Liesl Elder, director of development, University of Oxford

Liesl Elder has been working in educational advancement since 1993 and has held roles in both the United States and the United Kingdon. She has expertise in major gifts, campaign management, annual funds, alumni relations, marketing, public relations and corporate events.

Elder joined the University of Oxford in 2011 to lead the "Oxford Thinking" campaign, which has achieved more than £1.5 billion to date and is the largest educational campaign in Europe.

Roz Allison, head of alumni and stakeholder communications, Open University

Roz Allison has been head of alumni relations at the Open University since 2006. She joined the the university as an interim annual fund officer in 2005. Previously, Allison worked for five years at Cancer Research UK as legacy manager. In her time there, she also developed the charity's high value donor programme.

John Arboleda, director of international alumni affairs, ESADE Business School

John Arboleda has more than 15 years of experience in the field of higher education. He started his career in the office of the president at the University of California, and he has lead student engagement programmes at a number of U.S. institutions. Since 2005, he has worked in international management education and has held positions with Frankfurt University and the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. At ESADE, Arboleda is responsible for developing and implementing a global engagement strategy for the more than 8,000 alumni living abroad across 32 international chapters and fostering an alumni culture amongst ESADE´s international programs that represent more than 500 students from more than 45 countries.

Barbara de Colombe, executive director, HEC School of Management Foundation

Barbara de Colombe has been executive director at Foundation HEC since December 2008. She is in charge of the coordination of the current fundraising campaign with a team of dedicated professionals and volunteers. Previously, de Colombe was in charge of major gift fundraising in France and Belgium at INSEAD. She is an alumna from ESCP-EAP and INSEAD business schools in France. She spent one year in Russia, where she worked in a law firm and then two years in the United States to study issues and fundraising practices of the non-profit sector. She is also vice president of the French Fundraisers Association.

Marina Pedreira-Vilarino, director of development and alumni relations, University of Sussex

Marina Pedreira-Vilarino has been director of development and alumni relations at the University of Sussex since June 2011, following a year as acting director. In her year as acting director, she led the development of a campaign strategy and case for support that saw Sussex's philanthropic income treble. The university is now on course to raise £50m by 2015-2016.

Marketing

Peter Reader, director of marketing and communications, University of Portsmouth

Peter Reader is one of the United Kingdom's leading higher education communicators and marketers who, having worked in five other U.K. universities, joined the University of Portsmouth as director of marketing and communications in 2008. A longstanding member of CASE and contributor to CASE events, Reader holds the unique distinction of having lead professional associations in the U.K., Europe and Commonwealth.

Rachel Sandison, director of recruitment and international, University of Glasgow

Rachel Sandison has recently become the Director of Recruitment and International at the University of Glasgow. Previously as Director of Marketing, Student Recruitment and Alumni Relations at the University of Aberdeen she held responsibility for the recruitment and admissions of both undergraduate and postgraduate students from home and overseas, managing three teams to deliver the university's strategic plans for enrolment. This included the implementation of cross-platform advertising campaigns and the management of pan-university marketing and promotion to enhance the brand visibility of the university within the sector. Sandison enhanced online marketing significantly to ensure the university was engaging with students through the proper channels. She has a particular interest in how social media can be used to reach out to prospective students in new ways.

Communications

Kirsti Lehmusto, director of communications and community relations, University of Helsinki

Kirsti Lehmusto was at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration. She has a strong background in Finnish retail business and as a marketing director. She is a board member for several notable Finnish foundations, such as the Kone Foundation, which promotes Finnish academic research, arts and culture. She has also participated in the executive education at INSEAD. She came to the University of Helsinki from the Ogilvy/Taivas group, which is an advertising, marketing and public relations agency.

Helen Pennack, director of university marketing, University of Warwick

Helen Pennack recently moved to the Univeristy of Warwick, where she has now director of university marketing. Previously, she was head of marketing communications at the University of Leicester, having worked in press and public relations at the university for more than seven years.. At Leicester, she headed a large team that looked after strategic messaging, print, web and digital communications, internal communications and relationship marketing to support student recruitment. Pennack led the implementation of a highly successful customer relationship management system for the university which has been instrumental in its continuing student recruitment success. Another key objective for Pennack was to ensure that the university occupy and communicate its distinct position of being "elite without being elitist."

International and Pre-conference

Gunilla Bergstrand, director of annual giving, Linköping Universitet

Gunilla Bergstrand is one of the pioneers of alumni relations in Sweden. She was recruited to Linköping University in 1998 to build an alumni relations programme from scratch. In 2008, she left the position as alumni director to become the first Swedish annual fund director with responsibility for starting and developing the annual giving programme for Linköping University.

Schools

Andrew Beales, foundation director, Giggleswick School 

Andrew Beales is foundation director at Giggleswick School, where he has led the development and alumni team since 2007. During this time, he has been at the forefront of organising Giggleswick's recent Quincentenary Celebrations and is currently in the early stages of his second capital campaign at the school. In 2004, Beales spent a month touring advancement offices in schools and colleges in the U.S. state of Illinois before returning to the United Kingdom to run the development office at the University of Sunderland. Beales is a graduate of the CASE Spring Institute, holds a diploma from the Institute of Fundraising and has a master's degree in astrophysics from the University of Durham.

Elizabeth Allen, director of online communications and alumni relations, American School in London

Elizabeth Allen is the director of online communications and alumni relations at the American School in London. Allen has served on the faculty at several CASE conferences and was the chair of the first Social Media & Community conference in 2010. She has written for CURRENTS magazine and co-authored a chapter for Alumni Relations: A Newcomer's Guide to Success. Before moving to the United Kingdom, Allen ran a communications consulting firm, directed communications strategy for the alumni association at the California Institute of Technology and directed communications at an international independent boarding school. Allen holds a bachelor's degree from Scripps College.