2026
Helena Ziegler
Nominated by Ali Clark – University of Stirling
Sadly Helena retired from the HE sector in 2024, having led the UK recruitment team at the University of Aberdeen and been a long-term HELOA member. During this time she was appointed to the role of HELOA’s UCAS Events Working Group representative for Scotland and proved to be an informed and passionate voice, in this group both regionally and UK-wide.
Helena embodies the values of HELOA and of collaboration. The HELOA / UCAS relationship is extremely important to Scottish HELOA members and Helena represented the group diligently throughout her time. She was an engaged and active member of the UCAS Events Working Group on behalf of HELOA Scotland and was vocal (and successful) in fighting to save Scottish UCAS events from being axed from the calendar. She was a calm, reassuring and knowledgeable presence to all on the Scottish events circuit.
Helena advised UCAS as to appropriate travel and set up times for their events in Scotland. Due to a high turnover in UCAS Events staff, there had been a poor understanding of the time required to transport materials to venues, especially those situated in the Highlands & Islands. Her forward-thinking advice avoided any logistical difficulties and led to the smooth delivery of Scottish UCAS events during her tenure.
She is much missed from the Student Recruitment community, a trusted and committed colleague and friend, which is why I feel she would be a very worthy recipient of HELOA’s Honorary Membership.
2025
Gareth Oliver
Nominated by Lewis Clarke – University of Lincoln
Gareth has worked in HE for around 30 years and has devoted his time to supporting a huge range of students to make informed decisions about their next steps.
He has played a key role in widening participation in HE – working with schools and colleges across the UK throughout his career. Gareth is a supportive and proactive colleague, not just within the university, but in the ‘circuit’. He is known up and down the country for his knowledge and genuine willingness to support others, building very strong relationships with other recruitment and HELOA members as well as teachers, advisors, parents and students across the country. As my line manager, he encouraged me to take part in HELOA programmes and particularly in me putting myself forward, and securing the role as Midlands Vice-Chair for Training and Partnerships. He is an advocate for HELOA and has always encouraged my participation – granting time off to work on associated tasks with my Vice-Chair role and other HELOA event support. It is for these reasons I am nominating Gareth for an honorary membership, but also because I know, although he is retiring – he will always have one finger on the pulse!! Thank you for your consideration.
Jonathan Atkinson-White
Gecko
Nominated by Andrew Cooper – University of Liverpool
Jonny was the definition of HELOA. He passionately believed in supporting students through informed decisions and passionately supported our members to enable them to best support students.
He took over as the North West & Northern Ireland Group Chair and reinvigorated the group, leading to record attendance and initiating award winning schemes. He took over as HELOA Chair just before COVID and led the charity through one of its most difficult periods. Thanks to his leadership our members still were able to access high quality training, but he also wanted wider fun events to support member’s mental health during an uncertain time. He also helped build bridges with key partners which supported members.
Jonny has always looked at new ways of supporting students and fellow members. He still supports members today, offering insights online. He may have left working directly in the sector, but he still is involved in Higher Education and supporting students. It is my belief that he still is fulfilling our main goals as a charity, which is why I think he is a worthy nominee for Honorary Membership.
2024
Penny Eccles
Marketing Partnership
Nominated by Sêra Evans – University of South Wales | Prifysgol De Cymru
After 25 years in Higher Education marketing, communications, widening participation, admissions and student recruitment at seven very different universities, Penny is now a freelance Higher Education (HE) marketing consultant.
A Chartered Marketer and Fellow of the CIM, she was honoured to lead the University of Gloucestershire to win the Times Higher (THE) Marketing Team of the Year 2017 and was key to Nottingham Trent University enrolling the largest number of new undergraduate students in the UK (2018 and 2019). Penny is working in collaboration with UCAS to show universities how they can achieve student recruitment growth. She is a HEIST Awards panel chair and an annual speaker at the AdvanceHE Aurora Leadership conference for women. I believe Penny has a lot to offer HELOA as an honorary member. She would not only make an inspirational speaker at HELOA events and Conferences, but she could also impart her expertise via other HELOA forums, potential joint webinars and would help spread the word about HELOA’s work within the sector. As a passionate advocate for outreach and schools/ colleges liaison information, advice and guidance (IAG) and as someone who has a large HE following, I believe it would be useful for Penny to hear from HELOA members on the ground, to ensure that she is imparting our knowledge and expertise to Executive teams she works with in UCAS and at HE institutions across the UK. I believe Penny would be a powerful and influential advocate for HELOA and its work in the HE sphere more broadly, and the outreach profession as a whole.