Dr. Simon Merrywest is Executive Director for the Student Experience at The University of Manchester. Simon co-edited and co-authored the UUK, PAPYRUS and Samaritans HE Postvention Guidance, published in December 2022, to guide HE senior leaders to respond sensitively and quickly after an unexpected student death by suspected suicide. He has recently co-authored and edited new guidance: ‘Collective responsibility, collective action to prevent student suicide; Guidance for the Higher Education sector to reduce risk and restrict access to means of suicide’. He is co-chair of the Greater Manchester Student Mental Health Service Board and a member of the Expert Advisory Group for the National Confidential Inquiry review of suspected student suicides as well as the TASO Mental Health and Wellbeing Advisory Group.

Jasmine Bacani is a PhD researcher in the Department of Management in the Built Environment at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). With a background in urbanism, her work explored the relationship between university campuses and their surrounding cities. Her doctoral research focuses on inter-organisational knowledge exchange in campus management across Dutch universities, aiming to enhance decision-making processes and foster more effective collaboration.

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson is Britain's greatest Paralympic athlete. She competed in five Paralympic Games winning 11 gold medals, 4 silvers and 1 bronze and is acknowledged as one of the most gifted and courageous sportswomen of her generation. In addition to her outstanding Paralympic achievements, between 1992 and 2002 she won the London Wheelchair Marathon a total of six times.

Retirement has not slowed her down and Tanni has gone on to play a prominent role in public life. In 2005 she was made ‘Dame’ Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE for her services to sport, while in 2010 she was elevated to the House of Lords as a crossbench peer. With a particular focus on sport, disability, health, welfare and youth development she has made significant contributions to debates on welfare reform, assisted dying and sports governance.

Amongst other positions she is a Non-Executive Director of the BBC, sits on the board of TfL, is Chair of ukactive, Chancellor of Northumbria University, and President of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations. She also acts as an ambassador for UNICEF, the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and the sport for social change movement Beyond Sport.

Gary has 30 years of experience in built asset management across multiple sectors in the UK and internationally, the last five years of which have been in the HE sector at the Universities of Cambridge and Nottingham. He started his career in FM consultancy before leading large multi-site FM delivery contracts for Mace Macro and ISS Facility Services. He is now applying this experience to drive service excellence and estate rationalisation at Nottingham across a 700,000m2 estate which employs 1200 estates colleagues.

Laura has over 16 years of experience in Higher Education, specifically in Strategic Estates Management. She began her career at the University of Sheffield within Estates and Facilities Management in the Strategic Space Management team, and was involved in significant change management projects, including the consolidation of Professional Services and new way of working in the Grade II* listed Arts Tower, which Laura used as the case study of her thesis on territorialism in the workplace, and how space can drive cultural change.

More recently Laura led the development of the academic brief and change management process for 'The Wave' building at the University of Sheffield, including new ways of academic working for sustainable growth and exploring pedagogical developments in a post covid environment. Laura joined the University of Nottingham as Director of Estate Masterplanning in November 2024. Laura is leading on the 'Reshaping our Estate' programme with the objective to reduce the non-residential estate by 20%.

Lucy is Associate Director - Facilities & Student Accommodation at the University of Plymouth, delivering in-house and outsourced services. She is chair of AUDE’s Strategic FM group. 
 
With 30 years’ experience in facilities management, Lucy has previously held similar roles in university, local authority and charity sectors, and has considerable experience of leading and developing teams and services, and organisational strategy. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM) where she was a non-executive director. She has a long-standing interest in the development and introduction of new technologies and enjoys communicating about FM.

Tom Andrews is the Head of Facilities Management at the University of Hertfordshire. Responsible for cleaning, grounds, waste, portering, removals, estates events, and signage across a range of in-house and outsourced services.

Duncan is the Senior Facilities Manager at the University of Glasgow, responsible for delivering soft FM and Reactive Maintenance. With 25 years of experience in Hotel Management and Quality Assurance, Duncan has transferred his passion for people and customer focused service delivery to the higher education Sector. He is a charity trustee, currently serving as chair of Cahonas Scotland, a charity dedicated to raising awareness of Testicular Cancer.

I am the Head of the Department of Infrastructure Maintenance at the University of Venda, a South African university located in the northern region of the country. I joined the University in November 2023, and my department is mainly responsible for maintaining all university infrastructure, including student and staff housing and satellite campuses. I hold a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Civil Engineering from the University of Cape Town, also a South African university. My background is in construction, civil engineering design, and construction project management.

As a member of the Higher Education Facility Managers Association of Southern Africa Executive Committee, I support the association in my role as Treasurer.

I am 34 years of age and have 2 kids, a 7-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. I enjoy traveling, DIY projects, and baking.

I am currently the Senior Maintenance Manager at the University of Leeds, where I oversee reactive and planned maintenance across the external estate, as well as non-academic and off-campus properties through FM contracts. My career began in golf course maintenance and construction, and I have had the opportunity to work in the USA, Spain, and Ireland.

 These diverse experiences have equipped me with a broad skill set and a global perspective, enabling me to effectively manage complex maintenance operations and deliver high-quality service in my current role. In my free time, I enjoy cycling, and this year’s challenge involves cycling from Berwick-upon-Tweed to York in two days.

Kate is the Executive Officer to the Principal, Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, at the University of Glasgow. In this role, she provides strategic support through communications, project management, and advisory work. Kate is responsible for coordinating speeches, briefings, and university-wide initiatives across the full range of university policies and priorities.

Previously, Kate held the position of Executive Officer to the Executive Director of Estates at the University, where she focused on governance, training, and improvement across the diverse services within the Directorate.

She also has experience in strategic policy at the Scottish Funding Council. A philosophy graduate of the University, she also held a sabbatical role as President of the Glasgow University Students' Representative Council, where she championed student interests.

I have been working at the University of Malta since 2012, where I began as a Trainee Architect a year after I graduated. I have since worked at the Estates and Capital Development Directorate, where I now hold a position as Senior Executive. My job is to oversee and coordinate projects, often from inception to implementation, and to help liaise with building users, maintenance staff and Contractors. I have read for a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Bath, and became a fully certified PRINCE2 practitioner in 2023. In my (very limited) free time I enjoy travelling, and am never seen without a good book – I carry them literally everywhere.

I began my career as a building surveyor in 2001 while earning a part-time degree at Summers-Inman. In 2007, I joined Faithful+Gould, completing a second degree in quantity surveying and progressing through roles in building surveying, quantity surveying, and project management. Promoted to director in 2015, I earned MCIOB and MAPM qualifications and led major central/local government, NHS, and education programmes. After 15 years with F+G, I joined the University of York in 2023 as a Senior Programme Manager within the Capital Development team, where I focus on pre-contract planning and strategic development of key capital projects.

I am a Chartered Project Management Surveyor and the Deputy Director of Estates for Cardiff University, managing the Campus Development team which deals with Space Management and Capital Projects. I have been at the university since 2017, joining as Programme Manager and managing projects including Abacws (new build for schools of Maths and Computer Science), Bute (reconfiguration for Welsh School of Architecture) and Cardiff Innovation Campus (£250m new buildings). I was promoted to Deputy Director in 2022.

Prior to the University I worked as a Consultant Project Manager working on a range of buildings including St Davids shopping centre, Ice Arena Wales and Westgate Oxford shopping centre.

Dr Stephanie Harris is currently the Director of Strategy, Insight and Member Engagement at Universities UK (UUK), the representative body for UK universities where she has worked for 7 years in various roles. These roles have included leading UUK’s immigration policy, managing the organisation’s international response to the covid-19 pandemic, and developing UUK’s current strategic plan. In her current role, Steph acts as a senior adviser to the CEO and makes sure UUK’s work is driven by and for its membership. 

The focus of Steph’s career has been higher education policy and influencing, first as an SU sabbatical officer, then as a Policy Officer to the Vice-Chancellor at Bath Spa University and finally at UUK. Steph holds an undergraduate degree and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bristol and is a current trustee at Bristol Students’ Union.

Elisabeth holds responsibility for academic operations across the City St George’s, University of London. She leads the City St George’s integration programme following the merger of St George’s University of London into City, University of London to create a powerful combined joint institution. Elisabeth has responsibility for shaping and delivering the Strategic Transformation Programme which will enable the realisation of City St George’s vision and strategic plan. Prior to joining City, Elisabeth held various leadership roles at Goldsmiths, University of London including Deputy Warden, ProWarden Academic, Head of the School of Arts & Humanities, and Head of the Department of Psychology.