Rami Abi Jomaa is the Director of Advancement Services at the American University of Beirut. He manages the operations of the fundraising and alumni relations efforts including donation management, database management, prospect research, stewardship and donor relations, information services, data privacy and GDPR and advancement compliance. Rami has 12 years of experience in higher education advancement and has successfully completed very complex projects related to gift management and building fundraising campaign infrastructure. Additionally, Rami has experience in annual giving, technology management, HR and the development of various business processes. He holds a BS in Business Management and Information Systems and a master’s degree in Sociology.

Terri Appel is the Director of Advancement for the English Schools Foundation (ESF). She is responsible for the areas of alumni relations, development and events management, working closely with the Communications and Finance teams.

Terri has her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her master’s degree from Columbia University. During her 22 years in Hong Kong, Terri has worked as both a volunteer and paid consultant, with several not for profit and service organisations. In 2010, Terri shifted her focus to the education field and became Director of Business Development for Generations Christian Education, a position she held for five years before moving over to the ESF in 2015.

Lucy is a British mother of two who has been living in Singapore for a decade, having promised family she would be going for two years. Having been in her current position of Admissions Manager at Nexus International School for 7 years (and a growth of 700 learners later), it's hard for her to imagine repatriating. Nexus has just relocated into a state-of-the-art, purpose built facility where we will double enrolment in the coming year. Lucy has just started an MEd with Monash and is excited about the next few years personally and professionally for all the highlights and obstacles that she will face.

Naina is the CEO and Chairwoman of AVPN, a regional funders' network that aims to increase the flow of financial, human and intellectual capital for impact. Under her direction, the organisation has grown from focusing only on venture philanthropy to supporting the entire ecosystem of social investors from philanthropists to impact investors and corporate CSR professionals.

Prior to joining AVPN, Naina was a member of the senior leadership team of a purpose driven unit of The Monitor Group, a leading global strategy consulting firm, aimed at catalysing markets for social change. In 2019, Naina was awarded one of Asia's Top Sustainability Superwomen.

Liza Boffen-Yordanov leads Nanyang Technological University's Development team as chief development officer and executive director of the development office in support of the University's drive for excellence in education, research, and innovation. She joined NTU in September 2018 from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB), where she was the first CDO and CEO of the IITB Development and Relations Foundation in Mumbai.

Her two-decade plus career includes roles as the vice president of advancement at Franklin University Switzerland, senior director of international advancement at George Washington University, director of the development office at SingHealth, and dean of undergraduate programmes at the Center for American Education, Singapore.

She is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) and an AFP Master Teacher.

Julianne commenced her career as a teacher in both primary and secondary education and went on to complete a master’s degree in Education by research at the University of Melbourne. Her professional experience also includes management roles in education, educational publishing, and healthcare. For the past 16 years, she has worked in the area of school advancement, overseeing the areas of fundraising, enrolments, marketing and communications, alumni and community engagement. Julianne also holds postgraduate qualifications in Communications and is an experienced leader with a passion for education. Julianne is currently the Director of Community Engagement at Carey Baptist Grammar School in Melbourne.

Tony is a Senior Consultant with AskRIGHT, based in Perth. He began this new role in February 2020, previously having been the director of Development and Community Relations at Xavier College Melbourne (2017-2020). He has been director of Community Relations at Geelong Grammar School (2010-2016), director of Development at Wells Cathedral School, UK (2006-2010), executive director of the University of Limerick Foundation, Ireland (2001-2006) and director of Development at Waikato University, New Zealand (1996-2001). Tony is a fellow of Educate Plus and a member of the New Zealand Fundraising Institute. Tony has prepared and led comprehensive campaigns in each role he has held, and has extensive experience in international fundraising, major gifts, bequests, and annual giving programme. Tony has served on the CASE Commission on Philanthropy.

Anneke Burlinson’s career as an Advancement professional began a decade ago when she was tasked with establishing the Prospect Development team at the University of Western Australia. She and her team were part of what was the largest capital campaign for Western Australia. In mid-2017, she moved to Murdoch University to help build its Advancement Operations unit, in the areas of Information Management, System Development and Support, Prospect Development and Gifts Stewardship.

Anneke brings her experience and expertise from her earlier roles and studies at Ludwig Maximilian University, University of Indonesia and California State University, Chico.

She currently serves on the Editorial Board for the CASE Support of Education Survey, Australia and New Zealand and the Murdoch University’s CRM Steering Committee, and recently co-initiated the Lean In Circle at Murdoch University.

Mr Ricky Cheng has been with the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia since 2010. Ricky is responsible for all development activities and assists in strategic planning for the 98-year-old organisation. Prior to joining the United Board, he established the Office of Institutional Advancement at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003. A CPA holding an Executive MBA degree, Ricky's wide range of experience covers business development, higher education governance and public speaking. He is the Vice-Chair of the CASE Asia-Pacific Regional Council and served as Chairs of the CASE Asia-Pacific Advancement Conference in 2008 and 2016, respectively.

Anthea has been managing the Alumni Relations programme at CQUniversity since 2011. Based at the Rockhampton campus in Central Queensland, Anthea leads a small, high-performing team to create and deliver a communications and relationship development programme to a diverse cohort of over 105,000 graduates around the world. Interesting elements of this programme include CQUniversity’s goal to be Australia’s most engaged university, the institution’s long history in the delivery of online education, dual-sector status, 15 campuses across all Australian mainland states, and large cohorts of both mature-age and international graduates.

Anthea also worked in Stakeholder Management and Event Coordination in the non-profit and government sectors. She is a proud alumna of CQUniversity Australia and Charles Sturt University.

Rachael will soon enjoy her seven-year work anniversary at the University of Melbourne, where she held IT business relationship roles before joining the Advancement team 18 months ago as the Deputy Director of Operations. The favourite part of Rachael's work day is joining people together to solve shared problems and coaching her team so that they can achieve their goals.

Prior to joining the higher education sector, Rachael spent five years in medical research, and seven years prior in IT consulting. Rachael holds a Bachelor of Computing and a Bachelor of Business (majoring in Accounting), but please don't ask her to write code or do your tax return!

Professor Cheryl de la Rey is the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Canterbury since 2019. Prior to her current position Cheryl held a number of leadership positions in tertiary education in South Africa including being Chief Executive of the Council of Higher Education and Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria for just under a decade. She has served on several boards and is currently the Chairperson of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and Universities New Zealand (UNZ). She is also a board member of the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). Her field of academic specialisation is Social Psychology and she has published widely in the broad area of intergroup relations with a specific focus on gender.

Marie has worked in advancement for over 30 years—as AVP Alumni for the University of British Columbia and Executive Director of the UBC Alumni Association, as Director of Alumni Relations at Stanford University, and in various non-profit and advocacy organisations.  For the past ten years, she has had a dual career as a strategy consultant to over fifty universities and as an executive coach helping develop the leadership capacity of clients from a broad range of industries worldwide. As a certified integral coach, she supports clients in becoming better leaders, transforming their workplaces, and creating thriving people-centric organisations. She lives in Pacific Grove, California. 

Lee is currently the Head of School at Nueva School in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has more than 30 years of school leadership and teaching experience in a wide variety of educational settings including five international schools (in Ethiopia, Brazil, Spain, and Belgium), an independent school in New York City, and a voluntary integration public magnet school in Minneapolis. Lee is a trainer for the Principals’ Training Center (PTC), has taught in the College of Education at the University of Minnesota, and is a guest speaker on contemporary educational issues at a wide variety of community events. He provides consulting services for schools and educational organizations around the world in the areas of governance, development and fundraising, learning innovation, and school-based continuous improvement.

Lee currently serves on the global board of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), and he is a former trustee of the Association for the Advancement of International Education (AAIE), the Global Issues Network (GIN), and the Sao Paulo Education Foundation (SPEF). 

Professor Margaret Gardner AC is President and Vice-Chancellor of Monash University. She has previously held leadership positions at RMIT, the University of Queensland and Griffith University.

Professor Gardner is a Director of the Group of Eight Universities and was Chair of Universities Australia (2017-2019). She is a Director of Infrastructure Victoria, the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG) and a member of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Inclusion and Diversity Committee. 

Professor Gardner’s previous roles include Chair of the Expert Panel of the Office of Learning and Teaching, Chair of Museum Victoria, Board member of the Australian-American Fulbright Commission and ANZAC Centenary Advisory Board.

An experienced senior leader with more than 20 years' track record in the non-profit and higher education sectors, Simone Garske is focused on achieving transformative outcomes through innovative health research and advancement through engagement and philanthropy.

Simone is a certified fundraising executive who has proven leadership abilities in building philanthropic programmes, board engagement, communications as well as stakeholder and relationship management.

She is also a member of the Regional Council of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and has a Bachelor of Business (Communication) and an MBA from QUT.

Jock has over ten years Advancement experience working with Australian universities. He has worked in Annual Fund, Donor Relations, Marketing and Communications, Major Giving and Bequests and overseen Advancement Services teams. His current role at the Australian National University gives him responsibility for fundraising and alumni relations across the University’s College of Science and College of Health and Medicine.

Dr Jun Geng currently serves as the Deputy Secretary-General of Alumni Association at SUSTech. She leads a “small but mighty” alumni relations team that works on SUSTech alumni programmes, including database management, strategic communications, special events, and alumni donation. Her team specialises on young alumni activities as SUSTech Alumni are between 22 and 28 years old.

Prior to joining SUSTech, she has a 15 years of higher education teaching experience. She holds a doctorate in Science and a master’s degree in Education.

Ken is currently the Director (Alumni) at the University of Southern Queensland.  In this role, he strategically leads every aspect of the USQ alumni programme and he is responsible for the database. 

He is also the current co-chair of the Australian Universities Alumni Professionals Group (AUAPG), which is a professional group designed to share learnings in the university alumni space within Australia. He previously spent seven years as the Alumni Manager, where he was responsible for the Queensland University of Technology alumni programme and three-and-a-half years as the inaugural Alumni Manager for The University of Queensland, School of Medicine.

Felicity has worked in the higher education sector for 23 years in a variety of roles, with a focus in the last several years on fundraising, engagement and campaigns. Her previous roles have included student and scholarship pastoral care and administration, business management, curriculum design, executive management and governance. 

Felicity has participated and presented at CASE programmes and conferences and is a CASE graduate trainee mentor. She has attended courses at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University-Purdue, workshops with Advancement Resources, and is a strong advocate for professional development in the Advancement sector.

She enjoys solving complex problems with innovative and streamlined solutions, within the context of a giving and donor-centric culture. Felicity also loves to share her ‘attitude of gratitude' with the community.

Cecilia Handel is director of development at Tanglin Trust School (TTS), an international school in Singapore. The school has 2,800 students aged between 3 and 18 who are all based on one campus. TTS will celebrate its centenary in 2025. Handel leads the development team which focusses on community, corporate, and alumni relations. She also has responsibility for the Tanglin Trust School Foundation, which is funded philanthropically and delivers enrichment opportunities for the TTS Community. Handel holds a master’s degree in arts, post graduate certificate in education, and is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Having spent the last nine years at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Liz Hardy has played a key role in the advancement unit, its development, growth, and successes.

In her current role, she supports the vice president advancement in all aspects of advancement and university activity. She leads the philanthropy teams in ensuring they are achieving their strategic objectives, financial and operational targets, whilst also managing and growing her own significant portfolio of donors.

Hardy has more than 20 years of strategic planning, fundraising, relationship management, marketing, communications, and business management experience, spanning the non-profit, corporate, and higher education sectors.

She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in dispute resolution.

Datuk Ir. (Dr.) Abdul Rahim Hj Hashim was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor, University of Malaya in November 2017. He graduated in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom in 1976 and later received an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from the same university in 2006.  He is currently an Advisor of Institute of Materials Malaysia, a member of the Board of Engineers National Monitoring Committee, a board member of ICE Petroleum Engineering Sdn. Bhd., a board member of Deleum Berhad, a Board Member of Malaysia Convention & Exhibition Bureau MyCEB’s (MyCEB) and a Joint-Chairman (Government)/Director on the Board of Directors of Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology.

Soha Hmaidan is currently the Chief Advancement Officer at King’s Academy, a day and boarding independent school for grades 7-12 in Jordan. In her role, Hmaidan is responsible for leading fundraising efforts, advancement services, alumni relations, and parent engagement to help King’s Academy successfully launch its campaign in support of the school’s strategic priorities and to ensure financial sustainability.

Prior to King’s, Soha was Associate Vice President for Advancement Services and University Events at American University of Beirut (AUB), a position she last held for over 22 years. With a diversified experience in higher education and independent boarding schools, Soha brings best practices in advancement strategies and operations, international fundraising, and campaign planning and execution, in addition to good prospect research and donor relations, bridging different cultures of advancement, between west and east, and the United States and the Middle East.

Soha holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration from AUB and is a certified professional in human resources and compensation.

Rami Jaber is the manager of corporate relations at the Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs at American University of Sharjah (AUS). For over 11 years, Jaber has been establishing and managing high impact collaborations and partnerships between the university and industry that serve advancement objectives and goals successfully. Jaber is also one of the most notable founders of the AUS Alumni Association that currently represents a network of over 16,000 graduates from 115 different countries.

Crickett Kasper joined CASE as Director of Schools in August 2023. Most recently Kasper served as the Chief Advancement Officer at Singapore American School (SAS) where she was responsible for leading a unified community engagement approach through the integration of parent relations, alumni relations, annual giving, and major giving. With more than 16 years of advancement experience, Kasper has hosted a variety of events to support school communities and non-profit organizations. Prior to joining SAS in July 2019, she led fundraising efforts at Shanghai American School as Director of Development and Alumni Relations for five years. Her background is in advancement in U.S. independent schools, universities, and non-profit radio.

Dickson is a seasoned Senior Philanthropy Advisor to philanthropists across Asia, contributing high impact strategies and initiatives to their philanthropic legacies. Dickson spent more than 16 years serving in senior positions, and advising leading non-profit organisations to maximise impact at community and national levels.

Dickson was also a Director of the inaugural CASE Asia-Pacific Board and was a regular volunteer and speaker at CASE events and masterclasses. He was a member of the worldwide Steering Committee for “Reimagining CASE 2017-2021”, which formulated the CASE Strategic Plan.

Prior to serving the non-profit sector, Dickson spent 10 years in engineering, developing strategic investments and exclusive distributorships in the semiconductor industry across Asia.

As chief communications officer at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Ovidia Lim-Rajaram heads an award-winning team that works on NUS reputation management, including strategic communications, branding and communications, digital communications, special events and protocol, issues management as well as crisis communications. She works with a diverse campus community of 50,000 spread across 17 schools and 30 university-level research institutes in Singapore, and in NUS locations overseas. Lim-Rajaram is the press secretary to the university president and university spokesperson. In her earlier life, she was a newspaper reporter, broadcast journalist, and a media studies lecturer.

Lim-Rajaram graduated from NUS with a bachelor's degree in political science and history, and holds a master’s degree in international communication from Macquarie University.

Dr Kathy Limmer is a seasoned fundraising professional with experience in university and independent school advancement. At the university level, her work focused around major gift fundraising during campaigns. At the independent school level, her leadership of  Hockaday's US$100 million centennial campaign brought parent participation to 100%, notes the school's largest gift of US$20 million, and brought alumni giving to record levels.  Now at TAS, her work focuses on parent participation, successful completion of a building campaign, leadership giving, and the school’s upcoming 70th year celebration. Kathy’s been a CASE volunteer for over a decade and enjoys learning from and sharing with the CASE community.

Richard is the Director of Development at Saint Kentigern Trust Board, that manages a number of leading Independent Schools in Auckland, New Zealand. He has a proven record in senior management roles leading organisations and complex commercial projects in both the private and public sector. He has worked as General Manager for over 20 years in successful private businesses as well as global sport management organisations including FIFA, IMG and Supercars. He has consulted to many organisations including NZ's Heart Foundation and Government Agencies. He is a former NZ sporting representative and Olympic Coach. Richard holds a number of private company directorships and has Dip Tchg, Bsc and MBA qualifications.

David Livermore, Ph.D. is a thought leader in cultural intelligence (CQ) and global leadership and president and co-founder of the Cultural Intelligence Center (www.culturalq.com) in Michigan, United States of America. He is also a visiting research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Livermore has authored 11 award-winning books on global leadership and CQ, and has worked with multinational corporations, governments, and non-profit organisations in more than 100 countries. He speaks at several international conferences annually, addressing an average of 7,500 leaders over a year. He also serves on several non-profit boards. 

Nasci Lobo has worked in international education communications and marketing since 2010, starting at Canadian International School of Hong Kong (CDNIS). He began his current role at Yokohama International School (YIS) in 2017, where his department covers internal and external communications and alumni relations, and supports the communications and operations of advancement initiatives. Lobo specialises in social media and community engagement. He started CDNIS' social media programme and has expanded YIS' social footprint. Canadian by upbringing, he has spent 18 years in Japan and 10 years in Hong Kong.

Sarah has worked in development for eight years, with fundraising experience in higher education and the arts and volunteer experience in humanitarian aid. Sarah has lived and worked in Australia, UK and Turkey, entering University Advancement when she joined the Australian National University (ANU) in 2016. Her earlier career focussed on public and learning programmes for arts and cultural institutions. Sarah led the Gift and Estate Planning team at ANU for three years. In 2019, Sarah joined the University of Melbourne Advancement Office as Senior Manager, Gifts in Wills.

Rachel Muir is the Marketing and Events Manager for the Caulfield Grammarians' Association at Caulfield Grammar School. She has worked across various industries including not-for-profits, professional associations and educational institutions. Rachel has over seven years’ experience in marketing, communications and events. Her expertise includes social media management, SEO, branding, communications, strategy and governance.

As the Marketing and Events Manager, Rachel is responsible for the delivery of 23 events annually, and the development and execution of communication plans that include website, digital/print media. She has been instrumental in delivering the CGA Brand Refresh and Visual Identity Project and is currently focusing on programmes to engage young alumni and other priority segments.

Justyna leads the engagement of Nanyang Technological University (NTU)'s global community of over 230,000 alumni in philanthropic support to their alma mater. She oversees the strategic effort to analyse and understand the varied sub-segments of the alumni and their philanthropic aspirations, develop the right communications and propositions to these motivations, and ultimately secure the alumni's win-win philanthropic partnership with the University. Justyna has over a decade of experience in public service where she has forged win-win collaborations in various settings, including education, rehabilitation and health. In addition, she has spearheaded successful large-scale initiatives with target audiences of over 130,000. When Justyna isn't working, she's beautifying the world with her flowers.

Aisling heads up the annual fund at SAS. She manages the execution of all annual fund development activities and initiatives, including direct mail, social media strategy, leadership annual giving, volunteer management, marketing, special events, and stewardship. Aisling also supports strategic development activities and major giving. Before joining SAS, Aisling previously worked in magazine publishing and in communications and marketing for international schools, most recently at the International School of Beijing. She has a background in project management, customer relationship management, and software development.

Rossie Ogilvie is the vice-principal, advancement at the University of Sydney. She brings more than 15 years of experience in advancement, leading teams in Australia and the UK.

For Cambridge University’s 800th Anniversary Campaign, Rossie was a key part of the team that raised more than £1BN. As executive director for advancement, University of Sydney, Rossie planned and implemented INSPIRED, Australia’s largest philanthropic campaign. INSPIRED is the first comprehensive fundraising campaign in the University’s history, raising $1BN from more than 64,000 donors. She is now leading the next generation of advancement at the University.

Rossie was previously the vice-chancellor’s chief-of-staff. An exemplary leader and strategist, she was a driving force behind the implementation of the University’s strategic plan.

Kally joined Development Office in 2007 with one mission – to make a difference.  She leads the Major Gifts team and provides strategic support for the university's advancement programme.  Kally is deeply passionate about building a philanthropic culture in higher education and believes in an integrated approach to advancement in order to develop sustainable and meaningful programmes to engage donors, alumni and the community.  Her dream is to retire after nurturing generations of young advancement professionals with donor centric and ethical values.

Kally holds a double degree in Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.  She is also a certified Toastmaster and Family Counsellor.

Jon Paparsenos is the vice president, university advancement at Seton Hall University. He provides leadership and oversight over the University’s fundraising and alumni efforts and serves as the institution's chief fundraising officer. He brings more than 17 years of experience in the planning and execution of fundraising campaigns and building high performing Advancement teams.  

Prior to Seton Hall, Paparsenos served as the vice president for philanthropy and CEO UNSW Foundation at UNSW Sydney in Australia, with Caltech (the California Institute of Technology), with Marquette University in Wisconsin and with Community Counselling Co., LLC in New York. 

Paparsenos is an active volunteer for CASE serving as chair and a member of faculty for the CASE APIEF Institute in Melbourne, Australia.  

Paparsenos came to philanthropy following an eight-year service with the US Marine Corps. He holds a BA from Seton Hall University. He is a fluent Greek speaker and emigrated from Greece at the age of 18 to the United States of America.

Alireza Rahbarnia joined Murdoch University's Advancement team in early 2019 as an Information Management Analyst. Ali's experience has come from his earlier roles in several high pace tech start-ups including one of the world’s biggest ridesharing services, OLA. He has also gained his expertise from his academic educations in mathematics, statistics, IT management and data science. With this experience and knowledge, he aims to add value to the field of alumni engagement and fundraising analytics.

Ali is currently an official member and presenter of Australian Computer Society and ASC Bright Spark.

Mallika Ramdas has been Director of Admissions at United World College of South East Asia (UWCSEA) since March 2020, following two years as its Deputy Director of Admissions. Former Head of University Advising and IB English teacher at UWCSEA-Dover (2003-2016), Mallika spent a year as Co-Director of College Counseling at the UN International School in New York (2016-2017).  She also worked as IB English teacher, Head of Languages, and Director of Guidance at the United World College-Mahindra in India (1997-2003). Originally from India, Mallika has lived in Germany, India, Singapore, and the United States. She loves traveling on behalf of UWCSEA to recruit students and reconnect with alumni.

With more than 10 years’ experience in stakeholder engagement, alumni and community relations, Penny Richards Fowler is the advancement manager at Sacré Cœur, a leading independent Catholic girls school in Melbourne. Previously, Penny was Melbourne Grammar School’s alumni and community relations manager. She has worked in education for most of her career, including in alumni engagement at Melbourne Business School and Victoria University, and has an extensive background in International communications. Penny’s previous speaking engagements include the EduWeb conference in Boston, USA and Computer Assisted Learning Conference in Warwick, UK.

Jimmy is Co-Founder and Director of PingPong Digital, an award-winning full service Chinese digital marketing agency based in the US, UK and China. Jimmy has worked with hundreds of businesses on their Chinese market strategy and is frequently invited by business groups and governments to give talks on how to market to China. He is a Chinese speaker and previously worked for M&C Saatchi in Beijing before co-founding PingPong Digital.

She is a strategic and accomplished Advancement Executive with extensive international experience in Higher Education, the Arts and NFP sector. She is a proven authentic leader having played a significant role in INSPIRED, Australia’s largest philanthropic campaign in the higher education sector which reached its $1 billion target in 2019.

Sharon Roux is the director of advancement at St Peter's School, Cambridge, New Zealand. In this role, she leads fundraising, alumni relations, and sponsorship for St Peter's. Prior to joining St Peter's in November 2017, she was part of the University of Auckland's $300 million For All Our Futures campaign, where she served as development manager at the Faculty of Education and Social Work. Roux has been involved in educational fundraising for nine years, and is passionate about the profession of educational advancement.

Shakila Samuel has worked in international schools for the last five years in the areas of business development, communications, marketing and currently is the Alumni Manager at Tanglin Trust School in Singapore. Prior to joining the education sector, Shakila worked for over 20 years in private hospitality services in Singapore, initiating new ideas and establishing successful best practices for member engagement. As one of the oldest schools in Singapore, she manages an alumni base of over 20,000 at Tanglin Trust School, running programmes that are able to engage both recent and past graduates.

Mark Schroder’s career journey can be described as ‘eclectic’. Stops have included heading media, marketing, broadcast and commercial departments at national sporting leagues such as Australia’s National Basketball League and managing teams of journalists and media operations staff at two Olympic Games, two Commonwealth Games, and a Youth Olympic Games. Schroder led the Advancement marketing and communications team that launched UQ’s $607 million philanthropic campaign for research and scholarships and also runs his own social enterprise that developed a method for lifeguards to communicate with non-English speakers on beaches. He is currently the Strategist within UQ Advancement’s Development and Principal Giving team.

Dr. Michael Spence AC has led the University of Sydney as Vice-Chancellor and Principal since 2008. 

During his time as the 25th Vice-Chancellor, the University has forged a distinctive new strategy focused on the transformation of undergraduate education, promoting interdisciplinary research, and strengthening the culture around our core values. He was instrumental in leading the University’s unprecedented $1 billion INSPIRED philanthropic campaign, and promoting greater academic partnerships with industry, government and community organisations.

In 2017, he was awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia for service to leadership of the tertiary education sector, to the advancement of equitable access to educational opportunities, to developing programs focused on multidisciplinary research, and to the Anglican Church of Australia.

Linda Sprott is the Executive Director for the Caulfield Grammarians' Association (CGA) at Caulfield Grammar School. She has twenty years’ experience in senior relationship and stakeholder management including alumni, corporates, government and donors. Her background in the education sector has spanned both universities and schools.

As Executive Director, Linda is responsible for cultivating mutually beneficial relationships with past students and the wider community. She specialises in developing targeted community and marketing campaigns that deliver results, build advocates and support for the institution.

Linda's ability to build stakeholder relationships has been critical to the success of the CGA role and enabled significant change including a Brand Refresh and Visual Identity Project.

Florence is a veteran in the philanthropy space, with close to 20 years of experience in fundraising. She currently drives Alumni Giving at the Singapore Management University, having built the portfolio from ground-up through strategic relationship building with alumni donors and implementing purposeful giving programmes to engage with the community.

Her experience in Higher Education include Stewardship and Advancement Services, Special Events and Donor Relations. She also spent the earlier years of her career in the local non-profit sector specialising in fundraising events, marketing and communications.

Florence graduated from National University of Singapore in Business Administration, holds a MBA from University of Bradford, U.K and a Certificate in Fundraising Management from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Indiana University.

Zoe Timms is the Director of Advancement and Communications at the American International School of Guangzhou, China. Since joining AISG in 2015, Zoe has provided strategic leadership over the school's communications, marketing, philanthropy, alumni, community engagement and outreach efforts. No matter which hat she’s wearing, her goal is simple – be a fierce advocate for community connectedness.
 
Prior to joining AISG, Zoe worked as an educator in the Queensland Education system in Australia for seven years. She holds a BA in Communications and Media Studies majoring in Journalism and Public Relations and a Graduate Diploma (Secondary) from Griffith University, Australia. 

Craig has spent nearly 15 years in the admission profession and has served as a Director at 3 different schools. Craig currently serves as the Director of Admissions & Enrollment at American School of Dubai (ASD). Prior to ASD, Craig served as the Director of Enrollment Management at All Saints' Episcopal School in Fort Worth, Texas. Craig is a certified admission professional and has presented internationally on topics related to Enrollment Management and Leadership. Craig also completed the Aspiring Heads Programme through NAIS in 2016.

Craig and his wife, Erica (also an educator) welcomed their two-year old daughter, Charlie in August of 2017.

Professor Jessica Vanderlelie is the inaugural deputy vice-chancellor (students) at La Trobe University, leading the university to develop and implement a sustainable, and integrated strategy to improve the student experience and outcomes. A key focus of this work is to facilitate successful student transition and prepare graduates for the changing world of work. Vanderlelie is a passionate academic who has demonstrated sustained leadership in learning and teaching in the Australian higher education sector with a key focus on supporting student and graduate success. She is an Australian Learning and Teaching Fellow and led a national programme titled Engaging Alumni for Graduate Success. 

Ray Villarica is the Annual Giving Manager at Western Sydney University, a position he has held for 5 years. Like many, Ray was called to fundraising from a different career trajectory, having completed a computer science degree at the University of Technology Sydney. His first role in advancement was Alumni Database Manager at Macquarie University, eventually leading the Advancement Services team there with responsibility for alumni appeals. Ray worked at Blackbaud Pacific for a time, responsible for university clients in Australia and New Zealand. At Western Sydney, Ray has helped establish successful Staff Giving and Giving Day programmes intended to form the foundations for a strong culture of philanthropy.

Laurelle joined the Australian National University in 2015 and has spent the last four and a half years building a multi-channel and donor-centric Annual Giving programme. The focus is on retainable, quality and regular gifts through phone, direct mail and email solicitations, and supported by web and social media. Laurelle has been working in advancement for 14 years, starting her career as a student caller at Lancaster University in 2005. From there, she went on to work in Annual Giving at Oxford University and at Brunel University London. Laurelle is a self-confessed data geek and is driven by a passion for education and its life-changing potential.

Nicole Walker is Head of Alumni Relations at Bond University on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. She has over 10 years’ experience working in Higher Education in marketing and alumni relations roles. As a Bond graduate herself, Nicole is honoured to be working with colleagues to set and execute the Alumni Relations programme at Bond University. She is committed to cultivating a mutually beneficial lifelong relationship between Bond University and its alumni. This focus is at the forefront of all her decision-making and strategy development.

Ann Wardwell currently serves as Chief Advancement Officer at Hong Kong International School (HKIS) in Hong Kong, where leads a team of nine, responsible for fundraising, alumni relations, marketing, and communications. Prior to joining HKIS, Wardwell served as Director of Advancement at Fay School in Southborough, Massachusetts, Director of Advancement at The Governor’s Academy in Byfield, Massachusetts, and Director of Development at Choate Rosemary Hall. Wardwell began her fundraising career in healthcare at Boston Children's Hospital. Earlier in her career, Wardwell held various management positions at Boston Convention and Visitors' Bureau, American Express, and Marriott Corporation. 

Joanna Watts has over 25 years of experience in the higher education sector both in the United Kingdom and Australia. She joined the Advancement team at the University of Melbourne in 2017 to head up the Operations team and provide leadership in the areas of organisational development, HR, financial management, OHS, policy and governance. Watts is the Deputy Chair of the Board of TEAR Australia, an international NGO and is a fiction writer in her spare time. She has a bachelor’s degree (honours) from the University of Birmingham in russian language and literature and a postgraduate certificate in higher education administration from the Open University in the United Kingdom.

Matt has been the Communications Director at The American School in Japan (ASIJ) for 17 years and has lived in Japan for 25 years. In 2019, ASIJ became the first school in the world to receive Level 2 Certification from Keeping Children Safe. This recognised the extensive work done by the school, its Board, Safeguarding Coordinator and the Communications Team in moving the school from dealing with disclosures of historical abuse to robust safeguarding practices embedded throughout the institution. Matt is originally from the UK and previously worked in magazine publishing and as a freelance writer for publications in Japan, Australia and the United States.

Lisa leads the communications and events team at UNSW Philanthropy, responsible for creating high-impact experiences for alumni, donors and volunteers around the world. Since mid-2017, Lisa has led the team’s growth from two to 12 staff, delivering over 150 events in 2019, and driving uplift in digital marketing, fundraising communications and content-driven storytelling. Prior to joining UNSW in 2015, Lisa’s work spanned five continents, in the arts, education, marcomms, philanthropy, hospitality and events. Over her 15-year career, Lisa has worked with not-for-profits, commercial organisations, governments and universities to improve brand and customer experience, deliver game-changing projects and create meaningful engagement opportunities. Lisa holds a Master of Management (UTS) and a Bachelor of Creative Industries (QUT).

Kate is a marketing and communications professional whose passion lies in creating personal meaning and connections for an audience - which is why she has extensive experience in the highly personal sectors of tourism and education. Skilled in corporate and strategic communications, with expertise in translating data into communication, marketing and content strategy, Kate is now helping to lead the further development of UWCSEA's customer experience strategy. Kate has worked at the College for 12 years. Prior to UWCSEA, Kate worked at Tourism Australia in Trade Development and started her career in tourism at Tourism Queensland.

Kate has a master’s degree in Communications and Public Relations from UTS and a Business Degree in Tourism Management from Southern Cross University in Australia.

Alex is naturally a passionate leader. He believes in leading by example, demonstrating to others how they can work smarter and improve their own processes for the benefit of themselves and others. Alex thrives on challenges, problem solving and innovation.

Before joining Advancement at the University of Melbourne in October 2018 as the Head of Business Operations, Alex held management roles in Student and Academic Services at the University of Auckland. Previous to his work in the higher education sector, Alex was a market research professional in Russia and New Zealand. Alex holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work, a Postgraduate Diploma in Sociology and a Diploma in Languages (French).