ucisa-London Women in Tech

Deborah joined UCISA as CEO in May of 2019, bringing with her a wealth of marketing and Higher Education experience, most recently as Director of Student Recruitment at the University of Hull following five years as Chief Executive of Marketing Leeds and 5 years at Leeds Beckett University, where she was a member of the Executive Board. She is no stranger to leading member organisations, having led the Law Society’s regional team earlier in her career, supporting 14,500 solicitors in Yorkshire and the North East and introducing a wealth of new initiatives and services, resulting in her receiving the Yorkshire Enterprise Award and being recognised as Yorkshire Lawyer of the year in 2007 for her services to the profession.

I’ve been working in IT since 1993 starting off as a Microsoft application trainer, moving into desktop support, server support and virtual environments. I’ve been in my current role for the last 4 years. My teams are responsible for the virtual and physical infrastructure at UWE, including Unified Communications.

Jim Nottingham is the CIO at the University of the Arts London (UAL) UAL consists of 6 world class Colleges of Art & Design and 3 Institutes. UAL has over 22 thousand full-time students and over 35 thousand part-time students and is the world’s largest specialist Arts institution. Jim’s role as CIO encompasses all aspects of operational University IT, University wide IT strategy, co-leading the University Digital Strategy, Major University IT based projects and University wide change programmes. Jim holds a Fine Art degree from Loughborough University and an MFA (EdD) from Louisiana State University. Jim is an active member of UCISA, Educause and a Eunis Board member. Jim is also a Fine Art Printmaker and a Master Printer currently working on restoration projects with Oxford University Press and the Bodleian Library.

Bella Abrams is IT Director at the University of Sheffield. She has a background in the design and development of online education and training. Most recently she was working in Further Education in Hull and at Sheffield College.