CILEX Board Members

Eileen Milner – CILEX Chair

Eileen’s professional background is in public service and across the course of her career she has variously worked within central government, health, academia and in the private sector in the technology industry. She was the CEO of the Education and Skills Funding Agency and a Director General within the Department for Education, where she was responsible for a budget of some £65bn and for key policy areas including skills reform.

Eileen is also chair of a children’s trust and an NHS foundation trust. Eileen is the author of a number of published works including ‘Managing Information and Knowledge in the Public Sector’ and ‘Lessons in Leadership: the challenge of public service.’

Sara Fowler – CILEX President and Chair of Professional Board

Sara is a senior leader in the NHS and a qualified fellow of Cilex, with over a decade of experience in healthcare law. She has a reputation for being resilient, driven, and tenacious in improving performance and efficiency within her portfolios. Sara trained as a fellow at Hill Dickinson LLP in London, specialising in clinical negligence litigation before moving to the NHS to contribute to improving patient safety from learning from legal claims.

She now heads up the Covid-19 Public Inquiry team across Barts Health NHS Trust and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), in addition to heading up Legal Services at BHRUT. Her area of expertise is clinical negligence litigation with a secondary interest in inquests and advisory work, as well as strategic change management and performance improvement.

Prior to this, Sara was in a senior leadership role at NHS Resolution, an arm’s length government body, pro-actively investigating high value, emotive and complex brain injuries in maternity on a national level with a focus on learning. Coming from a disadvantaged background herself, Sara is passionate about equal access to justice, social mobility and ensuring that the legal profession is accessible for all, regardless of background.

She mentors care leavers and those who have suffered homelessness pursuing a legal career and is a strong advocate for continuous lifelong learning.

Kim Findlow – CILEX Vice President

Kim is a Senior Associate (CILEX) at Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP and had always dreamed of being a CILEX Lawyer, after hearing about how rewarding the career path and how flexible the route was, at a school career fair.

Kim first qualified as and worked a legal secretary in various commercial firms in Cornwall and Devon as a way to obtain legal experience whilst completing her CILEX qualifications including specialisms in Tort, Employment, Civil Litigation and European Law.

Kim qualified as a Fellow in 2014 and practises Employment and Discrimination law in Manchester. Kim regularly deals with thorny discrimination issues and has extensive experience in advising on complex and sensitive sexual harassment / misconduct cases. Kim regularly advises on dealing with employee welfare/mental health management. Kim is also a lead in relation to GDPR related issues and atypical working and has a particular interest in apprenticeships. Her role includes advising on tricky issues within the education sector team as well as advising on matters of education regulation.

Kim regularly trains clients and other colleagues in all areas of employment law and is extremely active in corporate social responsibility projects and pro bono work. Kim is also a member of Employment Lawyers Association and was a Governor of a maintained primary school for 6 years (including a stint as Vice Chair).

Kim now has 20 years of experience of working in many varied areas of law at all different levels and is passionate about access to law for all and diversity within the sector.

Candice Thorpe – Chair of People and Culture Committee

Candice is a qualified solicitor with almost 20 years experience in a range of specialisms within the public and regulatory sector. She is currently a lawyer at the Financial Conduct Authority. She has a long standing commitment to social mobility and social inclusion and the removal of barriers to entry in work and education. She shares the vision of CILEX to make the legal profession more accessible.

Candice has a reputation for her ability to identify and mitigate risk, think strategically and find solutions to complex problems. In addition to working full time she volunteers as a vice chair school governor and advisory board member for a not for profit youth community based organisation.

Lucy Winskell – Joint Deputy Chair and Chair of Policy & Regulatory Affairs Committee

Lucy was Pro Vice-Chancellor (employability and partnerships) at Northumbria University  for 12 years until 2022 when she stood down from that role on her appointment  as Lord  Lieutenant  of Tyne and Wear 2022. She remains as a Visiting Professor at Northumbria and will continue her non-executive roles whilst serving as Lord Lieutenant.

Prior to joining Northumbria University in 2010, Lucy was a litigation lawyer for 28 years, sitting on the Council of the Law Society of England and Wales, on the board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and President of Newcastle Law Society.

She has extensive non-executive director experience and she is currently Chair of the ACCA’s Regulatory Board.  Previous roles include Chair of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership,  Government Office North East, Darlington Building Society, the British Chambers of Commerce, Heritage Lottery Fund, the North East Industrial Development Board and the Arts and Humanities Research Council,. Lucy also has international experience as a former UK President of the Union Internationale des Advocats and s UK chair of the British-American Project.

Lucy was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday 2014 Honours List in recognition for her services to Higher Education and the regional economy in the North East. She was appointed as Deputy Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear in 2014,  and was High Sheriff of Tyne and Wear 2015/16. She lives in  Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Steve Chantry – Chair of Commercial Committee

Steve is a passionate marketer, business leader, and family man: Steve has spent the past 20 years in the consumer goods industry & the past 7 years at Kraft Heinz, where today he leads Growth functions (Marketing, R&D & Commercial) for Emerging Markets.

Steve has chaired our CILEX Sales & Marketing Advisory Board for the past 18 months & is both impressed and inspired by what we continue to achieve at CILEX for our members, for inclusion and for the future of the legal industry.  He is a proud Brit, currently living in Dubai, with his wife and 2 daughters, and can be found most weekends on one of the UAE’s many golf courses.

Tim McIntyre Bhatty – Senior Independent Director/Joint Deputy Chair and Chair of CLS Committee

Tim joined CILEX in April 2024 as Non Executive Director and Chair of the Education Board.  He has a longstanding record in senior university and Board positions, alongside his experience in academic and educational leadership, including 12 years as a Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

Tim has experience of transformation, innovation and building and embedding an inclusive and nurturing culture in organisations.  This sits alongside his track record of governance and assurance experience.

Tim is a Non-Executive Director for the NHS Hampshire & Isle of Wight Integrated Care Board and for the Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Chair of AIM Community, an educational charity, Governor of the University for the Creative Arts, and an independent reviewer for the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education.

In his spare time Tim says he enjoys mountain biking and scenic walks by the coast, though he is not necessarily very good at either!”

Sally Collier – Chair of Awarding Body

Sally Collier is an experienced public sector Chief Executive with a background in assessment and regulation. She is the former Chief Regulator at Ofqual – the English qualifications standards regulator.

Prior to that she was Chief Executive of the Cabinet Office’s Crown Commercial Service, a large public sector buying organisation where she was responsible for the negotiation, drafting and implementation of the 2015 UK procurement regulations.

She currently works part time for the Cabinet Office as Head of Place for the Civil Service in the East of England and as a Commercial Advisor and Commercial Capability Assessor.

In addition she is a Non- Executive Board Member for the new hospitals group in Norfolk and Waveney and a panel member for the NHS Independent Patient Choice and Procurement Panel. She completes her portfolio as an occasional assessor for the National College of Policing.

Lorna Maden – Chair of Finance and Audit & Risk Committee

Lorna is a CIMA qualified accountant (FCMA) and senior leader with over 30 years’ Public Sector experience.

She currently works with a number of public and private sector partners and is a Trustee at Orchard Community Trust and the Prison Reform Trust. Previously, she was Director of Finance Business Partnering at the Ministry of Justice, where her role included Finance Director responsibilities for His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. Lorna has a Master of Studies degree in Advanced Criminology, Penology and Management from Cambridge University.