Speakers biographies

John Newton, Deputy Director of Finance, Cardiff University
John was seconded to the Joint Costing and Pricing Steering Group 2002-2005 and worked with HEIs to ensure full economic costing was implemented. He has played a key role in developing training courses in all aspects of costing and pricing, helping institutions develop strategies and good practice. John has in-depth knowledge and experience of HE, having worked in the sector for 25 years.

Roger Jones, Senior Project Officer and Project Manager, Reading University
Roger Jones has worked in senior management capacities in a number of commercial organisations including, GKN, Barker & Dobson, International Nickel and Racal Electronics where he was Group Economist and Statistician and Head of Investor Relations. Roger joined Reading University in January 2004 to undertake the JCPSG study (having worked closely on the costing of central services in previous positions). Since then he has been involved in a number of other projects for the University including the i-continue JISC funded project on ICT sustainability. Roger is a chartered mathematician and chartered scientist.

Larraine Cooper, The Larian Consultancy Limited
Larriane established the Larian Consultancy 15 years ago. For the last 11 years she has regularly worked with library and information professionals through her involvement with CILIP and undertakes training and skills programmes. Larriane has been working with the Open University to introduce a range of business processes to establish value for money in order to continually improve the library service and demonstrate the benefits for the library and the university as a whole.

Nicky Whitsed, Director of Library Services Open University
Nicky is Director of Library Services, at the Open University in Milton Keynes. She is responsible for developing an innovative service to a target audience of 200,000 distance learners.

Stephen Town, Director of Knowledge Services, Cranfield University
Stephen is active in teaching, research, and consultancy and advice. He teaches on the MSc in Information & Library Management at the University of Bristol, and has published widely in the fields of library management, quality and performance, and Information Literacy. Stephen was appointed Project Manager for VAMP a programme commissioned by SCONUL to provide some new instruments and/or techniques in specific areas currently lacking, and also to generate a full coherent framework incorporating other existing WGPI offerings.