Get to know us

Meet the Escentral team

Kind, empathetic, creative, and obsessed with helping you solve your timetabling and space management conundrums. We’re an eclectic mix of minds with a ton of experience, and we’re lucky to be able to say our team are some of the smartest, skilled and helpful people we’ve ever met.
Ben Moreland, Director
Ben's passion for helping people reach their full potential – both our clients and the Escentral team – is at the core of his work. He genuinely wants to empower people to be the best they can be. He’s spent 14 years in timetabling and space management, gathering a wealth of knowledge and experience, which he combines with a calm and positive approach to create truly transformational support for our clients.

The Consultancy Team

A dedicated team of timetabling and space management legends, with a ton of experience working as both consultants and within HE institutions.

Wilna Joubert, Timetabling Service Development Executive

Wilna heads up our consultancy team and will most likely be your main point of contact for any consultancy project. She brings extensive experience in the education sector and a remarkable 18 years of industry experience. Throughout her career, she has spent ten years honing her expertise in timetabling, and four years delivering timetabling solutions for institutions across Australia, New Zealand, and South-East Asia. Wilna's profound understanding of the sector and her track record of successful implementation make her a valuable asset to our team.

Lara Taffer, Timetabling Consultant

Lara has over five years of experience working in the higher education sector, at a Russell Group university, where she was focused on evolving, managing, and delivering the central timetabling service. Lara enjoys problem-solving and driving change where it will help institutions level up their student and staff experience, teaching delivery and institutional efficiency. 

Samantha Kouchakji-Allen, Timetabling Consultant

Sam has over a decade of experience in higher education timetabling, with half that decade spent managing a timetabling team. She consults on a wide range of timetabling and space planning projects, with a keen focus on developing strong stakeholder relationships in order to promote best practice and positive change within the timetabling environment. She enjoys problem solving and working collaboratively to create robust timetabling processes.

Sarah Wood, Timetabling Consultant

Sarah brings over 15 years of experience in higher and further education, and has specialised in timetabling for 13 of those. She spent 5 years leading a large timetabling team and is passionate about service improvement, development, and building collaborative relationships. Sarah works closely with clients and the team, to drive success and facilitate positive change.

Amy Wareing, Timetabling Consultant

Amy has over 15 years' experience in higher education timetabling and exam scheduling and have been a key participant of multiple projects. She enjoys creating straightforward solutions to complex problems. Amy is keen to share her knowledge and upskill timetabling teams so they are able to manage complex scheduling and problem solving

Dave Beavis, Space Management Facilitator

With 14 years of space management experience at a Russell Group institution, Dave understands the strategic importance of robust space data and how it underpins key activities in HE estates. As founder of the Higher Education Space Management Group, Dave led on the creation of operational tools that are now used by many HE institutions, and was recently chair of the AUDE SM group, involved in actively responding to strategic space challenges facing HE.

Shambhavi Srinivasa

Having previously worked as an Assistant Professor at an educational institution, Shambhavi is well versed in administrative tasks like timetable coordination, calendar maintenance and event management. With five years to hone her data entry skills, she brings a high level of analytical thinking to the consultancy department. Her passion for learning and appreciation of team work make her an extremely valuable member of the Escentral team.

The Survey Team

Our survey team are our eyes in the sky and our boots on the ground. Experienced, diligent and discrete, they make sure every survey runs like clockwork.

Jody Ballard, Survey Manager

Before joining Escentral, Jody spent 10 years as a project manager, overseeing the global development of a major retailer. He project manages all the moving parts of our surveys, from route planning and recruitment of survey assistants to being onsite as your lead contact throughout survey weeks.

David Kirkland, Brandon Cartwright & Leonard Basoo, Survey Supervisors

David and Brandon are Jody’s right hand people, helping to train survey assistants, set up surveys onsite, and make sure everything goes to plan during each survey

Survey assistants

Our survey teams do the walking, counting and data collection. Over the course of a year we have over 100 survey assistants, and every single one is thoroughly trained and carefully briefed so that your survey data is recorded with the utmost accuracy and care.

The Data Team

The backbone of many of our consultancy and survey projects, our data superstars are expert data crunchers, ruthlessly hunting down themes and patterns and weeding out any anomalies. Your data couldn’t be in safer hands.

Frazer Birch, Data Analyst

Frazer comes from a background of mathematical sciences, with experience of data analytics from a mathematical and finance perspective. Pursuing his interest in data to develop his skill set, Frazer provides thorough and detailed consultancy analyses in timetabling and space management projects.

Alex Savarani, Data Analyst

With a background in analytical environments as an investment analyst and a police detective, Alex has experience identifying patterns and spotting anomalies. He is passionate about the insights data can provide. Alex is using this passion, alongside Ben and Frazer, to improve and evolve the consultancy we provide. 
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Dan Stollenwerk, Graduate Data Analyst

Dan has studied analytical methods and tools through projects on diverse subject matters. With experience in data quality control, he has an eye for high-quality data and a passion for leveraging this to learn about the world. Dan works with the analytics team to draw actionable insights that help institutions optimise the allocation of their resources.

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The Learning and Development Team

To say our learning and development team is passionate about creating epic training experiences would be an understatement. With decades of experience to share, they work with both our consultants and facilitators to research, develop and run all of our courses and events, and look after our amazing community in the Timetabling Academy. 

Denisa Côrte Real de Camargo, Learning and Development Manager

Denisa wears a lot of hats! She’s been here since the start, working alongside Ben to develop our pioneering courses and refusing to allow even the slightest hint of ‘death by powerpoint’! She oversees the content development for all of our training, as well as managing our facilitators and enrolling students, and leading on our website, graphics and merchandise. Known for her meticulous attention to detail, adept management of in-person events and love of all things colour-coded, Denisa is pivotal to both Escentral, and our learners’ success.

Katie Dennison, Learning and Development Coordinator

After seven years in marketing, Katie brings a wealth of communication, organisation, and event management skills to the team. She supports our Learning and Development Manager in designing course content, moderating training sessions, looking after members in the Timetabling Academy, and keeping things running smoothly behind the scenes.

The Facilitator Team

Some of the brightest minds in their respective fields, our facilitators are strategic, smart and highly experienced. They’re also brilliant learning facilitators – patient, generous and on hand to make sure you get the best out of your learning. 

Svetlana Khalif

Timetabling Facilitator
Following her 28 years of timetabling and education management experience, Svetlana has a keen interest in creative solutions for complex problems. Acting as a link between the academic community, facilities management and other parts of the university administration, Svetlana is incredible at breaking down stereotypes and silos, and helping people to build positive and respectful working relationships at all levels in an organisation.

Poliana Tavares

Timetabling Facilitator
Poliana has been timetabling for 16 years and has a ton of experience in both training and leading timetabling teams. She is brilliant with handling the complicated world of curriculums. Universities and our learners love Poliana’s ability to explain the impact of different curriculum structures and translate even the trickiest curriculums so that they work with the timetable.

David Reanney

Space Management Facilitator
With over 15 years of experience in space planning, David has a particular interest in the nexus between scheduling, space management and forecasting. During this span, David has moved his practice in planning – from a highly effective operational focus, to an increased delivery in tactical and strategic outputs, and integrating this into capital and service planning.

Terry Roche

SPACE MANAGEMENT FACILITATOR
Terry is a highly experienced strategic facilities planner with a 30-year career working with universities in the UK, Australia, Asia, and the Middle East. He has been responsible for numerous innovations in the way organisations plan their estate to meet strategic objectives with a strong focus on resource optimisation.

Peter Howells

Space Management Facilitator
Peter has nearly 20 years experience in strategic asset management and capital development in the Higher Education sector, having worked with a number of Russell Group and Post-92 institutions. He has a particular passion for digital innovation and smart technology, and how the space and time dimensions collide to inform the sustainable management of property portfolios.

Dave Beavis

Space Management Facilitator
With 14 years of space management experience at a Russell Group institution, Dave understands the strategic importance of robust space data and how it underpins key activities in HE estates. As founder of the Higher Education Space Management Group, Dave led on the creation of operational tools that are now used by many HE institutions, and was recently chair of the AUDE SM group, involved in actively responding to strategic space challenges facing HE.

Ryan Casey Clark

Timetabling Consultant
Ryan has worked in the education sector for just over 15 years, 10 of which in timetabling roles. Ryan enjoys the problem-solving aspect of timetabling as well as working closely with key stakeholders to improve and support the learning and teaching function in Schools.

Claire Davies

Timetabling Consultant
Claire has worked in timetabling for 3 years, specialising in law and business school timetabling. Before this she worked in operational and team management roles for 10 years for legal services, charity and marketing organisations. 

Katharine Hughes

Timetabling Consultant

Katharine has worked with timetablers for over 20 years in the Asia-Pacific, the UK and Europe. She has been involved in over 40 implementations of timetabling software solutions as a business consultant and trainer. Software is only part of the solution: Katharine believes in developing sound policy and communication strategies, working on continuous process improvement and leveraging the value of timetabling data.


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