Professor Richard Kerley is Professor of Management at QMU with a specific interest in public service management. He was previously at the University of Edinburgh and the Scottish Local Authorities Management Centre, University of Strathclyde . He has also been a visiting scholar at Yale University. Before entering academic life, Richard worked in advertising, hospitality and in prison education. He also worked for four different councils, in adult education and then latterly in staff and management development.

He is currently also a Non-Executive Director with Mainstreet Consulting and a Trustee of the Centre for Scottish Public Policy 2021. He has been on the board of various companies, charities, and arts organisations.

Richard is the author of various books, research papers, academic journals, and numerous articles in the quality print media. His most recent publications include an edited book on International Local Government, and he is currently working on a taxonomy of international local government.

Richard chaired the Working Party on Renewing Local Democracy; the report of which was published in July 2000, and which was legislated for in June 2004 as the Local Governance Act. He has carried out research projects supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Scottish Consumer Council, Alcohol Scotland, The Accounts Commission Scotland, Tayside, Edinburgh and Fife Councils, the Association of MBAs, and the Scottish Government. He has been engaged in consultancy projects by government; local governments; government agencies; voluntary organisations and international education providers.

Alex Metcalfe is the head of public sector policy in the Professional Insights team at ACCA. He leads on developing thought leadership for the public sector and represents ACCA at a variety of events and senior forums.

He has worked across central, provincial and local government in the UK and Canadian civil service, including as a senior economist - specialising in tax policy - at the Ontario Ministry of Finance. He has published material across a breadth of public sector topics, including: infrastructure finance, employment law, fiscal policy, immigration and skills, and adult social care.

Alex is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), board member of the Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants’ (CAPA) public sector committee, and on the editorial board for the academic book series Public Service Accounting and Accountability.

He studied at Oxford, Cambridge and Queen's universities.

Michael leads ACCA's policy view in matters pertaining to economic analysis. He is interested in a range of areas such as macroeconomic policy, political economy and industrial strategy. His experience covers diverse areas, such as econometric analysis, construction of lead indicators and policy formulation.     

Michael has worked in numerous roles as an economist, including as an adviser to the UK government, at three city institutions, at a policy think tank and at the Institute of Directors, where he was chief economist. He holds a master's degree in economics from the London School of Economics.