The Team at CIEC

CEDRIC BELL

Chairman and Chief Executive

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Professor Bell is Chairman and Chief Executive of Cambridge International Education Centre (CIEC) and is one of the leading academic entrepreneurs in the UK with considerable experience of successful leadership of private sector institutions and with a considerable international profile. He was for ten years Chief Executive of Holborn College, London, a leading private sector Law and Business College in the UK, which he built up and sold to the US Washington Post Kaplan Group. Professor Bell has experience of leading in universities and educational organisations across Europe, Africa and Asia, and was Pro Vice-Chancellor & Vice-Chancellor of a major global University. He qualified as a Barrister, has held Professorial rank since 1996 with a large number of international universities. Professor Bell is a director of a number of UK Companies in the tertiary education and professional training fields and the author of 4 textbooks and over 20 articles involving legal theory and practice. He has compiled and written strategies for a large number of education and business organisations and has a wide range of governmental, regulatory, diplomatic and tertiary institutional connections.

STUART WALL

Founder and Principal

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Professor Wall is Founder and Principal of Cambridge International Education Centre (CIEC) and is a globally recognised authority in a range of economics, business and management subjects, with numerous texts in many languages for Pearson, the world’s largest educational publisher. He has been personally cited by the Independent Newspaper in the ‘A to Z of Business Schools’ as having made an outstanding contribution to UK business education. As a member of the Committee for National Academic Awards (CNAA) he supported many ‘new’ universities in degree development, led the Ashcroft International Business School in Cambridge for Anglia Ruskin University, and acted as consultant, advisor and Visiting Professor to a wide range of UK universities. Professor Wall is regarded as one of the UK’s leading developers of teaching and learning materials in higher education across many subject areas. For example he was ‘headhunted’ by Kaplan on its market entry into the UK to oversee the provision of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and learning materials for all subjects in its first three Kaplan International Colleges. Professor Wall is also the author of a wide range of online, audio and video materials for Financial Times, Pearson, Edexcel, Marshall Cavendish and other publishing houses and has extensive consultancy experience for major organisations such as the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry. In addition he has developed major research projects for various UK universities in entrepreneurship and corporate strategy, including projects funded by bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Professor Wall has also developed a wide range of materials in English language provision and in total has sold more than 10 million units across all subjects and levels for Pearson.

CIGDEM ULGER (TEZEL)

Head of International Projects

Photo of Cigdem Ulger (Tezel)

Cigdem leads on international projects for CIEC, especially in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The active projects led by Cigdem include Legal Internship, Land Management, Urban Regeneration and a wide range of International Business and Management projects as well as high level literacy projects. She holds an LLM degree and a Master’s degree in Environmental Sustainability as well as degrees in International and European Business Law from UK and Turkish Universities. She has lectured in Law in UK and international universities and is an accredited Risk Specialist for the Institute of Risk Management (IRM). Cigdem has extensive experience in providing strategic, legal, risk and compliance advice to major companies (e.g. Oracle, Turkcell) and government departments in many countries such as the UK, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan amongst other consultancy projects.

HILARY DAY

Director of Academic & Business English

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Hilary Day is amongst the most experienced developers of English teaching and testing materials in the UK, and has also worked as an examiner and assessor at all levels for a wide range of official testing bodies, such as Cambridge ESOL, (IELTS, CPE, CAE and Skills for Life), OCR, ARELS and RSA.

She has extensive teaching and assessment experience in the UK and overseas, including Africa and the EU.

Hilary has also worked as Assistant Development Manager for Asset Languages (part of OCR) and has taught in Cambridge University, Anglia Ruskin University and Oporto University (Portugal), as well as in language centres such as International Language School and the British Council (Portugal), Eurocentre, Studio School and Newnham Language Centre (Cambridge), and has directed a language project for the British Council in Angola.

She has specialist expertise in the cross-cultural aspects of preparing Chinese students for English assessment, as well as students from across the globe. Hilary develops and tests written and oral assessment materials and leads teams of examiners and assessors.

MARION COBBY

Director of Business and Operations

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Marion has extensive experience in similar roles in UK University and Higher Education settings. In her former position as Business and Operations Manager in the Ashcroft International Business School of Anglia Ruskin University, Marion held responsibility for planning and overseeing all logistical and resource-based deployments for the International Development Team, which achieved a 300% plus growth in international student recruitment and associated budget surplus over a three year period. Marion has worked closely in developing and resourcing successful curriculum-based initiatives with a wide range of international partner institutions and external agencies. Marion is also Director of Operations and Finance at Cambridge Seminars College, an institution of 34 years’ standing with Tier 4 HTS status, jointly owned by CIEC. She is also Director of the CIEC Pearson Test Centre in Cambridge, which is the ‘official’ Pearson Test of English (PTE) Centre for Cambridge.

MAHMOUD AL-KILANI

Consultant

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Mahmoud Al-Kilani has a doctorate in Accounting and Finance, has co-authored a major text in Accounting and Finance for Pearson and has extensive experience in teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in universities in the UK and overseas, including delivering lectures in India, Germany and Switzerland. Mahmoud has been involved in developing innovative degrees in Business and Management for the Higher Education Funding Council of England and Wales (HEFCE) and has acted as advisor and external examiner to universities in the UK and overseas. As well as publishing in major academic journals, Mahmoud has high level practitioner experience within multinational manufacturing companies, such as British Foam Group, Romania and Aramoon Trading Establishment, Jordan.

VEYSEL TEZEL

Marketing Manager: Turkey

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Veysel plays a key role for CIEC in both developing and delivering short courses and has separate degrees in Business Management, Economics and Politics from a major UK university. He has extensive experience in both teaching and mentoring international students and lectures in Business for LD Training on University courses at Leeds Trinity University and Suffolk University. Veysel has worked with a wide range of international educational organisations such as King’s School Ely, Roedean School, Docklands Academy London, Cambridge Seminars College, Regent Language School, Select Language School and EC Language School, amongst others. Veysel also has practitioner experience in marketing and sales promotion with major companies in Turkey and the UK, working closely with companies and networks in Dubai, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran and many other international locations.

CLAIRE CODAY

Consultant

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Claire Coday has extensive experience in the development and teaching of face-to-face and on-line courses in entrepreneurship and strategy, in liaison with universities, businesses and governmental organisations. She is Tutor in Business Strategy to the Open University and has established for Anglia Ruskin University an innovative, university- accredited, 16-month training programme for new business start-ups, leading to the Certificate in Small Business Management, sponsored by major companies such as Barclays Bank. Claire has high level practitioner experience including Chief Executive and Managing Director positions for a number of manufacturing and technology based companies, as well as working with UK and European Government Departments to provide business and skills support services to SME’s and individuals. Claire brings to the student learning environment her highly successful record of leading new ventures, implementing significant change management programmes and of developing marketing and customer relations strategies.