Adele Every
Cisco
Adele is the Managing Director for Public Sector at Cisco. Focused on driving sustainable business growth through her sales and specialist teams bringing value to government.
Adele drives operational excellence and rigour with a focus on account strategy and planning activities to drive targeted sales and marketing campaigns. Prior to joining Cisco, Adele spent 17 years at Capgemini.
As Vice President she led a high-performing cross functional team to deliver on their largest global account which was circa £1bn per annum to fulfil programmes of national importance including Brexit and COVID-19 support packages. She has also established and sat on innovation programme boards within the public sector focused on bringing a broad ecosystem of partner offers to support the transformation and SME agenda.
She has a mature network across government, connecting MPs, lobby groups, SME tech partners and start-ups and has featured in many tech publications including, Technology Record, IT Pro Journal and the New Statesman.
Alison Atkinson
Anglo American
Prior to working at Anglo American, Alison Atkinson served as the Chief Executive Officer of AWE plc since 2020, an organisation with a critical mission to support the defence and security of the UK.
She joined AWE in 2005 and has fulfilled a number of senior roles in that time, delivering multi-billion dollar infrastructure projects and technology programmes and developing capabilities and products that support the UK’s nuclear defence programme. Prior to AWE, Alison spent 14 years at Halcrow, the global engineering consultancy, managing a wide variety of capital projects in the UK and overseas in both the public and private sectors. A champion for diversity in science and engineering, Alison was voted the sixth most ‘Influential Female Engineer in the UK and Europe’ by the Financial Times and Inclusive Boards in 2019. Alison has a Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) from the University of Manchester, UK, is a Chartered Civil Engineer and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She is a non-executive director of Kier Group plc and Chair of its Safety, Health and Environment committee.
Dan Walker
Rio Tinto
Dan is the SVP for technology and deputy group chief scientist at Rio Tinto. In this role, he is building the capability needed to fully leverage science, technology and innovation to deliver the materials the world needs to drive the energy transition, and to do this in the most sustainable way possible. Dan is also Non Executive Director at Ocean Infinity.
Dan has held senior leadership roles across the energy industry, including vice president of engineering at BP. Dan led engineering teams and capability across BP for the company’s resilient hydrocarbons business and low carbon growth businesses, including offshore wind, hydrogen, CCUS, vehicle electrification, solar and bio. Dan has held other senior leadership roles including establishing and leading the emerging and disruptive technology unit at BP, and leading the team that created the company’s net zero carbon ambition and strategy in 2020. Dan is a chartered mechanical engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Dan is actively engaged in UK national efforts to develop the engineering skills needed to accelerate the energy transition, and is passionate about the development of early career engineers.
Dr John Cater OBE
Edge Hill University
Dr John Cater OBE is the Vice Chancellor of Edge Hill University, having been appointed in 1993. As a social geographer, he has published extensively on race, housing, economic development and public policy and co-authored major research studies for the Social Science Research Council, the Commission for Racial Equality and their successor bodies.
He was a Director of the Higher Education Careers Service from 1994-2013 and was Chair of Liverpool: City of Learning from 2003-2005. He chaired the Standing Conference of Principals from 2001-2003, having been Vice-Chair from 1997-2001. He was a Director of the Teacher Training Agency and its successor body, the Training and Development Agency for Schools, from 1999-2006 and chaired both the Accreditation and the Audit Committees. He was the Chair of the Guild HE/Universities UK Teacher Education Advisory Group from 2016-2021. He was a member of Department of Health’s Expert Advisory Panel on Nurse Education and Training from 1995-97 and has sat on Universities UK’s Health and Social Care Committee since 2004. He also represented all Vice-Chancellors on the Joint DH/DfE Social Work Reform Board. He represented the sector on HEFCE’s Good Management Practice Panel from 1999-2003, and sat on both the HEROBaC and HEIF1 and HEIF2 Panels.
He is past Chair of the Knowsley 14-19 Collegiate Consortium and the Greater Merseyside and West Lancashire Lifelong Learning Network, and a former member of the QAA’s Advisory Committee on Degree-Awarding Powers.
Frances Corner OBE
Goldsmiths University of London
The first woman to take on the role, Professor Corner is the academic and administrative leader of the university. She leads the Senior Management Team, which considers major policy issues and oversees the submission of business to Council, Academic Board and Finance and Resources Committee.
Professor Corner has more than 20 years’ experience in higher education leadership, and was previously Head of the London College of Fashion and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Arts London. Previously she was Head of the Sir John Cass Department of Art, Media and Design at London Metropolitan University (2001-2005), and Associate Dean in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Gloucestershire (1998-2001).
In 2009, Professor Corner was awarded an OBE for services to fashion higher education and widening participation in arts education. As a campaigner, she has championed the role of fashion as a force for innovation and change, particularly in the areas of sustainability, health and well-being.
Professor Corner is currently a Trustee at Centrepoint and also sits on the British Fashion Council Industry Advisory Board. In 2018 she was named in the Business of Fashion 500, a professional index of key people shaping the global fashion industry.
Heidi Fraser-Krauss
Jisc
Heidi Fraser-Krauss joined Jisc as chief executive officer in September 2021. She started her career as a researcher studying how communication in teams supports innovation. Heidi has since held a variety of leadership roles in higher education, including executive director of corporate services at the University of Sheffield, deputy registrar and director of corporate and information services at the University of York, and head of the technology change team at the University of St Andrews.
Jo Harrison
United Utilities
Jo is accountable for leading United Utilities’ strategy and planning activities for the business for the next 25 years, including developing and strengthening the company’s approach to asset management, catchment planning, resilience, climate change, sustainability and the wider environment.
Jo is an environmental scientist and has worked in a variety of operational, planning and strategic roles for United Utilities over the last 25 years. Before joining the company she worked in environmental consultancy.
Jo is a chartered member of CIWEM and a Chartered Environmentalist through the Society for the Environment.
Josie Fraser
Open University
Professor Josie Fraser joined The Open University in March 2017 but describes her interest in the University and its mission as ‘long-term’ after being a tutor on an OU MSc course back in the early 2000s. This was an experience that influenced her teaching for many years. Josie was previously Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics before taking up the Deputy Vice-Chancellor role from 1 January 2019.
Josie started her academic career as a neurobiologist, with interests in animal behaviour and treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders. Her BSc degree (Leeds) and PhD (Bradford) were followed by research posts at the Medical Research Council, the University of Cambridge and the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where Josie was part of an international team at the cutting edge of brain scanning techniques. Josie’s focus shifted towards teaching and making a difference to a wide range of students from varied backgrounds, including as Senior Lecturer and Associate Dean (Learning & Teaching) at the University of Bradford.
Minnie Moll
Design Council
Minnie joined the Design Council as Chief Executive in March 2021. She has introduced and led the Design for Planet mission to help address the climate crisis.
Minnie spent years in innovation, design, advertising and brand consultancy. She was Managing Partner of HHCL, the ‘Advertising Agency of the decade’ and then Global Marketing Director of Innovation company ?What If!, which won Great Place to Work Institute’s ‘Best Place to Work in the UK’ two years running.
