Professor Sharon Mavin is Director of Newcastle University Business School, Newcastle University, UK. She is a Professor of Leadership and Organisation Studies.

Sharon previously led Roehampton Business School, University of Roehampton, London, as Director. She was led Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, as Dean and Associate Dean Research.

Sharon is an international scholar in gender, women's leadership, identity, learning, dirty work and organization studies. She supervises doctoral students in these areas. Sharon is a Fellow of the British Academy of Management. Sharon's national roles include Chair of the:

• Chartered Association of Business School's Diversity Committee
• University Forum for Human Resources and Development (UFHRD)

Sharon is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Management Reviews. She sits on a number of journal editorial advisory boards.

Sharon’s recent research on women leaders at the top of organisations has been published in journals, such as:

• human relations
• British Journal of Management and Gender
• Work and Organization

Research into gendered media representations of women leaders and professionals funded through an ESRC Seminar Series (2014-2017) has been published in:

• Gender in Management: An International Journal
• Gender, Media and Organisation: Challenging (Mis) Representations of Women Leaders and Managers

Throughout her academic career, Sharon has continued to be passionate about, and engage, in practice and organisational innovation. She does this through research and consultancy and as an executive coach.

Sharon has recently completed a Board Apprenticeship with JP Morgan Claverhouse Investment Trust Plc. She is currently leading an evaluation project of the international Board Apprentice scheme, which aims to increase diversity on company boards.

Bill has been a partner with PwC for more than 20 years and is based in Newcastle. He is a member of the Institute of Scottish Chartered Accountants of Scotland. He has worked with the Business School for more than 10 years. He's been liaison for the Flying Start degree programme run by the University in conjunction with PwC and the ICAEW.

He is currently the Ethics Partner for PwC UK. He is responsible for ensuring PwC’s compliance with various ethical and professional standards.

During his career with PwC, Bill has held the following roles:

• Member of the UK Firm’s Supervisory Board which is PwC’s governance body that holds its executive management to account. As part of this role, Bill:
  • chaired PwC’s own Audit and Risk Committee
  • served on PwC’s equivalent of a remuneration committee
  • was a member of the Partner Affairs Committee which dealt with partnership matters
• Newcastle office senior partner. Leading PwC’s 300 strong Newcastle office, which provides a full range of professional services in the North East.
• Assurance North people partner – responsible for all people related matters across this 700 person business.
• Audit partner – Bill has led the audits of a wide range of listed and private companies.
• Earlier in his career, Bill worked overseas for five years spending two years in New York and three years in Dubai.

Bill is also a director of Newcastle Gateshead Initiative where he chairs the finance group. NGI is a public private partnership and seeks to promote the region as a place to invest, visit and host events.

Previously he was a member of the Student Education Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. He was an external advisor to the Accountancy degree programme at the University of Glasgow.

Stuart leads a regulatory and scheme engagement team. This is for the domestic digital and international payments processing of Lloyds Banking Group.

He oversees the investment portfolio and early design phases of payments regulatory change, as well as risk management and control.

Stuart has broad experience of international banking. He was relationship head for the overseas payments network of the bank in key geographies.

He developed the operating model for the bank’s global transactional banking business. He has a strong record in innovation and strategic business development.

In addition, Stuart has a number of independent business interests, which focus on the opportunities brought about by digital transformation.

Stuart is a graduate of Newcastle University in History (1985) and has maintained firm links with the North East.

He helps promote the Benefactors’ Fund for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship. This supports student scholarships in the Business School and the student business START-UP programme.

Sameena is a global HR leader with 25 years’ experience in multiple industries, leading transformations and delivering results in challenging environments.

She joined General Electric (GE) in 2005 and held a number of Executive HR Director roles, across various GE Sectors, including:

• Power
• Oil & Gas
• Healthcare
• Capital (Financial Services)

She was strategic business partner with expertise in defining and implementing HR strategy; leading global HR teams and driving cultural change.

Sameena has extensive experience coaching senior leaders and developing executive talent. She is a BSc Hons. Psychology graduate, with a postgraduate diploma in HR and a MBA from University of Newcastle upon Tyne. She's been a Fellow of the CIPD since 2002.

Lynn graduated from Cambridge University with a MA in Geography. She followed up with a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management, achieved with Distinction, from Northumbria University. She is a Chartered Member of the CIPD.

Lynn started her career in accountancy training as a Chartered Accountant with KMPG. She then worked in sales with a leading FMCG company, PepsiCo, before moving into recruitment/headhunting.

She joined Nike UK more than 12 years ago in human resources, where she has enjoyed a variety of roles. She moved into the HR Director position three years ago. She is responsible for the UK/Ireland business. This involves multi-site responsibility with more than 2,000 employees working across wholesale and retail.

In her personal life, Lynn enjoys spending time with her family and friends. She loves the outdoors, walking with the dogs and keeping fit.

Susan joined Waterstons in January 2011 as the Head of Business Technology Consulting. Within six months, she was invited to join the Waterston's Board as the Operations Director. She has subsequently become Chief Executive Officer.

Susan started out as a COBOL, CICS, DB2 programmer. She has worked in London within financial services, specifically investment banking.

Susan’s specialisms are in business strategy alignment, transformation and programme management. She’s lead many global and enterprise wide projects. These range from scalable and resilient identity and access management solutions to the transition of services to offshore outsourcing companies.

Susan’s focus has been on establishing strong governance, stakeholder management and an ethos of working in partnership. She is an advocate of effective and timely communication. She has more recently been focussed on gaining operational efficiencies and effectiveness within Waterstons. The core aim is to enhance customer service and improve overall business performance.

Wilf Blackburn is the CEO of Prudential Assurance Company Singapore. He took up the role in 2016 and has worked for Prudential in Asia since 2012. He was Regional Director for New Markets and Business Development in Hong Kong and Malaysia and CEO of Prudential Vietnam.

He oversaw the launch of Prudential's business operations in Cambodia and the establishment of Prudential's offices in Myanmar and Laos.

Before joining Prudential he worked for Allianz Insurance Management, holding a number of senior positions in Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and China.

He began his career as an actuarial trainee at Hyman Robertson in London. He also worked for LV before relocating to Asia in 2000.

He has a postgraduate diploma in actuarial science from Cass Business School, an MBA from the University of Bath and attended the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School.

He is originally from Newcastle, and is married to Judith. They have five children. His son is currently in his third year at Newcastle, making him the third generation of his family to attend the university.

Hannah has worked with CSOs and government in the UK and Global South.  

In the early stages of her career, Hannah worked for the UK Government Women’s National Commission. She focused on violence against women and girls. 

She has since worked for humanitarian and development NGOs in the UK and Global South. She also worked for the British Embassy in Addis Ababa where she worked on Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somaliland.

Hannah lived and worked for six years in Ethiopia. She specialised in conflict, gender, human rights, community-based development, humanitarian programming and economic empowerment.  

Hannah focused on conflict and gender in her Master’s degree at King’s College London. She has a BA in Politics from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne.

David has extensive experience across the lifecycle of company growth and business development. He has expertise in technology and consulting.

David is currently the Global Head of Partnerships for Cloudreach. This is a consulting firm specialising in digital transformation and cloud technology adoption for Enterprise organisations. 

David joined the company as the first account manager in a 30-person London start-up. He built an international book of business across media, automotive, financial services and retail verticals.

This afforded the company the capital and connections to expand overseas.

David went on to establish an office in New York and laid the foundations for the US business. He moved to Seattle to build the West Coast operation and manage the global alliance function.

David is now working with Cloudreach’s Private Equity backer, Blackstone, on portfolio operations and business strategy.

Prior to Cloudreach, David spent four years at IBM in London. He worked in a number of commercial and operational roles in the consulting and services practice, advising FTSE 100 companies.

David is actively involved in his community in New York. He currently serves on the committee of two cultural and charitable societies.

David graduated from Newcastle University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics & Business Management. He represented the Boat Club, earning University colours and competed at Henley Royal Regatta.

Rebecca graduated from Newcastle University with an MSc in Economics. Her career spans technology, food, non-food, consumer and B2B.

Rebecca began her career on the graduate scheme for Pepsico. She then joined the healthcare business Reckitt Benckiser in the UK. She followed this by working across Northern Europe to focus on centralising the business operating model.

In 2010, she joined Dyson where she led their B2B business unit before setting up the international sales structure.

Rebecca is currently the Managing Director for Dyson's business in GB&I. She has a mission to drive transformational growth through product innovation and significant model change.

Alongside her commercial responsibilities, Rebecca is chair of the employee-led engagement initiative and sponsor of the lean-in project.

Prior to joining NISM, Sandip Ghose was Head of Human Resource Management Department, Reserve Bank of India (RBI). He oversaw the strategic management, human resource development and administrative affairs for 18,000 employees across the country.

A central banker by profession, Sandip has previously held positions such as:

• Regional Director of the RBI, Delhi
• Secretary to the Bank’s Local Board of Directors in North India
• Chief General Manager and Principal of the College of Agricultural Banking in Pune
• Chief of Staff and Advisor to three successive RBI Governors - Dr. C. Rangarajan, Dr. Bimal Jalan, and Dr. Y.V. Reddy - over a period of nine years from 1996-2004

Sandip was instrumental in setting up the human resources department in RBI in 1995. He went on to head this between 2004 and 2007. He oversaw recruitment, training and development, performance and talent management, as well as compensation, welfare and industrial relations.

During this time, he was also the Principal at the Bankers' Training College, Mumbai (now known as the Centre for Advanced Financial Learning). He was responsible for capacity building of the top management of the commercial banks in India.

During his career, Sandip has received several prestigious awards. Among them are the:

• Jagdeep Khandpur Award for Outstanding HR Leadership
• Pride of HR Profession Award by the Institute Of Public Enterprises
• HR Leader of the Year Award by the Asia Pacific HRM Congress

For his contribution to the field of HR and society at large, he has been conferred with an Honorary Doctoral Degree by the Eastern Institute of Integrated Learning and Management, Sikkim University.

Sandip holds a postgraduate degree in History. He has had exposure to executive education at the top business schools in India and abroad. He continues to serve as director/member on the boards of national and international training institutions and business schools.

Steve is the Chief Financial Officer for Tandem Bank, a digital-only lender and Britain’s newest bank.

Prior to joining Tandem earlier in 2016, Steve was CFO for PayPal’s Global Credit business. He led a team in the United States, Europe and Australia. 

Steve joined PayPal in January 2014 from Capital One Bank, where he spent 14 years. His final role at Capital One was as CFO for international lending, running finance for the $8bn credit card business in the UK and Canada.

Prior to that, he gained broad experience across finance with roles as:

• European Financial Controller
• Head of Balance Sheet Management
• Head of Financial Reporting

Before joining Capital One, Steve worked for Rolls-Royce plc in a variety of internal audit and controllership roles. This included leading the global IT audit function. 

Steve is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. He graduated with a 1st Class BA (Hons) in Geography.

Steve lives in Nottingham with his wife, Rachel, also a Newcastle graduate, and son, Oliver.

Stephen trained as an ICAEW Chartered Accountant with Ernst Young in London. He worked in audit on a diverse range of companies before moving into a career in industry.

In his business career Stephen gained broad experience in transformational initiatives including:

• restructuring
• outsourcing
• major IT systems implementations

He spent the majority of his career with Avon Products Inc. This included 10 years based in New York city, latterly as GVP Corporate Controller.

Prior to joining Venator, he was the Director Commercial and Business at the ICAEW. In this role, he was the spokesman for the ICAEW on business matters and was interviewed on both the TV and radio numerous times.

As VP Controller at Venator Material PLC, Stephen leads the finance and accounting team responsible for:

• SEC and internal reporting
• accounting shared services
• financial planning and analysis

Mark Ligertwood joined Dunedin in 1999. He was a key member of the fundraising team that raised the £300m Dunedin Buyout Fund III in 2013.

He was also involved in the buyouts of Kee Safety, Weldex, Steeper, Zenith, Gardner, ABI and Goals; and the exit of Capula.

He is an honours graduate in Business Management from Newcastle University. He qualified as a chartered accountant at Ernst & Young, working in corporate finance.

Mark enjoys swimming, cycling, tennis and skiing as well as trying to keep up with his three energetic boys. He is also single handedly constructed his own treehouse.

Born in Newcastle upon Tyne and educated at Royal Grammar School, John has 28 years’ experience as a lawyer in private practice. He handled commercial disputes through litigation, arbitration or mediation.

He was also on the board of the firm, now known as Womble Bond Dickinson. He held senior management positions running the firm from 2010 until he left in 2016.

John now has a portfolio of non-executive roles as well as acting as a consultant.

John is Chair of NewcastleGateshead Initiative, the public-private partnership that delivers economic growth for Newcastle-Gateshead and the wider region.

Its mission is to inspire people to visit and to live, learn, work and invest in and around NewcastleGateshead. It  was the key delivery partner of Great Exhibition of the North in 2018.

He is a non-executive director of North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (and its subsidiary) and North East England Chamber of Commerce. He chairs an Advisory Board for regional property firm Bradley Hall & Partners. He is Chair of Trustees for Newcastle United Foundation.

John also chairs the Development Committee for the Prince's Trust in the North East. He is Vice Chair of Trustees at Northumberland Church of England Academy Trust in Ashington, including the largest primary school in England. He is also a College Tutor at St Chad's College, Durham.

Chris Parsons is currently General Manager of Mayborn Group North America. They're the proud owner of the tommee tippee brand, supplying a range of essential feeding, soothing and hygiene products to consumers across the globe.

tommee tippee is the current No. 1 brand of infant and toddler feeding products in the UK. It is one of the fastest growing brands in the global baby essentials market. Available in more than 40 countries worldwide, tommee tippee has experienced particularly strong growth in North America, Europe and Asia.

Before joining Mayborn Group, Chris was the Senior Vice President of International for the NFL (National Football League). He was responsible for the commercial and fan development activities around the globe. During his tenure, Chris contributed to:

• the growth of the NFL fanbase in core focus markets
• expanding marketing activities
• increasing media exposure
• securing record revenues for the NFL’s international business 

Prior to joining the NFL, Chris was Vice President of Reserve Brands (Ciroc, Don Julio, Johnnie Walker Blue) for Diageo plc. In this role, he established Diageo’s first luxury operations, which included the highly successful co-marketing collaboration of Ciroc with Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Chris has also served as the Vice President of Johnnie Walker. Under his direction, the Johnnie Walker brand expanded into broad cable advertising distribution and celebrity event marketing. This resulted in record revenues and profits.

During his 10 years at Diageo, he also served as the Vice President of Beer, winning several marketing excellence awards in the U.S. for his work with the Guinness and Red Stripe brands. He was also responsible for Diageo’s US marketing training and development programmes.

Chris grew up in Manchester, UK. After graduating from Newcastle University, he held various sales and marketing positions at Bass plc, before moving to the US with the Diageo organisation.

Sarah is a regulatory specialist with 15 years’ experience in investment banking. She's worked as a consultant, independent contractor and most recently spent more than eight years working for UBS.

She's progressed to Executive Director level and managing the MiFID II Programme as part of the COO, and then strategic regulatory initiatives. Prior to managing MiFID II, she managed the EMIR Programme, and before that the regulatory programme focused on becoming Dodd Frank compliant.

At the beginning of 2017, Sarah moved to Bank of Nova Scotia as a Director of Regulatory Compliance.

Sarah graduated from Newcastle University in 2002. She started her career as a consultant working with Business Intelligence technologies, moving on to working within capital markets as a consultant for Accenture and Capco.

She has managed change programmes throughout investment banking functions. She has been responsible for interaction with the regulators at both a UK and European level. She is also a keen participant in many of the Trade Association discussions focusing on regulatory change.

Outside of work, Sarah concentrates on looking after her two children, aged 3 and 4. When she has time, she participates in running events in and around London.

Until September 2017, Roy was Director of the £40m National Innovation Centre for Ageing at Newcastle University. He remains engaged with the University as Professor of Practice in Ageing Science & Innovation.

In addition, he led the development of the regional innovation strategy for North East England. He was the founding chair of the NELEP Innovation Board.

Roy spent 31 years with the Procter & Gamble company holding global research and development positions in the UK, Europe and Asia. He led innovation programmes across the world. He has several applied patents. One of his inventions is a $150m business in the US.

Nationally, Roy is president of the Royal Society of Chemistry Industry Council. He chairs the National Smart Specialisation Hub and sits on the BEIS Advisory Board for Science & Innovation Audits.

He holds visiting Professor positions with both Newcastle & Northumbria University Business Schools, Cranfield University and Central St. Martin’s College of Art & Design, London. He chairs Northern Accelerator, the research commercialisation programme across the four NE Universities.

Roy sits on the regional committee of The Prince’s Trust & is a trustee at the Centre for Life, the leading public science centre in Newcastle. Roy is an Operations Board member for the Great Exhibition of the North 2018. He chairs the Data & Insights Board at Tees & Wear Reform Prisons.

In education, he has been a board member at the national awarding body, NCFE. He is a governor at Seaton Burn College and North East Futures UTC. He is currently a governor at The Beacon School in Sunderland.

Roy was awarded the OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2017 for services to science, innovation and skills.

Dennis is senior advisor to Sun Capital Partners and founder of Core Strengths Management Consulting.

He's a C Suite, board level HR executive with considerable experience:

• at industry leading companies
• with Private Equity (AEA Investors, Bain Capital, Hellman & Friedman, The Carlyle Group)

He has senior leader experience working at several industry leading firms (Retired Officer at P&G, Chief HR Officer at Walt Disney, Kellogg, Scripps Networks Interactive and NXP Semiconductors). He played key leadership roles in over a dozen acquisitions ranging from 3B to 54B in size. 

Dennis is experienced in developed, developing and emerging markets. He lived and worked in the United Kingdom, based in London, for several years.

He consults on a variety of subject areas, including:

• strategy development and deployment
• large scale organisation change
• mergers and acquisition integration
• executive coaching

He serves on two additional university boards - Board of Visitors - The University of Alabama, Kansas State University and Durham University in the United Kingdom, where he is also a Visiting Professor.

He's moderator of The Strategy Session Podcast, devoted to exploring strategy, leadership and organisation with C Suite executives.

He graduated the University of Alabama in 1979 holding a Master of Arts in Industrial Relations (summa cum laude) and State University of New York at Oswego in 1978 with a Bachelor in Business Administration and minor in Economics (magna cum laude).

Sohail is the CEO Global Franchise Business at Hamleys of London, the 'Finest Toy Shop in the World'.

Sohail has a remit to strengthen and expand Hamleys' global operations. He works in the Leadership team of Reliance Brands Limited, who acquired Hamleys in 2019.

Before joining Hamleys, Sohail spent 24 years at Mothercare. Most recently as the managing director of its class-leading Global Franchise Business.

Sohail is an alumnus of Newcastle University. He's still actively involved as a Trustee Board member of the Students' Union and as an International Advisory Board member of the Business School.

Alison has enjoyed a long and varied career in the English education system. She is Vice-President of NFER, the leading independent provider of education research and insights; and Founder of North East Futures UTC.

She studied Modern Foreign Languages to postgraduate level at the University of Leeds, where she also did her PGCE. She has occupied senior roles in several secondary schools in England, including 11 years as headteacher. She specialised throughout in shaping and augmenting curricula, which combine academic rigour with real-world experience and relevance.

She is currently working with University colleagues, global businesses and SMEs at the interface between education and business. This is to enhance successful progression for students through their education and to equip them to make well-informed future-facing decisions about their entry into a dynamic labour market.

She is particularly interested in the way that the digital sector touches every aspect of human experience and in the future of work and the workplace.

Alison supports and advises a number of businesses and charities and is mentor to several young entrepreneurs. Alison was the 2018 Goldman Visiting Professor in Innovation and Enterprise.

Vicki Tan is a seasoned business professional with 18+ years’ international experience in Value Chain Planning, Information Technology, and Finance.

She has well-rounded knowledge of business transformation, value chain management and information technology management in various regions including NA, APAC and EMEA.

She has taken on various vital leadership roles in consulting and in-house sectors including retail, consumer goods and automobile among Fortune 500 companies including Capgemini, IBM and Nike.

Her current role is the Head of Retail Inventory Management in EMEA for LEGO Systems.

Throughout her career spanning more than two decades as a senior official at the world’s premier development organization – the World Bank Group, Margo Thomas, PhD has provided policy advice to over 50 national and sub-national governments. With a Doctoral Degree in Public Policy and Private Sector Development from the University of Manchester, Margo’s areas of focus include trade and competitiveness, women’s economic empowerment, business environment reform, regulatory reform, and investment policy. In April 2017, Dr. Thomas successfully completed her appointment as the Chief of Secretariat for the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment. In her ongoing role as Founder and CEO of the Women’s Economic Imperative, Dr. Thomas serves as a catalyst for initiatives aimed at increasing opportunities for the economic empowerment of disadvantaged and under-represented groups globally. Concurrently Dr. Thomas is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In addition, Dr. Thomas serves as the Co-Chair of the 2019 Think 20 Sub-Task Force on Gender Economic Equity under the Japanese G20 Presidency, continuing this function from the 2018 Think 20 Task Force on Gender Economic Equity.

David is Chief Strategy Officer at Envision Pharma Group. He was previously Partner and Managing Director at Alligent BioPharm Consulting, now acquired by Envision Pharma Group (EPG). He is a veteran of the medical communication industry, having spent 17 years with Gardiner-Caldwell, now KnowledgePoint360 Group, in various leadership positions in Europe and in the US and currently sits on EPG’s board.

In 2002, David moved to the US from the UK to set up Gardiner-Caldwell’s US division, which was hugely successful. As Group President in KnowledgePoint360, David continued to run this arm of the company, as well as several other agencies across the US market. He worked closely with medical affairs and marketing clients from offices in New Jersey, Chicago, San Francisco and Newtown, PA. David spent his early career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, then worked in education before entering the medical communications field.

David earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and German from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and did postgraduate work in Education at the University of Manchester.

Mick Thompson was a Senior Partner at KPMG Newcastle and was Office Senior Partner for 9 years until his retirement in March 2018. He had previously been an audit partner for 20 years, and has worked with many leading private, public sector and plc organisations in the North East and beyond.

He also worked with many local HE Institutions, FE Colleges and Academy schools. He has extensive knowledge of the retail and construction sectors as well as social housing, education, and charity sectors, where strong governance and robust reporting was critically important to his clients.

Mick is a Non-Executive Director of Newcastle Building Society, Regional Treasurer of the Lord’s Taverners Charity, a Trustee of the Tyne and Wear Building Preservation Trust, a Trustee of Greggs Foundation, a Trustee of NUFC Foundation, and helps organise events for NE Youth Charity. He was a School Governor for 17 years until March 2019. Strong governance, committed corporate social responsibility and career counselling remain close to his heart.

Mick attended Newcastle Royal Grammar School and graduated in Economics at Durham University. He is a Fellow of the ICAEW after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1986.

Charlotte Valeur has extensive experience in financial markets as an investment banker and is an experienced Non-Executive Director and Chair. 

She is a regular international public speaker and has delivered training in corporate governance globally. In addition, she advices boards on corporate governance through her company Global Governance Group. 

Charlotte has substantial board experience as Chair and NED of a number of FTSE350 companies among others Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate Plc, Renewable Energy Generation Ltd, 3i Infrastructure Plc. She also serves on the boards of private companies such as Laing O’Rourke Ltd and NTR Ltd. She is the Chair and founder of Board Apprentice and Chair of Institute of Directors.

Jo Wakeman joined Inland Revenue (IR) in 1985 as an Inspector of Taxes. She worked in a number of roles within the Department before joining the Oil Taxation Office (now part of Large Business) in 1997. Following a spell as head of IR’s National Minimum Wage compliance team, Jo was seconded to HM Treasury where she led the North Sea Tax Policy team from 2004 to 2006. On returning to HMRC, Jo was promoted to the Senior Civil Service and took on the lead for Business Change and Stakeholder Engagement within the Carter Programme, which implemented Lord Carter’s recommendations for universal online filing.

Jo has more recently worked in various roles within Large Business, including as a Customer Relationship Manager within the banking sector and sector leader for Oil & Gas and Utilities. Following a period as Deputy Director of London Financial LB Region in 2014, Jo was appointed as Acting Director of LB in March 2016. Her position was formalised in July 2016.  Jo was awarded an OBE for services to the Taxation of Financial Services in the 2016 Birthday Honors.

Sarah has worked as Director, Capital Markets at PwC UK since January 2017.

Prior to this role, Sarah worked as Director in PwC's Deals team in New York, where she provides financial due diligence and other advisory services to private equity and corporate clients. Before moving to New York, Sarah worked at PwC in London in the capital markets team, specialising in transactions involving the London Stock Exchange, including IPOs, M&A and capital raisings. Prior to this, Sarah working in PwC's audit practice where she focused on listed and mid-tier clients.

Sarah's experience includes clients in the airline, pharmaceuticals, real estate and lodging, natural resources, consumer goods, labelling and packaging, technology, and telecommunications sectors. Sarah has also worked in PwC's Newcastle and Sydney offices and with clients in Asia (including Mongolia), Europe and North America.

Sarah graduated in 2006 as one of the first graduates of Newcastle University Business School’s Business, Accounting and Finance ("Flying Start") programme in collaboration with PwC and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).