Meet the Trainers

Jane Allan

Jane has been running her own training company since 1981. She works with directors, senior managers and all levels of staff across a variety of sectors including: telecoms, legal, finance, area health trusts, construction services and government departments. A chartered accountant, Jane is a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development and was one of the two first women elected to the council of the ICAEW.

Gary Ashworth

Gary specialises in providing training, coaching and consultancy on advanced business performance management approaches and is a regular speaker and published author on the subject. Gary led Ernst & Young’s Performance Management Service Line in the UK and has established a number of successful entrepreneurial companies. Gary is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and a Certified Management Consultant.

Wayne Bartlett

Wayne is senior manager, finance for the HELM Corporation. He has many years’ experience in financial management as a consultant and a senior manager. He has worked with leading government departments on new ways of working in developing countries and has developed business and financial recovery plans for large organisations. Wayne continues to advise government both in the UK and abroad and is currently involved in several major change projects.

Anthony Birts

Anthony is a lecturer in finance at the School of Management, University of Bath lecturing on MBA, MSc and undergraduate programmes. He is also director of studies for the BSc Accounting and Finance degree. Before joining the University, Anthony was with Bank of America NT&SA, starting as an account officer in the energy section and moving via international treasury services to end as a vice president in the payment services area.

Professor Andrew Chambers

Andrew runs Management Audit, specialists in audit and governance advice. He taught the MBA organisational behaviour course at Cass Business School where he was professor of internal auditing, dean of the school and is now professor emeritus. Andrew has been a director of The Institute of Internal Auditors Inc. and a member of their Standards setting board. He chairs the Corporate Governance and Risk Management Committee of ACCA.

Kevin Dilton-Hill

Kevin has extensive experience in consultancy projects aimed at improving the customer experience, cutting costs through process reengineering and improving profitability using ABC information. His clients include Barclays, Railway Pensions Management, Fortis Insurance and the Derbyshire Building Society.

George Fildes

George specialises in financial training that delivers profit-boosting and sustainable business improvement. His training programmes give delegates the confidence to become more involved in the commercial aspects of the business.

Mike Griffiths

Mike was Deputy Head of the School of Law at Wolverhampton University and is now a lecturer and writer on commercial law, particularly company law and insolvency. He is the co-editor of Loose on Liquidators and Loose on the Company Director, and a contributor to Jordan’s Secretarial Administration and Charlesworth’s Business Law. Mike is also the author of Corporate Insolvency for General Practitioners and The Insolvency of Individuals and Partnerships.

Ian Jakeways

Ian has over twenty years’ experience in designing and running financial training programmes for both bankers and treasurers. This experience covers central and western Europe, the United States and Asia. Ian was examiner for the MCT Advanced Funding and Risk Management exam until the end of 2002. Since then he has been involved in the Certificate in Financial Mathematics and Modelling, the Certificate in International Treasury Management and the Certificate in Risk Management.

James Lockyer

James is director of education at the ACT and coordinates the ACT’s qualification and training programmes both in the UK and internationally. He also contributes to the technical content for all the ACT’s education activities and to publications, conferences and events. He is a chartered accountant and is a Fellow of the ACT. James has over
15 years’ experience in treasury, risk management and corporate finance and prior to joining the ACT, led the treasury function of the Unipart Group in Oxford.

Sue Mainwaring

Sue leads the Treasury Tax Team for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ southern region.Working with multi-national companies across a broad industry base, she has many years’ experience advising on global cash management arrangements, tax efficient hedging techniques, UK and crossborder financing, and the impact of IFRS. Sue has written and lectured extensively on these topics.

Mike Northeast

Mike Northeast has held a number of senior finance roles at companies including Rover, BAe Systems, Dixons and latterly, Kuwait Petroleum International where he became Finance Director for the Benelux Operating Company. In 2003 he set up Gairloch Consulting Ltd, an independent Corporate Advisory Consultancy. A past Chairman of the ACT, he is currently undertaking a Senior Tutor role for the ACT Membership Diploma.

Pat Scott

Pat is a founder partner in Leading Edge Change, an organisation providing Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) based management development and training to business and business leaders. Formerly group treasurer for Redland plc and director of tax and treasury for Thorn EMI plc, she consulted in corporate treasury for a number of years. Pat has also taught finance and financial management with several professional organisations including the ACCA and IoD.

Brian Welch

Brian is the EMEA treasurer of Rackspace Ltd, a leading webhosting company. With wide experience as a corporate treasurer and treasury consultant, he is a non executive advisor to the Investment Committee of the London Stock Exchange and a member of the ACT Policy & Technical Committee. He represents the ACT on the Foreign Exchange Joint Standing Committee which oversees the London Foreign Exchange Market. Brian has been an ACT member since 1985.

Will Spinney

Will has been a practising treasurer for nearly 25 years, working for several companies including Eaton Corporation and Invensys plc where his experience ranged from risk management, cash management and extensive refinancings to pension investment strategies. He has been involved in education and training programmes with the ACT for several years, both writing resources and as a member of the examination board.

Doug Williamson

Doug is the ACT’s Chief Examiner for the Certificate in Financial Mathematics and Modelling (CertFMM). He has taught on the ACT’s financial modelling courses since 2006. Doug has over 15 years’ experience in financial training, specialising in financial modelling, corporate financial management and finance for non-financial senior management. He has also worked in a number of interim financial management roles and as a chartered tax advisor with Virgin Entertainment Group.