UKSPA Directory
UKSPA Executive Team
Paul Wright Director and Chief Executive
Paul ’ s career started in 1979 when he joined the Civil Service as a management trainee . He enjoyed a broadbased introduction to several government departments , and was involved in driving the direction of national skills training and business development policies for 8 years . He was part of the team that designed and wrote the national “ Investor In People ” initiative which remains the standard for training and development in the UK .
Paul then moved on to work for the embryonic Prince ’ s Youth Business Trust , where as Regional Director he established the Board in Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire , and helped to start and develop over 50 new businesses .
In the early 1990s he was recruited onto the development team of the Cambridgeshire TEC to develop strategic plans for education , training , and business support services and became a key advisor in the creation of the “ Cambridge Phenomenon . He developed a portfolio of new products and services to support the creation and growth of technology based firms .
Paul has worked as CEO for the last 13 years , and has seen the Association go from strength to strength during this period .
Jim Duvall Membership Manager
Jim was appointed as Membership Manager of the Association in February 2008 . He was previously Head of Information Management at the Local Government Association ( LGA ) which is the organisation representing all local authorities in England and Wales .
At the LGA he was responsible for a number of services for a group of national organisations . These included developing a national “ one stop shop ” for local government enquiries through the creation of a specialist call centre . He also was responsible for the delivery of a shared CRM system that captured data on membership contact as well as bringing together the websites and staff intranets of the organisations .
Prior to that he was Public Affairs Manager at the Association of County Councils ( ACC ) and was heavily involved in ACC parliamentary lobbying and advocacy activities as well as conference and other event management including parliamentary receptions and political party conference fringe events .
Jim supports and develops projects across all of the membership activities of UKSPA . This includes strengthening existing added value initiatives while also developing core membership resources ( including publications , events , the website , e-bulletins and social networking ) for the Association .
Contact Details : email : jim . duvall @ ukspa . org . uk tel : 01799 532049
Nina Townsend Communications and Administrative Assistant
Nina Townsend joined UKSPA in 2014 as Admin and Communications Assistant . She has considerable experience in the international conference and events industry which has included time working as Sponsorship Manager for Financial Times Conferences . Whilst at the Financial Times , Nina worked on the FT ’ s flagship conferences in the Media , Telecommunications , Pharmaceutical and Banking . Nina also worked as part of the team responsible for the launch of the Inaugural FT Biotechnology Conference .
The focus of Nina ’ s job is to ensure the smooth running of the UKSPA office – with a particular focus on our Website , CRM and Database . Nina is also responsible for the updating and editing of the UKSPA Annual Directory .
Contact Details : e-mail : nina . townsend @ ukspa . org . uk tel : 01799 532050
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