ISBA

46 www.theisba.org.uk CONFERENCE SPEAKERS Maria Dimmock Maria is business director and clerk to the governors at St Helen’s School. She has 25 years’ experience in senior strategic and operational leadership roles within large, multi-site, public and private sector healthcare organisations in the UK and the Middle East, working closely with stakeholders to develop and deliver high quality services and facilities. Following a successful early career in the NHS and completing her MBA in 2007, Maria moved to the private sector as an executive hospital director and in 2010 joined a Government tertiary maternity hospital in Abu Dhabi as its director of operations delivering a successful programme of service re-organisation. Maria joined St Helen’s from her role as general manager of a leading criminal barristers chambers in Fleet Street. She is an independent member of the Lord Chancellor’s London Magistrates’ Recruitment Advisory Committee. Martin Pipe Martin is head of service, scope and design at RM Education after running RM’s key account programme. He is an IT professional with 20 years’ experience in the educational IT sphere. He is a strong believer in the benefits of partnerships between schools and the private sector that enable each to play to their respective strengths, making the most effective use of ICT in the classroom. He works with school senior leadership teams and advises on services, structures and governance to help deliver the best IT experience for academic staff and pupils. He has driven the development and roll-out of RM Flex service which last year saw a 98 percent renewal rate. This is a new ‘co-sourced’ approach to effective network management; schools can employ their own IT staff and enjoy the benefits of large company oversight of their network to help safeguard data and maintain critical uptime. Sarah Williamson Sarah is a digital strategy practitioner for the Independent Schools Council’s Digital Strategy Group. She takes the long view of digital planning to manage change methodically and securely. Distilled as ‘What is the Need?’ and ‘We Need a Plan’, her school digital strategies deliver IT solutions that meet users’ needs and derive value from investment. As director of information systems at Sevenoaks School, Sarah developed digital visions and plans to support the specific needs of its dynamic users, into the future as well as now. Demystifying the dark art of digital strategy, Sarah balances innovation, enthusiasm and change to provide continuity, flexibility and sustainability. Keynote 12.00 – 12.45 The economic outlook Joe Nellis, professor of global economy and deputy dean, School of Management, Cranfield University (See Joe’s biography on page 22) Choice of panel sessions F1 14.00 – 15.00 Measuring and managing sustainability: aiming for net zero John Murphie, chair (As before) Nigel Aylwin-Foster (As before) Paul Jones Paul is part of the specialist schools practice at Farrer & Co and focuses mainly on commercial contract work: the school-parent contract, and all issues flowing out of it, being a particular area of expertise. His wider experience covers IT contracts, outsourcing, sponsorship, venue hire and joint ventures and collaborations, including schools’ overseas collaborations. Paul is listed in Chambers & Partners and Legal 500 for his commercial contract expertise – not least for schools – and is responsible for the model parent contract for the ISBA, and all the supplementary guidance related to it (including, most recently, in relation to the coronavirus pandemic). Mike Meek Mike Meek is procurement director at allmanhall. Hugely renowned and respected in the food and catering-related procurement world, Mike has over 20 years’ experience in procurement and supply, combined with a passion for fresh thinking, practical solutions, risk mitigation and continuous improvement. Mike has overseen allmanhall’s expert procurement team of MCIPS qualified buyers for the past six years, maintaining firm control of pricing for independent education clients through continuous supplier negotiations. He has senior level relationships across the foodservice supplier market and is currently on the University of Warwick Advisory Committee to the Government regarding food supply. Karen Turnbull Karen, an architect, is ADP Architecture’s sustainability leader. She has worked on a range of projects in the education sector. Karen leads a team of sustainability champions, with one in every studio creating a culture of sustainable behaviour and thinking, permeating throughout the practice. She is a BREEAM assessor and BREEAM advisory professional, and a Passivhaus consultant. She also has a good understanding of the WELL standard. A large proportion of her role is to support staff in developing holistic sustainability strategies on projects to enhance their environmental performance, covering low-energy performance, ecological improvement, and health and wellbeing. Karen is currently collaborating with the sustainability team and sector leads in research into improving embodied carbon outputs as a whole life carbon assessment and developing strategies to enhance the circular economy in the construction industry. F2 14.00 – 15.00 What has changed during the pandemic and how to prepare for the next two years Russell Spiers, chair Russell Speirs is CEO and founder of RSAcademics and has personally worked with hundreds of schools providing strategic consultancy and advice to boards, heads and senior leaders. After graduating with first class honours in modern languages from Exeter College, Oxford, he undertook a post-graduate course at The European School of Management in Paris and Berlin before he began his marketing career at Unilever. Russell joined Uppingham School as their first marketing director in 1997. It was during this time at Uppingham that he fell in love with the world of schools. Russell founded RSAcademics in 2002 with the aim of helping schools to thrive. In 2016/17 alone, the company worked with 250 schools in the UK, Asia, the Gulf and mainland Europe on projects which encompassed the appointment of school leaders, the appraisal and support of heads, bursars and other staff, market research and strategic planning, fundraising, and advising on governance and compliance. Russell now leads a team of more than 60 world-class specialists to support the development of schools in the UK and across the globe.