Tom Storey, Founder, Storey Consulting
Tom Storey is a recognised leader in social impact and ESG strategy within the built environment, with over 24 years of experience driving sustainable and inclusive development across the UK, delivering employment and sustainability outcomes on major projects, including the London 2012 Olympics. Tom now leads Storey Consulting, a specialist advisory firm that supports some of the UK’s most prominent developers—including Oxford North, Legal & General, Argent, Derwent, and Barratt—in embedding social value through planning, procurement, and delivery.
The consultancy is known for its systems-based approach, helping clients identify labour market opportunities, co-design impactful interventions, and unlock public funding to scale delivery.
Tom has recently worked with Oxford City Council to design a place-based skills strategy beyond individual developments. Drawing on workforce forecasting, regional coordination, and global best practice, this work lays the foundations for a shared, evidence-led framework that aligns development growth with skills provision, ensuring local residents—especially those furthest from the labour market—can access meaningful employment. This reflects a belief that social impact is maximised when partners work across systems, not just projects, combining data, design, and delivery into a single model.
Emma Coles, Partnership Manager, OIEP
The Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership (OIEP) was established in 2021, a partnership that brings together Members from various organisations across the county including employers, businesses, education, community groups, and the public sector with an aim to work together to create a more equal region that creates opportunities and benefits for all people within the county.
Providing strategic development and programme management, Emma’s role enables the OIEP to develop effective, long-term policy and initiatives to foster a more inclusive and equal county-wide economy.
Working with partners to develop and deliver a long-term programme of activity which will achieve the vision of the OIEP, Emma is focussed on four key areas: educational attainment, inclusive employment, social value and procurement and place-based working.
They have a Charter which they launched in January 2023 which helps organisations to embed social value into their operations to work to improve lives of our residents.
Jacqui Canton, Principal & CEO, Abingdon & Witney College
Jacqui studied History at the University of York, before starting a career as a graduate manager for Asda. After five Christmases in retail, and enjoying the people side of the business more than the retail side, she moved into training and development, initially working for a large engineering firm running national graduate and apprenticeship training programmes.
Jacqui moved into further education over ten years ago and has worked at various colleges across the country, primarily looking after apprenticeship provision.
She joined Abingdon and Witney College in 2011 and has led various areas of the college including apprenticeships, marketing, higher education, community learning and management information services. She became Principal and Chief Executive in September 2020.
Dr Paul Jackson, Principal Lecturer, Oxford Brookes
Paul engages in the full range of academic activities, from teaching and research, to knowledge exchange and consulting which includes teaching International Business Management (MSc).
He specialises in Digital Strategy and Leadership, Planning New Business Ventures, Group Consultancy, Digital Business Management, and Supervising MBA capstones.
His research focuses on the strategic and leadership aspects of digital innovation and transformation with a particular focus on the role AI and Machine Learning in organisational change, and has experience in the public, private and social enterprise sectors.
His work has had particular impact via via Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with Brethertons Solicitors and Blenheim Palace.
Lisa LLoyd, Psychologist & Founder, It's Time for Change
Lisa founded It’s Time for Change 14 years ago to bring psychology to the people-side of business. She collaborates with leaders and managers to shape environments where the workforce is engaged, high-performing and aligned.
Lisa gets under the surface of what’s going on by making space to evaluate practice, identify barriers and root causes, gain clarity about real needs, define success and provide people development. She is about change that is achievable, impactful and sustainable.
Lisa has worked with large organisations that include the NHS and Hitachi Energy as well as smaller, independent companies. With her people-focus, she gets to the heart of what drives the best performance and happiest workplaces for all to thrive.
Sarah Haywood, Managing Director, Advanced Oxford
Sarah Haywood is a leader, working in innovation policy, support and ecosystem development.
Sarah is Managing Director of Advanced Oxford, a not-for-profit group of senior leaders from Oxfordshire’s major knowledge-intensive businesses, working together to support the long-term development of the Oxford region as a dynamic and prosperous place to work and live. Sarah joined Advanced Oxford in July, 2019. She sits on the advisory boards for TheHill Oxford, the University of Oxford IDEA Programme and The Chemistry Department, Imperial College. She is a Visiting Fellow at University of Oxford’s newest college, Reuben College.
Sarah started her career in the NHS and undertook the NHS General Management Training Scheme in NHS Wales. She worked in a number of NHS Trusts, including Great Ormond Street NHS Trust, prior to moving into the pharmaceuticals industry, where she had the role of Operations Head for a drug discovery unit within Novartis Pharmaceuticals. Sarah then moved into government, working as a senior civil servant in a number of policy teams. Sarah led the Department for Business Bioscience sector team, now part of the Office for Life Sciences, and when working in the Labour Market team, she was responsible for the design and legislation that led to the shared parental leave system and the right to request flexible working for all. Sarah remains a committed advocate and supporter of flexible working arrangements and was recognised as one of the Timewise Power 50 Award winners in 2017.
Sarah studied Biology at the University of Oxford and also has a Post-graduate Diploma in Management (Health) and an MA in Human Resources Management and Strategy. Sarah is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and regularly works as a mentor and advisor across a number of innovation related programmes. Sarah was named on the Progress 1000 for 2019, The Evening Standard’s list of the most influential people in London, for her work with MedCity, the life sciences cluster organisation for London, which she helped to set up and led.
Dr Matthew Hogan, Innovate UK
Matt Hogan is the Knowledge Transfer Advisor for Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and West London at Innovate UK Business Connect. In this role, he collaborates with academic institutions and businesses through the Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) scheme, which has been fostering innovation for 50 years. Matt was involved in the successful KTP project between Blenheim and Oxford Brookes University.
Before joining Innovate UK Business Connect, Matt spent two decades in the food industry, primarily focused on R&D, while also gaining expertise in engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and open innovation. He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering and is a Chartered Chemical Engineer.
Professor Rajat Gupta, Oxford Brookes
Rajat Gupta is the Director of the multi-disciplinary Oxford Institute for Sustainable
Development (OISD) and the Low Carbon Building Research Group at Oxford Brookes
University, UK. He holds a senior professorial chair in sustainable architecture and climate
change. Rajat’s research focuses on decarbonising the building sector through energy
efficiency, renewable energy, and smart energy systems; local energy mapping for scaling
up energy retrofits; and climate change adaptation, with an emphasis on monitoring and
modelling the risk of building overheating.
As Principal Investigator, Rajat has secured over £20 million in research funding from UK Research Councils (EPSRC, ESRC, NERC), Innovate UK, and the EU to explore these areas. He is currently leading and collaborating on several UKRI-funded research initiatives focused on indoor environments and heat resilience for vulnerable populations. Rajat is also advising the UK’s Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on building overheating and has served as an ad hoc member of DEFRA’s Air Quality Expert Group.
Dr Paul Jackson, Principal Lecturer, Oxford Brookes
Paul engages in the full range of academic activities, from teaching and research, to knowledge exchange and consulting which includes teaching International Business Management (MSc).
He specialises in Digital Strategy and Leadership, Planning New Business Ventures, Group Consultancy, Digital Business Management, and Supervising MBA capstones.
His research focuses on the strategic and leadership aspects of digital innovation and transformation with a particular focus on the role AI and Machine Learning in organisational change, and has experience in the public, private and social enterprise sectors.
His work has had particular impact via via Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with Brethertons Solicitors and Blenheim Palace.
Dominic Hare, CEO, Blenheim Palace
Born in Liverpool and studied Law at Oxford, Dominic qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG & spent the next 10 years in corporate finance and investment banking (with Paribas and Barclays Capital), specialising in the media and telecoms sector. At Blenheim, he and the team are delivering an energetic vision of the evolved role of a landed estate today, not an historic anachronism but on the powerhouse of the local economy, custodians and innovators in carbon management and the heartbeat of local life.
