Cary Adams has a BSc Honours degree in Economics, Computing and Statistics from the University of Bath, United Kingdom and a Masters degree in Business Administration.

He is a Harvard Business School Alumni since 2003. In 2009, Cary moved from managing international financial businesses to become CEO of UICC based in Geneva. In 2014, Cary was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in International Relations from the University for Business and International Studies in Geneva, and in 2015, an Honorary Doctorate in Health from Bath University. In 2015, Cary was awarded ‘CEO of the year’ at the International and European Association conference organised by the Associations Network. 

An experienced leader and business transformation specialist, Ben has held senior positions at Clarion Events, Informa, Datacenter Dynamics and was recently appointed the CEO of the Emerging Payments Association. With 15 years experience in B2B events, communities, digital media and marketing services, he has a strong record in delivering revenue growth, product development and digital transformation.

The Payments Association is a commercial membership association, exclusively serving the payments industry. It helps to connect the ecosystem, encourages innovation & collaboration and runs 45 events each year. Through insights, connections and powerful outcomes, the Payments Association is at the heart of the Payments sector and supports the interest of its members; developing their profile/reputation, enhancing their network and providing new opportunities to partner and do business.

Keven Bader is the Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) and has held the position for fourteen years, leading the organisation through numerous changes, the highlight of which was the petition for and granting of a Royal Charter in 2016.  

Prior to joining CITMA Keven was a civil servant working in various roles within the area of intellectual property at the Intellectual Property Office. 

He also worked within government on policies to develop more opportunities for fathers to care for their children as well as projects to develop and enhance employment dispute resolution services. 

Keven is a trustee of Jonathan’s Voice, a charity which aims to raise awareness of suicide risk, particularly in young professional men, as well as empowering individuals to speak about mental health.  

Ben is the Chief Executive of the NRLA, the trade association which represents almost 90,000 landlords across England and Wales.
A landlord for 15 years, Ben has had a lengthy career in housing. He has held senior roles at Touchstone, part of the Places for People Housing group managing over 20,000 PRS homes and also at the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, working on housing disputes, adjudication, membership as well as establishing new schemes in Northern Ireland & Scotland.

Adam joined APM as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in September 2021.

He has a non-executive director portfolio that includes being Chair of the Corporation at Coventry College
and Trustee for a multi-academy trust providing education for 32,000 pupils across 58
primary, secondary and specialist settings.

Adam is also a Visiting Professor at Stranmillis University College and the University of Leicester (School of Business).
Prior to joining APM, Adam held leadership roles in several membership organisations including as CEO for nasen (National Association for Special Educa
tional Needs) and Director of the Centre for Professional Education at the University of Warwick.

He has published a range of books and articles and is a qualified clinical hypnotherapist.

John Chave was educated at the Universities of Sheffield and Exeter in the UK. He is a lawyer by training and he has worked in the health field in London and Brussels. He was Secretary General of the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU), a post he had held from 2006 to 2015. Since then, he has been Director General of Cosmetics Europe.

Anna is CEO of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), the largest professional body for counsellors and psychotherapists in the UK. She is responsible for leading the organisation into its new five-year strategy.

Anna has more than 30 years’ leadership experience within both the private and public sectors. Her other recent roles have been as CEO of the Institute of Directors, Chief Operating Officer of the Government of Jersey, Council member of the UK Rural Policy Group and Chair of the Corporation Board at Warwickshire College Group (WCG).

Simon began his career in the NHS, and in the mid-1990s moved to a senior management role in a professional body. An association leader by profession, Simon has run trade associations and professional institutes in a variety of industry sectors including healthcare, business tourism, construction, manufacturing and public health. 

  Simon has an MBA from Birmingham City University, and in 2016 was voted Chief Executive of the Year by the Association of Association Executives. Until recently he was an active member of the Board of the Institute of Association Leadership, and is a published author on association leadership issues. 

Juliet Frost is the Chief Operating Officer at the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, a membership organisation and charity that has supported British thoroughbred horse breeders for over a century.  The three pillars of the organisation are to support veterinary research, education of employers and employees in the industry, and promotion of the breed.  With nearly 2,000 members contributing to the UK’s rural economy a central representative body has never been more important. 

Juliet has spent her career in the thoroughbred breeding and racing industry, moving to the association in 2019 as Financial Controller.  As the organisation’s remit increased she moved into the newly created COO role in 2022. 

Sarah Hendry has been the Director General of the Country Land and Business Association since 2018, representing the interests of 28,000 rural landowners in England and Wales https://www.cla.org.uk/. She is also non-executive Chair of the UK Water Partnership https://www.theukwaterpartnership.org/

After studying Modern Languages at University, the first part of her career was in the Civil Service, working mostly within the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs but also in the Cabinet Office and Department of Health. She was a Director for 12 years and has been responsible for a wide range of policy areas including water, flood defence, rural development, Common Agricultural Policy reform, animal health and welfare, farming, forestry and climate change. Sarah was awarded a CBE in 2006 for her work on climate change.

David leads the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE), the oldest and largest global business association for distributed renewables in emerging markets. Together with his growing world-class team, David initiated and drives ARE’s rapid scale-up and cements its reputation as the voice of the private sector and key stakeholders delivering on UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 and the energy transition.  
 
ARE federates and provides unparalleled services for its 200+ member companies investing and operating in 50+ markets across Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America. ARE specialises in finding concrete approaches for public-private cooperation, harnessing the power and creativity of the private sector, to deliver rapidly and at scale on major public goals. In acknowledgment of its work, ARE is recognised as finalist for the all-industry International Association of the Year 2022 award.  
 
Prior to ARE, David practised and qualified as an energy and environment lawyer at top-tier international law firms Liedekerke and CMS. David focused on both advisory and litigation around power and gas market design, tariffs, renewable energy support schemes, permitting, energy sector taxation, IPP contracting, waste and pollution. 
 
David holds an LL.M in European Law from the College of Europe, a BA and MA of Laws from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) as well as degrees from the ULB, the University of Malta, the International Business Institute and Axelos. David speaks English, French, Dutch, German and aspires to learn Turkish and Mandarin. 

Dave Matcham is Chief Executive of the International Underwriting Association of London (IUA). IUA is the market association representing insurance and reinsurance companies writing international business in or through London, outside the Lloyd’s market. In 2020, IUA members wrote circa £36 billion gross premium.

Previous to joining IUA at its formation on 31 December 1998, Dave worked for 18 years, many in a senior managerial position, for the Institute of London Underwriters – a long established trade association for marine and aviation insurers in London. ILU merged with LIRMA to form IUA as the sole representative voice for the London company market on 31 December 1998 with Dave being appointed Director of Operations. Dave was appointed Chief Executive on 17 March 2005 and joined the IUA Board at that time.

Dave serves on many market groups on behalf of the company market, notably the London Market Group and is a Director of Xchanging Ins-sure Services (now part of the DXC Group).

Raisa steers the UK’s Association of Translation Companies, representing the voice of 215 language service companies providing translation, interpreting and other language services to clients across the world. 

 As the ATC’s CEO, Raisa’s focus is on supporting a community of language service companies, collaborating with external stakeholders on best practice, policy and sustainable development of the language services industry. She is also the association’s Lead on Standards, driving adoption of and certification to ISO standards. Raisa is an experienced language services production, training and quality manager. She holds an MA in Translation & Interpreting from her native Finland. 

Gordon is the Chief Executive and has been with the College since December 2010.  His background is drawn from private, public and charity sectors.  He had a varied career with NatWest including working in Corporate Finance and in the NatWest Strategy Team.  He has worked for the Policy Innovation Unit at the Department for Education.  He then worked in the NHS at the Dental Practice Board (now subsumed into the NHS Payments Agency) and led them to achieve the first Unisys/Management Today Customer Service Excellence Award made to a public sector body.  He has worked on secondment at the Department of Health Dental Policy Team, he set up and ran the Dental Complaints Service for the General Dental Council, where he became their Director of Corporate Services before joining The Royal College of Emergency Medicine as their first CEO. 

His brief at The Royal College of Emergency Medicine includes leading the team of nearly 80 staff in this fast paced and fast growing organisation, working closely with the Board on policy and governance matters and the Treasurer on the College finances. He is heavily involved in working up improvements to the College systems and developing the customer service performance of the College. 

Kate Nicholls OBE has been CEO of UKHospitality, the powerful voice representing the broad hospitality sector, since its inception in 2018, having previously worked as CEO and Strategic Affairs Director of the ALMR.

Kate is Chair of the Tourism Alliance and co-Chair of the London Tourism Recovery Board, representing the needs of the wider tourism sector in discussions with Government and the Mayor of London. She sits on the Government’s Tourism, Hospitality and Food & Drink Sector Councils and has previously Chaired the London Night-time Commission. She is a Board member of Best Bar None, PASS and is a trustee at Hospitality Action. In July 2021, she was appointed as the first Government Disability Ambassador for hospitality, promoting inclusivity. Kate was appointed co-Chair of the London & Partners’ Tourism Advisory Group in November 2022, who have a critical role in turning London’s 2030 Tourism Vision into reality.

Kate initially worked as a researcher in the House of Commons and European Parliament on food, employment and environmental policy before joining Whitbread to work in Strategic Affairs. She has extensive experience as a political and strategic communications consultant and is a graduate of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge and Kings College London.

Katie Nurcombe is the CEO of ENT UK, the professional body for ear nose and throat surgeons.  Katie has a wealth of experience leading membership growth and transformational change. Over her career she has led trade associations, membership organisations and public-private partnerships, and has worked in a variety of sectors including local growth, construction, skills and healthcare. She has a passion for corporate social responsibility, and is an active champion of wellbeing as well as equity, diversity and inclusion.  

Scott Parkin FIEP is an internationally recognised Employability Sector expert and Group CEO of the Institute of Employability Professionals (IEP), the award-winning membership body for employability professionals. The IEP is dedicated to supporting the people who support others gain work, progress in work and retain work.

Passionate about the development of people across the public services sector he has spent nearly 30 years in the Employment, Skills, Social Care, Housing, Justice and Health-related service sectors within a number of private, public and voluntary sector organisations, from large national employers to SMEs.

With a focus on policy, collaboration, facilitation, partnerships and strategic development, Scott has extensive experience of managing programmes within many public sector commissioning environments, operating in very diverse businesses in the UK and overseas and working alongside Government Ministers, stakeholders and Commissioners on disability, employment, skills, health and wellbeing and quality and continuous improvement agendas.

As Group CEO of the IEP Scott is responsible for driving forward their strategic vision, developing much needed services that support communities and individuals move towards greater independence, enabling practitioners to ‘be the best they can be’ through the development of accredited and non-accredited learning and qualifications and the creation of networks that focus on collaboration and the sharing of best practice. Scott also leads on IEP’s partnership development programme which includes building professional networks with international partners in Australia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, South Korea, The Netherlands, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, partnerships which are built through a shared understanding that the core skills required to deliver quality employability services are the same across the world

Dr Marcia Philbin CChem FRSC FAPM has been the Chief Executive of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (FPM) since 2019.

She spent the first half of her career working as a research scientist for the Ministry of Defence before moving into the world of Royal Medical Colleges.  Dr Philbin spearheads the work of FPM to educate and train physicians who are involved in the development, approval and regulation of new medicines.   Dr Philbin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Association of Project Management.  She serves on the Editorial Board of the National Health Executive.  She is also a member of the Inclusion and Diversity Committee and the Management Group of the Royal Society of Chemistry. 

Dr Philbin is passionate about Star Trek and takes her leadership inspiration from Captain James T Kirk, Captain Jean Luc Picard and Mr Spock.

Jane is the Chief Executive of the Association for Clinical Biochemistry & Laboratory Medicine (ACB).  She is leading the delivery ACB’s strategy and ambition to become the voice of laboratory medicine representing and influencing the interests and professional development of healthcare scientists with government, industry, media and patients.  

Prior to ACB Jane was a Director at responsible business charity, Business in the Community, leading on community impact, high street regeneration and social enterprise support.  During this period, she created and delivered an Olympic legacy programme supporting social enterprise growth to create more than 5000 jobs and over £400m in economic growth. 

Additionally, Jane is a Trustee Board member of the Science Council which sets the standards for professional registration for practising scientists and science technicians across all scientific disciplines.  

Tom Reynolds is Chief Executive of the Bathroom Manufacturers Association (BMA), a trade body with over 50 corporate members producing the majority of the branded bathroom fixtures and fittings supplied to the UK market. The association focuses heavily on product compliance and all aspects of sustainability.

Before joining the BMA in 2019, Tom was Commercial & Public Affairs Director at the British Ceramic Confederation, where he had a particular interest in international trade policy. Prior to entering the world of trade associations, Tom worked as a journalist and producer in trade media and started his career as a parliamentary aide. He is an alumnus of Keele University, holding an honours degree in Law and Politics and an MRes in Environmental Politics.

Jennifer is responsible for the leadership of IoIC, the only independent professional body solely dedicated to internal communication. IoIC is the voice of internal communication, setting standards for more than 70 years through qualifications, career development, thought leadership and best practice.   

Jennifer has worked for over 20 years in professional associations, developing and leading on activities across marketing communications (both internal & external), careers, events, membership, professional development, and publishing.  

Liz joined the British Dietetic Association as CEO in mid-2022 after returning from New Zealand where she was based for 19 years.

Whilst in New Zealand, Liz held two CEO roles for membership organisations in the health sector and was also a non-executive board member for several membership organisations. 

Helen Whiteman joined the CIOT in September 2019 from legal regulator, CILEx Regulation role where she was CEO since 2015.

She studied Law at De Montfort University, before undertaking a Masters in IT at the University of Warwick.

After initially working in investment marketing and PR, then lecturing in law and e-business, she joined the legal field managing practice development and marketing for a law firm in Leicester.

She joined the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives in 2008 as Head of Corporate Affairs having served as Director of Member Services at a law firm membership body called LawNet.

She became Chief Operating Officer at CILEx in 2012, and was responsible for overseeing CILEx’s membership, qualifications, journal, international and regulatory affairs functions.

Helen became a volunteer trustee for the legal mental health and wellbeing charity, LawCare, in January 2019 and a trustee for Discover Children’s charity in December 2022.  She is a Mental Health First Aider.

Lesley has been part of the IMI team for more than 30 years. During her career she’s experienced a wide variety of roles which gave her the ideal knowledge and skills to take on her current role as Chief Operating Officer in 2016.

Immediately prior to her appointment as COO, Lesley created, led, and delivered a two-year Business Transformation Programme. This change programme was a key steppingstone in the IMI’s transition away from Government funding to becoming more commercial.

With 30+ years professional body experience she’s passionate about developing people. Whether it is supporting individuals through training and development to help them realise their full potential or ensuring they get the recognition they deserve throughout their career.

In 2021, in collaboration with the IMI’s President, Professor Jim Saker, Lesley created an industry task force to understand and tackle the lack of diversity in the automotive sector. The Diversity Task Force delivered its first report in 2022 and continues to work with industry stakeholders to bring about positive change.