Valerie has held several fundraising leadership positions in London and Paris. Currently, she works as Director of Development and Alumni Relations at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a world leading institution for research and postgraduate education in public and global health. In this role, Valerie is responsible for delivery of the School’s philanthropic agenda, which embraces Development, philanthropic fundraising, and Alumni Relations. Prior to this, Valerie served as Associate Head of Major Gifts and Head of Partnership Funding at King’s College London, where she led the KHP major gifts fundraising team in securing major gifts from a variety of constituent groups and building effective relationships with key external and internal stakeholders. 

Prior to King’s College, Valerie was Head of Fundraising and Membership at Horniman Museum and Gardens in London. Valerie has contributed her fundraising, relationship building, and communications expertise to a number of other fundraising efforts based in London, holding the positions of Director of Fundraising for Oval House; Senior Development Manager for the Geffrye Museum. Before moving to London, she held communications and development positions in Paris, serving notably as Development Manager at Musée du Louvre in Paris. 

Along with professional work in the field, Valerie maintains a number of voluntary engagements including speaking engagements with CASE Europe and she is also a consulting Vice President for GG+A Europe. Valerie holds an MA in Communication Management from London Guildhall University, an MA in Communication and Human Resources from Sciences Po in Paris, an MA in Medieval History from University Paris X – Nanterre.

Jenny is the Director of Recruitment and International Relations at the University of Glasgow. 

Previously, She was Director of External Relations at the University of Aberdeen, with responsibility for marketing and brand development, student recruitment (domestic and international) and conversion, communications, public affairs, stakeholder engagement and events, until March 2023.  She has 20 years of experience in the field of international education and student recruitment.  An alumna of the University of Aberdeen and she had previously worked as Head of its International Office. She has also worked at the University of Glasgow and Queen Margaret University.

Between 2006 and 2010 she acted as Vice Chair and subsequently Chair of the Scottish Universities International Group, and between 2018 and 2021 sat on the Executive Board of BUILA (British Universities International Liaison Association).  She was a University Governor, as an elected member of the University of Aberdeen's Court (2017-2020).  She was a member of the CASE (The Council for Advancement and Support for Education) UK & Ireland Cabinet (2021-2023) and is now a member of the CEAC Planning Committee. 

She studied in the United States and has worked as a teacher in Japan.

Nena brings over fifteen years of international experience in the higher education sector. At Hertie School, the University of Governance in Berlin, she is responsible for alumni engagement and the strategic growth of the School’s global alumni network in 110 countries. Prior to Hertie, Nena was in charge of alumni relations at the Central European University (CEU) in Vienna and Budapest. A number of successful initiatives were developed under her leadership, including the Thesis Buddy Project, which won a CASE Circle of Excellence Award 2022 in volunteer engagement category. Prior to CEU, Nena had managed programmes at leading global organisations, including CASE in London, the Institute of International Education (IIE) and Open Society Foundation (OSF) in Budapest. A firm believer in collaboration and the power of sharing best practice, Nena is active CASE volunteer and has served as speaker, editorial board member, conference co-chair and task force member. A North Macedonia native, Nena has lived and worked internationally for nearly two decades, is fluent in number of languages and considers herself a citizen of the world. 

Remco Kouwenhoven  is the Director of Alumni Relations and Philanthropy at the University of Groningen since 2019. Before that he was active in public office and in various commercial positions. At the University of Groningen he is both responsible for the alumni office and the office that supports the philanthropy foundation Ubbo Emmius Fund. The alumni office has to up its game because of renewed interest of the UG for alumni relations. The UEF is growing dramatically mostly due to a very large donation, which opens new challenges and opportunities.

Kenon is Deputy Director of Marketing at University of Nottingham. He has held digital and recruitment roles in the International Development Office and has a keen interest in all things digital and content marketing, and how digital tools impacts on organisational culture and behaviour.

As a music graduate, Kenon has previously worked in the Arts sector and was involved in a number of widening participation arts projects and outreach work to help diversify participation in the arts.

Born and raised in the Welsh Valleys, he is 1st generation Chinese and was involved in the Race Equality Charter assessment team at Swansea. Kenon was also the inaugural recipient of the CASE Europe Emerging Marketing and Communication Professional Award.

Andrew is an experienced fundraiser and leader having worked across charity, heritage and health causes over the past twenty years. Andrew moved into university advancement when he joined the University of Bath in 2012 

He moved to the University of Bristol in 2017 and took over as Executive Director in March 2020. He leads the University's Development and Alumni Relations Office of nearly 60 staff and his team works to foster life-long relationships with their 180,000 alumni in over 190 countries around the world. Bristol has seen a rapid growth both of income (350% growth over five years), as well as the establishment of a comprehensive engagement and volunteering programme embedding alumni in initiatives across the institution. 

Suzie is responsible for the strategic leadership of the team, which includes fundraising, alumni relations and operations professionals. Suzie leads the team to collectively create and sustain a globally connected community that supports, contributes and enables the University of Liverpool's global strategy for the advancement of learning and ennoblement of life. In particular Suzie works with ultra-high net worth individuals who give back philanthropically in support of institutional fundraising priorities.

Marnie joined the University of Brighton in September 2019 as their Director of Philanthropy & Alumni Engagement. She has over 20 years’ experience as a fundraiser working across the cultural, heritage and higher education sectors. She has worked for the Roundhouse (Camden), King’s College London, Bath Spa University, The Holburne Museum (Bath) and The Photographers’ Gallery (London). She has particular experience in the establishment of new fundraising and alumni teams, strategic development, building the donor base, and capital campaigns. She volunteered with CASE Europe on the annual Ross-CASE Survey of Charitable Giving to Universities in 2016 and 2017, and has presented at the CASE Europe Conference. She is the Co-Chair of the Board of Trustee for Attitude is Everything, a charity which improves Deaf and disabled people’s access to live music by working in partnership with audiences, artists and the music industry.  

Dee Reid joined Leeds Beckett University as Director of External Relations in September 2017 where she leads internal and external communication, public affairs, brand, creative, digital and alumni, events and partnerships. She has over 25 years’ experience in strategic communications, working in senior roles in local government, education, the NHS and the private sector. Before joining Leeds Beckett, she was Head of Communications and Marketing at Leeds City Council, leading communications for the UK’s third largest city and prior to that, Head of Communications for Education Leeds, providing support for the city’s 265 schools. Dee is deputy chair of Leeds Community Foundation and a member of the CASE Europe Council.

Emanuel lives for a good story to weave, so he describes himself as a storytelling lover and aficionado. His passion for content started in the banking industry in his native Puerto Rico, where he was leading copy and digital marketing for the institution. The challenge of making a bank soulful caught him.

A Fulbright grant took him to Madrid to study at IE, where he stayed as the Associate Director of Alumni Communications. Emanuel has a passion for creativity, emotional content, and weaving stories that showcase the beauty of working in the educational sector. He is also a proud collaborator in LGBTQ+ initiatives and does improv theatre in his free time.

Simon Fairbanks has over 15 years of experience in the education sector. This includes student recruitment, marketing, and events roles at four different universities in the UK: Nottingham, Birmingham, Warwick, and Coventry. 

Simon has also worked at Pickle Jar Communications, a content strategy consultancy for the international education sector. He helped schools, colleges, and universities share their stories through digital communications. 

Simon is an international speaker. He has spoken at a variety of conferences, including CASE, ContentEd, EFMD, IDPE, FindAUniversity, HELOA, HighEdWeb, SU Digital, and Utterly Content. He was Chair of the Newcomers Track at CASE Europe Annual Conference from 2020 to 2023. 

As a published author, Simon is particularly interested in storytelling in the education sector. He spends his free time reading, writing, running, and finding new ways to make his children laugh.