Category: Delegate

Dr Trevor Higgins

Trevor was born, bred and educated in Bradford. He worked for BT in various management roles for 45 years. Laterly he was the Regional Business Manager for BT and managed a team of 1200 engineers with a turnover of £30m and for the last ten years he was BTs Regional Partnership Director.

He left BT to become CEO of Bradford Breakthrough which is the large employers organisation lobbying for Bradford. He is also Chairman of the Digital Health Enterprise Zone, Deputy Chair of Bradford Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, a Lay Mamber of The Univesrity of Bradford Council, Member of Bradford Chamber of Commerce Leadership Board and a Member of Bradford Producer City Place Board.

Educated to Post graduate level he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate for services to businesses and communities across the region.

Professor Paul Hanna

Professor Paul Hanna Associate Dean (Global Engagement), Ulster University Paul joined Ulster in 1994 and was Head of School for Computing and Mathematics for 8 years before taking up his current post as Associate Dean (Global Engagement) in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. He has held significant roles in relation to Professional Body Accreditation of computing courses such as Chair of the BCS Academic Accreditation Committee and he currently represents the BCS on the Seoul Accord. He has chaired national and international working groups relating to professional body accreditation of higher education qualifications. He is also a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Both his work at Ulster and his external accreditation activities have given him extensive experience working with international higher education establishments and other bodies associated with education. In his current role at Ulster, he has responsibility for establishing and promoting international links relating to both research and teaching.

Professor Kevin Hall

Professor Kevin Hall has had a distinguished academic career holding senior academic leadership roles in universities in Australia and Canada. Professor Hall studied a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science at Queen’s University in Canada and completed his PhD in Civil Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Professor Hall has spearheaded UON’s entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives, leading the establishment of the Integrated Innovation Network (I2N) of five innovation incubators across the Hunter region. He was also instrumental in state funding for the Hunter Innovation Project, including UON’s new Innovation Hub. A highly respected leader in the Australian higher education sector, Professor Hall has been appointed to the Australia Research Council Advisory Council. He has also taken on a national role in developing industry and innovation policy, serving as an invited member of the Australian Research Council’s steering committee for Industry Engagement and Impact Metrics. He is also a founding board member of the Sydney School of Entrepreneurship and a member of the NSW Minister for Health’s China Advisory Committee. Professor Hall has been a board member on 18 state and national corporations and not-for-profit entities.

Professor Anne Graham

Anne Graham is professor of biochemistry at University of Bradford and she leads the Faculty Research & Knowledge Transfer agenda. She was appointed to her current role in 2016 after completing the role of Director of Postgraduate Research for 5 years. In addition to her role as an active researcher into mechanisms of inflammation in cardiovascular disease, she is passionate about development and success of early career researchers (postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers). In 2018 Anne set up a Faculty Early Career Forum for networking between early career researchers and academics. She leads the institutional working group developing our action plan to demonstrate how we meet the obligations of the Researcher Development Concordat, after the institution became a signatory in spring 2020.

Mr Jake Godfrey

Jake has been an Academic Account Manager at Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) for nearly seven years. He works closely with universities to inspire, inform and influence the global engineering community, supporting technology innovation to meet the needs of society.

Mr Martin Ferguson

Martin is Director of Policy & Research for Socitm – the leading UK professional association for those working on redesign and digital transformation of local public services. His current work covers innovation in government services, health and social care integration, diversity and digital skills in the workforce, and cyber security. He represents Socitm on a number of national boards in these fields and is programme manager for the Local CIO Council. A graduate of the Universities of Wales, Waterloo (Canada) and Birmingham, his local government career spans planning, housing, leisure and recreation, IT and information services. He is a past president of Socitm. In Brazil and central Asia, he has contributed to the British Council’s e-governance programmes. He has served as an associate lecturer for the University of Birmingham’s Public Service MBA in the UK and Hong Kong, a senior lecturer for the Open University Business School and an external examiner for Henley Business School. Currently, he sits on computer science, customer services and industry advisory boards for the universities of Hertfordshire, Kingston and Loughborough.

Dr Maria Dolores Duran Garcia

Dr. Dolores Duran is president of the Engineering Faculty of the Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico since June 2017. Before that she held the position of academic vice president.

Dolores field of research is sustainable energy systems, particularly exergetic analysis of renewable energy systems and solar plants. She have published over 30 articles, books chapters and conference in some international congress.

She has also directed some research projects Master and PHD thesis.

Dr Olivia Feng

Dr. Olivia Feng is Founder & CEO of ICAN Future Star ltd., a young but ambitious edtech company disrupting the international student recruitment market with innovative mobile solutions to empower universities and applicants worldwide.

Originally from China, Olivia studied in the U.K. for 10 years completing her PhD in Behavioural Accounting.

Olivia is proud to employ team members from all over the world and champion women in technology building open and honest company culture and welcoming diversity. The team have extensive experience studying or working abroad and feed their first hand challenges into product development. Our vision is to make studying abroad an easier and more rewarding experience for ambitious young people. Our long-term plan is to be a streamlined end-to-end platform for all study abroad application needs.

The company is the official provider for the University of Glasgow’s HelloUofG app and Coventry University’s HelloCoventry app for engaging and attracting its prospective applicants. ICAN is the market leader providing application and conversion solutions for universities and prospective applicants worldwide. Our HelloUni B2B2C platform is a customisable cloud-based enterprise solution which uses machine learning to connect applicants with universities and help universities optimise applicant engagement and conversion. hellouni were awarded a SMART R&D grant for a machine learning university finder app.

Kersten England

Kersten took up post as Chief Executive of Bradford Council in August 2015. Bradford has one of the youngest populations of any City in the UK and an ethnically diverse and entrepreneurial population. The District is enjoying a period of economic growth; growth of indigenous companies and inward investment, major capital schemes and opening of the regions 3rd largest retail centre. Her key challenges are to ensure that growth in the Bradford economy is sustained and that there is a significant uplift in levels of educational attainment within the District.

This takes place against a backdrop of dramatic reductions in central government funding for local government, devolution to City Regions and huge pressures in the delivery of social care and health.

Prior to taking up post in Bradford, Kersten was Chief Executive of York for six years. In this time the city, recovering after recession, experienced strong growth, with ‘functional full employment’ and high levels of business start up. Key highlights of the six years included the introduction of the living wage by many employers in the city, development of the first ‘gigabit city infrastructure’, designation of the city as a UNESCO ‘City of Media Arts’ and hosting of a stage start of the Grand Depart of the Tour de France in 2014.

Kersten is the lead Chief Executive for innovation and growth in the Leeds City Region, a trustee of Nesta (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), a member of the Council of the University of Bradford and of the National Media Museum’s Advisory Board.

Kersten’s career has included work in the voluntary sector, higher education, central government as well as 21 years in local government. She is passionate about community capacity building, diversity and equality, supporting civic leadership and sustainable urban growth.

Dr Mohamed El-Ansari

I obtained my PhD from Leeds Beckett University in the UK – PhD thesis: University Social Responsibility Model for Transnational Partnerships and my Master degree from School of Humanitarian and Social Sciences at Westminster, I obtained my degree (BA) and (PGD) form Sudan at Juba University Faculty of Education and Omdurman Ahlia University, Dept. of English Language and Literature.

I have experiences in teaching, research, leadership and Managements. I worked in 7 different countries and the experiences in working in different countries enhance my communication skill and cultural awareness as well way of people thinking and producing. I helped in coordinating international cooperation in education between MENA Univariates and Universities in the UK part of my job with UAE Embassy – UK and also while I was working in Saudi Cultural attaché in London. I contributed to a UNESCO project to give access to quality education and promote the local, regional and national value of international education, emphasising the importance of international students to employment and educational opportunities at a local & International level. I am one of the founder of London Education and Research Network and I am currently serving as elected chair person; the main mission of LEARN to serves as a forum for Education Attachés to share information and best practices. I annual guest speaker Universities UK and the British council London as well as member of Transnational Education committee which recently founded. I participated in different Global Education projects between Arab League and European Union and I am visiting Fellow to different universities including Bradford.