20 Event Leaders at UK Professional Associations

Jonno White
Aug 12
7 min read

Last updated: August 2026

Professional associations depend on events to turn membership into something people can feel. Conferences, seminars, webinars, training days and awards are where members meet peers, learn from experts and decide whether an organisation understands their work.

This list brings together 20 directors, heads, managers and senior event people working at professional associations in the United Kingdom. The job titles vary, but the shared challenge is making the member experience useful before, during and after the event.

Why association events matter

A strong association event does more than fill a room. It gives members a reason to make time, a chance to learn something they can use and a better sense of why belonging to the organisation matters.

That makes event leadership a strategic job. The people below sit at the point where content, community, logistics and relationships have to work together.

1. Samantha Marsh

Events Manager, BESA

Samantha Marsh is listed in the BESA team. Her work sits close to the events that help education suppliers connect with schools, buyers and one another.

That makes the events function part of the association’s practical value, not just an item on the calendar. The best work in this space helps members find useful people and ideas at the right moment.

2. Kathryn Skidmore

Events Director, AIC

Kathryn Skidmore is listed in the AIC team. Her role covers event strategy and the planning and delivery of dinners, conferences, training and seminars for the investment-company community.

It is a good example of why event leaders need both a plan and a feel for the audience. A dinner, a conference and a training session may look different, but each one needs a clear reason for members to attend.

3. Katie Johnson

Events Manager, ALT

Katie Johnson is listed in the ALT team. She handles the logistics behind conferences, online events and webinar series, a mix that reflects how professional learning now happens across more than one format.

The mix of in-person and online formats also points to a wider change in association events. Members expect good digital access, while still valuing the energy and trust that come from meeting in person.

4. Marie Moore

Conference and Events Manager, BERA

Marie Moore is listed in the BERA team. The role connects the association’s research community with the practical work of bringing conferences and member gatherings together.

In research communities, the event is part of how ideas travel. Good conference work gives people the structure and space to test those ideas with peers.

5. Riley Grant

Company Secretary and Events Manager, ABA

Riley Grant is listed in the ABA team. That blend puts governance, member experience and well-run events in the same frame.

That combination is a reminder that event leadership often reaches beyond a single event. It depends on the systems, relationships and judgement that make an organisation feel dependable.

6. Anna Warren

Events Manager, UKSIF

Anna Warren is listed in the UKSIF team. Her work supports a busy programme for people working across sustainable finance, where the quality of the conversation matters as much as the room itself.

Sustainable finance is a field that changes quickly, so well-designed events have to create room for both practical learning and honest discussion. That is a demanding brief for any events team.

7. Anneka Finnane

Events Manager, Investor Relations Society

Anneka Finnane is listed in the Investor Relations Society team. The association notes that she joined in May 2024, bringing experience from membership organisations and a degree in Event Management to the role.

Experience in membership organisations matters here because the event is part of a longer relationship. The invitation, the welcome and the follow-up all shape whether members feel known.

8. Trish Lengyel

Marketing and Events Manager, BCSA

Trish Lengyel is listed in the BCSA team. Her role brings together marketing activity and industry events, two jobs that work best when they tell the same story to members.

When marketing and events sit together, the promise made before the event can stay close to the experience in the room. That consistency is one of the quiet markers of a well-run programme.

9. Sara Nilsson

Head of Events, AELP

Sara Nilsson is listed in the AELP team. She works within a wider events team that includes commercial partnerships and event coordination, helping turn the association’s programme into a useful member service.

A team structure like this gives events room to be both useful and sustainable. Commercial partnerships, programme design and delivery all need to support the same member promise.

10. Craig Doe

Events Manager, TSA

Craig Doe is listed in the TSA team. He works alongside an events executive in a team responsible for making the association’s sector gatherings useful, welcoming and well organised.

Sector events work best when the logistics disappear into the background. That takes careful planning, clear communication and attention to what delegates will need at each stage.

11. Katharina Balassa

Director, Communications and Events, BCO

Katharina Balassa is listed in the BCO team. Her remit joins the outward story of the organisation with the events that bring its professional community together.

Communications and events reinforce each other when the story is clear. Members should understand why an event matters, what they will get from it and how it connects with the association’s wider work.

12. Mary Economidou

Communications and Events Manager, BCO

Mary Economidou is listed in the BCO team. Working alongside the wider communications and events function, she helps keep information, relationships and delivery connected.

That coordination is easy to underestimate. A good event is often the visible result of many small decisions about timing, information, tone and follow-through.

13. Miriam Hackett

Events Manager, Knowledge Exchange UK

Miriam Hackett is listed in the Knowledge Exchange UK team. Her role supports a community built around sharing practice and learning, where a thoughtful event can make useful connections last well beyond the day.

The strongest membership programmes make people feel supported between major events as well as during them. Events can be one of the most human ways to show that support.

14. Lisa Holt

Membership and Events Manager, Tpas

Lisa Holt is listed in the Tpas team. Her work supports members and includes national and regional conferences and webinars, giving the role both a relationship-building and delivery focus.

Conferences and webinars each ask for a different kind of care. The shared test is whether members leave with stronger relationships, clearer ideas or a practical next step.

15. Elysia Moore

Association and Events Manager, ABTT

Elysia Moore is listed in the ABTT team. Her listed event contacts include the Theatre Show, MAKE A DIFFERENCE and ITEAC, giving the role a clear connection to the practical life of theatre technology.

Theatre technology is a practical field, so the best events need to respect how people actually work. Demonstrations, conversations and useful contacts can matter as much as formal sessions.

16. Temi Ayorinde

Conference and Events Manager, Booksellers Association

Temi Ayorinde is listed in the Booksellers Association team. The role helps create the gatherings where booksellers can learn, compare notes and strengthen the relationships that keep an industry connected.

For booksellers, an event can be a place to trade ideas as well as trade knowledge. The right programme helps people return to their shops with a fresh idea and a stronger network.

17. Sharron Powley

Head of Events, UCEA

Sharron Powley is listed in the UCEA team. Her responsibilities include the association’s learning and development programme and events such as conferences, seminars, masterclasses and workshops.

Learning programmes work when the event format matches the work people need to do afterwards. Conferences, workshops and masterclasses each have a different job in that journey.

18. Elvira Bagge

Events Manager, ISBA

Elvira Bagge is listed in the ISBA team. Her role covers planning, organising, administering and delivering ISBA events, the full chain from first idea to a finished member experience.

A full event remit rewards people who can hold detail and purpose at the same time. Members may only see the finished day, but the quality of that day depends on the work behind it.

19. Kirsty Walker

Head of Events, IPA

Kirsty Walker is listed in the IPA team. She leads the events function in an organisation where learning, debate and the exchange of ideas are central to member value.

Advertising is a relationship business, so events are a natural place for members to learn from one another. Strong event leadership creates the conditions for useful debate rather than noise.

20. Rory O'Brien

Partnership and Events Manager, Fabian Society

Rory O'Brien is listed in the Fabian Society team. The role brings event delivery together with partnerships, helping the organisation build conversations that connect policy ideas with the people who can act on them.

Partnerships give association events reach, while good event design gives those partnerships substance. The result should be a conversation people are glad they made time to join.

Conclusion

These 20 people show how broad association event leadership has become. It can include strategy, logistics, marketing, learning, partnerships, governance and member care, often in the same week.

The common thread is simple: useful events are designed around the people who attend them. When the content is practical, the welcome is thoughtful and the follow-up is clear, an event can strengthen the whole association.

About the Author

Jonno White is the author of *Step Up or Step Out* and a Certified Working Genius Facilitator. Based in Brisbane, he works with schools, organisations and leadership teams around the world.

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