Meet the team

In this section

At Bucks Students' Union, we have a great team of staff who have a very big ambition, to make life better for students at Bucks. They support the Sabbatical Officers in delivering the best experience possible for all of our members. On this page you can put a face to a name and get to know everyone a little better.

Senior Management Team

The Senior Management team takes the lead on strategic decisions for the Students' Union, ensuring the Union is working towards our goals and embodying the core values.

union@bucks.ac.uk

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Tristan Tipping

Chief Executive Officer

Tristan is the senior manager of our organisation, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Students' Union as well establishing our strategic direction, ensuring objectives are met in line with the vision and values as agreed with the Board of Trustees. Tristan works closely with our board and Sabbatical Officers, the Union's management team and the University Executive team.

Matthew Kitching

Deputy Chief Executive Officer

Matthew supports Tristan to ensure the Union is delivering on its strategic objectives. He oversees membership services functions including Representation, Student Activities and the Advice Centre to provide the best student experience possible. Matthew is also responsible for the Union’s governance.

Sarah Jackson

HR and Development Manager

Sarah ensures the wellbeing and safety of all of our staff as well as leading on our equality, diversity and inclusion work. She supports department managers on all things HR and manages our Training and Development team to enhance the employability of our members through the Leadership Academy, developmental programme, JobShop, and Bucks Award.

Simon McDowell

Communications and Marketing Manager

Simon oversees the Communications and Marketing team as well as monitoring and reporting on the Union's performance against annual KPI's. He also works closely with our external partners for advertising and sponsorships at Freshers' Fair, Union Awards, AU Dinner, and year round.

Lesley Favager

Finance Manager

Lesley has oversight of the Union’s finances. She is responsible for the preparation of statutory accounts, budgets and management accounts, and for ensuring that appropriate financial procedures are in place. She works alongside everyone from team members to trustees to help them have a good understanding of financial information. Lesley is also responsible for filing information with the Charity Commission.

Advice Centre

Our friendly advisers provide free, impartial, and confidential advice to all of our members on a wide range of issues from personal problems to financial issues, accommodation advice and academic queries.

suadvice@bucks.ac.uk

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Julia Crooks

Advice Centre Manager

Julia manages the Advice Centre and is mainly based at our High Wycombe campus, she is also one of the Welfare Advisers. The Advice Centre works collaboratively with the Vice Presidents Education and Welfare to deliver campaigns on support and advice to our members.

Tim Dixon

Welfare Adviser

Tim is a fulltime Welfare Adviser mainly based at our Uxbridge Campus supporting and advising our nursing students, though he also advises students from any of our campuses.

Nick Saunders

Welfare Adviser & Information and Admin Officer

Nick works as both a Welfare Adviser based at our Uxbridge Campus and an Information and Admin Officer at our High Wycombe Campus. Alongside supporting student queries, he also helps to look after our reception, monitoring petty cash, and managing the student parking permits.

Emily West

Welfare Adviser

Emily is one of our Welfare Advisers and is based at our High Wycombe Campus to help, support, and advise all of our members.

Hayley Bowden

Welfare Adviser

Hayley is a fulltime Welfare Adviser and is based at our High Wycombe Campus to help, support, and advise all of our members.

Admin Team

Our Admin team keep us going, from helping our members on the reception desk and selling our stylish merch to managing payroll and our Raise and Give fundraising.

suinvoicing@bucks.ac.uk

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Wendy Lumley

Finance Assistant

Wendy is our Finance and Payroll Administrator and the longest serving employee of Bucks Students’ Union. She deals with all accounts payable and receivable and processes our payroll on a monthly basis for permanent staff and weekly for our large student staff team.

Janet Gladstone

Administration Support Coordinator

As our Administration Support Coordinator, Janet schedules our committee and Council meetings, makes sure they take place when and where they should and provides detailed documentation for each meeting. She also provides administration support to the Senior Management Team as and when required.

Paige Kerr

Admin Assistant

Paige will be the first smile you see when you arrive at the High Wycombe SU reception. She helps signpost our members and university colleagues, either physically or over the phone, to the most appropriate service and also supports our finance team with admin tasks as required.

Bar and Events

The Bar and Events team oversee our events calendar for the year, including our Freshers' Fortnight line up and our annual three day Festiball. They're also responsible for our team of student staff who work in our social space, The Lounge, and our club, The Venue.

suevents@bucks.ac.uk

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Joe Snode

Venue and Events Manager

Joe is in charge of the commercial department here at the Students’ Union and The Venue. He is responsible for overseeing all the events, from conception to operation, and making sure that we are offering the best possible social experience for our members.

Elysia Hix

Senior Events and Promotions Coordinator

Elysia manages the events calendar by booking, arranging, and planning all our exciting event and activities, including: Frathouse, Festiball, and Freshers.

Harvey Wright

Venue and Technical Manager

Harvey has been working The Venue for a long time, firstly as a student tech and now he manages the operations and technical offerings of The Venue alongside the BucksHire service.

Jenaya-Nicole Hackshaw

Trainee Venue Manager

The Trainee Venue Manager is in charge of the day-to-day running of our operations making sure our members are not only having fun, but are safe on nights out with us.

Oli Simmonds

Events and Promotions Coordinator

Working alongside Elysia, this role would work to build exciting themes, promotions, and events, generating a full schedule so that our members have something to do 7 nights a week.

Shelby Swafford

Events and Promotions Assistant

Assists with the promotions, social media, and planning of our events calendar, this role is one of our student roles to support students in gaining paid, industry experience.

Emily Adkinson

Venue Supervisor

Emily works the as the Venue Supervisor overseeing the daytime trade offering the tastiest comfort food and drinks in our cosy social space, The Lounge.

Josh Mynard

Venue Supervisor

Alongside Emily, Josh is one of our senior members of student staff with an interest in business he assists the management team with placing orders, stock control, and looking after The Lounge.

Dennis Smith

Technical Supervisor

The Technical Supervisor manages the upkeep of The Venue’s high-tech equipment and assistes the team with external hires.

Representation

Our representation team are here to ensure that your voice is being heard at all levels. They support our network of paid stufdent reps, our school officers, and executive officers in representing their student communities. They also play a large part in helping our members to run impactful and successfull campaigns.

surepresentation@bucks.ac.uk

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Lucy Ryan

Student Experience Manager

Lucy manages our representation team, working closely with our student representatives to ensure feedback on the student experience is presented to the University. Lucy also oversees the work the team does with our Executive Officers and School Officers and is responsible for progressing student campaigns, making sure they are supported by the wider team. She is based across the High Wycombe and Uxbridge campuses and works closely with both VPEWs to ensure parity for students.

Frankii Toms

Student Engagement Coordinator

Frankii works closely with our Uxbridge & Aylesbury student reps, including organising elections and training, RepCon, and supporting these students through their responsibilities as a student rep. Frankii also works closely with our School Officers and Executive Officers, as well as student leaders across the University. She is based at Uxbridge and plays an important role in the day-to-day running of Representation.

Natasha Neal

Student Engagement Coordinator

Natasha is based at High Wycombe and plays an important role in the day-to-day running of Representation, supporting our reps based at the HW campus. This includes organising elections and training, RepCon, and supporting these students through their responsibilities as a student rep. Natasha also works closely with our School Officers and Executive Officers, as well as student leaders across the University.

Student Activities

Our activities team work across a range of activities to support the student experience in all co-curricular aspects. From hockey to radio, yoga to acapella, and all the way through to running your own fundraising events and volunteering for good causes.

studentactivities@bucks.ac.uk

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Catherine Lymer

Student Activities Manager

Catherine manages the student activities team and oversees our big annual events like Give it a Go week, Varsity, AU Dinner, and committee training. She also works closely with our Green Ambassador to deliver on our sustainability campaigns and ensure we're continuing to be as sustaiable as possible both on campus and in our activities off campus.

Daniel Lawrence

Student Activities Coordinator (Societies and Sports for Fun)

Dan runs our student society groups and helps them to deliver a great experience to their members over the year. He also runs our Sport for Fun programme by organising recreational sporting opportuniities for our members for free and ensuring that the bikes for our bike hire scheme are being well looked after.

Alex Ditchburn

Student Activites Coordinator (Competitive Sport)

Overseeing all of our sports clubs and supporting our teams with organising training facilities, transport, equipment, kit, and committee member training, our Activities Coordinator (Competitive Sport) also oversees the two largest sporting events in the calendar, namely Varsity and our annual Athletic Union dinner to celebrate all the sporting achievements of the year.

Kelly Wiles

Student Activites Coordinator (Volunteering and Charitable Fundraising)

Overseeing our volunteering programme and supporting student in finding volunteering opportunitites that would provide them with industry experience and lifelong skills and suporting them in logging their hours. This person will also work closely with our RAG Ambassador to deliver unique and exciting fundraising events to support our two Raise and Give charities as chosen by our members each year.

Training and Development

Whether it's practicing your interview skills and enhacing your CV or you're looking for a fun day out with your friends, our Training and Development team are here to support you in not only your career development, but also your personal development.

sutraining@bucks.ac.uk

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Jessica Hughes

Training and Development Coordinator

Jessica delivers the Leadership Academy to help students to develop their CV's, build their interview skills and support them into leadership positions. She is also responsible for the planning and delivery of the skills and recreational activity programme, working closely with course teams to enhance the co-curricular experience of our members.

Communications and Marketing

The Communications and Marketing team are responsible for ensuring our communications with our members. From the website to the membership guide and everything inbetween.

sucommunications@bucks.ac.uk

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Oli Gunson

Visual Marketing and Print Coordinator

Oli is our graphic designer and responsible for any of our materials you may see from a poster on one of the campuses to the digital screens in our reception. He also manages the student newspaper, The Bucks Student, and works with the editor to collect and curate the content for each edition. If you'd like to get involved with the student newspaper, you can email Oli at editor@thebucksstudent.com.

Nellie Hughes

Digital Marketing Coordinator

Nellie is our social media manager as well as being responsible for all of digital content, from this website right through to the emails we send you. She also manages the student radio, Rusty's Radio, and supports the team in on-boarding new shows and providing training in the studio. If you'd like to be a part of the student radio, you can email Nellie on suradio@bucks.ac.uk.

Student Staff

We're proud to say we work with lots of student staff across the year.

union@bucks.ac.uk

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Katie Smith

Projects Coordinator

Katie oversees both our Freshers' Helpers team and our Bucks Buddy scheme, ensuring that when our members arrive at University they have all the support in place to help them settle in, find their way around, and make the social connections that make university so exciting.

Student Staff

Freshers' Helpers

Our Freshers' Helpers are here to support our members from the very first day of arriving at university. You can always spot them as they're dressed in the brightest orange around and will be there to help you move in, show you around campus, and answer all of your questions about life at BNU.

Student Staff

Bucks Buddies

When you apply to study at BNU, a buddy will be assigned to you to answer any of your pre-arrival questions. They'll be in touch with you right through the year to check in and be a listening ear should you need one. They'll point you in the right direction for any support you need or recommend the best nights out for you to try.

Student Staff

Bar and Events Staff

Each year we recruit a number of bar and events staff who run our Lounge and Venue to ensure you have the best, safest experience in the town. This team have a vast range of skills and experiences and deliver the 7 day a week programme of daytime and night time events.