The Charity Accountants' Conference 2025 - Speakers

Having worked at Sayer Vincent for 11 years, Jonathan left in 2006 to work as a freelance internal auditor in the international development sector. Seven years later, and after a role with Mango setting up a new consultancy service, he returned – this time as a partner.

He has also been a charity trustee for the last 10 years – currently with INTRAC where he is treasurer and chairs the finance and audit committee.

Simon Hopkins is an interim and freelance specialist, focusing on turnaround and fundamental organisation design. For over a decade he has brought radical solutions to a number of civil society organisations which have significantly improved their financial resilience, professionalisation agenda and culture, whilst protecting and enhancing their insight and impact.

Simon qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG in London after leaving Oxford. He spent 26 years in a variety of sectors – ranging from financial services to central government – before moving into the charity sector in 2010.

Since 2013, he has chosen to specialise in turning round charities facing systemic challenges, typically – but not exclusively – centred around long-term financial sustainability. Since early 2024 he has chosen to apply his extensive experience in this area as a freelance and interim leader.

He is also heavily involved in the development of the next generation of charity finance leaders as well as writing and speaking on the changing nature of charity finance – he writes a regular opinion column for Charity Finance magazine, is an insight speaker on the Inspiring Financial Leadership programme at Bayes Business School, and created the Finance Journey, which is now CFG’s flagship development model for charity finance professionals.

Debra has worked in the charitable and voluntary sector for nearly 40 years with brief forays into the private sector.

Amongst numerous other roles, she is Co-Chair of the Soldiering on Awards. She is a Trustee of In Kind Direct, one of the Prince's Foundation Charities, a governor of the Berkshire NHS Community Foundation Trust, a Commissioner on the Local News Commission of the Public Interest News Foundation, and just recently stood down as trustee of the Berkshire Community Foundation.

She is also an Africa Advocacy Foundation Ambassador for women and girls at risk of or affected by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Debra has served as a trustee of several charities including being the co-founder of the Small Charities Coalition and was its first Chair. She served on the Charity Commission's SORP committee for over 7 years and was the Vice-Chair of Governors of Whiteknights primary school for 6 years.

She is a renowned public speaker with many years' experience of training and coaching and is an internationally published author of several books on management and leadership including It's Tough at the Top; The Pleasure and the Pain; It's Murder in Management and It's a Battle on the Board. Debra has a regular monthly column in Third Sector magazine and has appeared on Radio 4's The Moral Maze.

Debra is an alumna of Windsor Leadership having participated on the Strategic Leaders Consultation.

Eileen joined DSC in January 2018, and having worked within the commercial teams in charities and social enterprises brought a wealth of experience of generating income and delivering high quality services into the DSC Sales team.

Eileen’s many years’ experience as a trainer in both the commercial and 3rd sectors was then employed as she became a member of the Training team, designing, updating, producing, retailing and delivering courses and workshops.

Eileen enjoys being part of a team that is genuine, professional and totally committed to building sustainable charities with well trained, confident trustees, employees and volunteers.

George joined DSC at the beginning of 2017 and, having previously led the sales and customer service teams, moved into training at the start of 2020.

He trains in Management & Leadership, Fundraising, Personal Development, Project Management and Wellbeing. He has extensive experience in helping organisations make positive changes to how they approach social change.

He is also qualified as a Mental Health First Aider, with additional time spent studying Psychosis.

The favourite part of his role is knowing that the work DSC performs has a major impact on both the charities and individuals that we are able to serve.

Cathy has worked in the voluntary and charity sector in the UK and Ireland for 25 years. As learning and development specialist, her career has focused on supporting individuals and organisations in the sector to be the best they can be for their beneficiaries.

In her role at DSC, Cathy designs and delivers training for our public courses, events and in-house training customers. She also provides coaching and mentoring support to senior managers and CEOs.

Aside from specialising in management and leadership topics, Cathy is particularly interested in how to have the best relationships at work, as well as our own personal effectiveness in performance at work. She strongly advocates that collaboration is a happier, more creative and sustainable way of working and enjoys helping individuals and organisations find ways to do this more often.

Cathy was on the DSC Leadership Team for 13 years where she gained all sorts of insights into the financial and practical challenges that charities face in the modern world. Previous roles as trustee, volunteer, project manager and PA to a charity CEO, give her an experiential understanding of working at all levels within an organisation.

Stuart leads the team behind DSC’s bespoke research, funding guides and Funds Online research. He is a member of DSC’s leadership team, and a Mental Health First Aider.

Stuart's work helps to inform policy and practice in the charity sector, and he won the 2021 FiMT Research Award for his work on armed forces charities, which is cited at government level. He has co-authored ten reports on the subject, including the definitive Sector Insight: Armed Forces Charities report (2020).

Stuart holds a BA (Hons) in Psychology and Sociology, an MSc in Applied Psychology, and a PGCE in Psychology. He is a qualified teacher and taught for five years before moving into applied research.

As well as managing a portfolio of audit clients, Judith loves advising on governance and risk issues and working with boards and committees to help them develop governance practices, financial performance management and risk management.

She leads many Sayer Vincent training and facilitation assignments, including away days for boards or training for non-financial managers. Judith also lectures at Bayes Business School and helps run the Inspiring Financial Leadership course to train future charity finance leaders and recently co-wrote The Honorary Treasurers’ Handbook, a practical guide for honorary treasurers.

As a partner at Sayer Vincent, she shares the responsibility for managing the firm and leads on HR issues. Learning and development is a field Judith loves. She believes that, with the right support and training, we can master many things we may be anxious about such as numbers and finances.

Ross left Sayer Vincent in 2018 and spent two years working at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport. Here he gained valuable experience of operational finance, as well as working within the Civil Service during the time of dealing with the challenges of exiting the European Union and the Coronavirus pandemic.

As a returnee to Sayer Vincent Ross is thrilled to have been given the opportunity to re-join in an advisory role, supporting clients on a range of issues but particularly taxation such as Gift Aid, VAT, and direct tax. He enjoys assisting clients that deliver work he can identify with and see the value of the work they undertake.

Ross loves problem solving too, and there are always new challenges and applications with tax! Engaging with clients though leading training seminars is also something he really likes doing as part of his job and allows him to meet a wide range of people.

Jo became a partner in Sayer Vincent in 2014. She has been with the firm for almost 25 years, having trained and qualified as a chartered accountant with Sayer Vincent. She has a Diploma in Charity Accounting awarded by the ICAEW and Bayes Business School.

Jo is responsible for the audit and independent examination for a portfolio of clients, including those involved in health and social care, grant makers and membership organisations. She also delivers training in respect of governance and charity accounting, including tailored finance training for trustee boards.

Jo is a member of the Charities SORP committee, which is currently developing the reporting requirements for charities which will be effective from 2026. She completed a seven year term on the ICAEW Charities committee and she currently chairs the Charity Practitioners’ Forum.

Jo served for three years on the audit committee of UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs. She is currently a trustee of her local hospice, Farleigh Hospice in Chelmsford, where she is Vice Chair and chairs the Financial Governance Committee.

Jay Kennedy is the Director of Policy and Research at the Directory of Social Change (DSC), where he has worked since 2003 in a variety of roles involving research, policy and public affairs, and senior management. In 2024 DSC published Jay’s Speed Read on Campaigning, which is an accessible, introductory guide for charities wanting to influence the UK political system.

Jay is responsible for DSC’s Research Team, which researches information for DSC’s fundraising publications and its funding website www.fundsonline.org.uk, and conducts bespoke research for a range of grant-makers and other charity clients.