Programme 
Thursday 20 January

Friday 21 January

*Please note the programme may be subject to change.

Mike Adamson, Chief Executive, British Red Cross
Mike Adamson is Chief Executive of the British Red Cross, the country’s leading voluntary crisis response organisation, and part of the worldwide Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Mike is responsible for all of the British Red Cross’ UK and International work. In June 2021, Mike was awarded a CBE honour for services to the humanitarian sector and the Red Cross Movement.


Nathan Baker, CEO, Institute of Occupational Medicine
Nathan is CEO at the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), a research charity that is focused on protecting and improving health in the workplace and environment. He is a trustee or independent member of several organisations including the Management Board of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), the EDGE and the Mining Institute of Scotland.


Don Bawtree, Charity Senior Adviser at BDO UK LLP
After working in the UK in corporate finance, and in Nairobi on aid assignments, Don has specialised in charities for the last thirty years, leading the BDO charity team. During that time he has acted for many of the largest and best known charities in the UK, covering healthcare, international, animal welfare, arts and Christian organisations. He conducts advisory and governance projects and has acted as a charity interim manager several times, leading to some experience in international terrorism. He was on the FRC committee responsible for issuing UK official guidance on charity audits, is author of Civil Society's Charity Accounts compliance guide, co-authors Bloomsbury's Charity Administration. He lectures for CASS business school, ICAEW, ACCA, and the Charity Finance Group (CFG). He is currently a member of two charity audit committees, and a licensed minister in the Church of England.


Sharon Bell FCA, Chief Executive, Services For Education
Sharon is Chief Executive of Services For Education (SFE), a Birmingham based charity, with a mission to 'bring music and education to life.' SFE delivers all of the peripatetic music teaching across Birmingham schools and delivers training and consultancy to school leaders on a variety of subjects, regionally and nationally. She is also Chair of Trustees of the mental health charity Renew Wellbeing and a Non Exec Director of the social enterprise Miss Macaroon. Having originally trained with KPMG, she then moved into FC roles in airports and aviation before a career change into the education sector. She has recently launched a blog, leadersphere.co.uk, to explore topics related to the charitable sector, arts, education and mental health and wellbeing.


Michael Brougham MCBI FCIE
Michael is a member of the Charities' SORP Committee and the SORP Committee's engagement strand for smaller charities and Independent Examiners. He is a practising independent examiner, trainer and charity accounts adviser with 50 years of experience in charity accounting and finance and a fellow of the ACIE.


Daniel Chan, Director, PwC
Daniel leads PwC's charities audit team and leads the firm's thought leadership for the charity sector. He is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Public Finance Accountant and holds the ICAEW Diploma in Charity Accounting. Daniel is Chair of the ICAEW Charity Committee, a member of the Charities SORP Committee and a member of the CIPFA Charities and Public Benefit Entities Forum.


Nigel Davies, Joint Chair, Charities SORP Committee and Assistant Director of Accountancy Services, Charity Commission
Nigel is a qualified accountant. He was promoted to Assistant Director, Accountancy Services, in June 2020 and is also Joint Chair of the Charities SORP Committee. Nigel joined the Commission in 2001, first heading up the Accountancy Unit team in their Taunton office and subsequently becoming Deputy Head of Financial Regulation and from 2006 Deputy Head of Accountancy Policy and Technical Secretary to the SORP Committee and latterly in 2014 Head of Accountancy Services and Joint Chair of the Charities SORP Committee. He advises the senior management team on charity financial issues and oversees the work of the team of accountants who cover all accountancy aspects of operational and inquiry activities for the Commission. He leads for the Commission on accountancy related collaborations with umbrella organisations, professional accountancy institutes and technical panels and working parties. Nigel also speaks at events and conferences on charity accounting issues and publishes articles on charity accountancy matters.


Ruth Douglas, Head of Legal Policy, Charity Commission for England and Wales
Ruth Douglas is a Senior Lawyer and Head of Legal Policy at the Charity Commission. She has worked in various roles across the Civil Service in both Legal and Policy over the last 8 years. Prior to that she worked as a corporate solicitor for an international law firm. Ruth hails from Scotland but has called London her home for the last 6 years.


Claire Dove CBE DL, VCSE Crown Representative 
As VCSE Crown Representative, Claire acts as an intermediary between the Government and the voluntary and social enterprise sectors to champion the Social Value Act and an improvement in commissioning practices. Claire was appointed as VCSE Crown Representative in February 2018. As a key player in the social enterprise movement for over 40 years she brings a wealth of experience to the role. Prior to working in government, Claire led the highly successful Blackburne House Group, until she retired in July 2020. Blackburne House offers an outstanding educational offer to women alongside running its award-winning School for Social Entrepreneurship and highly successful social enterprises. Claire has received many awards for her role within the sector, which includes an MBE, OBE and also the Queens Lifetime achievement award for Enterprise promotion. Claire was once again honoured in the 2020 New Year’s honours list with a CBE.


Graham Elliott, Director, City and Cambridge Consultancy
Graham is an MBA and a Chartered Tax Adviser. Thus he combines business understanding with the gold standard tax qualification. He was appointed by the Charity Tax Group (CTG) as its Technical Adviser on 1 April 2016, owing to his considerable specialist involvement in charity VAT and Tax issues over many years. This includes involvement in discussions with HMRC and the Treasury, dealing with issues that affect the sector as a whole. He has written the monthly VAT contribution to Accountancy Magazine for 25 years and has written the annual VAT summary for the Charity Finance Year Book for several years. His clients range from well-known national charities to smaller niche charities with a strong local presence, and he provides his services both direct to charities and via accountants and law firms.


Russ Emmerson, Customer Success Manager, Xledger.
With over 20 years experience in technology, digital transformation and cloud solutions, Russ is passionate about building partnerships with customers. By helping customers realise the benefits of modernising their finance systems, he ensures they have the best possible experience with Xledger. Russ has worked across many sectors including charity and not-for profit, where he enjoys working with organisations that make the world a better place; be it for the environment, the community or their members.


Carlota Esguevillas, Responsible Investment Analyst, EdenTree
Carlota holds a BA in Geography from Oxford University and previously worked for a sustainability consultancy advising businesses on their sustainability strategies and disclosures. She leads EdenTree’s work on topics such as human rights, diversity and workforce issues, and is currently studying for the Investment Management Certificate (IMC).


Pesh Framjee FCA, Partner, Global Head of Not For Profit at Crowe
Pesh Framjee, Partner and Global Head of Non Profits at Crowe has been involved in the sector for over 35 years. He was the Partner leading the teams at Deloitte, Arthur Andersen and BDO. Crowe has been listed as the lead provider of assurance services to charities in the UK for eleven consecutive years. Pesh is a Chartered Accountant and advises on Business Development, Governance, Culture, Risk, Strategy, Impact, Performance Measurement, Structures, Organisational Development, Due Diligence, Resource Mobilisation, Change Management, Collaborative Working, Strategic Alliances, Counter Fraud / Anti corruption, Financial Reporting, Internal and External Audit and Assurance etc. A member of the Charity Law Association. Pesh writes extensively and presents at conferences internationally on matters facing the sector. He is joint author of Charities - The Law and Practice. He has written a book on Charity Trading and is a contributor to the International Journal of Non Profit Law. He is one of the high-level team of commissioners on the Charity Tax Commission which has carried out a full review of the UK charity tax system to develop recommendations to government. He has been appointed by the Charity Commission to act as sole trustee and interim manager of five charities. He is Special Advisor to the Charity Finance Group. He has been a member of the UK Charity SORP Committee for over 20 years and was appointed as Technical Advisor in 2017. Pesh has also worked in the field with NGOs and PBEs. He was also a member of the Committee for Accounting for Public Benefit Entities and the Institute of Chartered Accountants Charity Advisory Group. He has recently been appointed to a new working group that is developing an International Financial Reporting Standard for Non Profits. Pesh is involved with many umbrella bodies internationally and often takes part in high level thought leadership in the sector and tweets from @peshframjee.


Hannah Greenfield ACA, Head of Finance, Dogs Trust
Hannah is Head of Finance at Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare charity. She has been deeply embedded in the charity sector for many years, holding advisory, paid and voluntary roles. She has contributed to advisory panels, written sector articles, and provided training to charity trustees. Currently, in her spare time, Hannah is a volunteer debt advisor with London-based debt charity Crosslight Advice, and Audit Committee member at Salvation Army.


Jill Halford, National Head of Charities, BDO
Jill is an Audit Partner and National head of Charities within BDO’s Not for Profit group, leading the delivery of audit and advisory services for BDO UK. Jill has over 20 years’ experience of advising charities and social enterprises on multilocation and complex engagements.


Naziar Hashemi , Partner & National Head of Social Purpose & Non Profits Organisations, Crowe U.K. LLP
Naziar Hashemi joined Crowe in September 2008 from a Big Four Firm as a specialist non profits partner. In addition to providing assurance services Naziar also provides advisory services to a range of charities. These include assignments from risk and finance function reviews, systems, benchmarking and performance measurements and governance reviews. Naziar leads Crowe's work on Donor Audits and has knowledge of institutional funding requirements having produced reports for a variety of institutional and governmental donors. She also carries out training for charities and lectures and writes on a range of topics relevant to Trustees and management.


Ajay Johal, Investment Manager, Ruffer
Ajay graduated from the University of Warwick with a degree in history and sociology and worked at Barclays Wealth before joining Ruffer in 2014. Ajay is a member of the charities team and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investments.


Kristina Kopic, Head of Charity and Voluntary Sector, ICAEW
Kristina is the ICAEW’s Head of Charity and Voluntary Sector. She is a Chartered Accountant who has worked in and for the Not-for-Profit sector for over 14 years. Kristina trained at Sayer Vincent and subsequently worked in finance roles at the Royal College of Nursing, Imperial College London and the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts. She has a master’s degree in Voluntary Sector Management and holds a charity-specific qualifications in accountancy and finance (ICAEW DChA and CIPFA PGCert) and law and governance (from The Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland - ICSA).


Joanna Pittman, Partner, Sayer Vincent
Joanna is a Partner at Sayer Vincent, and a member of the Charities SORP Committee. At Sayer Vincent, she has particular responsibility for technical and compliance, ensuring that the firm remains up-to-date with technical issues in audit and accounting and compliant with ethical standards and professional matters. She is also a tax specialist, particularly on VAT, and a member of Sayer Vincent’s specialist tax group.


Heather McLoughlin, Policy and Development Officer, Fundraising Regulator
Heather joined the Fundraising Regulator as its Policy and Development Officer in 2020. Previously, Heather held roles at Charities Aid Foundation as a Charity Advisor and at Charity Finance Group as a Policy Officer. She has extensive experience in helping charities of all sizes to develop fundraising strategies, understand regulation and charity law, and build good governance. Heather is also a trustee of Citizens Advice South Lincolnshire.

Judith Patrickson FCA BFP DChA, Director of Finance, Scottish Opera
Judith is Finance Director of Scottish Opera, Scotland’s largest performing arts organisation, and one of the 5 National Performing Companies in Scotland. She has over 30 years of experience in charity accounting and finance, 20 of which has been in the arts sector. Judith is also on the Board of 3 UK arts organisations.


Max Rutherford, Head of Policy and Practice, Association of Charitable Foundations
Max provides strategic insight, policy intelligence and programme leadership, and enables collaboration and engagement between ACF’s members. He represents the foundation sector to colleagues in civil society, the media, officials in government and parliamentarians, aiming to create an enabling operating environment in which funders will most effectively achieve their missions. He is also a member of the Charities SORP Committee.


Jennifer Sims, Qualified Account and Senior Presales Consultant, Xledger
Jennifer's extensive experience includes project implementations, product testing, project management and presales support. With 10+ years’ working in financial roles, Jennifer has great understanding of customer needs and can adapt a solution to suit customers.


Nicola Silverleaf, Trustee and Treasurer, The Honorary Treasurers Forum
Nicola has been a Charity Trustee since 1985, starting with the Prince’s Youth Business Trust whilst with PwC. She is an active Trustee and Treasurer of The Honorary Treasurers Forum, the umbrella charity for charity treasurers and in that capacity is part of the current SORP development process, working in the Trustee engagement strand.


Irfan Umarji, Director of Finance & Operations, Impetus
Irfan is current the Director of Finance & Operations at Impetus. He started a career as a chartered accountant in 2008 and has since spent the last 10+years working in the not-for-profit space, including roles at Save the Children UK, the Royal College of Physicians, and the Royal Society. Irfan supported the ICAEW’s modelling code and is currently a Governor and the Chair of the Audit & Risk Committee for a local Further Education College.


Matt Whittaker, CEO, Pro Bono Economics
Matt is Chief Executive at Pro Bono Economics, the charity established by former Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane to help other charities measure, understand and value their impact. He is a founding member of the Law Family Commission on Civil Society, which is exploring the role that the social sector can play alongside business and the government in driving forward the UK’s post-COVID-19 renewal agenda.

Headline sponsor

Ruffer manages £20bn in client assets and is a top ten UK charity investment manager. It seeks to deliver consistent positive returns, whatever happens in financial markets. Ruffer takes on the responsibility of investing a charity’s assets, including managing risk and coping with uncertainty. With a focus on capital preservation and prudent growth, Ruffer stands as a partner with charity trustees for the long haul.

In partnership with

EdenTree are pioneers in responsible and sustainable investing, having launched one of the first ethical equity funds in the UK, in March 1988. With £3bn of assets under management, we are proud of our 30 year track record in delivering profits with principles for our clients and believe that consistent, long-term returns are more likely to be achieved by investing responsibly in sustainable businesses.

Xledger enables charity and not-for-profit organisations to expand service without increasing overhead. We provide control and insight to tax-exempt organisations of all sizes and levels of complexity, from regional hospitals to global aid networks.