We are delighted to announce that the third webinar in our professional services series is dedicated to exploring the opportunities available in operations and management.
We held the webinar on Wednesday, 7 October and heard from a selection of operations and management professionals who are currently employed by universities across the UK. Watch the webinar recording below to hear their stories, discover why they love working in the sector and find answers to audience questions.
Participants
Collette Lux
Executive Director of Communications and Marketing, University College London
Collette’s career includes senior roles in the private and public sectors, encompassing Unilever, BBC, the UK government’s Department for Education & Skills, the UK’s Technology Skills Council, King’s College London and UCL.
At King’s, Collette was responsible for developing and implementing strategies to target students from the UK and around the world, at all levels of study and all disciplines. As part of her overhaul of student recruitment, she set up in-country offices in USA, India, China, Nigeria and Malaysia. The impact of these changes led to King’s being able to attract consistently more applications from higher calibre students, thus bucking sector trends.
Since joining UCL in 2017, she has delivered a new brand positioning and campaign that won two of the most coveted awards in the design and advertising industry and higher education sector. Leading her 70 strong department, Collette has transformed UCL’s approach to student recruitment and established the largest and most successful professional network at UCL, spanning more than 700 communications practitioners. She has also revolutionised internal communications against a challenging external environment of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic while building a professional, responsive new department.
Collette has been recognised by a number of communications and marketing industry awards, including IPA Marketing Effectiveness 1993, the coveted Marketing Society Award in 1998 for the BBC’s award-winning trail ‘Perfect Day’, Time Out and New Media Age 2000, World of Learning 2004 and most recently Gold in The Drum Design Awards 2020 and Bronze in the CASE Circle of Excellence Awards 2020.
Paul Marshall
Director of Strategic Planning and Performance, City, University of London
Paul began his career in higher education in 2001 as a Schools Liaison Officer, following a year as a Sabbatical Officer in the University of Exeter’s Guild of Students. Initially working in undergraduate recruitment, he quickly progressed into Exeter’s planning team and found his niche. In 2004, Paul moved to the University of Leeds and held a number of strategic planning and faculty management positions over a five-year period. Paul left Leeds in 2009 for the University of Birmingham, where he initially led the development of the new strategic plan and business intelligence programme. In April 2010, he was appointed as Deputy Director of Strategic Planning, and then in 2012 became Director of Registry. Following a short career break to complete a landscape design diploma, Paul returned to higher education as De Montfort University’s Director of Strategic Planning and then Associate Chief Operating Officer, responsible for the transformation programme to modernise the University’s core systems. In 2017, Paul went to Nottingham Trent University and spent 18 months establishing their Strategic Planning and Change function before joining City, University of London in March 2019 as Director of Strategic Planning and Performance.
Mark Charlton
Associate Director of Public Engagement, De Montfort University
Mark Charlton has been working in university public engagement for more than eight years and currently holds the title of Associate Director of Public Engagement at De Montfort University. Prior to that, he was a journalist. Mark leads on the United Nations Academic Impact Global Hub for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16, based at De Montfort University. Mark brings academics and students into the global conversation on SDGs and works across the University, helping to develop research and teaching outputs that seek to impact and promote indicators of the SDGs. Mark is also studying a PhD, researching links between student volunteering and growing stronger democracies through civic participation.
Rachel Brealey
Director of Faculty Operations (Faculty of Science and Engineering), University of Manchester
Rachel graduated with a BSc in Clothing Engineering and Management from UMIST in 1993, and 
following graduation was elected as President of the Students’ Union.
Rachel started her career at UMIST, undertaking a range of professional services roles including Schools Liaison, Recruitment and Admissions, and Planning and Special Projects. Following the merger of UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester in 2004, Rachel worked as Executive Assistant to the Vice President for External Relations before working as a Senior Project and Change Manager in Corporate Services. Prior to her current role as Director of Faculty Operations in Science and Engineering, Rachel was Head of Faculty Administration in the Faculty of Life Sciences.
In her current role, Rachel leads the delivery of professional services within the Faculty and is a member of both the Faculty Leadership team and the University PS (Professional Services) Leadership team. The Faculty PS team of approximately 850 staff delivers a wide range of activity across operations, teaching and learning, research and technical support. Rachel is also Faculty Lead on the delivery of the new Manchester Engineering Campus Development, a £420M construction project, and one of the single largest projects undertaken by any HE institution in the UK. On completion, MECD will deliver a vibrant and truly inspiring environment for engineering teaching, learning and research.
We hope to inspire professional services candidates from all sectors and encourage them to explore what a career in higher education could mean for them.