Our Team 

Liz joined AdviceUK as its Chief Executive in April 2023 and is responsible for the leadership and overall management of the charity. She works with Trustees and staff to support AdviceUK’s c800 members as well as other advice organisations to be efficient, competent and effective. Also to campaign for a policy environment that supports them and people needing advice. All this supports AdviceUK to achieve its vision of a society wherein every individual, regardless of means, is able to access the advice they need in order to exercise their rights and deal with any legal and social welfare problems they may face.

Liz began her working life as a journalist before moving into campaigning and communication roles in both public sector and charitable organisations. In her last role, as chief executive of the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY), Liz ensured its c18,000 members (childminders, nurseries, pre-schools and nannies) were given the advice and support they need to provide high quality early education and childcare in England and Wales. Also, to ensure members’ vital services are valued and the policy and regulatory frameworks they operate within supports them to deliver high quality services and remain sustainable.

Liz has also served as a Trustee on a number of other children’s charities as well as represented PACEY on a wide range of government, regulatory and research organisation’s strategic advisory groups. She has also given evidence to numerous select committees considering early education. In her spare time, Liz is a volunteer mentor for the charity Brightside which provides disadvantaged young people with advice and encouragement to plan their future career.

Magda supports AdviceUK members with any queries regarding membership issues and always strives to enhance the service that AdviceUK offers. She recently became a certified Salesforce Administrator.

She has over 15 years of experience working in a busy international law firm as a corporate security officer where she was promoted to a team supervisor, leading people in a very demanding environment, responding to client’s needs and respecting privacy of VIP visitors.

Emma supports the AdviceUK marketing effort by working with the team to enhance the member communication experience and increase awareness of AdviceUK in the sector and beyond.

She has over 20 years experience in the field of marketing communications and has worked in the not for profit sector for half her career, also working with membership organisations whose ethos is to improve people’s lives for the better.

Niamh works within the Membership team and her role is to engage and develop relationships with members.

She began her career as a volunteer at Citizens Advice in 2002, moving into immigration and asylum advice as a caseworker and superviser shortly after that. She worked in private practise and non profit agencies then finished her immigration career at Lambeth Law Centre. Niamh then moved across into advising victims of crime. Most recently she worked at Citizens Advice where she supervised staff and volunteers through the generalist advice service. As part of this role she also set up and supervised a Help Through Hardship project.

Niamh has a passion for law and justice, and have been saddened to see the impact of funding cuts on advice services in the last 20 years of my career. One of her favourite sayings is “rights mean nothing without the means of enforcing them”, everyone should have access to justice.

Chris has over 10 years’ experience working across the Government & Charitable sector, specialising in Data Protection and new GDPR legislation. He has expertise in running GDPR Compliance Projects and policy & procedure creation as well as Cyber Essentials Accreditation work. He fulfils DPO and UK AdviceFinder Project Management roles at AdviceUK and has also undertaken a key part of recent fundraising events on behalf of AdviceUK e.g. London Marathon / Stockholm Half Marathon. He is a proud member of the London Irish community.

Dalibor Warburton has over 13 years’ experience of working with social welfare legal advice services and networks, providing direct support to AdviceUK member organisations, as well as undertaking a wide range of consultancy interventions and project work. He heads up AdviceUK’s Membership & Services team, and has particular responsibility for strengthening the relationships between AdviceUK and its members.

He has particular interests and expertise in service design, systems thinking, organisational development, learning, quality, monitoring and evaluation, income generation, client and case management, the experiences of people seeking advice, partnership working and regulation of advice. Before joining AdviceUK in 2008, he worked for 8 years in a refugee community organisation giving advice to asylum seekers and immigration detainees and managing these services. Outside of work, he has recent and ongoing experience of governance in the voluntary sector, volunteering both as a trustee, and as the director of a small community-focused business.

David joined AdviceUK as its National Money Advice Co-ordinator in 2009 and became its Policy and Campaigns Co-ordinator in October 2019.  He has worked in the advice sector since 1992.

In his current role David has responsibility for AdviceUK’s policy and campaigning activity, which aims to improve people’s lives by working with stakeholders and the 700+ members of the AdviceUK network.

David is currently a member of the Wessex Water Partnership and the IVA Standing Committee.  He also represents AdviceUK on a number of fora and working groups, including the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Network and the Money and Pensions Service’s Better Debt Advice Challenge Group.

David has previously been a member of the Money Advice Sub-Group of the Financial Inclusion Task Force, Co-Chair of the Money Advice Association, Chair of the Institute of Money Advisers, member of the Editorial Committee of Quarterly Account, Vice Chair (Advice) and member of the Executive Council of the Money Advice Liaison Group, and a trustee of the EDF Energy Trust, the Debt Counsellor’s Charitable Trust and Money Advice Plus.

Paula has dual roles, working for AdviceUK and ACM Solutions in Scotland supporting member organisations through; managing Scottish national strategies, having input to planned development in line with customer needs, delivery of training including Quality Assurance, providing consultancy of policy/governance and assurance Issues, delivery of demonstrations and presentations, building relationships with stakeholders in the Scottish National and Local Government, monitoring and maintaining Accreditation Standards and expanding the Scottish AdviceUK membership. Along with this she works to and raise the profile of AdviceUK and its members within Scotland, managing grant projects, and is an expert Trainer and Consultant.

She has been working closely with the Scottish Government and other Stakeholders to ensure that the Third Independent Sector has access to opportunities.

Her previous roles have included being an Advice Team Leader, working within a large housing association, Tenancy Sustainment Officer, Housing Officer, Customer Service Manager working within the DWP, Managing Director and a Prison Resettlement Worker.

Helping people and making a difference is something Paula has always strived to achieve throughout her career.

Liz was a senior lecturer and curriculum manager at a large London college of further education before joining AdviceUK in 2002. She is a fully qualified trainer, assessor and internal quality assurer. Initially, she managed training and qualifications for the London region and then nationally from 2007.

Liz has overseen many projects, developed partnerships, programmes and courses and has been involved in many national initiatives, such as developing and revising the national occupational standards for the advice sector.

Recently, Liz has managed the transfer of training and qualifications from face to face to online delivery. She continues to work collaboratively with colleagues, freelancers, member organisations and the wider voluntary sector to ensure AdviceUK continues to offer up-to-date, high quality programmes that ensure participants have an enjoyable and fulfilling learning experience that enhances their professional development.

Róisín joined AdviceUK in October 2019, having done some temping with AdviceUK previously. Before this, she specialised in product testing, development and training, whilst supporting users of a vast digital advertising asset library. This means that Róisín has been rather suitably placed for getting AdviceUK training sessions up and running online, organising courses and attendees, as well as being one of the co-hosts that is there so that the live Zoom sessions run smoothly.

She is your first point of contact for training and qualification enquiries and loves to see people gaining more confidence and skills from the training we offer. Her favourite training courses are ones that look at emotional wellbeing or mental health and she really values learning about the challenges (and triumphs) within the advice sector.

In her spare time, Róisín can be found volunteering for causes that range from environmental to supporting older people. She also loves languages, particularly Mandarin Chinese and British Sign Language – although she is keen to point out that she is not fluent! – and communication in general.

Steve joined AdviceUK in 2022 and is responsible for handling professional indemnity claim notifications, guiding members through the process and responding to queries. Steve is keen to discuss, support and advise members who are dealing with challenging situations where otherwise high service standards may have been compromised.

Having worked for over 30 years in the not-for-profit sector, Steve has built significant experience in the delivery and management of independent legal advice services. He began his career in the early 1980’s as an adviser in various community advice centres in London, later working for London wide and national charities specialising in social welfare law. By 1991 he was managing and developing various advice services in Bristol which he continued until 2022.

Over this period he has contributed to the support and expansion of legal advice services, and has adapted to the ever changing demands on the sector. However, fundamental to his personal ethos, is his commitment to better understand and meet the needs of people who will continue to use and depend on advice services in the future.

Silvia has worked in the not-for-profit sector since 2006.
After working in the creative industry for 15 years she decided to retrain and upskill to learn Salesforce and since then combined her previous project management experience with her passion for digital transformation.

At AdviceUK Silvia is responsible for the organisation’s tech infrastructure and performance of the of primary systems. She works across all teams to research and lead on the implementation of new systems to promote the digital transformation of the organisation.

Abigail has worked in the not for profit sector since graduating, working in a variety of roles both at home and abroad.  Her roles have been varied, from service delivery to fundraising and project management, but she’s always sought ways to improve quality and effectiveness, and has a passion for helping charities understand the impact of their work. Abigail discovered Salesforce could be a useful tool for helping with this, undertook specialist training in 2019 and is now Salesforce and Pardot Certified. Abigail works in the Systems team to streamline processes, manage information and help the wider team to use it to deliver a great service to members.

Pooja comes from a digital marketing background having worked in the telecoms, online food delivery and web development industry. Pooja is extremely excited to be applying her skills and experience to the not-for-profit world and will be primarily responsible for looking after our CRM – Salesforce. Her primary aim alongside the Systems Manager and Business Analyst is to make sure we utilise Salesforces’ wide-ranging features to our members’ maximum benefit, whilst also engaging and supporting the rest of the organisation in its application.