Meet the team

Currently heading up the HR & Payroll for Culina Group, a large logistics company, Clare has also worked for Wilkinson’s, Sherwood Forest NHS Trust, Mckesson, Bupa and Gist where she was a big influence on the changing face of the payrolls.

Clare loves to learn and her qualifications include the CIPP Diploma, MSc in Payroll and Business Management, CMI management certificates, Prince 11 Project Management and SWBL level 6 teaching qualification.

Working for the CIPP for the last 11 years as a tutor, Clare teaches on the Foundation Degree in Payroll Management as well as delivering module workshops.

Clare’s passion for payroll is evident to everyone around her and she likes to network with other payroll professionals whenever the opportunity arises.

She led the design development and project management of the CIPP Payroll Quality Partnership scheme successfully engaging over 80 organisations within a two year period.  Using strategic decision making she set up from nothing, built and successfully ran her own business for five years in an extremely competitive environment.  The strategic decision to sell the business also proved successful. 

Liz believes that the CIPP will continue to lead payroll and pension professionals through education membership and recognition with steady growth of its member base.  The UK government has confidence in the Institute and will continue to communicate with them as a prime source for employer representation.  It will continue to be a market leader in payroll education with standardisation and continued development of its qualification programmes.  As promotion of the Institute continues and standards and quality of its training portfolio improves it will also become the market leader in training with links to overseas professional bodies expanding.

Cliff Vidgeon is a Visiting Research Fellow at Aston University. Before becoming a CIPP Director Cliff served in an advisory capacity to the Institute’s magazine and has represented the Institute on several pensions related consultation bodies. He is a Chartered Governance Professional, and as Institute Secretary he has set about the task of modernising and improving the CIPP’s governance structures.

His literary endeavours have included articles for the Institute’s magazine and contributions to research papers. The annual Compact Payroll Reference Book was Cliff’s concept, which he co-wrote and first published in 1999.

Cliff’s main employment history has been entirely within the education sector. At various stages, in his career, he has been a Payroll Manager, a Pensions Manager and a Director of Human Resources before his reincarnation as Director of Corporate Management at Aston University. He is the Chair of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS)  Advisory Committee and a member of its Joint Negotiating Committee. USS is the largest pension fund in the UK.

In 2022, Dianne decided to look for a new challenge and joined TFG (Brands London) as the Head of Group. TFG London is part of The Foschini Group Limited (TFG), a leading South African retail business. TFG entered the UK market in 2015 with the acquisition of Phase Eight and have now added Whistles, Hobbs and Damsel in a Dress to their impressive portfolio.

Dianne is always looking for the next challenge and as we move further into the digital age and Artificial Intelligence hopes this will provide that challenge and there are exciting times ahead for us all.

This was followed by seven years at Fitzgerald and Law where he played a major role in developing the UK payroll service into a global service with a fee income in excess of one million.

Jeremy's current role is with MP Payroll Solutions where we are developing the bureau service to provide a bespoke service to our clients and making MP Payroll Solutions an important player in the UK marketplace. He is also pleased to say that they are currently undertaking a renewal of the CIPP PAS accreditation, as he is a great believer in Bureaux demonstrating its ability to provide an accredited payroll service.

The main thrust of Jeremy's career has been providing timely and accurate payroll services to high net worth individuals and companies in the UK and overseas and he has worked with various sectors such as retail, manufacturing, charities, local government and ex-pats.

Jeremy has an in-depth payroll, technical and legislative knowledge as well as strong people management skills, building and running very successful payroll teams in the UK and overseas.

He was also a tutor for the CIPP for around 15 years, which he particularly enjoyed and has also presented at various seminars and conferences as well as providing payroll training sessions overseas.

Justine was brought up in Spain and worked as an interior designer in Marbella when she first left full time education. Her tax career began after she moved back to the UK and joined HMRC as a direct entrant. Having subsequently moved into private practice and then the OTS, Justine has worked in in tax policy at ICAS since 2016, where she is widely recognised as a tax and HR expert. Having managed several payroll teams over the years she is well versed in all aspects of payroll.

Justine is a trained opera singer and also enjoys hill walking.

She is renowned by her clients, colleagues and peers for her ability to communicate; her diplomacy and knowing how, what and when to communicate; also for her ability to empower individuals to collaborate, sharing knowledge and coaching, developing and mentoring team members to resolving complex issues. Lou has built up and maintained good relationships with government bodies, suppliers and also many of her clients across the globe which has given her the capability of learning and understanding the different cultures and ways of working and how best to adapt to communicating well with all individuals.  Lou is passionate about payroll and takes pride in maintaining her legislative knowledge; utilising and sharing her knowledge and experience by speaking publicly at conferences, in interviews and webinars, writing articles for industry press and delivering training courses on a variety of topical subjects.   

With over 35 years’ experience in payroll and HR sectors and a broad experience in sales, accounting and operations, he enjoys opportunities to pass on subject knowledge and help others develop.

He has experience of working at a strategic level, developing and implementing new concepts as well as understanding budgets and financial planning. From a payroll clerk, when he was a founder member of the BPMA, to CEO of a multimillion turnover company, his experience is broad as it is wide. Stuart achieved the Diploma in Payroll Management (2003), a further Diploma in Applied Management (2005) and graduated from Henley Business School, (University of Reading) with a Masters in Applied Management (2011).

He sees the CIPP playing an increasing role in helping, guiding and keeping payroll people updated and effectively trained for their roles, and engaging more in promoting the benefits of a career in payroll through programmes like apprenticeships. He believes passionately that ‘payroll’ can do much more in the strategic decision process within organisations and sees the CIPP helping to develop payroll into an influential role within businesses.

He was the Chief Pensions and External Affairs Officer at Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) Limited from 2001 to 2016; he is currently employed by Universities UK, the employer representative body in USS, as Senior Pensions Officer.  He also provides pensions advisory support for a small number of other universities in the higher education sector.

Brendan has a good understanding of the issues and challenges involved in running workplace pension schemes in an environment of continual change and increasing complexity (not least in areas such as changes to scheme design and/or contributions, the development of workforce pensions strategies, and in stakeholder and member engagement).  He is an enthusiastic advocate for the importance of payroll and pensions services, and for the professionals who manage and administer pension schemes, and shape their future strategy, on behalf of members and employers.

Sohail qualified with KPMG Birmingham as a Chartered Certified Accountant and worked in a number of roles before and after qualifying . He was involved in the audit of a number of publicly-listed companies, primarily in the United Kingdom.  He was also involved with organisations such as the Shakespeares Birthplace Trust in the preparation of their financial statements and a number of private limited companies.

After leaving KPMG he set up his own accountancy practice, primarily assisting owner managers set up their own companies and developing them.  This work included looking at all aspects of company taxation and accounting matters, as they affected individual companies, and considering acquisitions where appropriate.

In recent years he has also offered tax and accounting advice on specific projects.

Before joining the CIPP Jason was MD of Calendar Consulting Ltd, and prior to that COO of Capita’s HR Division. Jason has supported the international growth of payroll services businesses such as NorthgateArinso, and LogicaCMG where he worked in global delivery. Jason has always worked in payroll – beginning his working career in the construction sector.

Jason is also a 'Be The Business Mentor', which is a central government initiative to support the SME sector, and designed to help improve productivity. He has recently supported an MD of a marketing business, an MD of a talent acquisition business and a CTO working for a sports data analysis business. Mentoring is incredibly rewarding and Jason finds it a positive challenge to support individuals from all different business backgrounds.

Outside of work, Jason is a L2 England Union Rugby Coach, and trains under 16’s. He started that development as his son is a hooker for his school and club. Jason also has a UK powerboat licence and the International equivalent, as he owns a sports cruiser and has her berthed in the Mediterranean.

Before joining the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP) as business operations director in February 2016 and becoming chief executive officer in September 2016, Ken was latterly with Capita as operations director responsible for payroll and HR shared centres in Bootle and Barnet primarily in the NHS and Local Government markets. 

Ken's career track record includes global outsourcing director, head of BPO operations and various service director roles within the payroll and HR services industry with NGA HR, ADP and Rebus and over 30+ years’ experience in the industry.

Ken built a successful reputation as the strategic head of operational delivery of BPO services, including establishing payroll and HR services in India and the Philippines. In addition he implemented and ensured global compliance standards as well as quality dashboards across clients and centres.

Prior to these management roles Ken worked for Shell, North Yorkshire County Council and Cambridgeshire County Council in various roles within payroll, starting initially as a payroll clerk and moving through various related roles into management positions. 

Ken's association with what is now the CIPP began with initial membership of APSA (Association of Payroll and Superannuation Administrators way back in 1983), and then subsequently through the BPMA, IPBM and IPPM until elected as a non-executive director to the board of the Institute of Payroll Professionals (IPP) in 2004 and following re-election in November 2006 was appointed as vice chair of the IPP in 2007 and chair in 2008 and 2009.

Vickie was appointed Business Development Director at the CIPP in 2019. In this role, Vickie is responsible for setting the strategic objectives and direction of the CIPP alongside the CEO, Senior Leadership Team and Board.

Prior to this appointment, Vickie has worked within the CIPP for nearly 20 years, during which time she has had responsibility for marketing and sales, events and policy, consultancy and the CIPPs best practice standard accreditation, the Payroll Assurance Scheme. Vickie has worked with a number of organisations, both in-house payroll teams and payroll service providers, to help influence product and service developments within the CIPP. Her role also leads to a number of speaking engagements and representation of the payroll industry within the media to support the CIPP in raising the profile of the strategic role of payroll, and its importance within businesses and the UK economy overall.

Outside of her work commitments, Vickie is a Mum and enjoys running to keep fit.

Sue has over twenty years’ commercial experience built from practical managerial experience in the private sector, and development experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Having worked in many house-hold brand name organisations such as Accenture, Punch Retail, Tarmac, Stagecoach, and Granada, she joins the CIPP with a proven track record of success in operational management and learning and development positions. She has also ran her own private development company for 14 years.

Sue has extensive experience in the Higher Education sector, having lectured at De Montfort University in Leicester and at the University of Derby. Having completed a Doctorate of Education in Business Coaching, she has continued to coach practitioners and business leaders both through the university and through her own private business. As a Senior Lecturer, Sue has taught and programme managed programmes from level 5 through to level 8, including the CIPP’s MSc in Business and Reward Management and the BA (Hons) in Applied Business and management. She is also a trained supervisor for doctoral students. Sue has authored a book, published a number of articles on business coaching in educational journals and presented papers at several conferences.

Prior to joining the CIPP, Jill worked in local Government for 25 years.

Due to the restructuring of the authority, Jill began working for East Riding of Yorkshire Council in 1996 and transferred to the payroll section in January 1997 as a payroll supervisor. Jill has gained a wealth of knowledge and experience in both local government and end-user clients which include fire Service, educational sector and the probation service.

In 2005 the payroll was outsourced to Arvato and Jill was promoted to senior payroll officer. This role involved implementing new clients onto the database, ensuring payments were made to HMRC, teachers pensions third parties every month and the reconciliation of year-end payrolls.

In 2013 the section transferred back to ERYC and Jill progressed to payroll team leader assuming responsibility for 6 staff, managing the day to day running of the department and ensuring that all legislation was implemented and staff were trained in both statutory and government policies.

A diploma graduate and holding the certificate in Training Practice (CIPD) qualification Jill became a freelance trainer for CIPP Education in April 2015 delivering bespoke in-house courses as well as introduction to payroll, shared parental leave, holiday pay and legislation updates.

Sam is a self-confessed payroll enthusiast who is passionate about everything related to payroll. Sam has worked as a payroll manager in both an in-house and a bureau environment and has 14 years' worth of payroll experience. Directly before joining the CIPP, Sam worked as an employment tax advisor at Croner-i. The CIPP has been a large part of Sam's career, from studying the Foundation Degree, to the training courses allowing her to refresh her knowledge on certain topics, the amazing annual conference, and the fantastic benefit of the advisory service. Now in the role of Policy Lead, she is so pleased to be able to give something back!

Sam completed the CIPP Foundation Degree in Payroll Management in 2015, and also received the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Certificate in Human Resource Management in 2016.

On a more personal level, Sam loves spending her spare time with her husband and two sons, and her friends, and loves getting outdoors. She is also a huge fan of cooking and baking.

Lora has a wealth of knowledge and experience gained over ten years of working within the payroll profession. She has experience of delivering payroll solutions, to colleagues in-house and also to clients using bureaux services and has worked across a wide range of sectors.

Lora brings passion and enthusiasm, for the payroll profession, to her role as Policy and Research officer and joined the CIPP in order to serve members and the wider profession by providing support, to ensure compliance with the increasingly complex range of rapidly changing legislation.

Her role also promotes the importance of education, training and continued professional development for a profession whose value is often overlooked but Is vital to ensure that employees and workers get paid accurately, first time. Lora is eager to promote and raise the profile of payroll so that it gets the recognition that it deserves.

Mat gets involved with publishing payroll news, producing technical articles and presenting on events, amongst many other things. He is committed to educating the payroll profession to ensure compliance and understanding, particularly in smaller businesses.

Mat began his career in finance as an accounts assistant, eventually moving across to Liaison Group, where he initially worked as a payroll administrator, processing weekly payroll for the NHS. He has worked for Liaison Group for the last five years and, in 2019 became a team leader. During this time, Mat was involved in the implementation of new systems, including new payroll software and workforce management solutions. He has extensive knowledge of temporary workers and understands how complex legislation can be. He also enjoys using his problem-solving skills.

Outside of payroll and work, Mat's hobbies include playing various video games and going for walks with his wife, Laura, and dog, Misty.

Promotion followed which went on to expand her skills and experiences and following nine years with Birmingham City Council she relocated and re-joined Solihull MBC as a Shared Services Administrator incorporating a wide range of duties. Angela recently concluded a two year course of study and gained the Foundation Degree in Payroll Management in November 2013.

Chevonne started her career assisting the Human Resources department with the Time and Attendance reports and then moved on to process Irish Payroll. After this, Chevonne knew Payroll was her passion and loves manual calculations. In 2017, it was the opportune time for her to start the Foundation Degree in Payroll Management, which she completed in November 2019. She enjoys her role as she finds the complexities with legislation interesting and there is always more to learn.

During her career Lisa later managed a team of payroll and expenses administrators, as well as being involved in the implementation of two new cloud-based solutions in the team - a HCM payroll software system and a new employee expenses portal. 

Lisa enjoys the complexities of payroll and expenses and understands that HMRC compliancy and legislation can be quite daunting.