Board Profiles

After three years as a Market Analyst for the International Wool Secretariat, Rachel 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. Currently she is with the Corporate R&D Department of AIG as Manager of the Information Resources teams in London and Paris. Her role also includes initiating and implementing 'special projects' for the Department. Recently these have been the R&D Library Management System for London and New York and desk-top delivery of data to UK users. Her latest project is to redevelop the global R&D Intranet.

When not at her desk, Rachel often remains in The City. As a Registered Blue Badge Guide she can be spotted leading walking tours, not only around the Square Mile but also in the East End and Spitalfields. If time allows, her other favourite haunt is the cinema. Not just watching films but also gathering support for London's oldest cinema, The Phoenix in East Finchley.

Penny 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 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 is the European Manager of Factiva's Knowledge and Learning Programs and she also works closely with corporate information professionals acting as a liaison between Factiva and the European InfoPro community

Before Factiva 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.

On the non working side of life Gill claims that she has absolutely no hobbies and no social life.

Neil 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 is Director, International Information Professional Development at Dialog. She manages the deployment of Quantum2 (Dialog’s Leadership Development Programme) in Europe and Asia Pacific, the EMEA Dialog Customer Advisory Board, and the Graduate Education Programme outside North America. She also coordinates the company’s interactions with European professional groups such as CILIP, CiG andSLA Europe. She is president of the Chapter for 2004-2005 and also sits on the SLA’s Diversity Leadership Development Programme committee. In addition, she has presented papers at a number of industry conferences.

Liz has more than 15 years experience in the information industry. Prior to Dialog, she was at Clifford Chance, the international law firm, managing the Central Information Services responsible for providing a wide range of resources and services, including vendor supply relationships and contract negotiation, research and reference services as well as resource and systems management.

Kate works for Cancer Research UK as Director of Patient Information. She leads the team who produce the Cancer Help website (www.cancerhelp.org.uk) and the cancer information nurse team who answer phone calls and emails from patients and carers.

Before moving to Cancer Research UK Kate worked at NHS Direct where she was Head of Health Information with responsibility for three teams (telephone service, Online Equiry service and website/TV content) who form health information service.

Prior to joining NHS Direct Kate worked for the BBC for 14 years in a variety of information roles, including managing the development of a virtual research intranet site. She also spend a year on secondment as a Content Manager for National Grid for Learning website.

Kate is an active participant in professional activities. She is currently both a Director and Secretary for the SLA Board of Directors as well as secretary of SLA Europe.

Barbara 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 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.

Vicky Connor is currently Research Manager and Vice President at Deutsche Bank, an investment bank in the City of London. She has worked for Deutsche for the last 8 years, starting as a Senior Researcher. Previously Vicky was a Senior Researcher with Bain and Company and prior to that was sole Librarian at Casson Beckman chartered accountants.

Vicky fell into the profession, after applying for any job that would get her to London after graduating in history, and after a nine months stint as a library assistant at King's College in Kensington back in 1991 was hooked.

Vicky completed her MSc in Information Science at City University. Her dissertation written in 1996 was entitled "The End User Revolution" and looked at the growing importance of end users to our vendor community, and the perceived threat to the information professional. Vicky comments " It seems strange that relatively recently end users were seen as a threat to the existence of the Information Professional. It will be interesting to see if todays hot topic, outsourcing becomes a normal part of everyday working life that we all take for granted."

Outside of work Vicky is an avid football fan, following her local team Watford FC. She enjoys visiting new destinations on holidays, shopping and theatre.

Before joining CILIP, Lyndsay 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 grew up in Switzerland. Her first role was as a Library Assistant for the Musicology Department at the University of Geneva, where she was studying for her first degree. Seduced by an article in the TLS advertising a job as Music Librarian at the British Library, she decided to move to London. She pursued her studies at University College London and obtained an MA in Library and Information Studies. She finally set her mind on a career in the City and joined Bankers Trust as a junior researcher, which then became part of Deutsche Bank. She moved into the legal sector in 2001 and is currently working as an information manager for law firm Linklaters. Her role covers a wide range of activities including knowledge management, database development, legal and commercial research. She is particularly interested in knowledge sharing and how this can be supported by information professionals. Geraldine is a Chartered member of CILIP and a member of CIG. In her spare time, she likes to go back to her first love, music, and performs with her local brass band.