Alliance MBS advisory board

Ken is a Chartered Accountant qualified with Arthur Andersen. Here, he became a partner and subsequently moved as a partner to Andersen Consulting (which became Accenture).

After leaving Andersen Consulting Ken pursued a career in a series of executive roles of UK listed companies:

• Finance Director then Group Managing Director of Corton Beach plc - a manufacturing and distribution business
• Group Finance Director of Alfred McAlpine plc - an international construction, house building and quarrying group
• Group Finance Director of Albright and Wilson plc - a global chemical manufacturing group
• Chief Financial Officer of Tomkins plc - a global manufacturing group in the industrial and automotive sectors.

After leaving Tomkins, Ken became Chief Financial Officer of Numonyx BV (a semiconductor manufacturer based in Geneva) which was a private equity funded a joint venture between Intel and ST Microelectronics. Following the sale of the business to Micron Inc. Ken returned to the UK and became Chief Executive of Xchanging plc, a technology and business services business for 5 years.

Following the successful sale of the business to Computer Sciences Corporation Ken decided to pursue a number of non-executive roles.

Ken is now a non-executive director of two UK publicly listed businesses: Vertu Motors plc (retail automotive) and Rockwood Strategic plc (strategic private equity investment). He is also Deputy Chairman of Rainier Developments Limited. Until January 2023, Ken was the Chairman of Biffa plc - the UK's largest integrated waste management company. He was also Chairman of RPS Group plc - an international consultancy services business. Following the sales of these companies, Ken stepped down from the respective boards.

Ken has also served as non-executive director of Vega Systems plc (satellite management systems) and iSoft plc (healthcare software), as well as a number of private company businesses in property and land planning development.

Ken served on the Accounting Standards Board for a period of six years, and chaired the Financial Reporting Committee of the 100 Group of Finance directors. He also served as the Deputy Chairman of the Financial Reporting Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He is currently on the advisory panel of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

Ken is a graduate of UMIST with a degree in Management Sciences.

Katie is a Partner and UK Head of Internal Audit & Risk Services, KPMG LLP. She was educated at Bolton School before studying for a Management Sciences degree from The University of Manchester (formerly UMIST).

Katie joined KPMG's graduate training scheme in Manchester in September 2000. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2003, was awarded her Fellow status in 2011, and was promoted to partner in October 2014.

Katie is an active supporter of KPMG's Network of Women and leads on a number of Women in Business initiatives across the UK. As a young female partner and mentor, she knows the importance of senior role models to help encourage talented, ambitious women to stay and reach the top in KPMG.

Through the firm, Katie's involvement with Bolton School continues. Having established the scheme over six years ago, she continues to develop and lead KPMG's flagship work placement and sponsorship programme with them.

David holds a number of roles:

• Chairman of The Gregson Family Foundation
• Executive Committee Member of The Institute for Fiscal Studies
• Trustee of Pro Bono Economics and The Windsor Leadership Trust
• Advisor to Sutton Trust - seeking to improve social mobility through education
• Director of the FA Women's Super League
• Member of the Advisory Board of Phoenix Equity Partners - a leading UK mid-market private equity business.

Previously, David was a co-founder and Chairman of Phoenix. Over his career, he has been a director or Chairman of some thirty companies or charities. Most recently, David has been Chairman of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), which is responsible for tennis in Britain.

He's also been Chairman of Change, Grow, Live (CGL) - the UK's largest social and health care charity and a Director of London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) which transformed East London following the 2012 Games.

David has an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School and an MA in Maths and Physics from Cambridge University.

Vikas was born in Manchester and founded his first company - a website - at the age of 14. He is now an experienced award-winning entrepreneur and strategist who has built businesses in diverse sectors internationally. He is also an advisor to numerous entrepreneurs, businesses, and organisations globally.

Vikas is CEO of Swiscot Group, a textiles and commodities trading company. He is also the founder of Thought Strategy, a consulting firm and investment fund. He holds board-level advisory roles in commercial and charitable organisations. Since 2015, he has been Chairman of FutureEverything - an award-winning innovation lab for digital culture - and a member of the UK government's Industrial Development Board.

He is President and board member of TiE UK North (part of the world's largest entrepreneurs network) and frequently speaks and lectures at entrepreneurship events around the world - including the MIT Global Startup Workshop and the RICE Business Plan Competition.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce, and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. Alongside his business interests, Vikas is Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship on the prestigious Lisbon MBA (with MIT Sloan School of Management) teaching at Católica and Nova School of Business and Economics.

Vikas received the Member of the Order of the British Empire for Services to Business and the Economy in the New Year's Honours List in 2018.

Daniel started his career creating software in Japan, before returning to the UK to start a career in financial services at ICAP. He spent his next ten years in Foreign Exchange across the world with such leading firms as Citibank and UBS.

After taking a career break to complete his MBA in 2018, Daniel joined Greensill as one of their earliest employees, and held a succession of senior roles as the fintech company grew. Daniel is now involved as an investor and in other capacities with various fintechs, and is passionate about finding the next opportunity for disintermediation in finance.

Daniel graduated from the Full Time MBA programme at AMBS in 2018, and remains involved with the school as a course adjudicator, guest speaker, and mentor. He joined the advisory board in 2021.

A Chair of trustees for Manchester's Bridgewater Hall and non-executive, Marian was formerly the Director for Regions in the Department for Business and Trade. This role in government built on a career in international business in private and publicly owned companies as a Board Director, founder owner and Senior Vice President.

After completing her first degree in Cambridge in 1985, Marian graduated from the part-time MBA at AMBS in 1996. She's continued to enhance her skills through education ever since:

• Qualified as an executive coach in 2007
• Completed the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme at MIT in 2014
• Achieved a Graduate Diploma in psychology at UCLAN in 2016 and the Major Projects Leadership Academy at the Said Business School in Oxford in 2021.

As well as her advisory board activity, Marian supports AMBS through speeches and mentoring - notably to women students. She encourages the school in contributing to government policy, and through her deep understanding of all things international.

As a community activist, Marian brings experience in supporting people seeking refuge and asylum, mental health mentoring, the integration of diverse communities, and lifting women into leadership.

Dr Sarah Holland is Chief Business Officer at Cureteq AG, a biotechnology and asset management company based in Switzerland. She originally completed her Manchester MBA in 1998 and has spent more than 30 years in the biopharma industry.

Sarah's previous roles include:

• Chief Business Officer of VectivBio AG
• Global head of licensing and head of R&D at Lonza - one of the world's leading biopharma contract manufacturing and development organisations.

She also worked for Roche for more than a decade, where she drove a number of notable deals and led the Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) assessment and integration team.

As well as working in Switzerland for many years, she has also held commercial roles in diagnostics, biotech and pharma in the UK and the Netherlands. She originally took her MBA at Manchester after winning a scholarship for women in management from the Guardian newspaper. Sarah was also Visiting Fellow at the School from 2001 to 2004.

Beth is Managing Partner of Palatine's Impact Fund. The Fund invests in companies that create social and environmental change, as well as delivering market rate returns. Her role includes:

• Defining the strategy and process for selecting impact investments
• Engaging with portfolio companies to drive value creation initiatives
• Tracking and reporting results to our investors and other stakeholders.

Beth is committed to raising the profile of ESG, impact investing and diversity in the Private Equity industry. She is active on industry panels and BVCA Committees promoting a sustainable approach to investing. Palatine has won six British Venture Capital Association (BVCA) awards since starting their ESG programme over twelve years ago.

Beth was awarded Changemaker of the Year at The Rainmakers Awards in 2022 and 2019. She was also the winner of Investor of the Year at the City AM Awards in 2017 and the winner of the Outstanding Individual Contribution Award at the BVCA Responsible Investment Awards in 2016.

Beth joined Palatine in 2006 after having previously spent 10 years as a Management Consultant. She also sits on the board of e-days, easyfundraising, Anthesis Group and Redmoor Health.

She holds an MBA with distinction from Manchester Business School.

Jim is a serial leader of technology transformation and business turnaround, with a particular focus on the Financial Services industry. He is currently the Chief Product, Technology and Operations Officer at Autorek, a UK fintech. Here, Jim leads on all aspects of the company's product, technology and customer strategy.

Much of his early career was served at Aviva plc where he led many of the major transformation events that created Aviva as we know it today. This included:

• Launching the business online in the early days of the internet
• Multiple mergers and acquisitions
• Various multi-million pound technology re-platforming initiatives
• A number of offshoring and restructuring programmes.

After serving as CIO, in 2011 he decided to pursue a career focused on technology businesses within the sector.

He joined Xchanging plc and, as Group CIO, over five years drove the technology transformation of the business globally that resulted in a sale to CSC (now DXC Technology) in 2016.

After Xchanging, he spent four years as COO and Board Director at SSP Ltd, a global Insurance software firm. Here, he transformed the business from a traditional software solutions provider into a cloud-native fintech - successfully selling the business to Constellation Software in 2021.

From there, he served for two years as CEO and Board director of Finova Ltd, a banking software provider. He led the business through four mergers and a doubling of revenues, workforce and profits - all during the main period of the COVID pandemic.

Interspersed between his permanent appointments, since 2016 Jim has advised many Boards and private equity investors on topics ranging from growth strategies to investment thesis and technology and commercial strategies.

In his spare time you will probably catch him poolside, where he frequently officiates at local, regional and national swimming events as a fully licensed British Swimming official.

Sunita Mirchandani worked for 20 years in international education and trade facilitation at the British Embassy in Dubai.

As UAE Lead Adviser for Education and Training, she spearheaded strategic initiatives to foster collaboration between UK and UAE educational entities.

Sunita provided advisory services to UK education and training companies seeking to establish a presence in the UAE market, facilitating successful partnerships between UK and Emirati organisations.

Nick's career started at Coopers & Lybrand where he worked in the audit department and became a partner in Hong Kong in 1988.

After spending 19 years as a partner, he retired from PwC in 2007. However, he has remained very active in the corporate world by contributing his expertise in accounting and governance to several blue-chip companies in Hong Kong and overseas.

Nick is currently an independent non-executive director at Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, CLP Holdings Limited and Mordril Properties Limited. He was also an independent non-executive director of Lenovo Group Limited, Hysan Development Limited, VinaLand Limited and Texon International Limited.

John is Group Director for Strategy across the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service. In this role, he works with the Mayor and Leader in Greater Manchester on the development and delivery of the Greater Manchester Strategy, and engaging with the UK Government.

John previously worked as Senior Director for Strategy, Research and Economy at the GMCA. He also worked as an economist at HM Treasury, and for Ed Miliband MP and Rachel Reeves MP as Head of Economic Policy at the Labour Party. He also worked as Parliamentary Officer at Universities UK. He has an MSc in Economics from Birkbeck College, London, and a BA in Ancient & Modern History from University College, Oxford.

Mags Dixon is a highly experienced marketing professional with extensive Board Director and Chief Marketing Officer experience at Whitbread Plc, Marston's Plc, and Yum Brands.

She has a proven track record in complex stakeholder management, high-profile brand development, acquisition, and turnaround. Mags is known for her exceptional commercial, analytical, design, and problem-solving skills, and is a strategic thinker with expertise in multi-channel marketing and award-winning digital marketing.

Throughout her career, Mags has spearheaded brand and marketing strategies that have driven significant revenue growth and market out-performance.

She is currently Commercial Marketing Director at Marston's Plc where she has increased annual revenue to £899M and continues to provide consultancy to various Cambridge start-ups, leveraging her vast experience to support innovative, sustainability projects and business development.