We are excited to welcome our keynote speakers to HELOA National Conference 2025 who will be providing a wealth of knowledge to delegates in attendance. Included below is information on our keynotes as well as information and timings of the session they will be delivering.
Wednesday 15 January – 1.30pm
Professor Ken Sloan | Vice Chancellor | Harper Adams University
A VC Perspective on the State of the Sector and What’s Next
Professor Ken Sloan joined Harper Adams as Vice-Chancellor on 1 November 2021. Ken has extensive national and international experience in strategy, leadership, governance, professional, business development and commercial activities.
Previously, Ken was at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, serving as the inaugural Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise and Governance). As a member of the University Executive, he was responsible for providing University-wide leadership and strategic support for the creation and acceleration of major partnerships, government relations, precinct development, new revenue creation, commercialisation, innovation, entrepreneurship, strategic intelligence, group governance and institutional risk.
Ken has previously held roles as Registrar and Chief Operating Officer at the University of Warwick; as a Business Development Director, Universities and Higher Education, with SERCO; and as Special Advisor to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Education Foundation, based at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He continues to serve as a panel chair for the Schwarzman Scholars annual selection process.
Ken has chaired and served on the boards of a number of institutional subsidiary companies, boards and international fundraising and development trusts. He chaired the boards of Monash Investment Holdings and Monash College, the Audit and Risk Committee of the IITB-Monash Academy and the Monash Technology Transformation Institute (Shenzhen) Executive Committee. He served on the boards of BioCurate Pty Ltd, Warwick University Enterprises (Australia), and as Chair of the Victorian Heart Institute Strategic Advisory Board. He served as sector representative on the Federal Austrade Agriculture 4.0 Steering Committee and previously as Chair of the Coventry Partnership, ethics adviser to Coventry City Council, Chair of Governors of Woodway Park School and Community College, governor of the WMG Academy for Young Engineers and a board director of the Midlands Arts Centre. He was chair/ member of the University of Warwick’s fundraising trusts in Singapore, South Africa and Hong Kong.
Ken graduated with an MA (Hons) from the University of Glasgow, an MBA from the Warwick Business School, and is a member of CPA Australia. He is a Fellow of the Association of Higher Education Professionals and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA). He is also a member of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers and the Institute of Directors.
Professor Sloan was invited to give the ANZ Journal of Surgery Lecture in 2021 and this lecture was published in the Journal later that year.
Professor Sloan currently serves as the Chair of Guild HE and on the Board of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) where he is also Chair of Finance and Audit Committee. He sits on the Telford Town Fund Board for Levelling Up, and is Chair of the Steering Group for Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site.
Joining HE in 2013 Jonny quickly took up the role of VC Training in the North West & Northern Ireland group. Fast forward 10 years later and he was stepping down after 4 year as HELOA Chair at his 10th HELOA conference. The motivation to take on these roles and eventually the lead of the organisation came from the amazing members, the will of people who want to improve themselves and support their friends and colleagues in the process.
HELOA uniquely provides great opportunities and genuinely wants everyone to do the best for the students we support. Jonny loves the philosophy that you get back what you put in, and this is never more true than with HELOA. The skills and opportunities he got in return for the effort he gave, saw him start the chair role as a recruitment officer and develop into an events and hybrid delivery manager. Without HELOA Jonny would not have had as much opportunity to build experience in strategic decision-making, budgets and leadership. The chance to work with 100s of HEIs and their members has been vital as he has moved into a role supporting the sector, now working with 27 Higher Education Institutions to deliver leading virtualised personalised experiences through the Vepple platform.
Joe Bradbury-Walters | Head of Outreach | National Film and Television School | HELOA Chair: Jan 2019 – Sept 2019
I have been in outreach for nearly 20 years now, It’s been called different things along the way. I started as a school, then Education, Liaison Officer at the University of Portsmouth, By the time I left, I was a Recruitment and Outreach Officer. I moved on to the University of Surrey and led a team there as Widening Participation and Outreach Manager.
From there, I became head of Outreach at the National Film and Television School. Throughout my career I have loved the creativity of what we do. I was lucky in all of my roles to create new programmes, in my current role, from scratch as outreach was not formally done in my institution before I started. I became a member of HELOA back in 2005. At my first meeting, I was overwhelmed with the knowledge and confidence in the room and never would imagine I would be any more than a spectator at occasional meetings. The fact that I ended my HELOA career as UK Chair still blows my mind (even if my legacy is that I had the shortest term of all UK Chairs!).
My favourite part of being involved in HELOA was without doubt the people. That knowledge and confidence I saw at that first meeting was more accurately passion. I was always in awe of HELOA colleagues for the amount of work and enthusiasm given, especially taking into account they are volunteers it was amazing to be around such a special group of people.
Robbie Pickles | Director of Global Student Recruitment and Admissions | Keele University | HELOA Chair: 2017 – Jan 2019
Robbie is Director of Global Student Recruitment and Admissions at Keele University where he leads the teams responsible for admissions, recruitment, marketing, and widening access activities. Since finishing his first role as President of the Students’ Union at Lancaster, all of his roles have been in student recruitment and outreach, including at Oxford, Sheffield, Lancaster, and Bath. There are very few Travelodges he hasn’t stayed in!
From there, I became head of Outreach at the National Film and Television School. Throughout my career I have loved the creativity of what we do. I was lucky in all of my roles to create new programmes, in my current role, from scratch as outreach was not formally done in my institution before I started. I became a member of HELOA back in 2005. At my first meeting, I was overwhelmed with the knowledge and confidence in the room and never would imagine I would be any more than a spectator at
Robbie spent five years on the HELOA Executive from 2014 to 2019, first as HELOA Vice-Chair Finance and then as UK Chair. During this time HELOA started its transition to charity status, and its membership increased substantially – partly due to a large increase in the size of the sector.
My favourite thing about being part of HELOA is the chance to meet so many brilliant people: our fantastic members, our brilliant partners, and people up and down and all around the country with an interest in Higher Education. It’s a great privilege to do a job where we aren’t stuck at a desk, and get to be the face of our institutions. Over the years I’ve seen so many colleagues get promoted, change institutions, or start new and brilliant careers in a wide variety of sectors, and I believe HELOA is often the foundation and springboard that drives those opportunities.
Mike Nicholson | Director of Recruitment, Admissions and Participation | University of Cambridge | HELOA Chair: 2005 – 2007
Mike joined the University of Cambridge in October 2021, having previously worked as Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach at the University of Bath (2014-21) and University of Oxford (2006-2014), and Head of Undergraduate Admissions and Student Recruitment at the University of Essex (1998-2006). He is Chair of the UCAS Council, the stakeholder advisory group that advises the UCAS Trustee Board on sector issues. He is also a Trustee and Treasurer of the Council of International Schools (Chairing the Finance Committee) and a Trustee of the AQA Exam Board and chairs their Higher Education Advisory Group. He has recently joined the Sutton Trust’s Education Advisory Board, and the Rethinking Assessment Advisory Board.
Mike has been National Chair of HELOA twice (2005-07, 2014-17) and was the first Secretary of the Anglia region when the group was established. He supported the development of the new practitioners’ course when working at the University of Essex. HELOA is one of the few national organisations that enables early career staff to take on national roles, and this provided Mike with his earliest opportunity to develop his awareness of HE sector issues beyond his home university. Mike graduated in 1990 from the University of Sheffield with a degree in English and History and attended Allegheny College, Pennsylvania for a year as an exchange student. He was the first member of his extended family to go to university, after attending state-funded comprehensive schools in Gateshead.
Liam Owens | Pro Vice-Chancellor (Marketing, Student Recruitment and Student Administration) | Edge Hill University | HELOA Chair: 2010 – 2014
Liam was appointed as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Marketing, Student Recruitment and Student Administration) in October 2023. Liam first joined Edge Hill in 2007. During his 16 years at the University, he has held many senior roles including the Director of Student Recruitment and Administration. Liam provides strategic leadership for the University’s recruitment activity, including international recruitment. He is also responsible for Marketing, Admissions, Careers, Corporate Communications, Academic Registry and The Arts Centre.
He represents the University on external Boards including People and Skills Workstream Group with Lancashire LEP, Skelmersdale Ambassador Board and works collaboratively with Wigan Council, Wigan and Leigh College and Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Hospital as part of a recently established Civic University Agreement and partnership group.
He served as Group Chair of HELOA Northwest between 2007-2010, before serving two terms as UK Chair from 2010-2014.
Reena Littlehales | HELOA Chair | Undergraduate Student Recruitment and Access Officer, Keele University
Reena is currently a Student Recruitment and Access Officer at Keele University, who studied her undergraduate in Drama and English Literature between 2012 and 2016 and more recently completed her MA in Education and Social Justice where she researched the lack of ethnic minority students progressing into Postgraduate Research study. She has previously held posts at University of Gloucestershire, Edge Hill University, University of Leicester, and University of Reading, primarily focusing on Widening Participation.
Within her roles, she is dedicated to helping students make informed choices about their educational journey drawing on her own experiences as a student who met multiple WP criteria and always credits outreach practitioners for her journey into HE. In addition to her roles in HE, Reena also volunteers with HELOA, previously holding roles in the Training team and now as the current UK Chair leading the association. Within this role, Reena leads the UK Committee, develops the charity’s strategy in line with its mission to support students and its members and attends meetings across the HE sector as a representative of HE professionals in student facing roles such as Student Recruitment, Access, Widening Participation and Marketing.
Fiona Curry | HELOA Vice-Chair (Finance)| Strategic Lead, Access and Participation, University of Cumbria
Fiona started her career in the Ambassador scheme at the University of Kent, studying English, American Literature and Drama, before working there as an EU/UK Student Recruitment Officer after graduating. Since then, she’s relocated South West, and then North West, working to build partnerships with schools and colleges across the South West at the University of Gloucestershire in their Outreach team, and then leading on partnerships in Cumbria and East Lancashire working at UCLan. She’s been proud to work to support all students, particularly those underrepresented in universities and experiencing disadvantage, to access opportunities in education and succeed.
She’s been actively volunteering since 2018, when she became a school governor in Tewkesbury for three years, and with HELOA since 2020, first in their partnerships team working with non-commercial partnerships. She was offered her first HELOA role just before the pandemic, and worked with the wider team virtually up until September 2021 when they were first able to meet in person. Since she became a HELOA member in her first job, she’s found huge value of learning, exchange of ideas and support and friendship through HELOA which she attributes massively to allowing her to work in her adult dream job (who knows about these jobs when you’re in Primary School?!) in her dream location today.
Tom Allingham | Communications Director | Save The Student
Making Every Penny Count: Helping Students Conquer University’s Financial Challenges
Tom Allingham has been at Save the Student since 2017, first heading up the Editorial team and, more recently, moving into Comms. He frequently appears on both radio and TV to promote their work and comment on student money issues, sharing money-saving and budgeting tips – all with the aim of helping young people get the most from their money at university.
His work with STS also involves campaigning to improve conditions for students, as well as working with universities to ensure those studying receive the very best financial guidance.
You can contact Tom on LinkedIn, or via the Save the Student social channels (@savethestudent).
Professor Ken Sloan joined Harper Adams as Vice-Chancellor on 1 November 2021. Ken has extensive national and international experience in strategy, leadership, governance, professional, business development and commercial activities.
Tom Allingham has been at Save the Student since 2017, first heading up the Editorial team and, more recently, moving into Comms. He frequently appears on both radio and TV to promote their work and comment on student money issues, sharing money-saving and budgeting tips – all with the aim of helping young people get the most from their money at university.