Meet the techSkills team
Lorna Willis
CEO
Lorna is an award-winning CEO who puts investment in people and talent at the heart of the organisations she’s worked for. She successfully led the transformation of Archant Community Media delivering new revenue, audience growth and improved staff retention and engagement, as well as leading on the creation of a learning organisation with the emphasis on integrating digital skills and capability.
Lorna has significant experience across a wealth of functions including strategy, transformation, sales, finance, marketing, fund raising and sponsorship, and is the driving force to grow TechSkills and Tech Industry Gold accreditation to be the national standard for digital skills learning across the UK.
Margaret Sambell
Director of Services and Solutions
Margaret leads on offering development, external communications and business planning for TechSkills. Her earlier career was in IBM in software, global new ventures and new markets development.
Ryan Cousins
Digital Product and Experience Director
Puisy Luong
Community Manager
Puisy is responsible for supporting delivery of Tech Industry Gold programmes and for building and supporting our TIG community to ensure both Employers and Learning Providers benefit from being part it.
Puisy has worked as an assessor and skills coach, as well as in quality assurance and employer engagement. She holds a BSc Hons in Computer Science and joins TechSkills with extensive experience of apprenticeships, coaching and stakeholder management.
Sarah McLoughlin-Abrahams
Head of Services Delivery
Sarah is responsible for client services delivery and managing projects. She has many years experience in large scale programme management, skills development projects, and stakeholder relationship management.
Ian Bolton
Offerings Manager
Ian is responsible for developing new offerings, encompassing feasibility assessment, process design and documentation, also leading on partnership work with parent company techUK. Prior to joining TechSkills Ian has extensive experience across a range of senior educational and learning development roles, most recently working in the esports and gaming sector.
Claire Dyer
Business Support Manager
Claire is responsible for streamlining and maintaining all aspects of our business management processes to enable the team to operate effectively and efficiently. She has many years’ experience in project managing academic-industry collaboration frameworks, and in implementing workflow management solutions throughout organisations in the higher education and industry sectors.
Accreditation Specialist Network
Dr Oscar de Bruijn
Accreditation Specialist, TechSkills
Until 2018, Oscar was a senior lecturer in the Alliance Manchester Business School. He has extensive experience in programme and curriculum design. Together with TechSkills, he helped design the BSc IT Management for Business (ITMB) which launched in 2007. He was the ITMB programme director for 5 years between 2008-2013. He held programme directorships for the BSc Computing and Geography and the MSc Business Analytics and Operational Management, also at Manchester. He always put great emphasis on getting employers involved, both in curriculum development and in delivery, which resulted in near 100% student satisfaction and employability for all these programmes.
Robin Oldham
Robin is Course Director for Computer Science and Digital Apprenticeships at Staffordshire University having worked in Higher Education for 20+ years as a Lecturer, Manager and Technology Professional. He has demonstrable experience in building strong working relationships with internal and external stakeholders in the UK and Overseas. He believes in providing effective information, advice and guidance to help learners identify and achieve their full potential. He has extensive experience of course design, development, validation, delivery and assessment across STEM subject areas in higher education.
Dr Antonios Kaniadakis
Dr Antonios Kaniadakis is a Reader in the Department of Computer Science, Brunel University London, where he leads the Digital and Technology Solutions Specialism Master’s degree apprenticeship programme. Antonios has been involved with TechSkills since 2014 and is quite experienced with the design, delivery and accreditation of both the Tech Industry Gold degrees and degree apprenticeships of all levels. He is a trained Ofsted Inspector and passionate about helping providers offer education and training of excellent quality in line with industry needs.
Dr Kevin Doyle
Kevin has recently retired from his post as Associate Head of the Department of Computer Science and Creative Technologies at UWE, Bristol, where he was responsible for business liaison and partnerships. During his 38 years as a university academic, Kevin developed, led, taught on and examined a wide variety of courses, including BSc, MSc, MBA and Degree Apprenticeship programmes, and designed, led and delivered many professional training programmes for public and private sector organisations. He has also acted as an external examiner for eight degree programmes in five UK universities and provided consultancy to public sector organisations and blue-chip companies.