Plenary Speakers

Chair: Details coming soon…

Susan Dawson

Commercial Director

Department for Education

Susan Dawson, Director for Commercial Sector and Commercial Operations joined the Civil Service 32 years ago as an Admin Assistant. Susan has delivered a number of commercial initiatives and has run a number of Government Major Programmes. She enjoys leading transformation and change. She has held a variety of roles in several departments climbing through the ranks to her current position. She has 17 years’ experience in the Department for Education. Susan is also proud to be Head of Place for the Yorkshire and Humber region, having lived and worked there throughout her career.

Tom Goldman

 Director of Education Funding

Department for Education

Tom Goldman leads the Funding Policy Unit. We cover funding for the core day-to-day running costs of schools (5-16), early years providers (up to 4) and support for children and young people with high needs (0-25). This is known as “resource” or “revenue” funding. Prior to joining FPU, I have held a variety of posts dealing in particular with school curriculum, qualifications and standards.

Will Jordan

CEO & Co-founder

IMP Software

Will Jordan is Co-Founder and CEO at IMP Software, who are specialists in the provision of budgeting, forecasting, and reporting software for multi-academy trusts. As a qualified accountant who has been working with MATs and academies since 2010, Will has supported hundreds of Trusts nationally to help them develop a smarter approach to MAT Finance. Whilst most of this focus has been around the rationalisation and development of business systems and streamlining the reporting infrastructure, Will has also been deeply involved in operating model transitions and change management around budget management approaches, including Reserves and GAG Pooling, both from process design to stakeholder engagement and education.

Steve Rollet

Deputy Chief Executive

The Confederation of School Trusts (CST)

Steve Rollett is Deputy Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST), the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. Before joining CST, he was Curriculum and Inspection Specialist for the Association of School and College Leaders. Steve has sat on a range of advisory bodies, including Ofsted’s curriculum advisory group. Most recently he has supported Oak National Academy and the Department for Education’s remote learning advisory group. Originally trained as a history teacher, Steve was a Vice Principal of one of England’s most improved secondary schools before moving into a career in education policy.

Work Session Speakers

Stuart Abraham

Director

The Wisdom Partnership, Publishers of WhichMIS?

Steve Baines

Director

The Wisdom Partnership, Publishers of WhichMIS?

Andy Ball

Co-founder and Schools Mentor

IAM Compliant

Meet Andy Ball, the Schools Mentor and Co-Founder of iAM Compliant. He’s a School Superhero on a mission to vanquish compliance challenges and ensure every school is a safe haven for learning and teaching. With extensive experience in education sector facilities management, Andy is your go-to source for all things compliance and estates management. “Health and safety isn’t to stop you doing stuff, it’s there to allow you to do it…safely!”

Gary Benn

Director, Building and Projects Consultancy

Eddisons

Michael Conlon

Education Transformation Consultant

XMA

Michael has had an extensive career in education over the past 30 years in teaching, school leadership,  local authority quality improvement and a national role with Education Scotland. He has worked on some of the UK’s largest 1:1 iPad programs, including Glasgow’s innovative Connected Learning programme covering over 200 schools and he continues to support education institutions with their strategic ambitions across the UK, bringing XMA’s deep experience in delivering 1:1 projects to school leaders and communities.

Passionate about equity, accessibility, creativity and the importance of professional learning, Michael continues to pursue the opportunity to have an impact for young people in a digitally accelerating world.

photo coming soon…

Andrew Dutton

Education Sector Leader

Arcadis

Jonathan Forman

Programme Delivery Manager

Department for Education

Jon is an experienced digital, data, and technology leader with a record of leading high-quality user-centred services at scale, delivering transformational change, and building and leading digital communities of practice in large public and private sector organisations.

At the Department for Education (DfE) Jon is the Service Owner for the School Account Programme and the DfE Connect service and is responsible for ensuring the service meets the needs of users and delivers on the department’s objectives.

Prior to DfE Jon worked at the Government Digital Service, and Accenture Digital.

Jen Halmshaw

Head of Digital Services Strategy for Schools

Department for Education

Andrew Hamilton

School Resource Management Adviser

Lindsay Harris

Deputy Director, Education Estates Directorate

Department for Education

Lindsay has been with the Department for Education since 2016, having previously worked in other Government departments, including Defra and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.  He is one of the Deputy Directors in Capital Directorate, responsible among other things for the Condition on Data Collection (CDC) Programme, the Capital Advisers Programme and the department’s Good Estate Management for Schools (GEMS) and Managing Asbestos guidance.

Lee Herridge

Head of Professional Development

Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL)

Lee has been with the Institute for over a year and a half and has led the revision of the Professional Standards.

Prior to joining ISBL, Lee worked for 13 years in education, teaching and leading Business and Economics in the secondary and FE sectors.

Lee holds a level 4 Diploma in School Business Management and is currently studying a level 7 Apprenticeship in Senior People Professional Learning & Development

Lara le Court de Billot

Policy Advisor, Schools Technology Services

Department for Education

Stephen has a 20-year career history in operations and finance, working at a senior level in the public and private sectors, both in the UK and abroad.

Stephen presided over the development and implementation of nationally recognised school business leadership professional standards and led the transition from the National Association of School Business Management to the Institute of School Business Leadership.

Stephen works closely with the Department for Education in areas of policy reform, and his commitment to research to aid our self-improving system includes ongoing engagement with international jurisdictions including Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the US.

Stephen Morales

Chief Executive

Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL)

Stephen has a 20-year career history in operations and finance, working at a senior level in the public and private sectors, both in the UK and abroad.

Stephen presided over the development and implementation of nationally recognised school business leadership professional standards and led the transition from the National Association of School Business Management to the Institute of School Business Leadership.

Stephen works closely with the Department for Education in areas of policy reform, and his commitment to research to aid our self-improving system includes ongoing engagement with international jurisdictions including Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the US.

James Murphy

Associate Director and Account Leader for Education

Arcadis

James Murphy, Associate Director and Account Leader for Education at Arcadis – James leads the education property, estates, and facilities management service at Arcadis. James is a strategic adviser to trusts and responsible bodies around estates management and has led the DfE capital advisers programme over the last 3 years.

Nathan Odom

Estates Director

Discovery Trust

Nathan is a school estate leader with over 15 years’ experience in the education sector. He began his journey in Local Government playing a key role in the academy programme and education sufficiency in Leicestershire. Now, as part of the Discovery Schools, Nathan oversees a diverse portfolio of responsibilities including strategic estates management, place planning and sustainability improvements.

Arati Patel-Mistry

Schools Engagement Manager

Department for Education

Warren Porter

ex MAT CFO & Head of Education Strategy

IMP Software

Warren Porter is IMP Software’s Head of Education Strategy. Warren gained his chartered accountancy qualification whilst working at a 20+ school primary MAT, before moving on to become CFO at a Special/AP Trust in Derbyshire. In his role at IMP, he analyses sector developments and trends, and works closely with customers to ensure that IMP’s financial management tools continually evolve to support smarter MAT finance.

Lawrence Tijjani

CEO

Happy2Host Education (Google for Education professional development partner)

Lawrence has been involved in Education for over 18 years, he began as a Computing teacher, progressed to Strategic IT Lead and later Head of Faculty. He introduced and developed a successful Computing curriculum at KS3 through to A-level, co-ordinated the implementation of IT within a new build.

Lawrence left classroom teaching to take up an exciting IT consultancy role supporting schools using and developing Google Workspace for Education, e-safety and general Edtech.

Lawrence founded Happy2Host Education and now supports Schools and Colleges around the UK and Ireland with all digital needs.

Peter Tomkins

School Resource Management Adviser

Peter is the SRMA Team Leader for North East London and the East Of England and one of the directors of TSO Education, a company providing schools, academies and local authorities with financial support and finance software, including the ICFP.school app. Peter has worked in education for thirty-five years, including six years as a secondary headteacher, and has been CFO in a number of trusts. Peter is a tutor and coach on the NPQEL course developing the next generation of system leaders.

photo coming soon…

more speaker details coming soon…

Speakers, agenda and times may be subject to change