Aya has spent over 15 years leading teams to deliver complex change and transformation across a breadth of sectors including local and central government, health and transport, specialising in Higher Education.

With a background in commercial consulting, Aya has been both a client and associate of SUMS and joined SUMS as Head of Consulting after several senior roles in UK universities including Programme Director at University of Westminster, Head of Portfolio and Change at Kingston University, Head of Change Management at King’s College London, Transformation Director at University College London and most recently Director of Change and Improvement at University of East London. Through these roles Aya delivered significant benefits including:

  •  led delivery of projects within UCL’s multi-million pound Transforming Our Professional Services programme including establishing and directing the continuous improvement function, being part of the programme leadership team as well as coaching leaders in change and transformation
  • designed and delivered all components of change management for the £100m Bush House programme at King’s College London, which included significant changes to ways of working for academics and professional services staff
  • developed a new Portfolio Management Office and Continuous Improvement Hub at Kingston University successfully providing oversight on over 90 projects with a value of £100m through full project lifecycles harnessing best practice
  • established Change Management functions and services at King’s College London, University College London, University of East London and Copenhagen Business School.

Aya is passionate about supporting leaders, managers and employees through change and delivering people-related return on investment for institutions.

Aya has a BSc in Sociology from the University of Bath, is a qualified Prosci Change Management practitioner as well as ILM Level 7 Executive coach and is currently studying for an MSc in Business Psychology. In addition to this she uses transformation methodologies including MSP, PRINCE2 and Lean and adapts these to deliver lasting improvements for clients.

Aside from a passion for supporting others through change and finding out what makes people tick, Aya loves baking and believes many a tricky stakeholder situation can be resolved with cake, leaving a legacy of Cake Wednesday behind her in most organisations she has worked with. Aya’s newest hobby is winter swimming which she is embracing with gusto since moving to Copenhagen.