Conference Chair

Shaun Horan, Director of Development and External Affairs, University of Reading

Shaun leads a number of activities for the University of Reading, including fundraising and alumni relations, student recruitment and marketing, and internal and external communications. He is also responsible for setting the public affairs strategy and for reputation building and management. In his role, Shaun manages a team of directors each with responsibilities within the areas above, and liaises with key alumni and external stakeholders to engage them in participating in the activities of the university. Shaun has a wealth of experience across several sectors, beginning with his career as a barrister, before leaving law for the voluntary sector, concentrating on the developing world. He switched to higher education in 2004, accepting a post to establish fundraising at University of Reading. During the past five years, the university has raised around £25 million from a standing start.

Alumni Relations

Alison Bond, Head of External Relations, Warwick Business School

Alison is responsible for the alumni relations strategy and the operational management of the alumni relations function. Alison sits on the alumni board and leads the school's corporate relations activities. After graduating from the University of Leeds, Alison spent four years in Japan, working first as a high school teacher and then later as a language tutor for the Japanese local authorities. On her return, Alison worked for Warwickshire Education Authority before moving to the University's Institute of Education, where she managed the Teacher Training Partnership with Schools.

José Luis de Cea-Naharro, Director of Development and External Relations, School of Economics and Business, University of Navarra, Spain

José Luis became Director of Development of the School of Economics and Business in June 2010. He has been working in advancement for more than 12 years. Prior to his current position, he was the Deputy Director for Alumni Relations at the University of Navarra for six years, having served for the previous seven years as Admissions Director, University of Navarra Foundation Director and Professor of Marketing. His current role encompasses admissions, career services, international relations, masters and alumni relations.

Communications

Alison Cahn, Director of Communications, Kingston University

Alison was a journalist and filmmaker for 25 years before becoming Director of Communications for UCL Hospitals in 2005. She got a baptism of fire when, two months later, UCLH was one of the receiving hospitals for casualties from the 7/7 bombings. As a researcher, Alison won a BAFTA for Death on the Rock, a film about the shooting of IRA terrorists which Mrs. Thatcher tried to ban, and then went on to direct documentaries about everything from childcare to cartoons. Alison joined Kingston University as Director of Communications in 2007.

Alistair Jarvis, Director of Communications and Marketing, University of Birmingham

Alistair is Director of Communications and Marketing at the University of Birmingham. He leads teams responsible for public relations, events, digital communication, internal communications, stakeholder relations and marketing. His primary task is to continue to enhance Birmingham's reputation as a leading global university. Before joining Birmingham, Alistair was Director of Communications for the 1994 Group, a membership and lobbying group of smaller, leading research-intensive universities. Previously, he was Head of Stakeholder Relations for Enterprise Insight, the UK's national campaign to promote enterprise. Before this, he worked in the private sector as Head of Education at a leading public policy communications and events consultancy.

Fundraising

Siôn Lutley, Director of Development and Alumni Relations, University of Bath

A Bath graduate, Siôn joined the University of Bath in January 2007 following five years as Deputy Director at the University of Bristol. Siôn is a board member of the Quartet Community Foundation, a former regional chair for the Institute of Fundraising; he helped draft the institute's Code of Good Practice for Major Gift Fundraising. He is also a professionally qualified pyrotechnician.

Adrian Punaks, Head of Development and Alumni, Birkbeck, University of London

Adrian initially joined Birkbeck, University of London in 2003, and after a period in the individual giving team at Imperial College London, he returned to Birkbeck as Head of Development and Alumni in 2007. Adrian's focus for the last three years has been to ensure that a modest team of six can bring in consistently impressive returns. Through effective major giving, annual giving and alumni volunteering programmes, Birkbeck's fundraising has proved a real success story. In 2010, Adrian received the inaugural CASE Europe Iain More Award that recognises the outstanding achievements of an emerging development professional.

Marketing

Claire Brown, Director, Student Recruitment and Admissions, The University of Liverpool

Claire is the Director of Student Recruitment and Admissions at the University of Liverpool and has responsibility for marketing, centralised enquiries, admissions and education liaison. Prior to joining the university, Claire worked for various FMCG organisations in consumer marketing.

Kathryn Jones, Director of Group Marketing and Communications, Birmingham City University

Kathryn joined Birmingham City University as Director of Marketing and Communications in April 2008, having worked in journalism, public relations and marketing for more than 15 years. She has successfully turned around negative recruitment and awareness at the universities of Birmingham City, Wolverhampton and Northampton, winning an array of marketing awards.

International

Gunilla Bergstrand, Annual Fund Director, Linköping University, Sweden

Gunilla is one of the pioneers in alumni relations in Sweden. She was recruited to Linköping University in 1998 with the main objective to build an alumni relations programme from scratch. In 2008, she left the position as Alumni Director to become Annual Fund Director now responsible for building its annual giving programme (also from scratch).