Members of the Board of Governors

Adegbola, Andrew Ademola joined Sheffield Hallam Students’ Union in 2019 as the Education Officer, he is now the President. He is a Chartered Accountant with over six years of working experience, mainly in the private sector organisations in Nigeria. He studied MSc in Accounting and Finance at Sheffield Hallam University and graduated in 2019.   

Before coming to the UK in 2017, he was the Company Accountant at Profund Properties Ltd in Abuja, Nigeria. He started his working career with Greenland Concepts Ltd as Account and Admin Officer in Abuja in 2010. He later served as Accountant at Direct to Retail Nigeria Ltd in Abuja, before joining Profund Properties Ltd as Accountant in 2013. 

Andrew attended The Polytechnic Ibadan in Nigeria, where he gained a HND in Accounting in 2008. He is an Associate member and an Associate Accounting Technician of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria. Andrew is also a Graduate member of the Nigeria Institute of Management.

Period of office: July 2020 – June 2021

Joanna is Chief Financial Officer at Pressure Technologies plc which is an AIM listed engineering group.

Joanna is a graduate of the University of Sheffield where she studied Business Studies, graduating in 1998. After graduating Joanna trained as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and was promoted to Director within 7 years of qualifying. Over her 17 year career with the organisation she worked with many manufacturing organisations, in particular those in South Yorkshire, as an Audit and Transaction Services director as both the senior statutory auditor and reporting into global audit teams in the United States of America and Europe. As a newly qualified accountant she spent some time working in the US and her transaction services work involved periods in London and Europe. As an auditor her experience included Sarbanes Oxley Section 404 reporting and IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) transition projects and advising companies following the 2008 financial crisis. Since mid-2015 she has been Chief Financial Officer of Pressure Technologies plc, an AIM listed engineering group with manufacturing operations across the UK. Her particular skills are in financial due diligence, financial reporting, management information and data analysis and her current role incorporates all of these as well as Board level strategy and corporate governance. Since 2016 Joanna has been a parent Governor at Hunters Bar Infant School in Sheffield, taking on the Vice-Chair role and heading the finance committee. The role has supported the School through a time of significant change in the education sector, in particular the academisation of many schools in the Local Authority and a very successful project to create a green barrier to improve the air quality in the playground.

Period of office: August 2019 – July 2023

Jeff has spent his entire career in higher education. He was an undergraduate student at the University of Newcastle where, after a sabbatical year as President of the Students' Union, he achieved a BSc Agricultural Zoology (1st) in 1973. He subsequently achieved a PhD in the area of insect ecophysiology from the same university in 1977 and was then awarded the Lord Adams Fellowship at Newcastle for studies on soil pest species.

Jeff worked as Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in the Department of Pure and Applied Zoology, University of Leeds between 1979 and 1992. He was a Nuffield Science Research Fellow at the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1988.

Jeff was appointed Professor of Environmental Biology at the University of Birmingham in 1992, since when he has held a succession of roles of Director of Quality Assurance and Enhancement for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and the Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education. He was also a Visiting Professor at the University of Rennes in 2007. Jeff retired from the University of Birmingham in 2016.

He has held a number of external roles including:

• External examiner for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at 13 UK universities.
• Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) subject specialist reviewer for Biosciences and then an institutional-level reviewer through the successive QAA Institutional Audit, Institutional Reviews in England and Northern Ireland (IRENI) and Higher Education Review (HER) processes.
• A member of the Grade Point Average (GPA) Advisory and Implementation Groups
• A panel member of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) exercise.
• A member of the Government's Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE).

Jeff served as an elected academic member of Council at the University of Birmingham before becoming an ex-officio member upon his appointment as Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education.

Period of office: August 2017 – July 2025

Michaela qualified as a solicitor in 2005, having studied at the University and the College of Law in York. Michaela practiced as a corporate/commercial solicitor in both regional and international firms in Leeds. Michaela holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Huddersfield and is a graduate member of the Institute of the Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.

Michaela joined the University of Huddersfield in 2009 as Legal Officer and in 2012 became a University Solicitor. Michaela was appointed as University Secretary in 2014 and was responsible for responsible for ensuring that the University operated within its prescribed constitution and legal framework and to support the governance of the University through its University Council and Senior Management Team.

In September 2019, Michaela took up the role of Secretary and Clerk to the Board at Sheffield Hallam University. Her key responsibilities are to ensure that the University operates effectively and efficiently within the parameters of its governance, legal and regulatory responsibilities. The Secretary works closely with the Vice-Chancellor, Chair of the Board of Governors and Chief Operating Officer to ensure that good governance practices are adopted and embedded within the University. The role reflects the changing regulatory framework for higher education and the need for specific governing body assurance about compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements.

Dan Bye is a Business Relationship Manager in Library and Student Support Services. A chartered librarian, he has worked for Sheffield Hallam University since 1994, having graduated from the University of Central England in 1993. Originally appointed to the ground-breaking Distance Learner Support Service, Dan subsequently joined the library’s team with responsibility for supporting Sheffield Business School. In 2015 Dan was appointed to a Business Relationship Manager post in Library and Student Support Services. Alongside his professional duties, Dan became involved with trade union activities at the University, starting in 2004 as a departmental representative for UNISON, before becoming Communications Officer the following year, Branch Chair in 2008 and then being elected as Branch Secretary for the first time in 2009.

Outside of work, Dan is involved with various campaigning organisations, serving as a director of the National Secular Society for many years, and more recently acting as Chair of the Board of GW Foote & Co, a small but long–established publisher, in which role he has been seeking to revive its activities by leading the development of a digital publishing strategy.

Period of office: March 2014 – July 2022

Karen Finlayson is a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC). Karen has worked for PwC since 1997 and currently works in the firm's risk assurance team, specialising in the government and public sector. She is the business unit lead for the internal audit practice in the North and regional lead for the health industries practice across the North. Karen leads a team of over 100 staff. Her role involves developing strategy, business development and leading on a variety of assurance and advisory services across government and the public sector. She is a specialist in the healthcare sector working with the Department of Health and other health sector bodies. Karen started her career as an apprentice and has held posts with DFS, Abbey National PLC and Rotherham Chamber of Commerce, Training and Enterprise Limited.

Karen's public sector voluntary roles include Associate Lay Trust Board member at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust where she chairs the panel responsible for overseeing recruitment of consultants, business mentor to the Maypole Women's Charity and governor, chair of the Audit Committee and chair of the Managed Recovery Committee of the Doncaster College and University Centre. During her time at Doncaster College she played a significant role in the leadership team which improved the College's financial and operational performance.She is an affiliated member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales and a member of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors.

Period of office: April 2017 – July 2024

Angela is currently the Chief Executive and Principal at The Sheffield College which is a major provider of post compulsory education and training in the Sheffield City Region.

Angela is an experienced FE/HE practitioner with an authoritative understanding of the regulatory requirements of both Ofsted and the Office for Students, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, safeguarding, awarding bodies and validating partners.

Angela’s wealth of experience, knowledge and expertise in further education include significant knowledge across a broad range of curriculum and student support services. Her previous posts include Vice Principal for Curriculum and Support at The Manchester College, Vice Principal of the Learning, Training and Employment Group, Vice Principal at Barnsley College and Director of Employability and Skills for Life at the College of North East London.

As a Chief Executive, Angela is a member of the National Patrons Network whose goal is to help the National Centre for Diversity create culture change in UK workplaces. She was the regional co-ordinator for the Women’s Leadership Network (Yorkshire and Humber) working to promote gender equality, ensuring parity, fair pay and access to Senior Leadership for Women in the FE sector.

Her current voluntary appointments include a Board member of the Association of Colleges, Chair of the South Yorkshire Principal’s Group, member of the Sheffield Safeguarding Partnership Executive Group and member of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Council of Governors.

Period of office: March 2020 – July 2024

Karen has been employed at Sheffield Hallam University as a lecturer in English language and linguistics since 1990 and during that time has worked in a variety of departments and locations, and has taken on a variety of roles, including those relating to teaching, research, leadership and management. She was appointed as Reader in English Language and Linguistics in 2018, based on a track record of research into language use and interaction in institutional, intercultural and electronic contexts, with a specialism in applying (im)politeness theories to interactional data. She has published in the areas of health care, intercultural pragmatics and the debate around 'deprived' children's language skills. She is Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Politeness Research and has held a number of external examining positions. Karen has also been active in the Sheffield Hallam University and College Union branch since 2007, first as a departmental representative and latterly as a branch officer, including negotiating secretary from 2015-2018.

Period of office: August 2019 – July 2023

Chris Husbands has been Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University since January 2016. Read more.

Praise Olatayo Ishola is the College Officer of Business, Technology and Engineering at Sheffield Hallam  Students’ Union,  He is studying his masters in Big Data Analytics at the University and joined the Sheffield Hallam Students’ Union in 2019 as an Open Space Representative. He studied Computer Science as an undergraduate student and has a few years of working experience.

Before coming to the United Kingdom, in 2015 Praise worked for a few months in the University of Ilorin, Nigeria in the Networking Department.  After this he proceeded to KolaDaisi University Ibadan Nigeria where, due to his diligence and dynamic way of working, he served as an Assistant Administrator, Social Media Manager, Information Manager in the Public Relations Department and Confidential Secretary to the Vice-Chancellor. He also helped to write and compose the School’s Anthem.

Praise was an undergraduate of Houdegbe North American University Benin Republic.  He was the Class Governor for four years and served as the School’s Faculty President, Faculty of School of Science, Mathematics and Information Technology in 2015 before graduating in 2016. Praise was awarded the Adobe Membership Recipient in 2015, and a leadership award for World Leadership Ambassador Recognition. 

Period of office: July 2020 – June 2021

Lord Kerslake is Chair of Peabody, Chair of the Centre for Public Scrutiny (CfPS), Chair of London Collective Investment Vehicle, and is President of the Local Government Association.

A former Head of the Civil Service, Lord Kerslake led the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) from November 2010, stepping down in February 2015.

Prior to his DCLG role, Lord Kerslake was the first Chief Executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, where he was responsible for promoting new and affordable housing supply; supporting the regeneration of cities, towns and neighbourhoods; improving existing housing stock, and advancing sustainability and good design.

Before joining the Civil Service Lord Kerslake received a knighthood for his services to local government, spending eight years serving the London Borough of Hounslow and then a further 11 years leading Sheffield Council. In early 2015, he was made a life peer, taking the title Baron Kerslake, of Endcliffe in the City of Sheffield.

Period of office: June 2016 – July 2024

Chris is the Chief Executive of the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland. Chris was formerly the Chief Executive Officer of the Legal Services Board, the overarching regulator of the legal services market. Chris worked to set up the Legal Services Board and led its work on regulatory independence, the development of new business structures in legal services and a major review of legal education. His early career was in the civil service where his roles in the Department of Health, Treasury and Oftel including Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State, involved a wide range of policy and operational roles, focusing on consumer affairs and market opening. As Director of Life and Pensions for the Association of British Insurers from 2004 to 2006 he led the insurance industry's input into pension's strategy and a wide range of consumer issues. From 2007 to 2008 he managed the detailed work on Lord Hunt of Wirral's independent review of the Financial Ombudsman Service before moving to the Legal Services Board. Chris has also held a variety of non-executive posts in the NHS and third sector.

Period of office: August 2014 - July 2022

Professor Christopher Kinsella is a former Group Finance Director of Dyson Group plc, Sheffield, and a former Chief Financial Officer and main board director of TI Automotive, a business which employs 22,000 people in 28 countries. His career has been dominated by financial roles in multi-national industrial organisations. Having led a successful sale of the TI Automotive business, he now combines a number of non-executive roles with interim Chief Financial Officer roles which have included: Ofcom; the charity, Victim Support; the British Council; Homes England.

Christopher’s experience also includes serving as; a director of the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust where he was chair of the audit committee; a member of the Industrial Development Advisory Board (Department for Business Innovation and Skills); and chair of the audit committee and board member of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

Serving as the Chief Executive of the CMI, he contributed to the development of the awarding body and its dispersed delivery model with educators, examiners and moderators; realigned the research agenda; promoted the Institute in the media and within Government; and also led the initiative to forge relationships with colleges, universities, schools and other awarding bodies. 

Christopher is a graduate of Sheffield Hallam University, a Professor at Lancaster University where he was a post graduate, and also holds degrees from Bournemouth and Sunderland Universities. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, a Chartered Manager and a Companion of the CMI.

Period of office August 2013 – July 2021

After graduating in 1977 from the University of Sheffield with a 2.1 in Economics and Accounting, Neil remained in Sheffield. He spent ten years with KPMG, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1980. From 1987 to 2006 he worked at Firth Rixson, the international aerospace engineering group, and was appointed Group Finance Director in 1994. At that time Firth Rixson was a public company and Neil oversaw a period of expansion, including the acquisition of Aurora in 1999. He led the public to private transaction in 2003, and secured a successful exit for the private equity owner in 2006. Following a brief period of retirement he returned to executive duties in 2007, joining AES Engineering, the Rotherham based mechanical seal manufacturer, as part-time Group Finance Director. He stepped down from that role in October 2012 to become Master Cutler of the Cutlers Company of Hallamshire, based at the Cutlers Hall in Sheffield, a position that ended in September 2013.

Since leaving Firth Rixson, Neil has held many non-executive and trustee roles in the private, public and third sectors. He is currently a private sector board member on the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and a non-executive director at Pressure Technologies plc. He is also Chair of St Lukes Hospice, Sheffield, Chair of Yorkshire Artspace and a trustee at Museums Sheffield. Neil's previous appointments include being a non-executive director of the Sheffield Children's NHS Foundation Trust and Rotherham Foundation Trust.

Period of office: August 2013 – July 2021

Julie studied for a degree and PhD at the University of Sheffield. After training as a lawyer and working at Nabarro LLP and DLA Piper UK LLP, both in Sheffield, she moved to Irwin Mitchell LLP as an Equity Partner specialising in construction and engineering. Julie has worked with large national and international businesses and has advised Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Sheffield on construction matters.

Julie's voluntary appointments have included the Prince's Trust at both a national and local level. She was involved in the founding and development of the Trust's "Get Into Construction" programme. The programme, which involved training disadvantaged young people, brought together businesses, which normally compete with each other, to develop basic skills programmes within the industry to allow young people to acquire the basic training credentials they would need to get a job or further training in the industry.

Julie was an Executive Board member of the national Construction Business Services Leadership Group responsible for securing new members to the initiative and fundraising. Julie was also a Board member on the Construction Sector Network, a Yorkshire and Humber based network run in conjunction with Leeds Metropolitan University, which was responsible for providing training and other skills guidance to small and medium enterprise businesses.

Period of office: October 2013 – July 2021

Meg is an independent governance consultant working internationally on parliamentary processes, political party development and gender mainstreaming. She is the first Independent Chair of the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Panel, Chair of the British Council’s Society Advisory Group and a Non-Executive Director of the Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA).

She is Chair of the PeerTalk charitable organisation and a Trustee of APPCIOS - the Association for Psychodynamic Practice and Counselling in Organisational Settings. Meg has several publications to her name, including Compendium of Good Practises for Advancing Women's Political Participation in the OSCE Region (2016), Building the future: women in construction (2014) and Unlocking Potential: perspectives on women in science, engineering & technology (2011).

From 2001 to 2015 Meg was the Member of Parliament for Sheffield Heeley, standing down at the General Election. Whilst in Government she served as Minister for Women and Equality and subsequently as a Minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Meg was the first MP to be awarded Chartered Manager status with the Chartered Management Institute, subsequently becoming a Fellow. Before being elected to Parliament, she worked for twenty years in the social work profession, her last post was as Head of Children's Services at the City of York Council.

She obtained a BA in Language from the University of York and later an MA in Social Work at the University of Nottingham. Meg also gained a Certificate and a Diploma in Management Studies from the Open University.

Period of office: August 2015 – July 2023

Julietta Patnick is Visiting Professor in Cancer Screening at the University of Oxford. Until August 2015 she was Director of NHS Cancer Screening Programmes. She graduated in Ancient History and Classical Civilisation from Sheffield University and has lived in Sheffield for over 40 years, working in the NHS from 1979 with brief breaks to have a family and for a foray into further education.

She is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and was appointed a CBE in 2005. She holds honorary doctorates from Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam and Loughborough Universities. She retains research interests in cancer screening and early diagnosis and leads one of the largest clinical trials in the world examining the ages at which women are offered breast screening.

Julietta has advised cancer programmes across the developed world, working with the EU and WHO as well as individual organisations. She has been involved with skills and competency development, with professional training and support and extensively with the development of quality standards and quality assurance. She is keen that people are not limited in their endeavours by the areas of previous study but can move into new areas as interest and need arises. In addition, having been the first in her family to go to university and having been the recipient of a scholarship, she is very keen to see opportunities extended to people of all backgrounds and ethnicities.

Period of office: Jan 2017 - July 2024

Kevin Taylor is a lecturer within the Department of Engineering and Maths concentrating on PLCs, Automation and Instrumentation. He is a graduate of Queen’s University Belfast and the University of Ulster. Kevin worked as a Telecommunications Engineer for seven years with Nortel Networks in Belfast and Montreal developing cutting edge high speed fibre optic networking equipment and then spent ten years as an FE lecturer in Southern Regional College in Newry, Co. Down developing collaborative courses to increase the participation levels of local schools in STEM subjects. He was particularly involved in increasing participation by female students and those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Kevin joined Sheffield Hallam University in 2013, initially as an Associate Lecturer. Kevin is an active committee member and caseworker for UCU (University and College Union) at the University and is also a delegate to Sheffield Trades Union Council. He has represented UCU on the University’s Health and Safety and Information and Consultation Committees. He is also a member of the Gaelic Athletic Association, Mensa and a dedicated Manchester United fan.

Period of Office: August 2017–July 2021

Penny Thompson is Managing Director of Penny Thompson Consultancy Ltd. The Consultancy provides mentoring and assessment and undertakes individual contracts in the areas of Leadership and service improvement. Penny's educational achievements include a BA Hons History (2.1) from Queen Mary College, University of London and the Certificate of Qualification in Social Work and MA in Social Work from the University of Kent. Her previous roles include Chief Executive of two unitary Local Authorities which were Brighton and Hove Council and London Borough of Hackney and Chief Executive of a National Regulator, the General Social Care Council. Her achievements at Brighton and Hove Council included resetting the corporate plan and organisational culture; leading reductions of £75m whilst modernising services and balancing budgets; and managing the governance implications of a minority administration. Penny is also a former Executive Director of Social Services at Sheffield City Council. Penny's current public sector voluntary roles include Independent Chair of Birmingham Safeguarding Children Board; associate and senior independent assessor for the College of Policing, and associate and mentor for SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers). Penny was awarded a CBE in 2012 and is a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce)..

Period of Office: April 2017–July 2024

Professor Paul Wiles is currently the Biometrics Commissioner and an Honorary Professor at the University of Sheffield. Previously he was a non-executive Director of the National Centre for Social Research, a non-executive Director of the Food Standards Agency, Commissioner of the Local Government Boundary Commission of England and Advisor to The Sentencing Council. From 1999 to 2010 he was Chief Scientific Advisor to the Home Office and Government Chief Social scientist. He was deputy chair of Main Panel C in the last Research Excellence Framework. He has held academic positions at the London School of Economics and Cambridge, Sheffield and Oxford universities.

Period of office: August 2013–July 2021