Alan Clamp

Lay Member of Appointments Board

Alan has been the Chief Executive of the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA) since 2018. The PSA promotes the health, safety and wellbeing of patients, service users and the public by raising standards of regulation and voluntary registration of people working in health and care. 

Alan was previously the Chief Executive of the Security Industry Authority (SIA). The SIA is a public body established under the Private Security Act 2001 to regulate private security in the UK. Between 2011-2015 Alan held the post of Chief Executive at the Human Tissue Authority (HTA), an independent regulator sponsored by the Department of Health. 

In addition to his role at the PSA, Alan is a Non-Executive Director at the Parole Board and the Intellectual Property Regulation Board, and a Trustee of the Institute of Regulation. 

Amin Dawuda

Amin is an experienced executive operating at board level in the private and public sectors.

He has held a number of senior leadership roles in financial services organisations, with over 20 years at London Stock Exchange Group.

This included guiding customer facing technology and operations teams, managing risk, compliance and change management in highly regulated capital markets. He also chaired a steering committee that oversaw the performance of LSE Plc’s technology supplier, reporting to the Board and industry regulator.

Amin is vice chair of governors at a primary school, and vice secretary at a youth football club that serve his local community. He is committed to providing development pathways for young people and improving diversity and inclusion, particularly at senior levels within the workforce.

Bill Matthews

Lay member of Regulatory Board and lay member of Appointments Board.

Bill is a Chartered Engineer who began his career as a Test Engineer with Motorola in Scotland, before a number of years running technology businesses. He subsequently developed a portfolio of non-executive interests in a variety of areas, including seven years as Chair of the BBC Pension Fund.

Bill’s current roles include chairmanship of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission and sitting as a lay panellist for the Nursing and Midwifery Council on fitness to practice hearings. He is a member of the British Transport Police Authority and sits on the board of the Scottish Futures Trust – an infrastructure centre of excellence owned by the Scottish Government. Bill holds an MBA alongside first degrees in Electrical Engineering, Psychology, and Humanities with Creative Writing.

Cathal Cusack

Elected to Council: 2022

Cathal is the managing partner of Cusack & Co in Dublin, Ireland, a firm of Chartered Certified Accountants and Chartered Tax Advisors. The firm is a member of the MSI Global Alliance of accountants and lawyers.

He is proud of the firm’s history of training ACCA members and the success that has followed students who trained with him. He is a strong supporter of the ACCA mentoring programme.

He was a regulatory assessor for ACCA, has represented ACCA Ireland on several governmental committees, and has contributed to ACCA's Accounting and Business magazine.

Cathal is passionate about music, and is deputy chairman of Music Network which makes live music accessible to communities while helping musicians develop fulfilling careers.

Chiew Yin Jones

Chiew Yin is a barrister with over 25 years' experience in criminal justice and is an experienced advocate with a substantial casework and litigation background.

She also sits as a Legally Qualified Chair for the Police Misconduct Panel in London and the South East region and is Vice President of the National Association of Legally Qualified Chairs.

She is a former trustee of the Cleft Lip and Palate Association and enjoys gardening, cooking and reading.

Elaine Darby

Lay member of Qualifications Board and Chief Examiner.

Elaine is a Chartered Accountant, Senior Lecturer in Accounting, and Director of Undergraduate Education for the School of Business & Management at Royal Holloway University of London. She is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

After leaving professional practice in 2008, Elaine became a Tutor with BPP Professional Education before embarking on a career in academia, initially with Henley Business School at the University of Reading, where she was Programme Area Director for Accounting, and later at Royal Holloway.

In her current role, Elaine has responsibility for the academic quality of the undergraduate degree programmes offered by the School of Business & Management and contributes to the education strategy of Royal Holloway.

In the last 10 years, Elaine has held the posts of Exams Officer, Professional Accreditation Officer, Programme Director, and Senior Tutor and has been an External Examiner for Liverpool University.

Jackie Alexander

Lay member of Appointments Board

Jackie is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and works as an independent Human Resources Consultant and trainer. Her most recent interim role is within the House of Commons Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme. Previous roles have included Recruitment Partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Managing Director Corporate Services for LCH.Clearnet.

Jackie also works within professional regulation and currently sits on the Investigation Committee for the ICAEW, Investigation panels for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the Professional Conduct Committee for the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Previously she has served on the Appointments Board of the General Dental Council and served as a lay panellist for the Nursing and Midwifery Council on fitness to practice hearings.

Jackie is a non-practising solicitor and a magistrate and also sits on Schools Appeals and Exclusion panels for a London Borough.

Joy Julien

Joy Julien – Lay member of Appointments Board 

Joy is a chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission selection panels and a trustee of the London Legal Support Trust.

Previously, Joy was the chief executive of the Royal Courts of Justice Advice Bureau.  After leaving the legal advice sector, Joy developed a career in professional regulation, audit and assessment. Joy has worked predominantly with healthcare regulators including the Practitioner Performance Advice - NHS Resolution (formerly the National Clinical Assessment Service), the General Dental Council, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, and the Medical Practitioner's Tribunal (formerly the General Medical Council). 

Joy has cross-sector quasi judicial experience that includes sitting as an independent member of the Office of Judicial Complaints and the Parole Board.

Throughout her illustrious career within the not-for-profit legal advice sector, Joy has held various trustee positions which include the Central London Law Centre, the Legal Action Group and Protect (formerly Public Concern at Work).

Katie Bailey

Lay member of the Qualifications Board

Katie Bailey is Professor of Work and Employment at King's College London. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, Academic Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and of the Royal Society of Arts, and member of the Association for Coaching. She is also Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Employment Studies, and a member of the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA) Work Insights Group, where she was also formerly a Trustee and Non-Executive Director.

Katie was a member of the Renewing Work Advisory Group (ReWAGe), and has held several editorial roles, including as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Management Reviews. She has been on the Senior Leadership Team of four business schools. Katie has won multiple international awards for her research, which focuses on employee engagement, meaningful work and human resource management, she regularly presents keynotes, and has 30 years experience of higher and executive education.

Liz Blackburn

Elected to Council: 2017

Liz has a diverse range of asset management reporting and audit experience, as well as a passion for, and track record of, information gathering, sharing insights, building business relationships and helping businesses and individuals develop and succeed.

Her roles with blue chip financial services organisations (BlackRock, Royal Bank of Scotland, AEGON Asset Management, Standard Life Investments) and Big 4 accountants (PwC, EY) over the past 30 years have given her extensive experience of external audit, review and challenge, risk and control assessments, driving Risk Culture activities, Operational and ESE risk, and exposure to Board Risk Committees. 

Liz was admitted to membership of the ACCA in 2000 and became a Fellow in 2005.  She was elected to Council in November 2017.

Prior to joining Council Liz chaired the UK Financial Services and the Edinburgh & East of Scotland Member Network Panels and was awarded ACCA UK Advocate of the Year in 2016.

Liz now chairs the Accountants for Business Global Forum, a group of 25-30 CFOs from around the world which meets quarterly and discusses a wide range of topics from cyber security, finance transformation, future finance careers through to climate change and Covid-19 response.  Output from the Forum informs the Professional Insights (PI) research, and as such Liz has worked with the PI team and contributed to a number of PI reports.

Liz is an ex officio member of the ACCA Scotland Committee.

Read our interview with Liz.

Lucy Winskell

Lucy has been pro vice-chancellor (employability and partnerships) at Northumbria University since 2022, a full-time role where she has led the development of Northumbria’s relationships with local government and public bodies, shaping its contribution to regional economic, cultural and social development and graduate employment and establishing its Amsterdam campus as part of Northumbria’s Internationalisation Strategy. She steps down from that role at the end of August 2022, having been appointed Her Majesty’s lord lieutenant of Tyne and Wear, but will continue her non-executive roles.

Prior to joining Northumbria University in 2010, Lucy was a litigation lawyer for 28 years. During that time as a lawyer Lucy gained a very deep and rich experience of membership organisations and the regulation of professionals, sitting on the Council of the Law Society of England and Wales, on the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and President of Newcastle Law Society.

She has extensive non-executive director experience. Appointments have included Government Office North East, Darlington Building Society, the British Chambers of Commerce, the North East Industrial Development Board and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the last two being ministerial appointments.

Currently she is chair of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership and a non-executive director of North East Access to Finance.

Lucy has international experience as a former UK president of the Union Internationale des Advocats and served as UK chair of the British-American Project, the think-tank and international network for Anglo-US business and cultural relations.

She is chair of Live Theatre and a trustee of Live Theatre and International Centre for Life, both in Newcastle upon Tyne, and became chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund North East Committee in June 2017. She is deputy chair of The Community Foundation, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland.

Lucy was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday 2014 Honours List in recognition for her services to Higher Education and the regional economy in the North East. She was appointed as deputy lieutenant of Tyne and Wear in 2014, and subsequently lord lieutenant in May 2022 and was high sheriff of Tyne and Wear 2015/16.

Matthew Wong

Elected to Council: 2017

Matthew has more than 30 years of extensive experience in the accounting profession in Hong Kong and mainland China. He is a partner at PwC and the leader of PwC China’s financial services tax practice. He is also a trusted tax adviser to many Fortune 500 financial service companies, international hedge funds and private equity houses making investments into Asia and particularly China.

Matthew has served on the Steering Committee of ACCA Central China for more than a decade, since 2007. In 2016, he was elected as the Chairman of the Steering Committee and has represented ACCA Central China at the International Assembly.

He frequently contributes technical articles for AB Magazine, and provides insights for ACCA’s local development and events via the ACCA Central China expert panel.

Read our interview with Matthew.

Michael Guthrie

Michael Guthrie is an experienced executive leader with a background in professional regulation in the healthcare sector.

As Director of Policy and Standards for the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), he was responsible for policy and standards development across 16 regulated health professions, leading work to bring further professions into statutory regulation. He also held an Executive leadership position with the Australian Dental Council (ADC), where he was responsible for the accreditation of programmes leading to registration in the dental professions.

He is currently Policy Lead in the Centre for Advancing Practice at Health Education England (HEE), a body with responsibility for the NHS workforce, and undertakes this role alongside freelance consultancy assignments for a variety of clients in the regulation, health and charity sectors.

He is a lay member of the Regulation Board of the Academy for Healthcare Science (AHCS), chairing its Operational Registration Committee and is a panel member of the British Psychoanalytic Council’s fitness to practise Screening Committee. He was previously a Board member of the NRCPD, a charity which holds a register of sign language interpreters and other communication professionals working with deaf and deaf blind people.

Michelle Hourican

Michelle first became involved with ACCA in her local student society, and has since served as president of the Members' Network in Dublin, on the ACCA Ireland Executive Committee, and led the working group that reviewed and updated the ACCA Ireland constitution and governance arrangements in 2012.

Michelle is a director of Datatrails, a start-up GDPR consulting firm focused on the SME market. She served as a director of Community Credit Union for three years up to 2019, where she was chair of the audit, governance and risk committee and the IT committee. She recently served as a board member of the European Association of Data Protection Professionals Irish branch.  

Her work specialisms are data protection, business strategy, change management, project management, information technology, lecturing and corporate governance.

In addition to ACCA qualification, Michelle holds a Masters in Science in the Management and Application of IT in Accounting from Dublin City University, and is a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. She holds an advanced diploma in Data Protection Law from the Honorable Society of King's Inns.

She was awarded ACCA Accountant of the Year in 2015.

Michelle has been an active member of a variety of committees at ACCA including:

•  Business Leaders Forum
•  ACCA Ireland Committee
•  Irish Technology Group
•  Irish SMP Working Group
•  Leinster Student Panel and Leinster Panel (president in 2012)
•  Irish Executive Committee
•  and is a lead member of the working group for the review and updating of the ACCA Ireland constitution and governance arrangements.

Nauman Asif Mian

Elected to Council: 2020

Nauman is based in Dubai as chief financial officer of Bayt.com, the Middle East's top job site.

He is a certified internal auditor and started his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers. Nauman went on to work for LA Fitness, the leading health and fitness provider in the UK.

Nauman is a member and ex-chair of the ACCA UAE Members Advisory Committee and a member of the Global Tax Forum and Global Business Forum at ACCA. 

He has been nominated for multiple awards, including Young Accountant of the Year and Chartered Accountant of the Year at the Finance and Accountancy Middle East Awards.

He is married with two children.

Paul Layzell

Lay member of Regulatory Board Board and Chair of the Qualifications Board

Professor Paul Layzell is currently principal and chief executive of Royal Holloway, University of London and deputy vice-chancellor of the University of London.  

After completing a degree in Econometrics and Accounting and higher degrees in Computer Science, Paul became an academic at UMIST in Manchester.  As a professor of software engineering and management, his academic work focused on the interaction between IT systems, organisations and people.  After leading an EU project on software maintenance, he worked with colleagues on a BT-funded project looking at the future of software and authored one of the early papers on software-as-a-service and cloud computing.

Between 2001 and 2004, Paul was programme manager for the merger of UMIST and the University of Manchester and after a brief spell as deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Sussex, he came principal at Royal Holloway in 2010.

During his career, Paul has maintained a close connection to education and assessment and for seven years was chair of AQA, the UK’s largest GCSE and A-level exam board.  He is a member of the World Academy of Sport Advisory Board and as education adviser, has assisted the development of professional qualifications for the sports management industry.

Paul has wide governance experience having been chair of Eduserv – an IT services company for the education and wider public sector, chair of London Higher – the representative body of London’s universities, a founding Board member of Jisc – an IT services company supporting further and higher education, and treasurer of Universities UK.

Paul is a keen gardener and in 2017 was appointed a deputy lieutenant of Surrey.

Paul Lewis

Lay member of the Qualifications Board.

Paul is the Chief Operating Officer of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Royal Charter organisation supporting the work of the global chemical sciences community. 

Paul has substantial experience in the Education, Skills and STM publishing sectors including working at City & Guilds and, Cambridge Assessment. In these organisations, he oversaw the quality of provision and integrity of examinations across numerous teaching and examination centres around the world as well as developing new assessments and learning resources.

Paul has provided international education and training expertise to UK Government Ministers and led the team securing £1 billion of UK education exports whilst on secondment to DIT from PA Consulting. Earlier in his career, he was a Vice-Principal at a London FE college.

Professionally qualified with an BSc (Hons) degree, PGCE and MBA (Distinction), Paul is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and a Fellow of the RSA and Institute of Leadership & Management.

Richard Cooper

Lay member of Regulatory Board and Chair of the Standards Board

Richard Cooper has extensive experience of leading business transformation and operating at board level within complex organisations.

He had worked with BT for more than 10 years, leading business transformation and engaging in face-to-face dealings with the UK telecoms regulator and other communication providers.

Since leaving BT (in March 2018) he has taken up roles including:

Member of the NHS Pay Review Body - The NHSPRB provides independent recommendations on the remuneration of all staff paid under Agenda for Change employed in the NHS. The NHSPRB’s recommendations apply to all staff in the NHS, with the exception of doctors, dentists and very senior managers. The remit group accounts for just under 1.5 million NHS staff (paybill c.£43bn).

Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee Chair, Health Research Authority - The HRA is an arm’s-length body in the Department of Health & Social Care that protects and promotes the interests of patients and the public in health and social care research.

Chair of West Suffolk Council Remuneration Panel - The Independent Remuneration Panel plays an important role in advising the Council on the remuneration and expenses of its Councillors.

Non-Executive Director at Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust (stood down February 2019).

Tom Spender

Tom Spender is currently the General Counsel for the Retail Bank of Lloyds Banking Group plc.

In his career, Tom has held senior positions at both regulated financial services firms and also at the UK financial services regulator. He has a legal background with over 20 years’ experience in consumer protection, litigation, risk management, the use of data and regulation.

Prior to joining, Lloyds Bank in 2016, Tom held various senior roles at the UK Financial Conduct Authority and its predecessors for over 13 years, including senior policy, enforcement and supervision roles.

Tom is a qualified solicitor and has worked in litigation and capital markets in international law firms in the UK and in Australia.