THE PANEL CHAIRS

Charlotte Hopes

Head of Marketing
​UWE Bristol
​Charlotte has over 20 years’ experience in marketing and communications for the Higher Education sector. She began her HE career at the University of Brighton, moving to the Arts and Humanities Research Council before joining UWE Bristol.
 
In her current role as Head of Marketing, Charlotte leads her teams to deliver innovative campaign strategies. In order to attract and engage future students, research and business audiences.
 
She is passionate about the transformative nature of HE, ethical marketing practice and the power of collaboration to drive creativity and excellence.
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Helen bower

Chief Marketing Officer
​Northumbria University
​As Chief Marketing Officer at Northumbria University, Helen leads the Global Marketing and Business (GMB) division in driving the long-term financial sustainability of the university. Her team is dedicated to increasing revenue and enhancing the university’s reputation by developing innovative marketing, recruitment and communication strategies that attract students from local, national, and global markets and attract commercial income. Helen plays a crucial role in shaping the university’s brand, reputation, and strategic partnerships, ensuring value for stakeholders, and contributing to Northumbria’s growth and success.
 
Helen's leadership and expertise extend across three core strategic ambitions: showcasing Northumbria’s world-leading research, driving student recruitment and retention, and advancing the university’s social mobility goals. Under her guidance, marketing, communications, and recruitment efforts are aligned to create impactful outreach, with a strong focus on widening access to education.
 
With over 22 years of experience in marketing and student recruitment, Helen has held senior leadership roles across several prestigious institutions, including Newcastle University and the University of Cumbria. She has overseen marketing strategies encompassing undergraduate and postgraduate admissions, domestic and international student recruitment, brand management, digital marketing, market insights, and philanthropic engagement. ​
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james seymour

Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment
​University of Northampton
James has worked in student recruitment, marketing and admissions for 30 years including posts at Aston, Gloucestershire, Buckingham, Leeds, Northumbria and Sheffield Universities, before joining Northampton in December 2023. The University is located on a new purpose-built green campus in the town centre and has around 12,000 students. James is on the editorial and advisory group for the Complete University Guide. James was a high school governor for 13 years and is a member of the Cambridge Assessment HE stakeholder group and an active member of International ACAC – the global organisation representing admissions and recruitment to university. James has a Master’s degree in Marketing from Aston Business School, Aston University.

jane robinson

Associate Dean Marketing & Recruitment
​Teesside University
Jane is an innovative, senior marketing professional, who is passionate about education and the transformation it can bring to people’s lives, and she has over 20 years’ experience in both the Further and Higher Education sectors. She joined Teesside University recently, as an Associate Dean, specialising in Marketing, Student Recruitment and Portfolio Development. Previously Jane spent 7 years with the University of Sunderland, where she led on marketing, brand, media buying and campaigns across a wide range of audiences. 

Jane’s teams in both FE and HE, have been Heist Gold award winners on more than one occasion, and she was a HEIST judge in 2023. Jane has also worked in marketing, PR and communications for number of professional sports and is currently a Board member of the Association of Colleges Trust, as well as being on a number of marketing advisory boards.

​THE JUDGES

Ali freer 

Associate Director of Marketing and Advancement/Head of Brand, Digital and Creative Production
​Loughborough University
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Ali is a marketing professional with over 25 years of experience in creative marketing for Higher Education. As Associate Director of Marketing and Advancement at Loughborough University, she leads a team of more than 50 creative professionals across Web and Digital, Brand and Creative & Print services. Her team has an excellent reputation for delivering innovative, multi-channel campaigns that drive engagement and enhance brand impact.
 
Starting her career as a graphic designer, Ali has grown into a strategic leader with a sharp eye for design, messaging, and campaign execution. A former HEIST winner, she has also served as Secretary, Chair, and Director of the Association of Creative and Print Managers in Education.
 
Beyond her professional achievements, Ali is a proud mum to twins, both currently at university, giving her a great personal perspective on the student experience. She understands first-hand the impact of Higher Education marketing not just from an industry standpoint but also as a parent navigating the journey alongside her children.​ 

Anna Brown

Director, Marketing & Engagement
​Falmouth University
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Anna leads the strategic direction and operational delivery of Falmouth University’s Marketing & External Relations team, overseeing global student recruitment, outreach, admissions, market insight, brand management, corporate communications, and digital marketing in alignment with Falmouth’s 2030 strategy. With a background in media and PR, she has led communications initiatives that drive engagement, enhance reputation, and deliver measurable impact. Anna is looking forward to reviewing the Heist award entries and celebrating the best in creativity and marketing innovation from the sector this year.

Dan Noutch

Digital Marketing and Student Recruitment
​Norland College
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Dan is Digital Marketing and Student Recruitment Manager at Norland, an independent higher education provider in Bath specialising in early childhood education and care since 1892.
 
Dan’s role includes management of Norland’s website, social media, content creation, advertising, email marketing and CRM, all to ensure a seamless and personalised prospective student journey to meet student recruitment targets.
 
Dan is part of the Marketing, Student Recruitment and Brand team which won Silver at the 2023 Heist Awards in the Best Prospective Student Journey category, and is delighted to be a judge for this year’s awards.

emily tann

Head of Marketing and Communications
​University of Chichester
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​Emily Tann is the Head of Marketing and Communications at the University of Chichester, with over 15 years’ national and international marketing communications experience in a range of sectors. She joined the University from the Global Education Division at the U.S based publishing  company John Wiley and Sons; a global leader in publishing, education and research.  Since joining the University in 2013 to transform their digital marketing, her role has expanded, and she now leads a multi-disciplinary team that includes marketing, social media, digital content, communications and events.  Being from a smaller university she is passionate about big results on a smaller budget and thinking outside of the box. Emily and her team have always been keen to embrace new platforms; her social media team pioneered using Tik-Tok as a student recruitment tool and became the UK’s number 1 Higher Education Tik-Tok account.​​

Elly sample

Director of External Relations
​University of Derby
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Elly Sample is extremely honoured to be included as a judge for the Heist Awards. She is Director of External Relations at the excellent University of Derby. She has worked in marketing and communications for 35 years across higher education, banking, telecommunications, and consultancy. Her prior roles include Head of Public Affairs at the Office for Students, various director roles, and teaching digital and strategic marketing. She is especially skilled at building internal and external brand identity and reputation strategies, helping improve engagement and awareness among stakeholders, and as a qualified coach, she has extensive experience developing individuals and teams. She writes books in her spare time and has entered the HEIST awards over four decades.

Heather macbain

Head of Marketing
​University of Edinburgh
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Heather began her marketing career in the retail, leisure, and hospitality sectors after earning a BA (Hons) in Marketing from the University of Stirling. Over the past decade, she has specialised in education marketing and has become a chartered marketer with CIM.
She moved to Scotland’s largest FE college in 2015 as marketing manager, overseeing marketing, digital, and graphic design teams. In 2019, Heather progressed to the University of Edinburgh as Head of Marketing and now oversees marketing for the institution. In addition, she leads a community of practice of over 300 marketing and communication staff at Edinburgh, enhancing professional standards, sharing best practices and improving efficiencies across the organisation.
 
Beyond her day job, Heather actively supports education as a board member of Fast Forward, a charity supporting young people with risk-taking behaviours, and serves on the University of Stirling Students’ Union board.

Jon MOntogmerie

Associate Head of Client Success
​IDP UK
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Celebrating 10 years with IDP this year, Jon works directly with UK universities to support their student recruitment objectives through our market-leading UK websites, Whatuni, Complete University Guide and Postgraduate Search. He also supports across a range of non-commercial initiatives designed to improve the quality and transparency of ROI gleaned from our products and services by delivering a great experience for both students and universities. 

kIm Mclellan 

Managing Director
Hunterlodge Advertising Ltd

Kim has been working at Hunterlodge for over 25 years. His education experience has involved working with HEI’s on the 3R’s - reputation, recruitment, and retention. He believes that the key to success is being insight and data driven, and utilising these to develop fundamental strategies to win market share and beat the competition.
In his time at Hunterlodge, Kim has worked with a vast number of universities on a multitude of different challenges – ranging from global reputation of some of the top-placed universities in the world, to solving recruitment challenges for the vital challenger HEI’s. He loves great thinking executed with science and precision. He is proud and excited to be selected as a judge at Heist!

laura-jane gould

Director of Marketing
​Manchester Metropolitan University
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LJ is the Director of Marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University. With over 20 years marketing leadership experience across HE, B2B and consumer markets, LJ has driven significant change in brand, campaigns, digital and user focussed content design, putting audience and user need at the heart of marketing strategies using data and insight to inform decisions. Evaluation and measurement are at the heart of LJ's "test and learn" ethos, helping to achieve business goals and inspire teams to be innovative, creative and achieve their best.

matt burton

Director of Marketing, Communications and Student Recruitment
University of Huddersfield
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Matt is Director of Marketing, Communications and Student Recruitment at the University of Huddersfield, responsible for the central team that looks after media relations, internal communications, social media activity, the website, printed publications, campaigns, digital marketing, the CRM team, and student recruitment, including Schools and Colleges Liaison and the home student admissions team.
 
Prior to joining the University of Huddersfield, Matt held senior marketing and communications roles in several other education businesses, including being Group Director of Marketing and Student Recruitment at Luminate Education Group, and Director of Marketing and Communications at Kaplan Open Learning.
 
Matt is significantly experienced in the education sector and delivered success in previous roles at the University of Sheffield and University of Leeds.
 
In 2018, Matt achieved Chartered Marketer status, and he holds three professional marketing qualifications alongside a degree in English and Media.​

melanie fowler

Executive Director of Marketing and Communications
De Montfort University
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​Melanie joined De Montfort University (DMU) in 2011, and was appointed Executive Director of Marketing and Communications in 2015 having previously worked as Director of Student Recruitment.
She is responsible for reputation management; brand and creative strategy; student recruitment; communications; web and digital; and market insight.
Prior to joining DMU, Melanie held a variety of marketing roles at the Universities of Leeds and Northampton. She was awarded a BSc (Hons) in Psychology and MA Philosophy from the University of Leeds.

Mike bond 

Founding Partner
Bond & Coyne

​Mike Bond is a founding partner of Bond & Coyne, the mission-led brand agency which provides creative, strategic and digital services to education, tech, youth and media and science-based clients. Their work has won numerous awards for innovation and includes world firsts in HE marketing.

Mike lectures in design and creative thinking at institutions including the Royal College of Art, runs Masterclasses for National Saturday Club and is a member of the education thought leadership community Oppi Global. He is also cofounder of the creative careers initiative WonderWhat.co.uk

He passionately believes in the power that creativity has to empower young people in forging purposeful careers. He has developed education tools including a Periodic Table for Creative Confidence to support staff development programmes and TheMagic8.co.uk, a card-based toolkit inspired by magicians, that helps people of all kinds to shape and share their ideas.

owen o'neIll 

​Founder
Uni Compare

Owen O’Neill is the Founder and CEO of Uni Compare, one of the leading tech brands in Higher Education, helping both Undergraduate and Postgraduate students make informed decisions about their future. Uni Compare powers 2.5 million searches annually and generates over 40 million impressions, connecting students with universities as they shape the future of higher education. 

richelle quinn

Head of Strategic Marketing
Sheffield Hallam University

Richelle Quinn is Head of Strategic Marketing at Sheffield Hallam University, leading on brand, creative, digital experience, student, research, and business marketing.

She began her career in advertising with British Telecom before moving into financial services at the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC. Fifteen years ago, she transitioned into higher education, joining Sheffield Hallam and gaining experience across all areas of marketing before taking on her current role.
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Richelle is passionate about developing a brand strategy that aligns with the university’s institutional goals, ensuring a clear and compelling identity that is embedded within the organisation’s culture and drives engagement with key audiences.​​

rob Flattery

Senior Marketing Manager
Royal College of Art (London)

Rob has spent 15 years enhancing the brand, marketing, and student recruitment strategies of post-secondary providers. With expertise in marketing and recruitment, communications and digital engagement, and alumni relations, he understands the unique challenges faced by HEIs of all sizes and specialisms. He looks forward to bringing this insight to the judging panel. In addition to his previous appointment as a HEIST judge, Rob’s outstanding contributions have been recognized with multiple HEIST awards, celebrating excellence in education marketing. A member of both the Chartered Institute of Marketing and the Royal Historical Society, he continues to drive innovation and excellence in the field.

satnam grindley

Director of Communications
University of Warwick
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Satnam Rana-Grindley is the Director of Communications – Corporate Brand in the Marketing, Communications, and Insight team at The University of Warwick, UK.
Prior to this role, Satnam had a career spanning over two decades at the BBC, where she served as a Broadcaster, Journalist and Arts and Culture Correspondent working on Midlands Today, national and international news programmes. With a passion for strategic storytelling, Satnam leads the communications team to strengthen and enhance the University's reputation in line with its 2030 vision to be one of the world’s exceptional universities, helping to transform the West Midlands, UK, and world, for the collective good.

sera evans

Associate Director: UK Student Recruitment
University Of South Wales

A former teacher, Sera joined the University of South Wales as a Schools and Colleges Liaison Officer in 2007. Now Associate Director of UK Student Recruitment, Sera’s remit includes all aspects of brand and marketing, Faculty engagement, as well as schools and colleges liaison, outreach, and recruitment events. Sera is also responsible for the University’s scholarships and bursaries portfolio.
A passionate and frank communicator, Sera champions equality and diversity in higher education. She is an ardent advocate for women in leadership and believes that student recruitment is ‘everyone’s business.’

Tash Kyndt

Business Director - Education
Havas People
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Tash Kyndt is Business Director in the media team at Havas People, helping education and employer clients tackle everything from strategy and comms to digital, media, and creative. With over 27 years in the talent communications industry, she’s worked both media and agency side, bringing big-picture thinking and hands-on experience to every project. She’s collaborated with universities across the UK and internationally, shaping campaigns that boost branding, recruitment, and engagement. Whether it’s strategic planning, marketing, or storytelling, Tash loves finding smart, creative ways to connect institutions with the people who matter most.

vicky irwin

Senior Director, Consultancy
​Times Higher Education

Vicky is Senior Director of Consultancy at Times Higher Education, leading a team that provides strategic, data-driven guidance to the higher education sector, supporting clients to build effective and sustainable business strategies.
 
A passionate and innovative strategic marketing professional, Vicky brings over 15 years’ of client management experience and extensive brand and marketing consultancy knowledge. She has managed a wide range of strategic marketing projects for universities across the globe and loves working with clients to develop a strong, engaging, and authentic voice and manage their reputation for long-term success.
 
She is also the strategic sponsor for THE’s World 100 Reputation Network and has recently been elected as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

victoria littler

Chief Commercial Officer
Vepple
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Victoria found her passion when she started working in the Higher Education sector over a decade ago. She lives and breathes all things student recruitment marketing and over the years, she has worked with hundreds of universities, colleges and Students’ Unions. Victoria joined the Vepple team in 2023 and, as our Chief Commercial Officer, she connects university marketing departments with our essential recruitment tool: Vepple. If you’re looking for high-quality leads, increased brand affinity and measurable results, speak to Vic about Vepple (and if you’re a cat person, ask to see a photo of Pigwidgeon while you’re at it). If you work in the HE sector, you’ll probably recognise Vic either from watching her speak at a conference/webinar, or listening to her rap at the karaoke after party. She’ll be the first on the dance floor at Heist - see you there. 
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