Committee
Sam Davies
Sam's first foray into fundraising came whilst a final year undergraduate at Warwick as a caller for their first-ever telephone campaign in 1997. Following graduation, she spent two years managing telephone campaigns at 22 institutions (universities and schools) as a consultant. She then returned to Warwick full-time to run their campaigns and later became responsible for all other annual giving activities (direct mail, legacies, e-fundraising and stewardship). Before she left Warwick, she also took on responsibility for development services and helped introduce a leadership giving circle for the university.
Since 2008, Sam has led philanthropy and alumni engagement at the University of Brighton, having arrived tasked with establishing a sustainable development operation from scratch and embedding a culture of philanthropy amongst the alumni community. Her recruitment coincided with the start of the government's matched funding initiative which provided an excellent springboard from which to push forwards the fundraising and alumni engagement agenda. The department has enjoyed significant success on a number of fronts since its establishment almost 9 years ago, including receiving a national award from CASE in June 2011 for fundraising progress and building an alumni community from 20,000 to now 150,000 globally.
Mark Garratt
Mark has spent over 33 years in Marketing and Customer Relationship Management in a variety of high-profile private and public sector organisations worldwide.
In his early years he was Marketing Director for Principality Building Society in Wales and Head of Customer Management for Royal & Sun Alliance (responsible for leading Customer Management for the launch of MORETH>N), before running his own CRM consultancy, helping over 30 companies worldwide to develop effective customer management practices.
He was instrumental in setting up Confused.com, before taking up a senior interim management career with organisations such as Open University, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, Yell Group Plc, British Airways and Barnardos.
Latterly he has been Director of Marketing, Communications and Student Recruitment for City University London, the University of West London and Director of External Affairs for the University of Bradford, where he led a multi-award winning team. He was recently appointed as Interim Director of Marketing, Recruitment and International at Swansea University.
He is Vice-Chair of the Universities Marketing Forum, as we as being a Board Member of Leeds City College, Bradford UNESCO City of Film and the Bradford Literature Festival. He is a campaigner for equality, diversity and inclusion and is an ambassador for AWLO (African Women in Leadership Organisation) and the White Ribbon campaign.
Kenon Man
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.
Ben Plummer-Powell
Ben joined LSE in February 2018. Ben serves as one of nine members of the university’s leadership team, has strategic oversight for philanthropy, alumni engagement, corporate engagement, international strategy, and global academic partnerships, and leads on the most significant philanthropic opportunities, travelling extensively overseas. Since joining LSE, Ben has created and overseen the launch of LSE’s Shaping the World philanthropic and volunteering Campaign, with an initial goal to raise £350m. In 2021-22 LSE raised nearly £95m. Ben is also a senior inclusivity champion for LSE and more widely.
Outside of LSE, Ben is Chair of the Ross Group and is a Board member for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE Europe) and this year is serving on the CASE Global Advancement Leaders’ Summit Planning Committee. Prior to LSE, Ben worked at Oxford University for eight years, overseeing the University’s fundraising teams, where the Oxford Thinking Campaign grew from £800m to £2.7bn. Prior to Oxford, Ben spent 10 years at Warwick University, initially in international marketing and recruitment, then overseeing philanthropy, alumni and corporate engagement at Warwick Business School and serving the wider University leading on international philanthropy in East Asia.
Having secured a scholarship to attend a private secondary school, and having received funding for undergraduate and graduate study, Ben is a passionate advocate of social mobility and the role of education for the betterment of society.
Dee Reid
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.
Liz Reilly
Liz Reilly is Director of Philanthropy and Donor Relations at the University of Edinburgh; she joined the team in January 2015. Liz moved from Seattle, where she was Director of Development for Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest, a health care provider (with strong advocacy and educational programmes) serving patients in 30 clinics across three states. While there, Liz received the national Planned Parenthood Fundraiser of the Year Award. Liz has also been a campaign director, a fundraising consultant, and a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching at a secondary school in Malawi.
Liz's own giving tends to focus on expanding access to education; this has also been a theme in some of her volunteering, including her current roles as Philanthropic Advisor to the Cowrie Scholarship Foundation and as board member on UNICEF UK's Scotland Advisory Board. Liz is also the Chair of the CASE Europe Spring Institute in Educational Fundraising.