Team Biographies

Accreditation Panel

Susie Knight, Chair

Susie Knight is currently Head of Executive Leadership and Governance at the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS). She has worked in the further education sector in senior roles for some years, designing and teaching on a range of professional development programmes covering leadership, management and organisational development.

Susie began her career as a teacher in schools and colleges where she taught education and social care practice. She then moved into teacher training and worked with several universities to design and deliver teacher training programmes for the post-16 sector. Susie has managed a large department in an FE college, responsible for the delivery of a number of professional qualifications in teacher training, counselling and management. She was responsible for Quality and Curriculum Development and led a large organisation through IIP in addition to other quality assessment processes. Susie worked on the original national group set up to develop the Standards for Assessment Practice in Training and Development, and has worked as an external verifier for a number of awarding bodies and universities.

In recent years Susie has run her own business as a consultant, supporting organisations to improve quality and manage change. She was a part time Ofsted Inspector and has been a lead consultant for the Association of Colleges in auditing and inspecting management and governance processes in Further Education Colleges. Susie has also been a School Governor, with the position of Vice Chair of Governors for a large secondary school. She is currently a trustee of a charity which supports women who are victims of domestic violence in Bolivia and a director on the board of a property restoration project in Herefordshire.

Libby Cooper, Member

Libby Cooper is Director of Amber Analysis - a research, evaluation and capacity building consultancy that works internationally and in the UK with charities, grant making organisations and central and local government departments. Libby has twenty-five years experience of working in the field of evaluation and organisational development in the UK and seventeen years experience of international working on development issues. In 1990 Libby was the founding Director of Charities Evaluation Services (CES), an organisation that was initiated by the British Government's Home Office to help improve the effectiveness of voluntary organisations through the use of evaluation and quality assurance. She served as Director for eleven years and became known as one of the most important specialists in evaluation, and the promotion of outcome and impact measurement, within the civil society sector. During that time Libby managed a programme of work to test out the relevance of the European Quality Model to the British voluntary sector and managed and contributed to the design of PQASSO - a quality assurance system for small organisations. Libby was a founding Board member of the UK Evaluation Society and sat on the Board of the Quality Standards Task Force, UK. In addition to her extensive experience of project and programme evaluation and consultancy, Libby has provided training in management, evaluation and institutional development to a wide range of initiatives and has conducted a variety of research studies in the UK and abroad. Prior to the Directorship of CES, Libby lectured in social research at North London University and founded and directed its Community Research Advisory Centre. She is Co Chair of Interact Worldwide.

John Banks, Member

John is a qualified accountant with an MBA from Warwick University. After an early career as an accountant, he worked in the newly emerging computer industry in systems design and development, becoming production director for one of the most successful computer businesses in the UK . He then had a brief but not unsuccessful couple of years in motor racing, both as a constructor and a driver, during which time he was co-founder of a small business involved in the sport which is still in operation thirty years later. He is now a trainer and writer in finance, management and business planning. He has also been involved with voluntary groups and organisations for most of his working life (usually as Treasurer!) He has been a Trustee of the Rural Media Company for 13 years and was Chair for 5 years. This is a fast-growing communications charity with a national reputation in participatory media production, working in a variety of media with young people and with rural communities. He has also worked with charities involved in international development, and as an Associate Fellow of Warwick University Business School has delivered training to clients from the public and voluntary sector. He has travelled and worked abroad extensively, and built his own house.

Assessors

Chris Hickey

Chris has been an independent consultant and trainer in the not for profit sector since 1999. He has extensive senior management experience at strategic and operational levels having been the CEO of a national charity and was a Non Executive Director in the NHS for more than 8 years. He has wide experience of staff management, project management, fundraising and devising and running training courses. He is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel & Development.

Chris has given much of his own time to working with voluntary organisations and charitable trusts. He is currently Chair of Carers Gloucestershire and has been on the Board of 5 different voluntary organisations.

Julia Kaufmann

Julia has worked in the voluntary sector for over 30 years. Her senior management roles include: Chief Executive of the BBC Children in Need Appeal (13 years), Director of Gingerbread, the Association of One Parent Families (10 years) and Director of the centre for Social Education (2 years). During the last 10 years Julia has had various part time assignments including commissioner for Postcomm, the postal services regulator (2001 – 2006), Senior Evaluation Associate for Partners in Evaluation (2003 – 2005), and Chair of the Policy and Programmes Committee for Capacity Builders (2006 – 2009). As a freelance consultant Julia works with a wide range of voluntary organisations to help them review their work and plan their future. Over her years in the sector Julia has been a trustee (and sometimes Chair) of a number of organisations.

Accreditation Team Broker

Barbara Parkinson

Barbara has been involved in the third sector in many capacities for most of here life and has accumulated great expertise on the sector, its internal needs and relationships and its interface with the public sector.  She has a wealth of experience as a strategist, having worked as a Chief Executive of two organisations and as Vice Chairman of National Association of Voluntary and Community Activity representing them at a national level including being in membership of the Compact Board.

Her in-depth knowledge of Herefordshire's third sector was gained during her long service as the Chief Officer of Voluntary Action - North Herefordshire when she was involved in delivering services to support and develop voluntary and community groups as well as establishing many joint initiatives in the County - including the inception of the Alliance. She led the involvement of the sector in the initial development of the Herefordshire Partnership and designed the first Voluntary Sector Assembly, now a common feature in other parts of the country. She also led the merger of the local Councils for Voluntary Service to form Herefordshire Voluntary Action.

She holds strong principles on the value of the sector and in its ability to be responsive and resourceful and to shape policy development and service delivery.  Developing the sector’s ability to be resilient, enterprising and objective about its purpose and what it achieves has always underlined her work with voluntary and community organisations.  She has keenly promoted collaborative working both within the sector and in developments with the public sector, to maximise efforts and the use of resources in meeting the needs of communities.

She now runs her own business as a consultant working with a variety of clients in both the public and third sectors, locally, regionally and nationally.

Contact Details

accreditation@allianceherefordshire.org.uk

01432 355976

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