Our Expert Advisory Board

The criteria, methodology and processes used daily by the CPD Standards Office is 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, that 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 Director of CPD Accreditation & Research at 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 Director of Research, and Head of Business and Management at the Royal Docks School of Business and Law, University of East London. Her background is in Organisational Psychology and HRM. Prior to her academic career, Sunitha worked in HRM roles in a number of multinational organisations.

Professor Sunitha Narendran
Associate PVC in Internationalisation and Global Engagement at Roehampton University


Susie Kay is Founder of The Professionalism Group, specialising in non-profit governance and the promotion of professionalism in the educational, corporate and not-for-profit sectors. She is the author of three books, a mentor and a busy speaker on personal and professional development issues. Susie has worked for many years in professional associations and membership organisations, advising on the wider aspects of professionalism and professional development.

Susie Kay

Founder of the Professionalism Group

Jan Lonnen heads Qualifications and Accreditation at the Association of Project Management (APM), and has been involved in assessing and verifying a wide range of different qualifications as well as leading qualification teams for over 25 years. Jan has led a plethora of educational organisations and coaches through assessment, accreditation and professional standards processes. Having specialised within the field of coaching for 12 years, Jan wrote a series of qualification standards which were approved by OfQual to a level 5 standard.

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