Cathy Bell, Director of Development and Alumni, University of Glasgow
Cathy joined the University of Glasgow in 1987, where she has worked for 20 years in the areas of Alumni Relations and Fundraising. She became Director of the Development and Alumni Office in 1998, and, heading one of the UK's most established development operations, she has managed numerous successful campaigns and the University's 2001 anniversary celebrations.

Susan Stewart, Director of Corporate Communications, University of Glasgow
Susan was educated at St Andrews University and Smith College, Massachusetts. Her professional career began in political journalism at Scottish Television. She then worked at Westminster (1993-95) as press officer for Strathclyde Regional Council. Chief Media Officer at Glasgow City Council for 3 years, Susan became Deputy Head of the Scottish Government's Press office from 1998-2001. From 2001 to 2005, she worked at the British Embassy in Washington DC, as Scotland's first diplomat, promoting Scotland in the USA. She returned to Scotland in September 2005 and took up post as the University of Glasgow's Director of Corporate Communications, a 23-strong integrated communications service providing media relations, corporate marketing, branding, design and publications, internal communications and government affairs.

Tom Collins , Director of Marketing and Communications, Strathclyde University
Tom is Director of Marketing and Development Services at the University of Strathclyde, having joined the University in March after previously being Marketing, Recruitment and Communications Director at Queen's University Belfast, and, prior to that, editor of Northern Ireland's largest morning newspaper, The Irish News. At The Irish News he was awarded a number of regional and national awards, including the UK Regional Newspaper Editor of the Year title in 1995 and the International Federation of Journalists Prize for Tolerance and Understanding, jointly with the News Letter, in 1998 for the two newspapers' contribution to the peace process. He served as Chairman of the Ulster Orchestra from 2001-2008, and also chaired Imagine Belfast 2008, the company established to run the city's bid for European Capital of Culture. He has also served on the boards of Opera Northern Ireland and the Contemporary Music Centre Ireland. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce in 2003, and awarded an OBE for his services to music in Northern Ireland in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2007.

Jo Dowling, Head of Development & Alumni Programmes, Glasgow Caledonian University
Prior to joining Glasgow Caledonian University's new Development Office in June 2007, Jo worked as Donor Development Manager for CHILDREN 1ST in Edinburgh. Still relatively new to fundraising, Jo finds it refreshing and rewarding to use skills she gained working in the IT and Telecommunications industry for over 15 years to raise funds that benefit such worthwhile causes. Jo has an HND in Business Studies and CIM Marketing Diploma which she attained while working full time for IBM.

Nick Lang , Creative Partner and Co-Founder, S.O. Creative

Nick is Creative Partner and co-founder of the Award Winning S.O. Creative advertising and communications agency. The Agency helps a range of clients to maximise the impact of their brand, including SQA, the Driving Standards Agency, Andrew Muirhead Leather, Datura Business Systems, MGW Wealth Managers and Stakis Hotels. Nick was also responsible for some of the Scottish Government's most powerful campaigns, including Domestic Abuse, Racism, Drugs, Binge Drinking, the Environment, Teacher Recruitment, and Care, and has worked on major brands such as Bank of Scotland, BP and Coca Cola. He has won numerous creative awards for copywriting, TV, radio, outdoor and digital advertising, and IPA performance awards at Scottish and national level.

Tracy Playle, Communications Consultant, Pickle Jar Communications

Tracy is a communications consultant with specialist expertise of social media communications. Having spent five years working in-house at the University of Warwick, including a stint as the Head of Research-TV, Tracy moved over to the dark side (consultancy) in 2007 and now works for a range of organisations in the education sector.

Arvind Salwan , Director, New Media Corp

Arvind has almost 20 years experience across senior consultancy and in-house corporate communications roles, ranging from the BBC to large public sector organisations such as the Scottish Government. In these roles, he has worked as part of the senior management team, on internal and external communications, including corporate affairs, marketing, public relations, social marketing and public affairs. Arvind established New Media Corp in 2007, to provide clients with a range of communications support, ranging from strategic communications to online and social marketing. Clients include BBC Scotland, ITV Consumer, Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, Glasgow City Council, Culture & Sport Glasgow, Registers of Scotland, Reed in Partnership, Capgemini, Google and Natwest. Prior to this, Arvind was Director and Head of Public Relations at Barkers, during which time he was seconded to the Scottish Government to develop and implement the major Know the Score multi-stakeholder campaign. He subsequently developed strategies for a number of flagship public policy campaigns, including the national consultation on smoking in public places, Scotland's most successful 'national conversation' to date. As Director (Strategic Projects), at The BIG Partnership (2005-2007), Arvind developed the communications strategy and evaluation methodology for the major VoteScotland campaign. He is expected to gain Fellowship of CIPR in 2010 and was short-listed to speak at the 5th World PR Conference & Festival, London, in 2008. His academic and professional qualifications include an MSc, DipIC, DipIPR.

Mark Sproul , Head of Web and Digital Communications, Edinburgh Napier University
Mark Sproul is Head of Web and Digital Communications at Edinburgh Napier University and has over ten years experience in web and digital communications. He is responsible for the internet, CRM marketing, social media, and intranet at Edinburgh Napier. He spends a lot of time understanding customer preferences to ensure digital communications are focused on their needs and are consistent with brand values. When he's not doing this he's trying to follow what's going on in the digital space to see where improvements can be made with particular interest in statistics, social media and search. Before joining Edinburgh Napier he was Web Manager for the International Accounting Standard Board. Prior to that he was Editor at Company Reporting Ltd where the led the strategic development from a paper based publication to an internet client service and was responsible for PR.