Executive Management Group
The Executive Management Group is responsible to the Board for the long-term success of the Company, the delivery and enhancement of academic standards and sustainable value to shareholders, for implementing the Strategic Plan and for the effective management of the business.
The members of the Executive Management Group are:
Adam Carswell
Chief Executive Officer and Head of Institution
Professor Louise Jackson
Academic Director and Provost
David Jones-Owen
Chief Operating Officer, UK & Germany
Dara Kilkenny
Executive Principal
Vaseema Hamilton
Executive Principal
David O'Connor
Employability and Product Development Director
Julia Ruzicka
UK Recruitment and Admissions Director
Tom Picken
Director of Marketing and Customer Experience
Emma Charles
Head of Strategy, Product Development and Programmes
Adam joined BIMM in January 2011, having worked in the Further Education sector since 2008 as Finance Director of an Apprenticeships training provider.
Before moving into the education sector, Adam held a number of senior finance and general management roles with organisations including Travelex Currency Services (Finance Director), DX Services (Divisional Managing Director) and Hays plc (Group Corporate Development Manager & Financial Controller). Adam is a Chartered Accountant and qualified with PwC. He also has an Economics degree from the University of Bath.
Prof. Louise Jackson joined BIMM Group in 2021 as Academic Director and Provost with over 15 year’s experience of learning and teaching experience in the higher education sector. She is responsible for the Group’s academic regulation, quality assurance, learning and teaching enhancement, digital learning, and further education governance.
As a specialist in inclusive educational practice in the arts in higher education, she is a recognised and respected arts educator, researcher, and leader. Louise was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2013, the highest award for teaching in higher education in the UK. She has led on numerous projects to increase visibility and representation of underrepresented groups in the arts in higher education.
David has a degree in Business Administration from Cardiff University, is a qualified Chartered Accountant and spent 6 years with KPMG working with a variety of multinational and smaller Private Equity backed businesses.
In industry, David has worked with a number of regulated private equity-backed businesses. His most recent roles include senior finance and operational positions at Espresso Education – a provider of digital content for schools across the UK & US – and IPS Specials, a pharmaceutical manufacturing company.
Dara joined BIMM in 2009 and played a major role in establishing our college in Dublin and our relationship with Technological University Dublin. She has excellent music industry contacts and a wide network, particularly in Ireland.
Before joining BIMM, Dara spent eight years in the fashion industry before moving into entertainment, events and music from 2003, when she established a record label with a distribution deal through Universal Music Ireland. During this time, Dara also produced two Irish theatre shows which toured in Europe and acted as manager for pop and classical artists.
Vaseema has over 30 years’ experience in vocational creative, visual and performing arts education and has been with BIMM since 2005, initially joining us as College Principal for BIMM Brighton.
Having played an important role in the management team – and in the development and launch of all BIMM colleges in the UK and Germany – Vaseema now heads up the BIMM Group’s ongoing business development. Her current focus is the exciting new sector of Performing Arts.
Vaseema is dedicated to making sure all BIMM Group students have the best possible opportunities to progress into successful careers in the creative arts industries, that what they study is relevant to current practice, and that they’re directly connected to professionals in the specialist fields they aspire to join.
David joined BIMM in 2012 as Group Marketing Director, responsible for international development, marketing, branding and PR across the group. Today, he is our Employability & Product Development Director.
He is a strategy, marketing & business improvement specialist with over 20 years’ senior experience with organisations in Business Services, IT & Education in Europe, Asia and North America. He is a Net Promoter System (NPS) practitioner and has a degree in Social Policy from the University of Wales and an MBA.
As well as being our UK Recruitment & Admissions Director, Julia is also a passionate and dedicated musician with extensive experience in the industry. She first joined BIMM as our Head of Admissions in 2006, and then went on to become College Principal of our London college in 2014.
Julia has worked across a variety of music industry roles and has been a professional bassist for the last 18 years. She’s worked at record labels (including Island Records, Universal and Warner Music Group), in live bookings, radio presenting, tour management, media production (BBC) and has also set up her own indie record label, Prescriptions.
Tom has over ten years of experience in youth and education marketing. As Director of Marketing and Customer Experience, he is focused on how the group engages with its customers at every point of their decision-making journey – from marketing to admissions to enrolment and everywhere in between. He first joined BIMM in 2016 as Head of Marketing, before being promoted.
Prior to joining BIMM, Tom held senior digital marketing positions at Study Group International and TUI Travel. He also has a Communication Design degree from the University of Brighton.
Emma is passionate about social, product and organisational innovation. She has more than 10 years of experience leading strategy and product development projects for world-leading universities and early-stage start-ups, specialising in online and professional education.
Before joining BIMM University, Emma worked at King’s College London where she launched an executive education school for policymakers and was the Programme and Partnerships Director for King’s Business School’s B2B clients. Having started her career at a social mobility charity, she is committed to widening access to higher education and professional employment. Emma has a degree in social sciences (Economics & Management, Education and History) from Durham University.
Gender Pay Gap Report
Under UK legislation introduced in 2017, employers with more than 250 staff must publish their gender pay gap on an annual basis.
Our latest gender pay gap report can be found here.