Board Profiles
After three years as a Market Analyst for the International Wool Secretariat, Rachel (Kolsky) went back to college for her qualification in Library Studies.
Her first job in the City was at SG Warburg and this was followed by ten years with the J Rothschild group of companies, where she was Library Manager. Her most recent position was with the Corporate R&D Department of AIG as Manager, Information Resources. Her role also included initiating and implementing 'special projects' for the Department. Those included the R&D Library Management System for London and New York, desk-top delivery of data to UK users and redevelopment of the global R&D Intranet.
Currently without a desk job Rachel has remained in London. As a Registered Blue Badge Guide she can be spotted leading walking tours, particularly around the Square Mile and east London. If time allows, her other favourite haunt is the cinema. Not just watching the screen but also acting as a Trustee to support London's oldest cinema, The Phoenix in East Finchley
Penny (Leach) is currently an information services procurement specialist, working for Business Information Services in the European Headquarters of a global investment bank. She deals with non-realtime electronic services, as well as the traditional format of books and journals. Previously she was the Vice-Director of Information Services at the major London law firm McKenna & Co. (now Cameron McKenna).
A qualified librarian, her career started in academic libraries, including Durham University, King's College London and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. Penny has been active in various professional groups, and has also presented at several information industry conferences. Penny has just stepped down as Trustee for the City Information Group.
Sylvia (James) has been working as an independent management and research consultant since 1988. Before this she worked for 20 years in various positions in research for financial service companies and multinational companies including eight years as Head of Research & Information at Credit Suisse First Boston, the international investment bank, in London.
Her speciality is business research, especially researching and analysing all aspects of European companies, preparing individual research projects for clients. She also speaks and writes widely on the sector in all kinds of training courses and business journals.
Gill (Voisey) was, until last year, the European Manager of Dow Jones’ Knowledge and Learning Programs working closely with corporate information professionals acting as a liaison between Dow Jones and the European InfoPro community. She joined Dow Jones in January 2000.
Before Dow Jones Gill represented LEXIS-NEXIS Europe as their Information Professional Consultant. But before that was on the other side of the vendor/client divide working at West Merchant Bank in London. She was manager of their information service which contributed tactical and strategic business intelligence to all divisions of the bank. Prior to that she was at Smith New Court a leading city stockbroker dealing in global equity markets. Here she was manager of their European information services heading up a team providing an information service for brokers and analysts, researching European companies and markets.
With a degree in modern languages and a post graduate qualification in information science from City University, Gill's very first job was at the British Tourist Authority in London marketing Britain as a visitor destination, as an assistant librarian. She followed this with over ten years at D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles a leading worldwide advertising agency providing advertising, media and marketing services, where she had a succession of posts of increasing seniority culminating in head of the marketing intelligence department.
After 35 years in the profession, Gill has now retired and enjoying a much more leisurely life with lots of opportunities to travel. To keep her hand in she does a bit of consultancy work from time to time.
Neil (Infield) is manager of the
Business & IP Centre at the British Library (BL). Prior to the BL Neil was manager of Business Information Services (BIS) at Hermes Pensions Management the principal fund manager for the British Telecom and Post Office pensions schemes. In the ten years he was at Hermes Neil developed BIS far beyond its traditional library services. He was responsible for the provision of market data services to the organisation to support the fund managers. He introduced a staff newsletter initially; written, typed, designed and printed by himself. This led to an interest in desk-top publishing and design, and resulted in him taking on the role of editor of the SLA Europe Newsletter.
He took the initiative in developing web activities within Hermes and was responsible for developing the both the company web site and its intranet. The intranet was built without any technical or programming input using a combination of FrontPage 98 and a team of enthusiastic volunteer webmasters across the company. He used these webskills to develop the SLA Europe website.
During his years at Hermes he developed an interest in Corporate Governance and at the SLA 2005 conference in Toronto he taught a half day CE course on the subject.
In the few hours of spare time that his commuting and two children allow Neil enjoys the odd game of tennis. He recently succumbed to a late mid-life crisis and bought a KR1-S motorbike after a 12 year gap.
Liz (Blankson-Hemans) joined Dialog in December 2001 as Manager, Information Professional Development for the EMEA/AP region, and is now Director, Market Development, with oversight for strategic planning and implementation of marketing activities outside North America.
Included in this role is the responsibility for driving customer-facing market relationships such as the Dialog Advisory Board, conference and professional association sponsorship, event planning and information professional market programmes and promotions including the Quantum2 Leadership Development and the Graduate Education Programmes in the region. She regularly presents workshops and seminars at a variety of industry conferences.
Prior to Dialog, she was manager of the Central Information Services at Clifford Chance, the international law firm, where she was responsible for providing a wide range of resources and services, including managing vendor supply relationships and contract negotiation, as well as research and reference services.
Kate (Arnold) is Director of Patient Information at Cancer Research UK with responsibility for the charity’s information services to people affected by cancer. These include a telephone helpline, an award winning website (www.cancerhelp.org.uk) – both of which are staffed by experienced cancer nurses, plus an online forum, Cancer Chat (www.cancerchat.org.uk). Before moving to Cancer Research UK in April 2008 Kate was Head of Health Information at NHS Direct Online, where she managed a variety of teams providing health information via the telephone, online at www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk and via digital television service. From 1989-2003 Kate worked for the BBC in a variety of information roles, including managing the development of a virtual research intranet site. She also spent a year on secondment as a Content Manager for the National Grid for Learning portal (www.ngfl.gov.uk).
Barbara (Robinson) established Robinson & Associates, a management consultancy, in 1984 in the US with a focus on libraries. Now based in the UK, she is working with UK and US clients. Prior to 1984, Barbara worked for KPMG in their consulting practice; served for seven years as Executive Director of a membership organisation of all types of libraries in the Washington, DC region. She has worked in all types of libraries -- special, academic, public, and school. In addition, Barbara worked in public television in the US (WGBH-Boston), publishing in the UK (Puffin Books), and public policy research in the US.
Barbara has an American MLS (Simmons School of Library & Information Science) and is a trained mediator and facilitator. In the fall of 2004, she attended a 6-day residential Tavistock Institute conference on leadership and the role of change agents.
Barbara has taught in American library schools and has conducted many continuing education workshops for SLA and other groups across North America. She won the H.W. Wilson Award for the best article published in Special Libraries in that year and has been a frequent speaker at professional events. She is delighted to the join the SLA-Europe board.
Jane (Macoustra) has twenty-eight years experience as an Information Professional, working in many varied environments including oil and gas, investment banking and law.
She runs her own consultancy, Tai-Pan Research , and during her varied career has covered every aspect of librarianship. Her current assignments include research, training, various projects and writing a book. She has presented at conferences and taught master classes on business research.
Jane is a member of CILIP (The Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals), the AIIP (The Association of Independent Information Professionals) and the SLA (Special Libraries Association) where she is currently serving as a Director on the Boards of SLA Europe and the SLA Asian Chapter. Prior to this Jane also served as Past-President of the SLA Asian Chapter and in 2007 was awarded the SLA Presidential Citation award for her work with them.
Jane spent two and a half years working in Hong Kong, and gained extensive knowledge of the Asian markets during her time there.
Before joining CILIP, Lyndsay (Rees-Jones) spent her career in industrial libraries. After a short stint as a management trainee at J&J Cash's (the name-tape people) she decided to do what she had trained for and took a job as Librarian/Information Manager for GEC Electrical Projects. The job actually entailed providing a service for 4 companies on a large site with a potential user base of over 6000. It was a solo professional post, which began Lyndsay's subsequent interest and support for fellow solos. She then joined National Grid Transco as the Librarian/Information Manager and eventually left there to join the professional body in 1997 with an ambition to improve things for those members who do not work in public or academic sectors.
Having recognised as a student that professional networking was a powerful way of adding personal and professional value, Lyndsay has been an active contributor to organisations inside and outside the information profession. She was a Committee Member of UKSG from 1990 to 2004, still serves on it's Education Group and runs occasional InForum (which she devised in 1997) sessions for the Group. She is a member of the Heart of England Branch of Women in Management (a special interest group of the Chartered Management Institute) and served on it's Committee for 6 years during the 1990's. Lyndsay has been a member of SLA since 1989, recently joining the SLA-Europe Board. There is always so much to learn and cross-collaboration within and without professional domains can be mutually beneficial.
Géraldine (Clement-Stoneham) grew up in Switzerland. After she obtained her MA in Musicology and English from the University of Geneva, she decided to move to London to pursue her studies at UCL where she completed an MA in Library and Information Studies. She finally set her mind on a career in the City and joined Bankers Trust as a researcher. She moved into the legal sector in 2001 and worked for several years as an information manager for Linklaters, a large international law firm. Since June 2009, Geraldine is the Corporate Knowledge and Information Manager at the Medical Research Council.
Her experience covers a wide range of activities including knowledge and information management, competitive intelligence, legal and commercial research, information systems archcitecture, information governance, open access publishing, team coaching and training.
She is particularly interested in the psychological and cultural factors influencing change management, how technology can facilitate knowledge sharing, as well as the role information professionals play in supporting strategic business objectives.
Geraldine speaks regularly at conferences and is a strong advocate of continuous professional development and networking. She is SLA Europe Past-President and Country Representatives Chair, as well as being a Chartered member of CILIP.
In her spare time, she likes to go back to her first love, music, and performs regularly in concerts around London.
Annie (Richens) is relatively new to the information profession, and completed her MA at University College London in September 2008. She currently works as an assistant librarian in the UK Civil Service, having returned to the central government department where she spent her graduate trainee year.
Annie’s experience in government libraries has led to an active interest in information and knowledge management within the government context, both internally and as it is disseminated to the public, and she is a member of CILIP’s Government Library and Information Group committee.
Annie’s connection with SLA Europe began when she won an Early Career Conference Award to Washington DC in 2009, and she looks forward to broadening her knowledge of information work and connecting with other professionals in a range of contexts.
Hanna (Lewin) has been working for NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence), a government quango, since January 2009. Working as part of a team of c20 information specialists in both Manchester and London she provides information support for the production of internationally respected guidelines which look at the clinical and cost effectiveness of treatments and makes recommendations to the NHS. She previously worked for the one of NICE’s Collaborating Centres based at the Royal College of Surgeons of England and the library at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. She did her first degree in social sciences at Durham University and her Information Studies MA at UCL.
Hanna won one of the student stipends to go to the SLA conference in Seattle in 2008 and since then she has been spurred into getting more involved in professional activities. She is Publicity Officer for the Commercial, Legal and Scientific Information Group (a CILIP group) and attends many events held by other groups firmly believing in meeting people from different sectors. Outside of work Hanna contributes to a blog on health informatics (http://healthinformaticist.wordpress.com/), is doing work with the European Association of Urology on their clinical guidelines on a voluntary basis and enjoys the arts, ale and boxing (but not at the same time).
Chris (Hunnings) is currently working as a solo information professional at the accounting firm, UHY Hacker Young. She deals with knowledge management and dissemination of information using her roles as editor of the group-wide newsletter, administrator of the UK intranet and as a business information researcher together with traditional library techniques.
Her career in the information world started in public libraries before moving onto the private sector during which time she qualified as an information specialist with her MSc from City University. She worked for AIG in their Corporate R&D Department for several years.
Over the past couple of years she has been involved with CILIP’s early career initiatives and is also a committee member of the North London branch of the British Computer Society where she arranges events that appeal to both IT and information professionals.
Sara (Batts) is Senior Research Librarian in the London office of international law firm Reed Smith LLP. This is her second full-time post in information work since graduating from City University in 2006. Prior to undertaking this career-changing MSc Information Science, Sara held a number of interesting but unrelated posts: organising conferences for a professional organisation, psychology research assistant, and the University of Nottingham's UK undergraduate recruitment officer. Library experience was gained at City and Westminster universities and through-part time work at other City firms.
Her current role involves delivering and co-ordinating training on library services and databases to EMEA offices as well as the unpredictable world that is researching lawyers' business and legal enquries. It is this variety and intellectual challenge that makes the job so enjoyable for Sara.
Sara is an active member of the profession. Prior to joining the SLA via the Early Career Conference Award, she was already working with BIALL and has been on the committee of the City Legal Information Group for three years. In her spare time Sara is working towards a part-time PhD investigating the use that the established church is making of the internet, in its Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 forms. If there is any time left over she will spend it watching football (she's a part-owner of non-league Ebbsfleet United), running, blogging at Uncooked Data (www.uncookeddata.wordpress.com) and seeking out interesting real ales.
Bethan (Ruddock) graduated from MMU with an MA in Library and Information Management in September 2008, following a Graduate Traineeship at the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester. She is currently Content Development Officer, Library and Archival Services at Mimas at the University of Manchester.
Bethan writes for the Copac Development blog (http://copac.ac.uk/development-blog/) and the Archives Hub blog (http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/blog/), and has recently started her own professional blog at http://bethaninfoprof.wordpress.com/. She has also co-authored a number of articles about Copac, and a journal article based on her dissertation (How UK academic libraries choose federated search engines) will be appearing in the near future.
Her association with SLA began in 2009, when she was one of the Early Career Award winners, selected to attend the conference in Washington. She now looks forward to the chance to engage with other new professionals, and encourage them to get involved with the work of SLA and SLA Europe. She is also a member of CILIP, and is in the process of chartering.