consultancy in the areas of strategy; governance and management; organisational change and development; application/scrutiny for Degree-Awarding Powers; and quality assurance and enhancement including preparation for external review.

Suzanne O'Brien

Principal Lecturer
,
Canterbury Christ Church University

Suzanne is Vice-Chair of the Board and Chair of the Finance Committee at Cross Keys Homes, the largest provider of social housing in Peterborough, Chairperson of The Fifth Trust, a Kent-based charity that supports adults with learning disabilities, and Non-Executive Director at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust where she chairs the Finance Committee.

Paul White

Associate
,
Advance HE

Paul has over 40 years’ experience in the higher education sector. He has had extensive roles in university governance, providing external expertise. He has been mentoring newly-appointed vice-chancellors, deputy and pro vice-chancellors since 2013. From 2004 to 2014 Paul served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching at the University of Sheffield.

Ella Ritchie

Emerita Professor of Politics and former Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Newcastle University and Associate
,
Advance HE

Ella is an experienced Higher Education academic, senior manager, consultant and advisor in the areas of university governance, values and structures, widening access to higher education (where she established a national network, Realising Opportunities), academic structure, the student experience and university partnerships.

Kay Renfrew

Associate
,
Advance HE

Kay Renfrew is an experienced consultant and researcher who has delivered assignments for clients in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. She has a Masters degree in information management. Kay has expertise in data analysis and reporting, to assess project impact and performance.

Alison Allden

Associate
,
Advance HE

Since retiring as Chief Executive Officer of the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), Alison has developed a non-executive portfolio and consultancy career. She is currently Deputy Chair of Regents University London Ltd and on the Board of Study Group UK. She is also a member of the Bar Standards Board responsible for the regulation of barristers.

Carol Burns

Associate
,
Advance HE

In all, Carol has 20 years experience working with governing bodies across HE, the public and not for profit sectors. Her early career was spent in the private sector, including three years as a management consultant at KPMG and three years at the Financial Times. She then ran her own media and marketing consultancy before joining the HE sector.

Lydia McClelland

Associate
,
Advance HE

Lydia McClelland is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a Chartered Marketer and a qualified Executive Coach. Lydia has 16 years' senior management experience working across a range of sectors including economic development, the arts, higher education and visitor attraction/science centre sectors in Northern Ireland.

Richard Blackwell

Associate
,
Advance HE

An experienced leader, consultant and interim in higher and tertiary education. Since 2015, Richard has led successful consultancy projects on governance and leadership, graduate employability, teaching excellence and the higher skills agenda. Richard has been an active governor/non-executive director and Teaching Excellence and Student Outcomes Framework (TEF) assessor.

Marion Fanthorpe

Associate
,
Advance HE

Marion Fanthorpe is a Senior Associate at AHE with significant experience of governance effectiveness reviews and recent experience of leading a governance diversity project with Welsh universities. Marion has been an HR and OD Director in two universities and has a deep interest in EDI and organisational culture.

Jan Juillerat

Associate
,
Advance HE

Jan is a qualified HR and OD executive and an experienced non-executive director. She has served as a charity trustee for national and local organisations and as a lay member and Vice-Chair of a UK university. She developed her governance practice and expertise in public sector research establishments, in higher education and with small and large charities.

Samantha Budd

Associate
,
Advance HE

Sam is a specialist in inclusion and cultural transformation. Sam’s work focuses on inclusion and cultural transformation with a particular emphasis on racial equity in the workplace. She supports senior leaders and boards to develop competence in racial literacy in order to confidently lead a strategic response to tackling institutional racism.

Nick Smith

Associate
,
Advance HE

Nick Smith has over ten years’ experience of supporting leaders, volunteers and staff in charities and higher education institutions. His work developing the model governing documents used by over 200 Students’ Unions was used as an example of good practice in the House of Lords.

Zulum Elumogo

Special Advisor
,
Freuds

Zulum Elumogo is a Special Advisor at Freuds Communications. He was General Secretary (President) and Chairman of the LSE Students’ Union from 2018 to 2020, making him the first black man to hold the position in the LSE’s 125-year history.

Tessé Akpeki

Senior Associate Consultant
,
Wellbeing and Resilience Leadership Initiative

Tessé served as an Equal Opportunities Commissioner, a Non-Executive in the NHS (13 years), a governor of International Students House (ISH) and served as a chair of the Governance and Nominations Committee of ISH until December 2019. Tessé combines cutting edge governance and leadership approaches with pragmatic wisdom, curiosity, cultural approaches and behavioral strategies.

David Langley

Associate, Governance and Leadership
,
Advance HE

David Langley brings 35 years of experience from globally leading higher education institutes, private sector, Research Council, and Government and he was until recently Chief of External Engagement and Partnerships at New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE).

Jo Chaffer

Key Global Associate
,
Advance HE

With in-depth Higher Education expertise, Jo works with HEIs, HE agencies and Ministries internationally supporting and enabling leadership development, strategic approaches to leadership and governance with a particular interest in feminized leadership.

Sarah Connerty

Associate
,
Advance HE

Sarah is a governance professional with 20 years experience in the education section working across general Further Education, Sixth Form and HE governance. Sarah has expertise in mergers, board self-assessments and reviews, interventions and working with Chairs and CEOs to ensure the highest standards of governance.

Diane Dimond

Associate
,
Advance HE

Diane is an Associate with Advance HE and the Education and Training Foundation. Her consultancy work focuses on supporting Further Education College senior leaders and undertaking governance effectiveness reviews.

Julie Tolley

Associate
,
Advance HE

Following a highly successful career in senior management in the further and higher education sectors, latterly as a Management Consultant and Adviser to the FE Commissioner, Julie qualified as a Senior Practitioner (EMCC) Executive Business and Leadership Coach. She offers coaching and mentoring for effective leadership and improved performance to senior executives, their management teams and Boards of Trustees/Directors with a particular interest in and focus on the education sector. The wide range of experience she has accumulated over her career enables great insight and perspective on challenges faced by leaders, particularly those in the education (FE and HE) sectors.

Elizabeth Cleaver

Associate
,
Advance HE

Liz’s career in education has spanned 25 years. She currently offers consultancy for higher education in a range of areas including strategic change, learning and teaching enhancement, governance and quality assurance, educational research and policy evaluation. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds visiting professorships at the University of the West of England, Buckinghamshire New University, Solent University and Westminster University.

Trusha Lakhani

Associate, Governance

Trusha Lakhani is a qualified accountant with over 30 years experience, spending the past couple of decades in senior finance and Board roles. Trusha currently works as a consultant in her own business, where she supports organisations as a Fractional CFO and with Board governance.

Sharon Tuersley

Associate, Governance

Sharon’s first career was as a dental hygienist in the Armed Forces. After serving for a number of years in various locations around the world, she left and began working in NHS and private dental practices and also taught student dental hygienists at Birmingham Dental Hospital. After 18 years she felt it was time for a change and decided to go to university, obtaining her degree from the University of Warwick in 2004. Then, she followed her second career in Higher Education, this time with a succession of roles at Warwick, culminating in her last role as Secretary to Council.

Josie Stephens

Associate, Governance
,
Advance HE

Josie Stephens is a Senior Account Executive at WA Communications. Prior to this, she was the General Secretary of the LSE Students' Union from 2021 to 2022. In her role as General Secretary, she was a member of LSE Council and sat on its governance, ethics and finance and estates sub-committees. She was also Chair of the LSE Students' Union and oversaw the implementation of changes to the charity's byelaws and recruitment of lay trustees. Josie's key achievements as General Secretary include leading a democracy review and setting a new, 5-year strategy for the organization. Josie is passionate about equality in education and the role of higher education institutions in promoting fair and meritocratic opportunities.

Ruth Fee

Associate, Governance
,
Advance HE

Professor Ruth Fee is Professor of Public Services Education and Subject Director for Policing within the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Ulster University. She began her career at Ulster in 1992, working with a range of collaborative partners of Ulster University, including the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), the NI Prison Service and Health and Social Care Trusts, to develop a range of tailored professional and accredited academic courses. She was appointed to the Head of School of Criminology, Politics and Social Policy in 2010 and continues to maintain and expand links with the public sector, with a specific focus on the criminal justice sector.

Tony Haren

Associate, Governance
,
Advance HE

Tony Haren is an Associate Director, Credit Risk in the RBS/NatWest Group he has over 20 years’ experience of risk assessment and management in complex organisations with multi-million-pound funding requirements. He is a qualified Chartered Management Accountant who has worked on 100’s of projects to improve small, medium and large businesses, charitable organisations and social enterprises – business plans; strategic plans; funding proposals; governance improvement; board effectiveness; board governance workshops; governance, financial and HR investigations.

Hillary Gyebi-Ababio

Associate, Governance
,
Advance HE

Hillary Gyebi-Ababio is the former Vice-President (Higher Education) at NUS UK. She currently works as a Project Manager in the Social Research sector. For over three years, she has worked specifically on EDI projects, curriculum transformation and quality assurance and enhancement. She has served on the boards of the QAA and OIA and has a great wealth of experience engaging with colleagues across the Higher Education sector. Her main focuses are in liberation and inclusivity, social justice and promoting the importance of education and making it accessible for all.