HEW currently has a staff of seven managed by the Director, Amanda Wilkinson based in Cardiff.  The HEW staff are: 



Amanda Wilkinson: Director

Lisa Newberry:  Acting Deputy Director 

Ben Arnold: Senior Policy Officer

Tamsin Evans:  Office Manager

Kerry Howe: Events and Administration Coordinator



Amanda Wilkinson has been Director of Higher Education Wales since November 2004. Previously she held three posts with the CBI, as Director for the South West of England, Head of Policy for Wales and as senior adviser on SME matters. During her early career she worked for the Institute of Revenues Rating and Valuation, representing local authority finance officers and property professionals. She has served on numerous advisory bodies representing local government, business and higher education. Amanda sits on the Universities UK Senior Leadership Team and is a member of the (UK) High Level Policy Forum on Europe.

Email: a.wilkinson@hew.ac.uk  Telephone: 029 2044 8020

Lisa Newberry has been Policy Adviser at Higher Education Wales since July 2008 and acting Deputy Director since January 2012,  having spent eight years in the Welsh Assembly Government’s Higher Education Policy team. During her time at the Assembly Government, Lisa was part of the Devolution of Student Support Project, providing the link between Wales and Whitehall officials, before moving onto the Rees Review and the subsequent introduction of variable fees in Wales. Lisa has worked with the Prince’s Trust as a Development Coach since 2007, with disaffected 18 year olds, and is committed to widening participation and the value of higher education to all who could potentially benefit. Lisa is currently studying for an MBA in Leadership and a member of the Chartered Management Institute.

Policy Areas: Learning and Teaching, the Student Experience, Quality Assurance, Welsh Medium HE, policy on bursaries.

Email: l.newberry@hew.ac.uk   Telephone: 029 2044 8022



Ben Arnold joined HEW in August 2011 as Senior Policy Officer.  He first worked in higher education at Oxford University while training as a barrister.  After his call to the Bar in 2001, however, he chose to pursue higher education as his main career and led strategic planning first at Oxford Brookes University then, moving to Wales in 2003, at the University of Wales, Newport where he became a Director and member of the senior executive. 



Email: b.arnold@hew.ac.uk Telephone: 029 2044 8028


Tamsin Evans has been the Office Manager of HEW since 2005.  Prior to that she worked for a number of years in the Executive Office at Wales’ National Conservatoire, the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, gaining valuable insight into the workings of the HE sector in Wales.  Her earlier career was in London, including working for over a decade as office manager of a software house specialising in bespoke industrial applications, and in a PA capacity at the educational publishers Edward Arnold.

Email:  t.evans@hew.ac.uk      Telephone: 029 2044 8020


Kerry Howe has been Events and Administration Coordinator at HEW since April 2012.  Prior to this she worked for the International Baccalaureate on the events and manangement team, taking care of several hundred people world-wide at any one time. 

Email: k.howe@hew.ac.uk   Telephone 029 2044 8020