Rachael Mabe DipM MCIM

Rachael has held a variety of marketing roles since graduating from Loughborough University in 2000. Her most recent industry work has been as Company Director of a Leicester-based digital agency, Bulb Studios. Career highlights include achieving the CIM Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing (2005) and winning a CIM - Public Sector Campaign of the Year award for the Shine marketing campaign (2011).

Rachael’s career diversified into teaching in 2011. Initially she taught CIM qualifications, for which she received numerous commendations from CIM for teaching excellence. She was a Senior Lecturer at Birmingham City University and De Montfort University, and recently returned to her roots and is now a University Teacher in Marketing at Loughborough University. Rachael is also an External Examiner for the UG and PG marketing programmes at University of Central Lancashire (Preston) and University of Lincoln, whilst being a Trustee for the Shine Multi Academy Group in Nottinghamshire.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Rachael is hugely passionate about CIM and the opportunities it has afforded her throughout her career. A former member of the CIM Constitution & Ethics Committee (2015 - 2018) , Rachael is honoured to chair the Midlands Regional Board, and wants members to feel part of an engaged, vibrant and active marketing community. Please get in touch if you want to be involved, or to let us know how the Midlands region can support you.

Away from work, Rachael has three children, two cats and a miniature dachshund. She is passionate about the arts, education and sport, and is a proud supporter of Leicester City Football Club. She loves adventures in her motorhome and has stayed true to her Yorkshire roots and can make an excellent cup of tea.

Maria Heckel FCIM

Maria has a wealth of marketing and commercial experience working in senior roles across both commercial and not for profit organisations with brands such as as TUI, National Express, Virgin Trains, Stagecoach, Nissan, Dunlop, CIM, PDSA. Maria also spent some time working agency side for TBWA London and as a marketing consultant where she had a range of clients from transport, IT services and non-profit sectors, including CIM where Maria took on the role of Marketing Director to develop a new marketing strategy and build the CIM marketing team.

Maria is currently Marketing Director for Stagecoach PLC transport group where she is leading the transformation of the groups approach to brand, marketing and customer proposition and experience.

As a CIM Fellow and a Midlands Group member since 2017, Maria is passionate about engaging and connecting the marketing community across the Midlands to provide support in developing skills, careers and sharing of experiences and challenges. She is also committed to raising the profile of marketing as a profession and its role in driving business success and growth.

As someone who has benefitted from having the support of senior marketers in her early career Maria is committed to supporting the growth and development of others and regularly coaches and mentors people working in marketing to develop their experience and careers.

Ami Sandhu MCIM Chartered Marketer

Ami graduated with the CIM Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing last year and currently works as Head of Marketing for a national firm within the premium luxury sector.

Ami has a wealth of knowledge within a number of sectors having worked for many blue chip companies across the UK including Cap Gemini, Virgin, and HFC Bank to name a few. With a very wide ranging skill base Ami also has experience within the not for profit and healthcare industries, having a passion for communication and marketing she has used her skills to make an incredible difference to the organisations/sectors she has worked within. Having developed creative mechanisms to covey difficult messages and transform ways of working.

Successfully implementing numerous marketing strategies and continually looking to develop her teams and remaining at the top of her own development. 

On a personal level she is a very active member in the community, conducting first aid voluntary work on a regular basis in her personal time. Having involvement in several other initiatives Ami supports several charities, is involved in event management, works within the creative industry and provides mentoring for young people.

Di Tunney FCIM

Di Tunney is the Owner and Founder of Kardia a consultancy providing advice on and support with all aspects of digital marketing and market research.

With over 25 years of experience in consumer and B2B marketing, Di has worked for a broad spectrum of clients such as Boots, General Mills, Asda, GlaxoSmithKline, Dunelm, Speedo and Motorpoint.

Di is a specialist in customer behaviour and in enabling companies to build ‘rapport’ with their customers, whether interacting with them in person or online.

She is a Master Practitioner of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and licensed in the use of LAB (Language and Behaviour) Profiling, a tool that provides insights into customers’ buying motivations by studying their ‘language patterns’. This enables her clients to craft their communications in a way that engages customers and positively influences their behaviour.

Alongside running her own business, Di is an Industry Skills Coach at Nottingham Trent University, where she designs and delivers Chartered Institute of Marketing accredited Training Programmes for SMEs in the East Midlands.

Di’s role as CIM Midlands Vice-Chair, Communications, is to create and deliver a marketing plan for the region that will build awareness of CIM’s services, resources and events and promote the benefits of membership.

Jack Hardy ACIM Chartered Marketer

Jack Hardy has a well-established track record of achieving a return on investment for national and international B2B and B2C brands via marketing.

He attributes this to 3 key factors:
1. Working with cross-functional teams within businesses to ensure marketing is   
    aligned with business objectives.
2. Continuous professional development, which CIM has heavily contributed to.   
3. A vast set of marketing skills due to starting his career in graphic design.

His career now focuses on growth marketing for a range of technology brands in a hands-on consultancy role, in which he leads digital strategy and implements the tactics.

Jack was one of the very first ACIM members to achieve the status of Chartered Marketer and is incredibly passionate about what CIM offers to marketers and the businesses they work with.

Jack joined the CIM Midlands Regional Committee as an Education Ambassador due to a lack of marketing mentor figures throughout his career, which changed once he joined CIM. He intends to use the position to provide support and guidance to any marketer in a similar position.

Katerina Pickup FCIM Chartered Marketer

Katerina Pickup FCIM is an accomplished marketing and communications manager with over 15 years of international award-winning experience across a number of industries in the United Kingdom and the United States of America, including Her Majesty's Armed Forces, the financial, transportation and home-improvement industries.

Katerina was a key organiser of the Royal Air Force Waddington International Air Show, during which time her team received the European Airshows Council Marketing Award (2012).

She then relocated to the United States of America and joined a Utility Trailer Manufacturing dealership in the Mid-west, leading marketing efforts of 5 transportation companies, work for which she and her team earned the ‘2019 American Marketing Association In-House Marketing of the Year Award’ for the City of Omaha, Nebraska, USA.

Having relocated back to her home, Lincoln, UK, in 2019, she joined a Lincoln based glass and glazing manufacturer Tradeglaze (Lincoln) Ltd as the company’s Marketing Manager, creating and executing a marketing strategy for 4 double glazing brands on the company’s portfolio.

Katerina is PRINCE2® qualified as Practitioner. She is a strategic marketer with a passion for people development and is known for her ability to engage and inspire her teams and ignite growth. She enjoys mentoring younger marketers helping them succeed professionally.

Prior to her joining the Committee, she served as Vice President of Communications on the Board of Directors of the American Marketing Association (Omaha chapter), earning a Chapter Excellence Award for Communications in 2018. She also served on the Diesel Advisory Group at the Metropolitan Community College in Omaha.

Katerina is a graduate of Teplice Conservatory (Czech Republic) where she studied classical piano. She enjoys music, crime film, fitness and the outdoors.

Clare Bayley MCIM

Clare is Head of Marketing Services at a leading financial services business and has over 20 years’ experience specialising in events management and marketing. In her current day to day role, Clare leads internal & external event programmes, multiple brand and marketing projects including video, podcasts and pitch collateral.

Clare is a member of CIM and has been appointed as Events Ambassador on the CIM Midlands Committee.

Gemma Smith ACIM

Gemma is an award-winning marketing and communications professional with 10 years’ experience working for commercial and non-profit organisations. 

She is currently Head of Marketing & Communications at CIWM, the UK’s leading membership organisation for professionals working in the resources and waste management sector. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing all of CIWM’s marketing, branding and PR activity.

Prior to joining CIWM in 2018, Gemma held multiple positions in the Consumer Marketing department at IPC Media (now Future) where she specialised in subscriptions marketing.

In 2020, she was named Marketing & Communications Executive of the year by the Association of Association Executives. In 2018, IPC Media’s Christmas subscriptions campaign, for which Gemma was responsible, was shortlisted for ‘Direct Marketing Campaign of the Year’ by the Professional Publishers Association (PPA).

Throughout her career, Gemma has been an active volunteer and is delighted to have the opportunity to help support fellow marketers in the Midlands region as a member of the CIM Midlands Regional Committee.

Jade Jones ACIM

Jade Jones ACIM has over 5 years commercial experience in both B2C and B2B marketing. She is currently an integral member of the Northern European Marketing team with global digital manufacturer Protolabs; and was instrumental in the project that secured their position as winners of the B2B Marketing Award in Best use of Thought Leadership in 2021.

In her current role, Jade is responsible for driving large integrated campaigns that focus on both demand generation and balanced brand positioning. Meticulous planning and always challenging the process, Jade is a passionate and highly motivated marketer who continues to push the boundaries of traditional marketing practices and MarTech to create efficiencies and new routes to market.

With a first-class honours degree in English Language and Creative & Professional Writing, in 2021 Jade secured her Level 6 CIM in Professional Marketing and gained Chartered Marketer status in 2022. Professional investment is important to Jade to keep up with that latest industry trends to enable her to continually improve, which she advocates to the wider European Marketing Team at Protolabs and others within the community. She is dedicated to the profession and has a passion for mentoring others wishing to take the journey into Marketing as a career.

As CIM Midlands Communications Ambassador, Jade’s role is to keep the community up-to-date with latest marketing news and resources.