Paul Cernicharo-Terol is the Sales Director at The Student Room. He has over 10 years’ experience in the Higher Education industry, working across the agency (Penna and BAM Agency) and media owner landscape (Educate and The Student Room). Paul has a passion for how marketeers and universities can use data and loves few things as much as a well-manipulated pivot table!

As part of the senior leadership team at The Student Room, Paul is responsible for continued commercial success, finding new ways for university partners to interact with The Student Room’s amazing and engaged audience, and working alongside the Commercial Operations Director to develop new and innovative products that are underpinned by the rich data held at The Student Room.

Since joining the University of Sheffield’s Corporate Communications Team in 2018, Bobby has established new channels for student communications, developed creative content to support strategic priorities, and led University-wide communications campaigns for students at all levels.

Bobby collaborates with staff across the University to help to shape the organisation’s student engagement approach, and mitigate reputational impact during challenging periods. 

You can reach Bobby on LinkedIn, or by email: b.futter@sheffield.ac.uk

Gigi travelled extensive through her modelling career throughout Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, and Asia. When she returned to England she studied Health and Social Care at Brighton University.

She is now studying Applied Criminology at Canterbury Christ Church University. She is on the leadership team for the Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority student network and has played a key role in establishing dedicated student communications channels as well as working with the Marketing and Student Communications teams to create and share content.

Annie joined King’s College London in 2017 with experience from two other leading London universities. As the Communications Business Partner for Education and Students, Annie has responsibility for student communications across the university.

Annie is passionate about using communications to improve the student experience. She works closely with colleagues across the organisation to implement a coordinated approach to communicating with over 30,000 students.

Based on her own transformative experience at Lancaster University, Annie is committed to telling stories that inspire students to immerse themselves in everything that university has to offer. 

Mary joined Canterbury Christ Church University in 2018 and is a Senior Lecturer on the Forensic Investigation programme

In 2019, Mary was appointed as the University’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Strategic Lead for Closing our Gap and occupies this role alongside her role as an academic. As Strategic Lead, Mary works collaboratively with colleagues and students across the university to provide a whole institutional holistic approach to addressing the outcomes and experiences of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Mixed heritage students for sustainable transformational change.

Over the past year Mary has worked very closely with the University’s Marketing and Communications teams to develop strategic and holistic approaches to communicating with staff and students, deliver campaigns, tackle racial inequalities in Higher Education and foster a sense of community.

Kirsty is the Digital Communications Lead in the Marketing and Communications Department at Canterbury Christ Church University. As a former graduate of the University, Kirsty is passionate about sharing authentic student experiences and sharing stories to inspire future university students.

Kirsty works closely with Mary, the University’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Strategic Lead for Closing our Gap, along with colleagues in Marketing and Student Communications to deliver campaigns to tackle racial inequalities and build a community at our University where we can all stand together against racism.

Malcolm started his career Higher Education communications as an Internal Communications Officer at the University of Sheffield.  For four years he worked with staff across the university, telling their stories and planning communications activities and campaigns.  The contacts he made in this role proved invaluable when, in 2012, he swapped audiences and became the university’s first Student Communications Coordinator.  Over the following years he grew a specialist team around him consisting of experts in film, animation, social media and graphic design.  In 2017 the team won its first Guardian and HEIST awards.  Their success has continued with a string of sector recognised campaigns and further awards in 2019 from the Guardian, HEIST and two Learning on Screen Awards.  Malcolm is now the Head of Student Communications and Creative Content at the University of Sheffield where he has worked for over a decade’ the longest that he has worked for any organisation.  Everyday he asks himself how he has been lucky enough to land such an interesting, rewarding, and enjoyable job.

Karen has been with the University of Aberdeen for 14 years, taking on the role of Student Engagement Manager in 2017. One of her initial priorities was to formalise a coordinated approach to student communication, developing a student communication policy and establishing a cross institutional Student Communication and Marketing working group.

Since then Karen has had a pivotal role in taking forward a variety of student engagement activities including feedback, wellbeing and peer support. She is passionate about ensuring students have the best possible time at UOA.

Justin Shaw is a global consultant addressing issues of reputation, communications, engagement, influence and media performance in HE. He worked in the Communications Office of the University of Hertfordshire before establishing the UK's first consulting practice in higher education communications - supporting 250 clients (including 125 universities around the world). His early career was as a chief reporter, feature writer, news editor, and columnist and he was recognised as a Reporter of the Year.

Luke recently joined the University of Southampton as Head of Student Communications, in March 2021. He has 14 years' experience and success in education marketing, in both HE and FE.

As Marketing and Communications Manager at Barton Peveril Sixth Form College, he led his team to win multiple awards at the 2019 and 2020 FE First Awards, for Innovation & Creativity, Digital & Social Media Campaign, Events Management, Targeted Recruitment Campaign, Communications Campaign, and Marketing Team of the Year. The team has now also been shortlisted for the HEIST Marketing Team of the Year.

Laura has worked in communications and marketing for over 20 years and moved into the higher education sector last year – perfectly timing her start with the beginning of the pandemic! In her career she has worked for Government departments, international charities and major theatres, and now looks forward to tackling the world of student communications.

This is a new role for the University and Laura has been tasked with setting up a Student Communications Framework and Community of Practice for the whole organisation, and is particularly keen to engage with anyone who is on a similar journey.

Mhairi is Head of Student Voice and Diversity. She has worked with The Student Room for over four years, having started as a Community and Volunteer Manager, before moving to Head of Community. Mhairi is thrilled to continue transforming The Student Room’s support for students in her brand new role as Head of Student Voice and Diversity.

Before The Student Room, Mhairi was a secondary school teacher and head of year. In addition to her TSR role, she is currently a volunteer mentor for teenage girls with the charity The Girl’s Network. Throughout her career Mhairi has always been driven by her passion for supporting students and helping them to create a future they love, no matter their background or personal circumstance.

Every day, Mhairi is chatting to students and hearing about the way they experience their world and the challenges they face. 2020 taught the TSR team a great deal, and one of those things was what an incredible opportunity (and responsibility) The Student Room has, as the UK’s largest online student community, to raise the voice of students and share it with people like you who are there to support them.

Mhairi firmly believes that its by listening to students, and working across the whole industry together, that we can all make a real difference in students’ lives.