Education is the game-changer. Simultaneously it provides the world’s best chance of tackling big problems and the opportunity for individual ingenuity to flourish. So my work focuses on helping the people who lead organisations with an educational purpose to harness the power of philanthropy. That’s mostly universities, colleges and schools, but also museums, arts bodies and learned societies. Over 40 years in advancement I’ve found that culture is real. All over the world people fear they don’t have the conditions in which philanthropy can prosper. It’s my privilege to aid creative people all over the world – from India (the country of my birth) to Finland, Australia and South Africa – to adapt good practice to their own culture and context so as to achieve the impact sought by institutions and donors alike. The place to start, almost invariably, is with your particular story. The Why. You can’t win hearts and raise money unless you are clear what your organisation is on the planet to do.

Some I've worked with recently

• CASE
• Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
• Magdalen College School
• Murray Edwards College, Cambridge
• The National Gallery
• Trinity College Dublin
• The University of Auckland
• University of Leeds

Talents

• Helping organisations and their leadership to understand how philanthropy can advance their ambitions
• Developing leaders and academic engagement in philanthropy
• Strategy and policy
• Building a culture of philanthropy
• Helping organisations articulate a distinctive case for support
• Campaign readiness and feasibility studies
• Building confident and skilful advancement teams
• Coaching, personal presentation and effectiveness
• Facilitating, presenting and writing
• Ethical fundraising practice
• Inter-cultural competence

Before More

• Honorary doctorates for services to higher education from the University of Kent and Loughborough University
• CASE crystal apple for excellence in teaching and the CASE Europe Distinguished Service Award
• Serving on bodies such as the Advisory Board for the UK Government’s Matched Funding Scheme for universities, the European Commission’s expert panel on philanthropy for research, the Treasury Gift Aid Forum and HEFCE’s Working Group on the fundraising profession in UK Higher Education
• Executive Director of CASE Europe (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) and eight years as CASE’s inaugural Vice President for International Operations, with responsibility for what economists call “rest of world” – everything outside the USA
• Director of Development, Alumni Relations and Communications at the University of Kent
• Alumni relations and then development at the University of Melbourne
• Communications and launching alumni relations at the University of East Anglia
• Schools Liaison and Communications at the University of Hull
• Oxfam’s Information Office
• MA in English Language and Literature from Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford with a lot of student drama in parallel (I served as President of OUDS)

Outside More

• The ramble of agricultural buildings in Norfolk (for those who have watched the long adventure) has grown up from project to delightful home. Now it needs active living in. The spotlight has shifted to the courtyard. Can The Secret Garden become The Celebrated Garden...?