Experience & Approach

After a decade in marketing and communications, Ali spent 12 years working in development at the University of Oxford, setting up and establishing one college office from scratch, and then reviving and building another college’s development operation.

She was head-hunted to be in-house consultant for Buffalo, a regular giving consultancy in 2015, and after three happy years with them, she went solo. She now works with a portfolio of clients on a mixture of strategic projects, advisory roles, training, mentoring and interim cover.

Whilst working in-house, she was responsible for a complete cross-section of higher education development activity at both an operational and senior management level. As a consultant, she has worked with over 60 institutions & organisations to-date, collaborating closely with leaders, boards and staff, providing director-level interim cover, training and mentoring support, alongside the aforementioned consultancy projects.

Every project is approached in a bespoke, hands-on way applying practical knowledge from her many years' experience working in senior management positions for in-house development offices. Clients are supported from start to finish, helping them gain the results they need in a realistic and relevant way.

Alongside establishing a comprehensive view of a client’s operational environment, she invests time in fully understanding every element of their activities and the challenges they may be having, working closely with senior management and their wider team to help them develop their own solutions.