Lucy Brazier OBE is one of the world’s leading authorities on the administrative profession. As CEO of Marcham Publishing, specialist publishers of Executive Support Magazine – a global training magazine dedicated to the professional development needs of senior and aspiring administrative professionals – Lucy works with the best trainers of Executive Assistants from around the world to deliver the most up-to-date and current training in the market. Her passion is for the Assistant role to be truly recognised as a career and not just a job. Her formidable training expertise and speaking style have given her opportunities to train, present, and emcee events in over 50 countries at over 450 events.

With access to the most forward-thinking, passionate and knowledgeable trainers and administrative business leaders in the world, as well as personally meeting and speaking to literally thousands of Assistants over the last 10 years, Lucy’s knowledge of the market and what Assistants all over the world are facing on a day-to-day basis are second to none. In 2021 Lucy was awarded an OBE in recognition for her services to office professionals.

Mark Gray is a certified professional project manager with over 25 years of experience in managing complex projects in semiconductors, defence and energy sectors around the world. With a background in electronics, a master’s in business and an ongoing PhD research project, he brings a unique blend of personal and collected experiences to the table and leverages this in sharing his passion for excellence in project manage­ment. Mark is a seasoned speaker at PMI and other events and is actively involved in developing project management in organisations in both his professional role and also as a volunteer in the PMI France Chapter (currently VP of professional development).

People just want to feel competent and comfortable with their tech. Organisations want staff to be productive and perform at their highest, most optimal level. Melissa Esquibel specialises in transforming those intimidated or confounded by technology into empow­ered users of their technology tools to achieve both sets of goals. As a Microsoft Certi­fied Trainer (MCT) with more than 30 years in business application technology, spanning a wide variety of industries, Melissa has a unique ability to make sense of how your organisation can use technology, how it is uniquely positioned in your industry and what a successful deployment looks like. She has enabled everyone from rocket scientists to real estate brokers to put the “productive” back in office productivity platforms like Microsoft Office and G Suite.

Originally from Chicago, Ill., in the US, she graduated summa cum laude from Strayer University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, majoring in legal studies.

Andrew Jardine started in an administrative role in the Civil Service before eventually realising his passion is for training and staff development. He qualified as a trainer and has since delivered to all levels of staff and management in the public, private and voluntary sectors in the last 20-plus years.

He loves that his current role, as general manager of the Institute of Administrative Management (IAM), lets him work with organisations and individuals who share his dedication for raising professional standards and helping others to learn new skills, develop existing ones and progress in their chosen profession.

The IAM is one of the oldest management institutes in the UK, having inspired profes­sional business managers and administrators since 1915. Our purpose is to champion professionals in the fields of administration and management and to provide benefits and services that support our members’ professional and career development.

Tricia Madden is the head of the business support group with KPMG’s UK firm and is accountable for the delivery of all secretarial and administration services. The business support group was established eight years ago with Tricia at the helm and currently provides services to over 4,000 customers across all capability and coverage groups within the UK firm, delivered through an experienced workforce of 700-plus employees and has a cost base of £26m.

Commercially astute, Tricia manages the P&L and associated budgets for the group, con­tinuously developing strategies to ensure the role and services stay current with service demands and market. Successfully reducing the cost of delivery whilst the customer base has grown year on year since inception.

She is an ambassador of change and personal development, nurturing a high perform­ing and rewarding culture within her group. Embracing diversity and social mobility is always at the forefront of her mind and actions – being the first function within KPMG to implement an apprenticeship programme, the Business Support Academy, to provide job opportunities to individuals from both diverse and disadvantaged communities.

Tricia has a wealth of experience and an established network within her area of exper­tise and has built her reputation on fairness and honest communication.

Alice Scutchey is a senior EA with over 13 years’ experience in business administration and currently chairs the UK EA network at a major investment bank. She is committed to helping other PAs and EAs grow, develop their skills and realise their full potential. She believes assistants should have a clear path of progression and equal opportunities to fulfil their career ambitions. She has been nominated for various awards including Lon­don PA of the Year, WeAreTheCity’s Rising Star and Women of The Future Award. Alice enjoys running, reading, spending time with her family and charity work, most recently completing the Brighton Marathon. Alice is married with two children and lives in Kent.

Miriam Elst is the founder of the startup Bricks & Brains and co-founder of Pixels in Stereo. Offering fully customised, human-centred design services and trainings to busi­nesses, organisations and public services through workshops on design thinking, in­novation, creativity and sustainable leadership. Miriam is an expert in LEGO® SERI­OUS PLAY® methodologies, game-based learning and is a master in group facilitation processes. She became passionate about LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® after seeing the positive and impactful results over and over again at each workshop. Group dynamics changed positively, creativity and innovative thinking emerged and bridges were built in teams and organisations. Using 3D modelling to visualise abstract ideas is very power­ful, especially the conversations that happen during the process. Getting aligned visions and actionable outcomes make it an incredibly effective tool in today’s fast-paced world. Slowing down, away from high tech is sometimes exactly what teams need to unlock their hidden potential and to reinforce their creativity. Before Bricks & Brains, Miriam had different roles in several companies as a service designer, UX manager, UX strategist, design coach and UX designer for BNP Parisbas Fortis, Belfius, ING, Telenet, Borealis Group, Godiva Chocolatier and others.

In 2016, Katharina von Knop founded her company, Digital Trust Analytics, to develop digital business models and cyber-physical systems and uses technologies such as AI and data science. The base was the result of a scientific research project she conducted. She has used the disciplines of neuropsychology, cognitive psychology and behavioural psychology to analyse how people can develop trust in digital, AI and deep tech solu­tions so that these solutions can be used better and more often. She is an advisor to Regify, a cybersecurity company that holds 47 patents in information technology. Previ­ously, she was responsible for strategy and new business development at an enterprise with 60,000 employees, reporting directly to the owner. Her five years in strategy con­sulting as a project manager at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and others laid the foundation for this. She is a certified risk manager and Katharina wrote her PhD thesis on countering terrorism. At the same time, she established the Institute for Applied Computer Science, an affiliated institute of Heinrich Heine University. She has written a book on terrorism, cybersecurity and psychological policy enforcement, published three more and published more than 30 articles in scientific journals.

Saskia Grossmann is a senior consultant at ONESTOPTRANSFORMATION AG and is spe­cialised in digital mindset and the human factors of digital transformation. She is current­ly writing a PhD thesis on the effects of employee experience on innovation performance of organisations. After her master’s in HR management at the Technische Hochschule Georg-Simon-Ohm Nürnberg, she started working for the group digitalisation depart­ment of Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg. Working in the department business 4.0, Saskia was responsible for creating an outstanding employee experience for the employees at Volkswagen. After two years, she moved to the HR strategy and innovation department and took on the topics “future of work” and “digital learning and competencies.”