Speakers

Carol Culley OBE CPFA, Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, Manchester City Council

Carol is the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer at Manchester City Council. She is the Council’s Section 151 Officer and has responsibility for Finance and Procurement, Commercial Governance, Revenues and Benefits and Customer, Internal Audit, HROD, ICT and Capital Programme Delivery. Carol leads Manchester’s transformation programme and the Zero Carbon Action Plan, whilst also serving as the Senior Responsible Officer for Factory International and Our Town Hall projects.  Her previous roles in Manchester include Assistant Chief Executive for Finance and Performance, and Assistant Director of Finance and Commissioning for Social Services.  Carol has a wealth of experience in financial management, governance and assurance and fulfilling trustee roles.  She is CIPFA qualified, has a diploma in management and is a member of the CIPFA Council. Carol was recently appointed as chair of the CIPFA Public Financial Management Board and is CIPFA Junior Vice President. In her spare time, she is an avid Southampton fan and season ticket holder. Carol also enjoys running and walking in the Peak District.

Joanne Brown, CIPFA in Scotland Branch Chair

Jo Brown has over 20 years’ experience of working with public sector organisations in Scotland and England. Jo joined PwC as a graduate trainee specialising in external audit and internal audit, across the NHS, Local Government and Central Government and became CIPFA qualified in 2005. She joined Grant Thornton UK LLP in 2015 to lead their Public Sector team and became a Partner in July 2019. More recently, Jo has taken on a leadership role for our Public Sector team in London, leading a portfolio of NHS and Local government clients and a team of 140 people. In her external audit role she has worked with a number of high profile organisations across the public sector, including supporting Audit Scotland in statutory reporting covering financial statements and the wider scope, Value for money reporting. Jo became chair of the CIPFA Scotland branch in June 2023.

Shona Robison, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance

Educated at Alva Academy, she went on to graduate from Glasgow University with a Social Sciences MA and Jordanhill College with a Postgraduate Certificate in Community Education. She previously worked for Glasgow City Council’s Social Work Department. Shona was MSP for the North East from 1999-2003 before being elected MSP for Dundee East in 2003 (now renamed Dundee City East). Latterly she was Shadow Minister for Health and Social Justice and a member of the Parliament’s Health Committee. She was appointed Minister for Public Health in the minority Scottish Government formed after the May 2007 election. In February 2009, she additionally assumed responsibility for the sport remit and her title changed to Minister for Public Health and Sport. After the 2011 election, Shona was made Minister for Commonwealth Games and Sport. In 2014, with additional responsibilities for Equalities and Pensioners’ Rights being added to her portfolio, she became a full member of the Scottish Cabinet and served as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport until June 2018. Following the 2021 election, Shona was appointed Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government, and in March 2023, she became the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance.

Jyoti Banerjee, CEO and co-founder of North Star Transition

North Star Transition aims to accelerate systemic change and Jyoti was part of the team that created the Integrated Reporting movement globally. Jyoti has been an impact investor for two decades and used to be an entrepreneur in the tech sector. He taught technology entrepreneurship at Said Business School, University of Oxford. Jyoti grew up in New Delhi and lives in London.