Alex Skailes

About

Overview

Alex Skailes is a senior academic within the faculty of management and Director of the Bayes Centre for Charity Effectiveness (www.bayes.city.ac.uk/faculties-and-research/centres/cce). She sits on the University senior leadership team for social responsibility.

Alex is an experienced strategy and finance director with a successful track record of advising and leading clients in the nonprofit and private sectors. She believes passionately in the power of cross sector working. Alex has combined the first class skills and expertise gained from her earlier senior career with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deutsche Bank with a period of post graduate academic study and consulting work focusing specifically on the nonprofit sector. As a result of her cross sector experiences, she is able to harness best business practise and strong commercial experience with leading edge thinking for a sector that undergoes continual transformation.

Alex specialises in strategic and business planning, feasibility and options studies. She teaches and co-leads the main core module 'Resource Management in the Voluntary Sector' on the MSc Charities programme. She has a particular interest in mergers, collaborations and sustainable business models and was a founder member of the mergers and collaborations advisory group within Bayes’ Centre for Charity Effectiveness (Bayes CCE) in 2014. In 2018 Alex joined the Executive PhD programme. Her research focuses on merger and acquisitions within the social purpose organisations, an exploration of the resultant social value created and the factors that drive this form of organisational change.

As Director of Bayes CCE, Alex leads the team of core directors and associate consultants. The team are expert in nonprofit management, have senior cross sector career experience and come from both practitioner and academic backgrounds. The Centre is a leading nonprofit centre in the UK and overseas and delivers a world class blend of postgraduate master (MSc) degree programmes, research, consultancy and leadership development programmes both in the UK and overseas. The Centre is one of three Centres of Excellence recognised for its strong performance in education, engaging and advising organisations across the charitable sector and for engaging with the policy-making community.

In 2022, Alex was elected as a Director to the board of the international Nonprofit Academic Centers Council.

Alex is dedicated to supporting the next generation of women leaders. She currently chairs the board of the Bayes Global Women’s Leadership Programme and is a member of the International Women’s Forum UK branch. She is a long-term mentor.

Alex is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA), holds their post graduate diploma in charity accounting (DChA) and has an MSc with distinction from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) in Voluntary Sector Management. She holds a BA from University College, London. Alex is a Fellow of both the Royal Society for Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce and the Royal Geographical Society and is a Freeman of the City of London.

Qualifications

• Diploma in Charity Accounting (DChA), Insitute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Oct 2010
• Fellow (FCA), Instiute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), Jan 1992
• MSc (distinction) Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), City, University London, London, United Kingdom
• BA Hons, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Employment

• Board Chair, Bayes Global Women's Leadership Programme, City, University of London, Nov 2022 – present
• Senior Academic and Director, Centre for Charity Effectiveness, City, University of London, Jan 2016 – present

Fellowships

• Fellow, Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, Nov 2016 – present
• Fellow, Royal Geographical Society, Nov 2016 – present
• Fellow, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW)

Memberships of professional organisations

• International Women's Forum, 2018 – present
• Freeman of the City of London

Expertise

Primary topics

• Business Models
• Change Management
• Corporate Governance
• Financial Accounting
• Management
• Management Consulting
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Voluntary Sector Management

Industries

• education, training & employment agencies
• financial services
• non-profit & voluntary sector
• professional services

Geographic Areas

• Europe
• Middle East

Publications

Professional activities