Lisa Williams has worked in the Development and Alumni Relations team at Exeter for over 17 years. During that time, Lisa has held a variety of roles including regular giving, legacy and major gift fundraising. In 2014 Lisa was appointed to the newly created role of Head of Operations and now oversees the prospect research, data and insight, finance and donor relations functions.

Chris joined QMUL in his new role in late 2023. He leads the operations function and is responsible for overseeing data and insight, gift management, prospect research, reporting, and regular giving.

Through this and his previous roles, Deputy Director of Advancement Operations at Imperial and Head of Planning and Performance at UCL, he has managed a wide range of operations areas, including due diligence, gift processing and accounting, tax-efficient giving, legacy administration, performance management, systems projects, budgeting and financial management data protection, risk, and governance.

Chris has managed projects as varied as the implementation of the annual planning process, CRM implementation, priority project process review, operational process improvement, a revised data and insight strategy, and embedding dynamic fundraiser goals and metrics. Chris has been heavily involved in communities of practice, EDI initiatives, and values and behaviours development.

Chris has over 6 years’ experience in Advancement, previously working in Finance roles for both the public and private sectors.

Paula joined the fundraising and alumni relations office at Sheffield seven years’ ago and now heads up the planning, coordination and delivery of the University’s first major philanthropic Campaign. Her role has evolved and grown to cover all aspects of project development and narrative, reporting, governance, strategy, budget, stewardship, gift acceptance and disbursement. As Associate Director of Campaign Management, she is a member of the Senior Management Team and leads the 'operational engine' of CAR that currently comprises Data, Gift Management and Stewardship.

This is Paula’s third role at Sheffield, having previously held positions in research development and income growth. Prior to this, she worked in media relations and communications at the University of Leeds and ran her own science/healthcare journalism and copywriting business.

When she’s not studying finance spreadsheets, digging into data or conjuring up new fundraising propositions, Paula enjoys fell-running, hill-walking, cycling, baking (mostly cakes containing fruit or veg) and gardening. She ventured into community fundraising in spring 2019, raising over £1,200 for University of Sheffield student scholarships by completing her first ever cross-country ski marathon.

Ben joined the University of Leeds in October 2023 and heads up the prospect research function there. He and the team have responsibility for all aspects of prospect research, including prospect identification and qualification, portfolio management, due diligence and gift acceptance, data management and CRM usage. In addition to these core elements of prospect research, his role also encompasses team planning, strategy and target setting.

Prior to his current role in HE, Ben spent just under five years in the charitable sector working in the Prospect Development team at the Science Museum Group. In his time there he worked to support fundraising efforts at all five of the group’s locations across the country.

Malina is responsible for providing leadership to Operations teams within Philanthropy and Global Engagement at LSE, including income management & services; data, insight & systems and planning, office & business management.  Prior to joining HE sector, Malina had been working in the charity sector for nearly 15 years, heading fundraising operations, supporter engagement, volunteering, compliance and data functions.

Stuart Thompson leads the Advancement Services team at Durham University. His portfolio comprises data and information management, data governance and compliance, alumni and stakeholder systems, reporting and analytics, training and user support, prospect research, gift processing, and stewardship.

Stuart has developed many new systems and processes, to improve and expand the Development and Alumni Relations functions at Durham including the development of an Alumni Engagement Pyramid.

Abbey Ward is the Development Services Manager at the University of Hull. Joining in 2019, Abbey was new to advancement and the many operations development services encompasses. Prior to working in Higher Education, Abbey held an external relations role at an education charity where she managed partnerships across Yorkshire and Humberside. Her current remit is varied, typical of those working in smaller DAROs, covering insights, gift management, stewardship, reporting, compliance and of course the database. Recent projects have included developing provision to better adapt to EDI objectives, enhancing caseload reporting for fundraisers and taking on various data validation projects. Currently in its second year, Abbey also established a small network of peers working in development services roles within small operations. This was designed to be a supportive and practical network for those working in small teams with finite resources.