Alumni Awards - meet the Judges

Zamila brings extensive national and international strategic experience in senior roles – in the British Government including No.10 Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, Cabinet Office, the United Nations, and think tanks - Open Society Foundation, Young Foundation and the Brookings Institution. Zamila was the founding member of the pioneering Race Disparity Audit’s Ethnicity Facts and Figures.  development. Zamila is listed in the Top 100 Women in Westminster.

Stevie has Chaired the British Council since 2019. She is also Chairman of Mind, the mental health charity, and Chairman of reward and remuneration for the Coop Group; an investor advisor to two tech scale ups and on the Pladis Global EDI Board. She was named by The Telegraph as one of Britain’s 500 most influential people and by GQ as one of the UK’s 100 most connected women.

Joanna Newman joined the ACU in April 2017. It is the world's oldest international university network, with more than 500 members in over 50 countries. Joanna’s previous positions include Vice-Principal (International) at King’s College London, Director of the UK Higher Education International Unit (now Universities UK International) and Head of Higher Education at the British Library. In 2014, she was awarded an MBE in recognition of her work promoting British higher education internationally.

Prior to her role in UUKi, which represents UK universities internationally, Vivienne was Head of Political Affairs at Universities UK. She previously worked in Parliament for the Chair of the Education and Skills Select Committee, and as a higher education policy specialist.

She is a Director of UUK; a member of the Board of the UK India Research and Innovation Initiative and the Strategic Partnerships in Higher Education Fund and a member of the British Council’s Education Advisory Group.

Amatey is a consultant at Nous Group, an international consultancy in higher education. Prior to this, Amatey was Vice President Higher Education at the National Union of Students’ leading on the organisation’s international engagement, including tackling the BAME attainment gap. The later portfolio culminated in the #ClosingTheGap report, a collaboration between NUS and Universities UK. Amatey continues to support organisations in health and higher education on equity, diversity and inclusion.

Anne Marie joined UKCISA in 2019 from the Association of Commonwealth Universities, where she was Director of Chevening, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s flagship global scholarship scheme. Prior to that, Anne Marie has led on a range of educational programmes and projects promoting international mobility and intercultural exchange. Anne Marie spent several years in the language services industry managing high profile accounts with multinational engineering and pharmaceutical companies.

Cathy Walsh is the CEO of ACE*E leadership services, and has led transformational change within several challenging London FE colleges. Cathy’s work has won several national awards, particularly for the engagement of students in entrepreneurial activities. 

Invested for her services to further education in 2015 and recognised by the Times FE Educational newspaper with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016, she was the Mayor of London’s first appointed FE CEO to the London Enterprise Panel. 

Before joining the British Council Maddalaine was CEO of University Alliance, a mission group representing professional and technical universities. Prior to this she worked as a Civil Servant with stints in the Treasury, Number 10, the Home Office and the (then) Department for Business, Innovation & Skills. Maddalaine leads the British Council Global Education Strategy and Portfolio, working with colleagues around the world and with HMG, the Devolved Administrations and Higher Education Sector.

Martin is the Managing Director and founder of Gradcore, a social enterprise focused on transforming graduate recruitment and employability, including running global graduate schemes for large employers, delivering employability performance improvement in universities, and chairing the UK and EU Graduate Employment Conferences. He is a Director of Institute for Student Employers, and co-chairs the Research and Policy committee, also advised the UK government and the EU on graduate recruitment.