Line Axelsen has experience within alumni relations, communications, and fundraising from Aarhus, Denmark and Brisbane, Australia. Line has project managed numerous professional and successful events and emerging programmes to cultivate relationships between alumni, faculty and external relations. Her experience with fundraising in Australia and alumni relations in Denmark combined with a Master's degree in culture, communication and globalization solidifies her as a strong advocate for developing the philanthropic field within Denmark's higher education.

Nancy Bikson is the Managing Director of Chapel & York.  She is a lawyer with over 30 years’ experience providing advice to private clients and charities worldwide.  She has lived in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia and France and has worked with and for organisations across the world in both legal and fundraising capacities.  She has specialised in cross-border philanthropy and fundraising for a range of organisations and donors.  She has a BA in Medieval English History, a Juris Doctor degree and a LLM (Master of Laws Degree, Tax).

Johanna has long experience in content production for web and social media, media relations and strategic communication in the public sector. She started out working as a newspaper journalist in Finland before moving to Sweden. Before joining KTH she worked for the Swedish Security Service and the Swedish Police as well as the Swedish parliament administration. She is driven by curiosity and by making the complex comprehensible. At KTH, she enjoys working to strengthen the relationship between the university and its target groups through relevant and engaging content.

Justin Cole is the Executive Director of External Relations at Newcastle University and is responsible for the communications, student recruitment, admissions, marketing, advancement, international, engagement and corporate communications teams.

Justin joined the University in 2021 and is a former Chair of the University Marketing Forum (UMF) and continues to serve on the European board of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).

Prior to joining the University Justin worked in the civil service, principally as a communications adviser to successive higher education ministers and to the Paymaster General before more recently serving as a director at Sheffield Hallam and Bournemouth University.

Canadian by birth and Australian by heritage, Justin is a graduate of Curtin University’s business school and holds a master’s degree from the University of Leeds.

Elina Cotterill is the Data and Insights Manager at the University of Oxford’s Alumni Office. Elina has worked in advancement services since 2013, specialising in data management, insights and data protection. More recently, Elina has lead on Oxford’s alumni engagement metrics framework, providing reporting and analytics for several stakeholders across the University. Previously she was leading prospect research, revenue management and data insights at Merton College (University of Oxford), which she joined during the College’s very successful 750th anniversary campaign.

Originally from Finland, Elina fell in love with British academia more than two decades ago and chose to work for its advancement. She holds BA, MA, and MPhil from the University of Bangor, where she focused on Arthurian Literature and medieval horsemanship, and has had works published on these topics.

Dolivo joined the University of Helsinki in 2000 and started out her career at UH as an alumni coordinator. Since then, Dolivo has held several posts at the University of Helsinki, including Head of Career Center, Fundraising Campaign Manager and Head of Community Relations. Before her career at the University Dolivo worked in the Finnish Parliament, and in the City of Helsinki Cultural Capital Foundation as a producer of science and citizen related projects. A continuous source of inspiration for her is to meet and interact with visionary alumni, donors and corporate partners who want to engage with the University in a multitude of ways.

Chris is originally from the UK and has lived in Finland since 2007. He has worked in multinational companies for most of his career both in Finland and in the UK. He has also worked with many different cultures during his career and has held down global positions. He has extensive experience with presenting as well as content creation with regards to marketing communications and training material. Chris has been able to support his learners using these skills, since joining Coaching Language in 2019.

Gary Guadagnolo is a director of research at EAB, a global leader in higher education best practice research in operational, enrolment, and student experience terrains. Gary specialises in financial and operational challenges that span institutional strategy to unit-level process improvement. His most recent projects have focused on digital transformation in a global higher education context. Gary has a BA from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and an MA and PhD in History from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Outside of the office, and true to his Texas roots, Gary (along with his hound dog) is always on the hunt for good hiking trails and BBQ.

Maria Gulseth Berge works as an adviser at Oslo New University College (ONUC). In a little over three years she has established ONUC’s career services and alumni relations from the bottom up. Maria holds an MA in Multicultural and International Education from Oslo Metropolitan University, and has worked with inclusive education and employment training both nationally and internationally.

In her current position, Maria has adopted a strategy where she uses alumni as a direct resource in ONUC’s career services. Both students and alumni report that this is useful. In addition to running ONUC's career and alumni programs, Maria is hosting a podcast on career readiness.

Sinikka is the Head of Donor Engagement at the multidisciplinary Aalto University. She joined Aalto in November 2015 without previous experience in fundraising. Her previous work experience is in sales, customer relationship building, and account management. The skills gained in her previous work has shown to be useful in her current role especially when she has had to build a dream team of people from diverse backgrounds.

Sarita has several years of experience in digital fundraising, donor acquisition, and marketing and communications. Before joining Aalto University, Sarita worked in a UK based international development charity where she built the organisation’s digital acquisition programme, developed and implemented social media strategy and trained colleagues around the world on digital best practice. At Aalto, she enjoys developing new approaches to individual giving and using digital fundraising tools to help solve some of the world’s toughest problems.

Teppo is the director for advancement and corporate engagement at Aalto University in Finland. The integrated advancement office at Aalto includes corporate relations, donor engagement, alumni engagement, career and recruitment services, as well as CRM development and analytics.

Before joining Aalto in 2016, Teppo was an independent consultant in fundraising and international cooperation for five years, supporting Finnish universities in the governmental matching funding campaign of 2015-2017. From 2003 to 2011, he worked for the Nordic Council of Ministers in Lithuania and Denmark in governmental relations and organizing the international support for the European Humanities University, the Belarusian university-in-exile in Lithuania. 

He started his career in higher education management at the University of Helsinki in the 1990s in International Relations. He also has experience in Media and Communications, and he has written 6 travel guidebooks.

Morten Hilt has been Head of Alumni at NHH since 2017. In this role, he has been responsible for enhancing alumni engagement at NHH. NHH Alumni was established initially as a trial project in 2002. Morten has been a project manager and led the purchase process and implementation of the CRM system for NHH, increasing the member base and developing national and international networks, developing new activities ranging from small and informal to NHHs annual Alumni Conference in Oslo. Activities also include establishing chapters and activities abroad. Morten is also in charge of mentoring programmes for master students and alumni.  Prior to this position, Morten has been working with marketing/recruitment, and executive education.

Morten has also participated actively in national alumni networks with other institutions, frequently together with Barbro Kolbjørnsrud from the University of Oslo.

Morten holds a Bachelor of Commerce from Concordia University in Montréal, Canada, and an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics, NHH.

Berit Jebjerg holds a bachelor from CBS in Business Administration and Economics. She has completed programmes in HR Strategy and Sustainability Strategy at Ashridge Business School as well as Talent Management, Executive Management and Innovation at University of North Carolina.

Berit has 25 years’ international experience in HR and Sustainability and works part time with Stromma Group as Group HR Manager. Her role at CBS is also part time and includes career counselling, international retention and the development of CBS Career Mentoring Programme, which in 2021/22 has more than 185 mentors and 415 mentees. Berit is also a member of the CBS HRM Advisory Board.

Per Erik Johannessen is Special Adviser Innovation and Outreach at BI Norwegian Business School. In his role, Johannessen is working in the intersection between companies, organizations, students and faculty members to identify and develop partnerships.  Johannessen has extensive experience from BI as Director of Public Affairs, Head of Continuing and further education, Director of Corporate Programs – nationally and internationally and as Director of Open Enrolment Programs. He is a member of CASE Northern Europe Cabinet.

Annika Linna (MSSc) is a communications professional inspired by community building and co-creation. She started heading Aalto University’s Alumni Engagement in December 2023. She is also responsible for coordinating communications and marketing for university’s advancement and corporate engagement. Annika has spent most of her career working in communications as a consultant, expert and team leader.

Nik is Business Partner and Director at More Partnership and works with organisations around the world to advance their ambitions through alumni and corporate engagement, and wider fundraising programmes. This has recently included universities (e.g., Trinity College Dublin, University of Oxford and University of Pretoria), charities (e.g. the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the New Zealand Link Foundation) and large employers (e.g. Morgan Stanley, Linklaters and the BBC). He has also worked with a range of scientific institutes, including IRB and CRG in Barcelona, and the Wellcome Trust; and has been an advisor to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory since 2015.     

Nik has a keen interest in social equality, and founded the Bridge Group, based at King’s College London - the charity regularly advises government and a wide range of international organisations. He is also Vice-Chair of the UNITE Foundation (disbursing over £9m to support care leavers to enter higher education), a Research Associate and Fellow at the University of York, and a non-executive on the KPMG Leadership Board. Nik was awarded the CASE Crystal Apple award for teaching excellence in 2020. His other jobs include juggling two small people and stoically following Ipswich Town FC.

Riikka has been working at the University of Helsinki for more than a decade with versatile responsibilities related to fundraising, donor relations and partnerships. Since 2010, the University of Helsinki has raised more than 175 million euros, in part supported by the governmental matched-funding scheme for private donations. Recently, Riikka has led the process to update the ethical principles of fundraising and donating at the university as well as the ethical principles related to business collaboration. In addition to the principles, she has also developed the due diligence process related to fundraising and donating. During her career, Riikka has worked with the university leadership, and most of the faculties of the University of Helsinki. Riikka holds a master’s degree in political science and she is an alumna of the University of Helsinki.

Barbro Kolbjørnsrud has experience within alumni and external relations, executive and corporate education and volunteer engagement from business schools and universities. She has developed and managed a broad range of professional and successful events and emerging programs to cultivate relationships between alumni, faculty and external relations. Barbro has strong capabilities in strategic planning and is passionate about sharing her knowledge and experience.

Barbro holds a Bachelor in Marketing, Strategy, and Internationalization and an Executive Master in Management, both from BI Norwegian Business School. She is a CASE -volunteer as chair for the CASE Nordic Summit Program Committee and co-chair for the CASE Northern Europe Cabinet, and coordinates the National network for alumni-professionals in Norway.

Sini Koskimies is a communications, marketing and strategy specialist with experience in strategic consulting, branding and concept creation. She’s eager to use communications as a tool for tackling the world’s wicked problems. At her present work at Aalto School of Art, Design and Architecture she makes way for positive change with the aid of creativity, critical thinking, and the ability to imagine the yet imaginable — together with technological solutions and business thinking of the international and interdisciplinary Aalto University community. 

Justin Palframan is a language coach and a part-owner at Coaching Language Finland.  Born in a small town in South Africa Justin moved to Finland in 2005 and has coached adult learners in Finland for the past 17 years. He has worked with various industry professionals and guided them along their language learning journey by not only focusing on key business skills in English but also the cultural aspect to learning the language. By combining coaching with language acquisition, it has allowed Justin to help learners to develop their skills in order to do better business

Amy has worked in professional fundraising for 12 years, both in higher education as well as the charity industry including The Prince’s Trust, Kew Gardens and the Tate.  Amy has been at Imperial College for six years.

In her current role, Amy is a member of the Advancement Leadership Team at Imperial College London and she oversees day-to-day running of the Faculty of Medicine Development programme which generates £20M+ per annum, mostly principal gifts and many from grateful patients.  

Amy brings to the College a wealth of experience in securing gifts and stewarding UK and international donors at the £1m+ level.

Christian Pröpper has vast experience overseas and he has led on the creation and implementation of fundraising campaigns and appeals at the University of Oxford for causes such as student support, access to water in Africa, better facilities and activities for the elderly at the Ashmolean Museum and the conservation of maps and books at the Bodleian libraries.  His team also delivers reporting and insights across all fundraising activities for the University and its independent colleges.

Since February 2021, Chris has been working for Marlborough College (a private school south of Oxford) as Associate Director (Development Operations), where he is preparing the College for an ambitious £50m fundraising campaign to increase the number of free places available.

Chris has worked in development over 20 years: within higher education, the school sector, and is also a Senior Advisor at Halpin, a higher education consultancy in the UK.  Over the years, Chris has merged his regular giving and fundraising skills with skills in data management, system process, analytical and insight.  He has developed a variety of techniques, including Culture of Giving Scores, engagement matrices and bespoke prospect management systems to help fundraisers prioritise their activities across a variety of charitable organisations. 

Chris is an alumnus of the Universities of Southampton and Liverpool.  In his spare time, Chris runs Propper-Fundraising.com – a free learning resource collating the best fundraising-related blogs in one place.

Jenni is a Senior Advisor in the donor engagement team at Aalto University. She works closely with multidisciplinary international fundraising projects and  specializes in major donations in six- and seven-figure sums. She has been a fundraising strategy consultant for the NGO sector and lists a top-10 global humanitarian aid organization as a client. Jenni has worked in the university sector for over a decade in Germany and Finland and trained at the Institute of Fundraising in London. Jenni has a Master's degree in political science.

Rosslyn has worked within regular giving for over a decade and has extensive knowledge of the industry. She understands what makes a regular giving programme resilient and ambitious and works tirelessly to support our clients to achieve their goals and grow their development programmes. Rosslyn oversees Buffalo’s programme of webinars and events through which we share best practice, new ideas and the latest thinking with the educational charity sector

Šarūnas Radvilavičius is currently working as General Manager of FHI 360 the Lithuanian branch, this is a U.S based non-profit organization working with development projects all over the wold.  

He previously worked as an Advisor on Education, Science and Culture for the President of Lithuania. Before that he worked for 17 years at the Nordic Council of Ministers office in Lithuania, an international organization, which has supported democratic transition of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus and Russia, and cooperation between the Baltic and Nordic countries. This experience gave him a unique insight into management of all stages of international programmes and projects in areas of education, culture, environment, cross-border co-operation and good governance. Šarūnas, used to teach courses in history at both Vilnius University and Klaipeda University.

His academic background is in history at the University of Oslo and Public Administration at the Mykolas Romeris University, Lithuania.

Nora works as a donor engagement manager at Aalto University in Finland. The integrated Advancement and Corporate Engagement office at Aalto includes corporate relations, donor engagement, alumni engagement, career and recruitment services, as well as CRM development and analytics.

Nora is responsible for the development of major individual giving and legacy giving in the Donor Engagement team. Prior these tasks Nora has been part of making Aalto’s second big fundraising campaign, which raised 23,5 Million Euros. Before her fundraising career Nora has worked in a small marketing agency. Nora was also leading the Aalto University’s alumni relations work during its heavy development and “construction” years in 2010-2013 – the time when Aalto merged from three predecessor universities into new Aalto University.

Chris has been advancing clients’ regular giving programmes since 2013 and so he knows what works and what doesn’t.  Regular giving requires multi-channel fundraising approaches, with a robust strategy tying the whole programme together. Therefore, Chris works closely with Buffalo’s senior staff to develop new products that help promote success for our clients.

Anna is an experienced fundraiser and development expert who has raised and negotiated funding contracts of more than $1M and supported successful multi-year fundraising and organisational strategy processes. Originally from Germany, Anna has extensive European experience and moved to Hong Kong in 2016.  Her international wisdom will aid Chapel & York Hong Kong Foundation members in understanding being a foreign charity fundraising in Asia and help them to navigate the cultural and other issues in fundraising in Hong Kong.

Birgitta has been working with alumni relations and fundraising at Chalmers since 2014. Over the last few years, Birgitta has developed a focus on stewardship and alumni fundraising, working on building a bottom-up fundraising model, including international alumni fundraising. Previously, Birgitta has worked with international university collaboration with a special focus on student exchange with North America and Australia.

Birgitta holds a BSc in International Business from Johnson & Wales University, USA and an MSc in International Management from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Charlotte Rydh has more than 25 years’ experience of major gift fundraising, alumni and donor relations, volunteer management and marketing as well as change management working for academic institutions and non-profits in Sweden and internationally. Since 2016, she is heading the Swedish Fundraising Association as Secretary General coming from the role as Secretary General for AFS Interkulturell Utbildning, part of the world’s largest non-profit exchange organization founded in 1914.

As a graduate of the Stockholm School of Economics, where she majored in international economics, Charlotte also studied the marketing for the non-profit sector during an exchange MBA course at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. She has been a member of the CASE Europe Board of Trustees, a board members of Sweden for UNHCR, Research!Sweden and Brakeley Nordic, and she is currently on the Advisory Board of Film and Tell and President for the European Fundraising Association, EFA.

Tommy Shih is an Associate Professor at Lund University, and a policy professional. He is also a Senior Advisor at the Swedish National China Centre and formerly Policy Director at STINT. He has worked extensively with research, education and science policy in Europe and in Asia. His work in research, education and policy focuses on responsibility in internationalization.

Anita has vast experience serving for thirty years as volunteer in non profit academic organizations. In her professional life after ten years career in IT industry management positions she moved to management of Non-profit organizations. Anita has ten years’ experience serving in RTU as executive director of Alumni association and recently RTU Development Fund. Anita is also RTU associate professor, passionate lecturer of business process management and inquisitive researcher with particular interest in alumni knowledge management.

Bruno has over 30 years of experience in development work, university advancement and international collaboration across multiple countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Gulf States, Europe, Latin and North America, and UK. He has led university advancement in South Africa (UKZN) and the UK (Durham University); been senior vice president, UK & Europe, GGA; associate consultant, Brakeley UK, Germany and Nordic; director of engagement, Afrobarometer (communications and resource mobilization); and currently strategic advisor, development and engagement, CIMMYT.

As volunteer, he has served on and been chair of Africa Centre for Childhood; HIV/Aids Networking Centre; Marketing, Advancement and Communication in Education (Southern Africa); Institute for Partnerships between Education and Business; North American Foundation Board, Durham University; commissioner on CASE Global Commission on Philanthropy; International Education-Business Partnership Network; CASE Africa; Practical Philanthropy across Europe (partnership with King Baudouin Foundation-US); University World News (Africa); Aalto University Fundraising Advisory Board; and teaching fellow at the University of Bologna’s Master’s in International Studies in Philanthropy and Social Innovation.

Two Master’s degrees, in English Literature and Commerce respectively, HDE, TEFL, and two certificates in Managing Partnerships and Strategic Alliances from INSEAD and in Storytelling for Change from +Acumen, New York.

As consultant and partner at More Partnership, Maarten supports a range of institutions across Europe in their mission to increase their impact on society through fundraising. Recent clients include Aiglon College, VU Amsterdam, the Ecole du Louvre, Institut Pasteur, the European Molecular Biology Lab and UNICEF UK.

Maarten specializes in campaign strategy, cases for support, major gifts, and building and managing effective advancement teams in complex organizations. Fluent in English, Dutch and French, and with a working knowledge of German and Greek, he thrives in international environments. He couples his cultural curiosity with a strong belief that diversity in teams is one of the key factors for success in professional and personal wellbeing. 

Before More, Maarten led Communications, Alumni Relations and Development Offices at the universities of Amsterdam and Utrecht, the Cyprus Institute and the American University of Paris.

He was a founding member of CASE Lowlands and has served on the Case Europe Annual Conference programming committee, which he chaired in 2016 and 2017.

Camilla Wardi is Head of Corporate Relations and Outreach and is leading the team of External Relations at Hanken School of Economics. The team includes Alumni, Career Services, Corporate Relations and Fundraising.

Camilla is Swedish but has lived in Finland since 2004. Before moving to Finland, Camilla lived in London and in Brussels, working with retail and executive education. Camilla holds an executive MBA degree from Hanken School of Economics and a Bachelor’s degree from Gothenburg University.