OUR TUTORS
Our tutors are Chartered Governance qualified, or equivalent in their field of expertise and demonstrate distinction-level technical expertise. They are currently working in senior roles or advising at a senior level within the subject areas they teach. They bring high emotional intelligence with strong interpersonal skills to create engaging and effective learning experiences.
Chartered Governance Team
Buff Cooper Founder and CEO
FCCA, FCPA, AFPC
Risk Management
Development of Strategy
Immersive weekly classes
Buff has a long and diverse career in strategy, risk, accounting and finance, having held senior roles in practice, financial services, education and industry.
Buff has tutored multiple CGI prize winners in Development of Strategy & Risk Management, with three prize winners in the 2024 sittings. To date, Buff's students have a 97% pass rate in Development of Strategy compared to the national average of 88% and a 74% pass rate in Risk Management compared to the national average of 55%.
For many years Buff has written and presented on ACCA & CIMA examination courses with a pass rate of 75% compared to the national average of 55%. In addition he has tailored financial, risk & strategy courses for businesses such as Renault Cars, Anglo Technology and Kyocera.
As well as being a Chartered Certified Accountant, Buff also holds Chartered Financial Planner status of the Chartered Insurance Institute. During his time in financial services, he specialised in risk management of large and diverse investment portfolios holding the Institutes Advanced Diploma in Investment Planning.
Seetal Anand
GradCG
Boardroom Dynamics
Immersive Weekly Classes
Seetal is a Chartered Governance professional with a strong track record in Board support within the manufacturing sector.
Working at the heart of a privately owned business, she supports the Board and senior leadership team across a range of functions, ensuring effective decision-making, clear accountability and alignment with best practice.
Seetal brings particular strength and experience in navigating complex boardroom dynamics and balancing commercial goals with governance responsibilities.
Seetal is known for her structured, thoughtful approach and ability to translate governance into meaningful real-world impact.
Seetal is passionate about governance as a tool for ethical leadership and sustainable growth. She brings this mindset to her Boardroom Dynamics sessions, where she helps students build the confidence and insight needed to thrive in the Board environment.
Jess Riches
LLB, ACG
Company Law
Immersive Weekly Classes
Jess Riches is a qualified solicitor with a decade of post-qualified experience specialising in corporate and commercial law.
Jess is also a Chartered Governance Professional and the proud recent recipient of both the Sir Ernest Clark prize for the best paper in Risk Management and the Ralph Bell prize for the best overall qualifying exam results.
Jess has a breadth of experience developed within the legal and governance functions of both the private and public sectors and regularly advises on corporate transactions, commercial agreements, risk management and compliance with governance codes. She has also led governance reviews and advises Board members on compliance with statutory duties.
Jess currently works inhouse for a local authority trading company and advises on company and commercial law and corporate governance.
In her sessions Jess' approach brings clarity and confidence to what can be a daunting and complex area of study.
Megan Freeman
LLB, ACG
Boardroom Dynamics
Risk Management
Mentored Programmes
Megan is a Chartered Company Secretary and Associate of the Chartered Governance Institute. Megan also holds an LLB from the University of the West of England.
Megan has a strong track record supporting UK listed companies across multiple sectors. In her current role in one of the world’s largest and most diversified financial groups, Megan provides day‑to‑day board and company secretarial support to a portfolio of issuers, ensuring effective decision‑making, clear accountability and alignment with best practice.
Megan brings particular strength in translating complex regulation into clear, practical guidance, balancing commercial priorities with governance responsibilities. She is known for her structured, calm approach, strong stakeholder management and the diplomacy needed to navigate boardroom dynamics.
Her experience spans FTSE 250 and AIM constituents, particularly investment trusts, REITs, estate agency groups and financial services which informs her pragmatic, sector‑aware advice.
Previously Group Assistant Company Secretary at Europe’s largest veterinary care provider, she combines listed and private‑equity experience to bring a rounded perspective to governance practice.
Megan connects frameworks to reality and links risk appetite to decision‑making. Her live examples from listed environments help students see how risks are escalated, debated and mitigated in practice.
She lifts the lid on how agendas are shaped, information flows are curated, and how consensus is built under time pressure, equipping students with the confidence, language and situational awareness to contribute effectively in the boardroom from day one.
Fiona Bywaters
LLB, MA, GradCG
Corporate Governance
Immersive Weekly Classes
Fiona is an experienced governance professional with deep expertise in public sector compliance, Board operations, and stakeholder engagement. She has led secretariat functions at both national and local levels, most recently as Board Secretary at a government regulator.
Throughout her career, Fiona has overseen strategic Board operations, executive decision-making, and governance best practice. She has designed development programmes, led effectiveness reviews, and improved transparency through work on freedom of information and whistleblowing.
With a background in legal and democratic systems in both the UK and internationally, she brings a unique and practical perspective to corporate accountability.
Fiona’s teaching is clear, practical and grounded in real-world experience. She focuses on demystifying governance structures, where sessions are designed to equip future professionals with a strong foundation in what good governance looks like in practice.
Madeleine Cordes
LLB, FCG
Corporate Governance
Company Compliance & Administration
Mentored Programmes
Madeleine has over 35 years' experience as a Chartered Secretary and governance professional in industry and professional practice.
Madeleine has had significant hands-on involvement at board, committee and shareholder meetings. She has developed corporate governance frameworks, advised on board effectiveness reviews and the flotations of many companies on the London Stock Exchange as well as de-listings, transfers of market and reverse takeovers.
Her previous roles have included Company Secretary of Carpetright, a FTSE 250 company, interim roles with Standard Chartered and Orange, Senior Manager in Ernst & Young's Company Secretarial Group and Director of Capita Registrars' company secretarial business.
Madeleine was previously a member of the Corporate Governance Committee of the Quoted Companies Alliance which represents the interests of smaller UK listed companies.
She is an examiner, study text reviewer and tutor for the Chartered Governance Institute.
Madeleine is a past tutor of Campbell’s College in Corporate Governance and Company Compliance & Administration and a regular speaker at conferences.
Madeleine has been the editor of Shackleton’s The Law of Meetings for 15 years and was past Executive Editor of the Company Secretary's Factbook.
Venetia Carpenter
FCG, FAIA
Company Compliance & Administration
Immersive Weekly Classes
Venetia is a highly skilled and accomplished Chartered Governance professional.
Venetia has extensive experience of all areas of the legal, company secretarial and corporate governance functions, as well as in HR, insurance and employee share schemes.
Venetia has had significant achievements in multi-national, multi-facility environments, creating new ways to achieve tough targets through her people, processes and partnership approach.
Venetia has a strong record in cultural awareness, skilfully creating and managing teams to achieve corporate goals and objectives in different business sectors that can quickly adapt to changing environments.
Venetia brings her story telling and engaging personality to her sessions, underpinned by decades of experience and technical excellence.
Jim Skinner
BA (Hons), C Dip Accounts & Finance, CIMA Qualified
Interpreting Financial & Accounting Information
Immersive Weekly Classes & Mentored Programme
Jim possesses considerable expertise in accounting and finance education.
For over 25 years, Jim was the lecturer at Campbell’s college for the Interpreting Financial & Accounting Information exam of the Chartered Governance Institutes qualifying programme.
Jim was Head of Business at North West Kent College, with accountability for staff management, student engagement and reporting. Jim successfully managed FEFC inspections, achieving high departmental ratings.
From his time lecturing at North West College, Jim brings extensive teaching experience in Financial & Management Accounting having lectured for the examinations of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the Association of Accounting Technicians.
With a focus on core concepts and exam techniques to ensure optimal student performance, Jim is mindful of the unique challenges encountered by part-time students managing home, work, and educational commitments.
Jim adopts a methodical, step-by-step approach to introducing new concepts, ensuring clarity from the outset. He is committed to pacing lessons to maintain active engagement and strives to support every learner. His assessment strategy aligns closely with examiner expectations, aiming to maximise student success.
Eden McLinn
BA (Hons), MSc, ACG
Company Law
Mentored Programme
Eden is an accomplished legal and Chartered governance professional specialising in corporate reporting, board support, compliance, and company secretarial functions.
As well as being a qualified governance professional with the Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland, Eden holds a Master’s Degree in International Management and Accountancy.
These equip Eden with analytical rigour and enhance her corporate governance capabilities when coupled with her industry-relevant expertise and exceptional report writing ability to communicate issues and outcomes succinctly.
She currently serves as Group Legal and Company Secretarial Assistant at a FTSE250 house builder where Eden plays a key role in meeting the group’s statutory and regulatory obligations and maintaining governance best practice.
Her role includes preparation and coordination of internal reporting, statutory and regulatory filings, compliance monitoring and implementation and board support activities.
Drawing on her academic and technical skills, Eden ensures of group policies and procedures align with current regulatory frameworks and internal standards.
Could this be you?
Contact us today
Chartered Governance Institute UK & Ireland
Qualifying Prgramme
We are always looking for talented governance professionals to join our ever expanding team of exceptional tutors. We will be adding additional courses for the September 2026 cohort taking the November 2026 exams.
You will need to be CGI qualified or qualified in your field of expertise and demonstrate distinction-level technical knowledge. You will need to be working in a senior role or advising at a seniot level in the field you wish to tutor in. You must also have high emotional intelligence and strong interpersonal skills.
Lorraine Curbishley
GradCG
Corporate Governance
Company Compliance & Administration
Content Adviser
Lorraine is a Chartered Governance professional working within the insurance sector, supporting Boards and senior leadership teams in complex, highly regulated environments.
Working at a senior level within a Company Secretariat team, she provides dedicated governance support to the Audit, Remuneration and Nomination Committees, the Executive Committee and a regulated Legal Entity Board. Her remit spans board and committee effectiveness, regulatory compliance, governance advisory and the delivery of high‑quality board reporting.
Lorraine has experience supporting board evolutions, with a particular focus on governance simplification, ensuring that governance frameworks remain proportionate, commercially aligned and fit for purpose in fast‑moving organisations.
She also maintains a strong interest in the responsible integration of AI within governance processes, exploring how emerging technologies can enhance board reporting, information flows and decision‑making while preserving robust oversight and control.
Known for her structured, pragmatic approach and sound judgement, Lorraine works closely with Chairs and senior executives to strengthen governance maturity and enable confident, well‑informed decision‑making.
Training & Professional Development Team
Buff Cooper
FCCA, FCPA, AFPC
Risk Management
Strategy & Leadership
Accounting & Finance
Buff has a long and diverse career in strategy, risk, accounting and finance, having held senior roles in practice, financial services, education and industry.
Buff has tutored multiple CGI prize winners in Development of Strategy & Risk Management, with three prize winners in the 2024 sittings. To date, Buff's students have a 97% pass rate in Development of Strategy compared to the national average of 88% and a 74% pass rate in Risk Management compared to the national average of 55%.
For many years Buff has written and presented on ACCA & CIMA examination courses with a pass rate of 75% compared to the national average of 55%. In addition he has tailored financial, risk & strategy courses for businesses such as Renault Cars, Anglo Technology and Kyocera.
As well as being a Chartered Certified Accountant, Buff also holds Chartered Financial Planner status of the Chartered Insurance Institute. During his time in financial services, he specialised in risk management of large and diverse investment portfolios holding the Institutes Advanced Diploma in Investment Planning.
Louise Danaher
MCIPD, PGCE
Strategy & Leadership
Human Resources
Change Management
Louise is skilled practitioner in management and organisation development. An innovative and focused strategist with over 30 years practical experience.
An experienced facilitator, working at chair, CEO and board level, Louise holds a rigorous grounding in all HR functions.
Louise has lectured in higher and further education, in tandem with providing management consultancy.
In recent years she has expanded her portfolio to include providing the strategic lead in research, insight and engagement within the not-for-profit sector.
Louise specialises in leadership, human resources and change management and is the lead on Strategic Tutors EDI training programme.
Laura Fox
Risk Management
Laura is a senior risk professional with a background in enterprise risk, operational risk, data governance and ISO 27001 in financial services.
Laura has worked across the financial services sector, embedding operational resilience, business continuity plans and enterprise-wide frameworks.
When running her own consultancy, she supported boards through complex transformations. creating space for challenge, and championing the importance of human-centric risk management.
Laura is a trained Neuro-Linguistic Programming practitioner and therapist and cares as much about mindset and behaviour as she does about metrics.
Laura's approach is simple but powerful. Empower people to make better decisions. Whether it's building a resilient risk framework or coaching someone through a tough crossroads.
Laura philosophy is clarity and calm which she brings to her Risk Management sessions.
Nigel Kendall
FCA
Corporate Governance
Board Practice
Board adviser and authority on corporate governance and good board practice.
Nigel is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a long-standing Member of the Institute of Directors.
Nigel’s vast experience includes Group Chief Accountant of a listed company, Finance Director of a private venture capitalist company and Business Director for a global strategy practice.
Nigel currently runs his own consulting business advising boards of FTSE 100 companies and delivering international assignments for global businesses.
Nigel has written and delivered board level courses for public and private sector clients, including government departments and local authorities.
He has chaired international conferences on corporate governance, and written a number of books and publications, including Real World Corporate Governance, published by FT Pitmans, Non-Executive Directorship, a Guide for Chartered Accountants, commissioned by the ICAEW, and Good Corporate Governance, with a foreword by Sir Adrian Cadbury. He is currently working on a new book, Beyond Compliance, the Board of the Future, and writes regular articles on current board matters.
His mission is to improve general board practice, particularly the role of the Non-Executive Director.
Paul Stark
AI in Corporate Governance
Paul is a leading thinker and practitioner at the forefront of boardroom transformation, where artificial intelligence meets board effectiveness.
As the founder of Agentia Boardroom and the Centre for AI in Board Effectiveness (CAIBE), Paul has dedicated his career to helping boards and governance professionals adapt to the demands of the digital era without losing sight of the judgment, accountability, and human insight that define effective leadership.
Drawing on deep experience across governance, technology strategy and organisational change, Paul works with directors, board secretaries and governance professionals to rethink how board operations and decisions are supported. His work is grounded in the belief that AI, used well, can empower, not replace, those at the heart of boardroom decision-making.
Through CAIBE, Paul leads pioneering research on how AI is changing the role of the board secretary and reshaping the effectiveness of board members. At Agentia Boardroom, he is building new technologies and methodologies that embed AI within the secure environments of regulated organisations, ensuring data sovereignty, governance assurance and trust.
Zia Rezvi
ACMA, CGMA
Corporate Governance Code
Zia is a CIMA qualified Risk, Controls and Compliance Executive with over 20 years building enterprise-wide governance frameworks across FTSE 100 companies and NYSE-listed organisations.
As the lead on Strategic Tutors' Provision 29 Masterclass, Zia brings unparalleled practitioner insight from a comprehensive governance transformation experience preparing one of the UK's largest retailers for Provision 29 compliance.
Zia's career spans the evolution of corporate governance from the early days of Sarbanes-Oxley implementation through to today's UK Corporate Governance Code reforms. Through internal controls leadership roles at BP, Subsea7, Royal Mail, Lloyds Banking Group and CBRE, Zia has designed, implemented and assured control frameworks across multiple sectors, geographies and regulatory regimes.
Zia has authored the DECLARE implementation framework and "Jenga Test" materiality tool, methodologies that help governance professionals navigate the 2026 design year with confidence.
The Provision 29 Masterclass reflects Zia's commitment to evidence-based education. Every teaching point is grounded in actual company practice, FRC guidance and real-world implementation intelligence gained from both consulting engagements and comprehensive FTSE disclosure analysis.
Currently serving on the Finance, Audit & Risk Committee at the Chartered Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals and as Non-Executive Director at University of Sussex Students' Union, Zia brings boardroom perspective to the course content, ensuring students understand both the practitioner and director viewpoints on material controls governance.
Sally Percy
Guest Speaker
Content Adviser
Sally is an experienced business journalist and editor and a leadership contributor to Forbes.com.
During her career, Sally has written for numerous publications, including ‘The Telegraph’, ‘Professional Manager’, ‘Accounting and Business’, ‘CFO World’, ‘Financial Risks Today’ and ‘STEP Journal’. She has also contributed to special reports in ‘The Times’. She is a former editor of ‘Accountancy’ magazine, ‘Project’ magazine, ‘The Treasurer’ magazine and ‘Edge’, the official journal of the UK’s Institute of Leadership. Her first job in journalism was working as a reporter on the ‘Wairarapa Times-Age’, a daily newspaper in New Zealand.
Sally has spoken on webcasts and chaired roundtable discussions and conference panels. She has interviewed numerous senior leaders and decision-makers from around the world, including several CEOs and CFOs of FTSE 100 companies, as well as Members of Parliament. She writes on a wide range of business-related subjects.
Sally also works as a commercial copywriter, speechwriter and ghostwriter, creating thought leadership content for well-known business leaders. Over the years, she has produced numerous blogs, articles, newsletters and white papers. In addition, she helps organisations to develop their content strategies.
Sally is author of The Disruptors: How 15 Successful Businesses Defied the Norm (Kogan Page), 21st Century Business Icons: The Leaders Who Are Changing our World (Kogan Page) and Reach the Top in Finance: The Ambitious Accountant's Guide to Career Success (Bloomsbury).
Prior to becoming a journalist, Sally worked as a management consultant for Accenture and for a London marketing agency. She has a degree in modern history from the University of Oxford.
Celine C. Okoroma-Vincent
ACIS, MITD
Environmental
Social
Governnace
Celine is a governance and sustainability professional with deep expertise in ESG integration, ethical leadership, and organisational accountability across both the UK and African markets.
An award-winning Corporate Trainer (NITAD Most Creative Trainer of the Year 2024) and a member of the International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP). Celine holds an LLM in Corporate Governance and is an Associate Member of Corporate Governance Institute Nigeria. She also holds an MSc in Accounting, an LLB and is a Barrister & Solicitor in the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
Her experience spans corporate governance, legal advisory, compliance, and strategic operations. Celine brings a uniquely global and practical perspective to ESG education. Her work blends regulatory understanding with realworld implementation, helping organisations translate sustainability principles into measurable, boardlevel outcomes.
Celine has supported Boards, senior leadership teams and regulated organisations in strengthening governance maturity, embedding responsible business practices, and aligning decisionmaking with longterm value creation.
Celine has developed governance frameworks, lead compliance initiatives, designed sustainability training, and advised on stakeholder engagement, risk oversight and ethical culture.
Celine is particularly passionate about the intersection of ESG, corporate purpose and organisational behaviour, ensuring that sustainability is not a reporting exercise but a driver of strategic clarity and resilience.
Known for her structured, empathetic and insightdriven approach, Celine brings clarity to complex ESG concepts and connects global standards to practical organisational realities. Her sessions emphasise critical thinking, scenariobased learning and the application of ESG principles to real governance challenges. She equips learners with the confidence, language and analytical tools needed to support Boards in navigating sustainability risks, regulatory expectations and stakeholder demands.
Andy Meehan
Guest Speaker
Content Adviser
For decades, Andy's leadership experience and dynamic forward-thinking has informed modern retail strategies that have helped small, medium and large creators and owners revitalise and grow their businesses.
Based in the USA, Andy has created and sold over 350 million greeting cards and stationery products, sourcing from Asia and locally, distributing globally, and earning multiple awards for innovation.
His tough-love alter ego, Mr Margin, has revitalised numerous creative brands that are busy but broke through his "teardown" approach.
As President of the Greeting Card Association (2023-2025), Andy created and spearheaded initiatives in major retailers such as Barnes & Noble and Paper Source driving revenue, engagement, and member benefits. Andy has founded and run the largest global network for the stationery industry with over 14,000 members.
Andy's expertise in strategy development covers sales, customer acquisition, channel expansion, and talent development.
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If you are interested in joining our tutor team please get in touch we would love to hear from you
+44 1428 609933