Our Expert Advisory Board

The criteria, methodology and processes used daily by the CPD Standards Office are overseen by an independent panel of experts, drawn from academics, employers and professional bodies.


Why Do We Have An Advisory Board?

The Expert Advisory Board provides the CPD Standards Office with a rich and diverse range of expertise, which reviews our activities, processes and criteria, thereby ensuring that our accreditation is authoritative. The Board assists us with:


  • Keeping our thinking and processes up to date
  • Ensuring our criteria and methodology align with industry and CPD requirements
  • Giving diverse expertise on CPD accreditation and other related areas
  • Ensuring full transparency of our activities.

The Expert Advisory Board’s Role and Key Advisory Areas:

  • Advice on the CPD Standards Office marks and accreditation methodologies;
  • Advice on challenging accreditation issues, or queries from the Office’s registered providers – e.g. ‘How do we accredit this type of offering?’;
  • Arranging for an independent audit should credible doubts or questions be raised around the CPD Standards Office accreditation processes;
  • Advice on other aspects of the Professional Development Consortium’s work, in particular our ongoing CPD research.

Members of the Panel

Amanda Rosewarne has a background in occupational psychology and extensive experience in the CPD field. She has advised hundreds of organisations on the provision of CPD and has worked with numerous professional bodies, regulators, and trade associations regarding their CPD policies or requirements. As a Co-founder of the CPD Standards Office, part of the Professional Development Consortium, she consults and advises a multitude of organisations, from professional bodies, to corporate employers to small training providers on ‘becoming CPD ready’ and implementing CPD best practice within their organisations.

Amanda Rosewarne

Co-founder & Chair of the CPD Standards Office

Richard Gott (chair) founded the MemberWise Network in 2008, a network of and best practice resource for over 4,000 membership organisations and association professionals. He works with a range of leading membership organisations and associations to improve membership value, engagement and growth. He has worked at a senior management team level at organisations including the Law Society, Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA), National Assessment Agency (NAA), College of Optometrists (COO), and the British Dental Association (BDA).

Richard Gott

Founder of the Memberwise Network

Professor Sunitha Narendran is Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Internationalisation and Global Engagement at the University of Roehampton. She leads the delivery of the University’s international strategy, global partnerships, and international student experience, supporting successful careers and lifelong alumni engagement.

With over 25 years of experience in higher education across the UK, Singapore, Malaysia, and India, she brings a strong global perspective informed by both academic leadership and industry practice. Formerly Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law, her academic background is in Organisational Psychology and HRM, with research interests in decision-making and cognitive processing.

Professor Sunitha Narendran
Associate Pro Vice Chancellor at Roehampton University

Susie Kay worked for nearly 30 years, embedding professionalism, professional standards, personal and professional development, accreditation and career enhancement in education and not-for-profit sectors. Following the SMT and Director of Professionalism roles, she founded The Professionalism Group, additionally advising on organisational governance and strategic capability. Identifying needs across all sectors, additionally including corporate and government clients, further enabled her continuing passion in promoting professionalism in all aspects of life. 

She has created professional development and accreditation schemes for various organisations, as well as constructing competence frameworks for corporate, not-for-profit and international organisations. She is the author of three books, has been a mentor, an assessor and spent many years as a guest speaker at national and international levels on governance and personal and professional development issues.

Susie Kay

Founder of the Professionalism Group

Jan Lonnen heads Accreditation and Assessment at the Association for Project Management (APM), where she provides strategic leadership for the development and delivery of APM’s accreditation framework. With over 25 years’ experience, Jan has led qualification teams and driven the assessment of diverse professional and academic programmes across multiple sectors and delivery models. She has guided education providers and coaches through accreditation, quality assurance, and professional standards at a senior level. Specialising in coaching for 12 years, Jan authored Ofqual-approved Level 5 qualification standards.

Jan Lonnen

Senior Qualifications Manager at Association for Project Management (APM)

Dr Stephen Gourlay is an associate professor at Kingston University Business School and is an Academic Member of the CIPD. His interests include employee engagement, knowledge management, organisational learning concepts and theory, and perspectives on research methodology that break with traditional views, such as quantitative versus qualitative.

Dr Stephen Gourlay

Associate Professor at Kingston Business School

Callum Grant is a Director of Trailight, a compliance technology business, where he provides regulatory SME and has responsibility for products. He has worked in the financial services industry for over 30 years in a variety of roles, ultimately specialising in training and competence (T&C). He is a widely recognised T&C practitioner and, as Chair of the T&C Strategy Group, works with the FCA and the industry to engage on and embed T&C good practice, particularly in relation to accountability and professionalism. He has also been involved in developing industry standards for T&C schemes and National Occupational Standards for Training and Competence.

Callum Grant FCMI

Product Director at Trailight