Marketing and communications in higher education 2024

Amy leads the Digital team at Hanover Communications, a full-service PR agency with offices across London, Middle East, Dublin and Brussels. Amy has worked in digital communications and social media for over a decade, and has delivered campaigns and guidance for clients across sectors including healthcare, education, food & drink, retail and technology.

In addition, Amy is a digital crisis expert having worked for major events for the Mayor of London and Hyde Park Winter Wonderland. In 2023, Amy was seconded to the Cabinet Office and Number 10 as Head of Digital for 3 months.

Andrew Bruce Smith, MPRCA, FCIPR, is a well-known expert in artificial intelligence and its applications in PR, comms, social media, SEO, and analytics. With a foundational education in Philosophy and Mathematical Logic from the University of Edinburgh (1981-1985), he developed a keen interest in AI early in his career. Andrew further honed his skills in AI programming languages in the late 1980s, a time when AI was still nascent.
Pioneering the adoption of AI content tools such as Wordsmith in the early 2010s, Andrew has consistently stayed at the forefront of technological innovation in communications.

Angelina Bingley is currently Director of UCAS Media. Prior to that she was Chief Marketing and Engagement Officer at the University of Leicester where she was an Executive Board member responsible for setting the strategic vision for all aspects of the student recruitment journey – from initial point of contact through to enrolment - and enhancing the profile and reputation of the University across the globe. Angelina’s background is in marketing and communications and she worked for many years as a consultant in the private sector for FTSE 100 companies before moving into Higher Education. She has previously worked at UEA and the University of Southampton. Angelina is also Vice-Chair of the Universities Marketing Forum and a Global Commissioner for CASE.

Candace Kuss is a Creative Strategist and Digital Consultant who has worked for global brands including American Express, Disney, P&G, and Cannes Lions. She is the Co-Chair of the PRCA Digital Group. Candace was a Group Creative Director at Digitas in Boston and San Francisco before moving to London to join Ogilvy as a Creative Director, then spent a dozen years at Hill & Knowlton as the Director of Social Media. Candace is a frequent judge for award shows and speaker for marketing events. She is on the Advisory Board for Creative Equals, an award-winning DEI consultancy, and is a Trustee for the cultural charity London Ballet Circle.

Emma Leech BA (Hons), MBA, Found.Chart.PR, FCIPR, Dip CIPR, Dip PR (CAM), FCIM, FIIC, FIoD, FRSA, FInstILM, FCMI, MPRCA, MCIOF

Emma is Global Marketing Director at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. She was previously Director of Marketing and Communications at Nottingham Trent University where she sat on the University Executive Team.

She started her career in fashion and consumer PR in 1988, working in tourism and destination marketing before settling in higher education in 1997.

A Founding Chartered PR Practitioner, Chartered Marketer and Chartered Manager, she has won a string of awards over almost three decades spanning PR, marketing, innovation, fundraising, digital, and web.

Emma holds an MBA and various PR, marketing and management qualifications. She was the Chartered Institute of Public Relations President 2019 and is a Lead Assessor for Chartered Practitioner status.

Deon has spent the last three years leading the London Met uni Marcomms team, inspiring them to deliver award-winning and mission critical campaigns that showcase the impact the university has on students, staff and the wider community. A CIM qualified marketing professional with a sixteen year B2B and B2C career in marketing and comms, on arrival to London Met Deon was tasked with reimagining the marcomms function as one integrated unit, blending two teams and combining their specific disciplines to enhance the service. Over the past three years, she has crafted a compelling brand position, with leading campaigns like The Real London.

Hasan Salim Patel is the Deputy Director of Brand and Communications at Birmingham Newman University, and is currently a visiting Lecturer at University College Dublin, previously he was head of planning at Al Jazeera English in Doha and has worked in comms for the University of Birmingham and United for Global Mental Health and as Broadcast Journalist for the BBC.
 

Hasan also provides strategic comms advice to a variety of organisations and individuals, outside work he enjoys writing, reading and running.

Helen Byard is a Director in MHP Group’s Brand and Reputation practice. An established leader with over 17 years’ experience working across corporate and consumer communications, Helen has provided senior advisory on engagement and behaviour change programmes for brands, organisations and government including Universities UK, NHS Blood and Transplant (including PR Week’s Campaign of the Decade Missing Type), World Book Day, Barclays and Hilton.

Helen is also designated senior lead for client service within MHP Group, driving the agency’s approach and delivery of gold standard practice, across a variety of sectors and an increasingly diverse stakeholder landscape.

Henry Redshaw is the Head of Membership at the PRCA, he actively seeks new members at a corporate level and over sees their relationship with the PRCA throughout their membership. 
 

Henry has a strong background in membership having worked previously at the Institute of Directors and the British Safety Council amongst others.
 

Since joining the PRCA he has helped develop their membership proposition and is proud of the industry and its continued growth and is motivated to make sure it is ethical and diverse.

Inés Teresa-Palacio is a global education specialist, advisor and consultant with more than 17 years of strategic experience across marketing, communications and student recruitment in the UK, South Asia, Latin America and Europe. Inés has been Head of Strategic Marketing at the University of Southampton, Chief Marketing Officer at the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona, and member of the CASE Europe Council. She is a CIM Fellow and Member of the CIPR. She is currently based in Spain and works with universities and organisations around the world through her consultancy and development firm Via Pinnedda (www.viapinnedda.com).

James Purnell is President and Vice-Chancellor of University of the Arts London (UAL). Before joining UAL, he was Director of Radio and Education at the BBC, where he oversaw teams in various divisions, including BBC Radio and Music, BBC Children's and Education, and BBC Arts. In 2001, Purnell was elected as a Member of Parliament for Stalybridge and Hyde, and later served as the Secretary of State for Culture and then for Work and Pensions. 

Jim Tudor is the founder of Future Index, a marketing trends and strategy consultancy specialising in higher education. He is also director of Waterfall, a creative agency that works with education institutions to give them the edge in their communications across everything from course promotion to brand development. He is a LinkedIn Top Voice for Education and a regular keynote speaker, inspiring higher education marketing professionals on topics including insight and planning, brand strategy and creative content.

Louella joined the University of Nottingham at the start of 2024 to lead the University’s central communications, political affairs and advocacy functions.  Before joining Nottingham, she spent 15 years at Newcastle University, taking up the role of Director of Communications during a period of unprecedented change and overseeing the creation of the new communications directorate.

Training initially as a journalist, she worked for 10 years in regional and national print journalism, winning national recognition for her expose of the contaminated blood scandal which affected thousands of haemophiliacs and their families. She is Co-Chair of the Russell Group Directors of Communications Network.

Louisa heads up the Universities UK digital team who create content for the UUK website, social channels and campaigns. Before UUK, Louisa worked in digital roles in the civil service and a national museum.

Naomi specialises in employee communications for change and transformation.

She has led communications and culture change programmes for UK SMEs to global Fortune and FTSE companies. Brands include Baker Hughes, Deutsche Bank, innocent, Invesco, Roche, The Coca-Cola Company and Upfield. Sector agnostic, she blends her breadth and depth of experience with each company’s unique challenge.

Certified in PR, change management and meditation teaching, Naomi is passionate about equipping organisations to embrace change.

She is an active member of the International Association of Business Communicators, a career mentor and a regular judge for the Institute of Internal Communication’s National Annual Awards.

Peter covers all aspects of UK policy, including the implementation of Brexit, the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and the economic and 'levelling up' agendas of the Rishi Sunak government.

He has more than two decades of experience covering global affairs from all sides of the world, based in New Delhi (2004-2008) and Beijing (2008-2012), as well as Washington DC, where he served as The Telegraph's US editor from 2012.

Steve leads a team of communications professionals responsible for people engagement and culture, content development and storytelling, and communication channels at Virgin Atlantic.  Steve spearheaded Virgin Atlantic’s internal launch of Workplace by Meta, and it’s launch of Tik Tok as a consumer facing social channel. Working across internal communications and social media, Steve has radically evolved Virgin Atlantic’s approach to content development to focus on social first, audio-visual storytelling and integrated campaigns.

Steve Leigh, Managing Director at Sensu Insight, specialises in reputation research and strategic communications.

With a focus on understanding what audiences think, Steve has guided projects for Universities UK, monitoring campaign impact and assessing reputation for the sector.

His expertise also extends to advising organisations like the Royal Society of Chemistry, the World Economic Forum, and Drinkaware on reputation and influence.

As a thought leader in the field of reputation research, Steve is committed to helping organisations better achieve their goals through a deeper understanding of what shapes audience perceptions and using that insight to shape more effective communication.