The IntoUniversity Advisory Panel is made up of eleven professionals with expertise in areas as wide ranging as journalism, business and law.
They meet twice-yearly with the IntoUniversity Trustees to discuss topics of concern and interest to IntoUniversity, and to give advice and guidance to the charity.
The Panel
Henry Bedford worked in finance and investment management for 30 years and now focuses on several activities in the voluntary sector. He is a Trustee of Hamilton College and Next Step.
Simon Cairns recently retired as Chair of the Charities Aid Foundation. He has also been chair of the Commonwealth Development Corporation, the Overseas Development Institute, Voluntary Service Overseas and is currently a board member of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation.
Jessica Cecil is the Head of the Director-General's Office at the BBC. She has worked in television for 15 years. She moved into science programming in 1998, as deputy editor of BBC One's Tomorrow's World, and was the series producer of Ancient Apocalypse.
Adele Eastman is Senior Policy Specialist at the Centre for Social Justice. Before joining the CSJ, Adele was a solicitor at Farrer & Co LLP. Adele was a founding Trustee of the Tom ap Rhys Pryce Memorial Fund.
Oliver Haarmann is a Founding Partner at Searchlight Capital Partners, a private investment firm. Previously, he served as a Partner at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Ltd. (KKR) for 12 years. Before this, he worked for various firms in the investment industry in the United States and Europe. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1996 and has a dual B.A. in History and International Relations from Brown University.
David Miller is the Managing Director and Founder of Changefirst. Immediately prior to founding Changefirst, David was a Senior Vice President for a leading global services company. David has lived and worked in Europe and the United States as well as spending time working in Asia.
Lucy Morris is a Trustee of CHK Charities and a volunteer at IntoUniversity. She also helps with fundraising.
Alec Rattray has worked in strategic communications for more than 20 years. He is currently Head of Strategy for The WHAM Agency, part of Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. Alec's previous roles include being Head of Marketing Communications for Serco Group and Executive Director for Landor Associates.
Mary Ann Sieghart spent 19 years as an Assistant Editor and columnist on The Times before leaving to pursue other interests. She presents Newshour on the BBC World Service and Profile on Radio 4, is an equity partner in the new website, The Browser, writes a regular newspaper column, and sits on the board of Henderson Smaller Companies Investment Trust and on the Council of Tate Modern.
Steve Windsor is head of EMEA Corporate & Sovereign Debt Capital Markets and the FICC Derivatives business in the Financing Group at Goldman Sachs. He also co-heads the EMEA Structured Finance business. He joined Goldman Sachs in 2000 and was named partner in 2008. Prior to joining the firm, Steve worked at Chase Manhattan Bank in Derivative Sales.
Professor Sarah O'Hara is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Human Resources, Access and Community Relations and the Faculty of Arts at the University of Nottingham. Her current research focuses on resource management and conflict as well as geopolitics of oil and gas developments. In recent years she has acted as an advisor to the UNDP, SDC and the FCO as well as the UK and EU government on a range of environmental issues.
Our next meeting
Our next Advisory Panel Meeting will take place in May 2012.
We will report on any interesting outcomes of the meeting via the IntoUniversity Blog.
Previous Meetings
In May 2010, our Advisory Panel and Trustees discussed the topic “What is the value of a university degree?”
The talk was led by Anna Vignoles, a Professor in the Economics of Education at the Institute Of Education and a Deputy Director of the Centre for the Economics of Education. Her research interests include education, school choice and the economic value of schooling.
Read more about the meeting on the IntoUniversity Blog.
In October 2009, we were joined by Ben Widdicombe from the Cabinet Office, who spoke about the recommendations made in the cross party report Unleashing Aspiration which featured IntoUniversity. An interesting round table discussion followed, in whch panel members voiced their concerns about social mobility in the UK and discussed what actions the government should be taking.