Clare Marchant
Chief Executive
Clare graduated from University of Hull in 1993, in History and Politics. She later went on to complete (alongside work) a MSc in Manufacturing, Management, and Technology from the Open University.
She started her professional life as a management trainee, then worked as Engineering and Production Manager for Rank Hovis McDougall. Clare then joined Deloitte Consulting, where she worked for a variety of clients including Burberry, Abbey, Department for Work and Pensions, and Department for Constitutional Affairs, leading large scale transformation programmes.
In 2003, Clare joined the Department for Health, leading the development and implementation of 'Choose and Book' and picture archiving communication services across the NHS. Having taken a short sabbatical to teach IT in Ghana, she returned as Chief Deployment Officer.
In 2010, she joined Worcestershire County Council as Head of Change, and in 2012, was appointed Assistant Chief Executive, with responsibility for leading change across the organisation. Clare was appointed as Worcestershire County Council's Chief Executive in February 2014. She left to take up the post of UCAS Chief Executive in July 2017.
Clare is passionate about delivering reform and value in public services, and particularly, the benefit education can bring to both an individual’s overall life chances, and creating a more productive society. She is privileged to lead UCAS during this time of considerable change in the education sector and have the opportunity to transform its services to students, universities, colleges, and student advisers.
Kevin Allison
Chief Financial Officer
Kevin joined UCAS in October 2017, and is currently Chief Financial Officer, responsible for Finance, Legal and Governance, and Commercial and Estates.
Kevin previously worked at Oxford University Press, in a number of different roles. In the education division, he helped develop and establish the commercial finance function. He then joined the academic division, which includes the Oxford Dictionary and higher education publishing, going on to become Chief Financial Officer for the global academic publishing division.
As Chief Financial Officer at Oxford University Press, Kevin held responsibility for leading finance, ethics and compliance, procurement, and stock planning. He was located in New York for two and a half years.
Kevin is a member of the Chartered Institute of Management of Accountants.
Dr Katie Bell
Chief Marketing Officer
Dr Katie Bell has extensive leadership experience across both corporate consumer goods and higher education sectors. She spent her early career at Nestle UK in various brand marketing roles based around the UK before taking the opportunity to work in Porto, Portugal as marketing director for Symington’s port wine company, and then in Barcelona, Spain as managing director of the European University business school. Her return to the UK saw her promoted through a number of marketing, innovation and board-level strategic planning roles at GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, where she was most latterly Vice- President of the Global Digital Marketing function.
Katie left GSK to take up a role as Chief Marketing Officer at Middlesex University, London, where amongst other things, she evolved the university brand, redesigned the admissions service, and most recently led on the launch of higher and degree apprenticeships at the University. She recently completed her professional doctorate in higher education leadership.
Katie is Chief Marketing Officer at UCAS where she is responsible for marketing, sales, communication and PR for both the UCAS charity and for its commercial fund-raising business. Her main focus is to enable potential students to discover the huge variety of higher education choices and pathways available to them, and, in particular, to ensure that higher and degree apprenticeships are within their consideration set. Growing the charity’s revenue is also a key focus for her team, as UCAS continues to invest in its work to increase access to higher education for students from disadvantaged and low access to higher education areas.
Elaine Chandler
Director of People
Elaine joined UCAS as Head of HR in July 2017. Her experience within human resources and organisational development spans over 20 years, and Elaine has worked across both private and public sectors.
Elaine started her career in TSB Bank as a cashier, but within two years moved into organisation development. She worked for a number of large financial institutions, establishing a strong track record in cultural change, leadership, and organisational development.
For the last ten years, Elaine has worked in the public sector in a variety of leadership roles, utilising and consolidating her expertise in people development, organisation design, strategy and effectiveness, wellbeing, and HR.
Elaine is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development.
John Cope
Director of Strategy, Policy and Public Affairs
John has worked in politics, communications, and policy development for over a decade across the whole range of education and training, from the early years through to adult skills. Alongside working at UCAS, he is a board member of a government agency, the Institute for Apprenticeships & Technical Education, and is an elected local councillor.
Originally from the Midlands, before joining UCAS John was deputy director of Public First, an education consultancy and polling company, worked with business leaders across the UK as head of education & skills policy at the CBI, and served as an adviser to three former education ministers. Outside of work, John is non-executive director of the Activate Learning group of colleges and schools, and is a governor of a special needs secondary school and sixth form.
Fiona Johnston
Chief Product Officer
Fiona joined UCAS as the Head of International Strategy in October 2013, to deliver the UCAS International Admissions Review, after working in the higher education sector for ten years as an international specialist.
Following this, Fiona headed up UCAS’ national partnerships, managing the key relationships for delivery of the UCAS Teacher Training scheme, alongside the day-to-day running of the organisation’s customer relationship architecture.
In July 2015, Fiona was appointed Head of Analysis Products and Services in the Analysis and Insights business unit at UCAS, with responsibility for analytical data and marketing services. In October 2017, she took over as Interim Director of Analysis and Insights, and was appointed Director of Operations in September 2018.
Fiona has a degree in Law and Business from the University of Birmingham.
Sander Kristel
Chief Operating Officer
Sander Kristel joined UCAS in February 2018 as the Executive Director of UCAS Media, one of the commercial subsidiaries of UCAS. He was appointed as the COO in May 2020 and is responsible for the successful delivery of the admissions cycle to over 700,000 applicants, customer contact, as well as the development and delivery of a wide range of products.
Sander has a diverse background in banking, the hospitality industry, and in one of the largest education providers in his native Netherlands. In the UK, he has previously worked for the internet provider Freeserve, before moving into the public sector where he delivered large scale services and major technology and transformation programmes including substantial insourcing and outsourcing projects. Sander’s previous roles have included digital, technology, transformation, and commercial.