Mandy Coalter Founder of Talent Architects

Mandy Coalter is the author of the successful book ‘Talent Architects; how to make your school a great place to work’, published in 2018. Previously, she was Director of People at United Learning, one of the largest school groups in the UK. Before that, Mandy worked in senior HR roles in local government, the NHS, the voluntary sector and schools and is a very experienced board director and advisor on aspects of corporate governance.

HR magazine listed Mandy in the top 40 HR Most Influential Practitioners in 2017 and she was shortlisted for the HR Excellence Awards ‘HR Director of the Year’ in 2018.

Corrienne Peasgood OBE

Corrienne Peasgood is President of the Association of Colleges, the national voice for England’s colleges. Corrienne took up the role in October 2022 after more than 25 years in Further Education.
Corrienne trained as a plumber after leaving school at 16 and by the age of 21, she had completed an apprenticeship and joined her family business in plumbing and heating. In 1996, the opportunity came to join City College Norwich as a sessional plumbing lecturer and over the next 15 years Corrienne moved on to become a full-time lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Director, Vice Principal, and Deputy Principal. Thus, gaining insights into the many different departments at the college. Corrienne then served as CEO and Principal at City College Norwich for a decade, before retiring in July 2022.
Corrienne was appointed an OBE in 2020 and was Vice Chair of Norfolk’s Children and Young People’s Strategic Alliance and FE Board member of the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership (NALEP). Corrienne is Chair of the NALEP Agri-Food Industry Council.

Dr Tesca Bennett

Dr Tesca Bennett is an Executive Principal and School Improvement Partner for the Haberdashers’ Academies Trust South and leads Haberdashers’ Knights Academy a large 11-18 school in London.

She is a Trustee of Astrea Academy Trust, chairing the Education and Inclusion Committee and sitting on the Finance and Budget Committee.  She is a Local Leader of Education, coach and facilitator for various leadership development and educational improvement programmes.

Tesca is a member of the steering committee of Reconnect London, mentor  for the charity ‘The Difference’  and a judge for the Fair Education Alliance Innovation Awards.

Tesca joined the profession through the NCSL Fast Track Teaching programme, teaching the sciences in inner London schools.  She has a strong interest in organisational culture, leadership development and is committed to social regeneration through education, particularly in disadvantaged communities.

Cathy Anwar Founder and Director of ELECT (Education Leadership and Equalities Consultancy and Training)

Chief Executive of Summit Learning Trust in Birmingham from 2017-2022. The Trust comprises 8 academies in south and north Birmingham; 4 primary, 3 secondary and a 6^th Form College, serving around 8000 disadvantaged, urban and beautifully diverse learners. The academies saw transformational improvements in leadership, outcomes, overall standards and Ofsted judgments during this time.

Prior to this role, Cathy was a senior HMI in London and HMI in the South-East for 4 years, and previously led a large secondary school in Hampshire for 8 years.

A particular success for Summit Learning Trust was our intensive programme of work to challenge discrimination and promote diversity, equality and inclusion across all our academies over the last 18 months.

Toby Salt Chair of the Teaching Awards Trust

Professor Toby Salt is an experienced CEO and non- executive director. His present clients include the Ed Tech company Zen Educate and he is senior advisory director for AQA, Thomas’s Schools and Academies Enterprise Trust. He also provides coaching and mentoring for a number of CEOs in the schools sector. Until recently he was the group CEO of AQA the largest exam board in the UK. AQA also has a number commercial subsidiary companies and an international joint venture. He was previously Chief Executive of Ormiston Academies Trust, which sponsors 37 academies across England, with responsibility for 26,000 students and 3,500 staff. Prior to that, Toby was Deputy Chief Executive at the National College for School Leadership, an executive agency providing leadership development and policy advice for schools and ministers. Toby’s teams led on programmes such as teaching schools and national leaders of education. Toby has worked in a variety of education leadership roles, including as Executive Head of a federation of three schools, and has led schools (across the phases) to achieve ‘outstanding’ gradings under Ofsted. In 2000, he was appointed by the Prime Minister as Director of the Department for Education’s Innovation Unit to lead innovation in school practices and structures. He has also held a number of voluntary and non-executive director roles including appointment to the Cabinet Office Innovators’ Council and as a board member of UCAS. He is a visiting professor of education leadership at the University of Wolverhampton; a member of All Souls Group, Oxford; and a member of the Windsor Leadership Trust Chief Executives’ working group. He is a governor emeritus of Chichester FE College and trustee of Southern Pro Musica. Toby is the chair of the Teaching Awards Trust and senior adviser to the board of the British Exploring Society.

Jonathan Taylor-Cummings

Jonathan Taylor-Cummings

David Weston

David Weston is the founder and Chief Executive of the Teacher Development Trust, the national charity for effective professional development. He Chaired the Department for Education’s Teachers’ Professional Development Expert Group and advises the Department on Early Career Teachers and school leadership. David taught maths and physics for ten years in two schools in London and the South East. He is a Council Member and Fellow for Chartered College of Teaching. David speaks and writes frequently for the education sector and national media and has had a number of radio and TV appearances around teaching, teacher development and LGBT issues.

Tracy Smith Executive Director. THE Partnership

Appointed as Executive Director for THE Partnership in September 2017, Tracy was at Seven Kings School in Redbridge for 21 years and was Headteacher from 2008, the last 3 as Executive Headteacher. Tracy oversaw the growth of the school to become an all through school with the opening of a brand new 4FE primary school in 2015. 

Seven Kings was one of the first 100 Teaching Schools and Tracy has a track record of working collaboratively with schools and other partners.  She has supported colleagues by acting as a professional coach and was a leadership coach for the GAL/Challenge partners ‘Getting Ahead London’ programme, supporting aspirant headteachers and now sits on the advisory board for that programme.  Tracy is an Associate of UCL/IOE and a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching.

As Executive Director of THE Partnership, Tracy leads school improvement and professional learning across the 97 schools in THE Partnership, working closely with school leaders and the Local Authority.

Shane Mann Managing director of Lsect

Shane is the managing director of Lsect, the publisher of Schools Week and FE Week. He is responsible for the overall management and performance of the organisation, and is also the managing director of our sister organisation Summerhouse Events, which runs the prestigious The Telegraph Festival of Education and Festival of Skills.

Simon Barrow Brand Management Consultant

Simon’s first big insight into what he wanted to do came when, aged 21, doing a long vacation job on a Price Waterhouse cost control project in a Brooklyn NY brewery, the assignment ended with a week of his contract still to run. The brewery sent him to their advertising agency BBDO on Madison Avenue.

That was the start of his interest in marketing and advertising. His earlier career included being a brand manager on Knorr products for Best Foods (now Unilever) and later a group product manager with Colgate-Palmolive. He then joined the Charles Barker Group, becoming CEO of its consumer advertising agency Ayer Barker where he quickly learnt that recruiting and inspiring outstanding people is the No 1 requirement in a client service business.

Ten years later he became CEO of Barkers Human Resources where he saw the need for a consulting business and formed PiB. He later led its MBO to become an independent business. Simon created the Employer Brand approach to management (now a subject with 446,000 Google pages). He has worked on 31 M&A transactions as a consultant and further 10 as a corporate employee and with Jenny Davenport wrote Employee Communications in Mergers and Acquisitions – the soft stuff is the hard bit (Gower 2009).

His education included an Exchange Scholarship 12th Grade year in America, followed by Christ Church, Oxford (BA/MA). He is a trustee of the Teaching Awards Trust, aiming to improve the public recognition of great teachers.

Sue Williamson Director & CEO of SSAT

Sue began her working life as an administrator in the NHS. She had wanted to become a teacher, but was advised by her teachers not to do it! She studied for her BA (Hons) in Humanities (English and History) whilst continuing to work in the NHS, and went on to study for the PGCE (History) at the Institute of Education, London. Sue began teaching as Head of History at Rounds Manor School in Northamptonshire. Sue’s first headship was at Monks’ Dyke School in Lincolnshire.

Sue joined the SSAT, a national organisation which works with schools to improve performance through the development of staff and students, in 2002 as Director of Affiliation with responsibility for membership, innovation and the National Conference. She developed SSAT’s suite of leadership programmes working with outstanding headteachers like David Carter and Mike Wilkins.

Sue has written widely on education, including pamphlets on personalising learning and redesigning schooling.

Sir Alan Steer Retired Secondary Headteacher and Former Government Education Adviser

Sir Alan was head teacher of Seven Kings High School, Ilford, from 1985-2008.

He was Secondary Education Advisor for the Department for Children, Schools and Families from 2005-10, and chaired a review of Behaviour in Schools and Associated Issues.

Sir Alan is former pro-director of the Institute of Education, University of London.

He is a Council member of the New Visions for Education Group, as well as director and national judge of the Teaching Awards.

Liz Quinn MBE Former Winner of Headteacher of the Year award

Liz is a former winner of the Headteacher of the Year Award.

Liz joined Stourport High as an assistant headteacher in 1994 and was appointed as head teacher in 2000. In 2009, OFSTED awarded the school an “outstanding” status.

The school gained academy status in 2011, which saw Miss Quinn become principal, followed by a second “outstanding” OFSTED report in 2012.

She was awarded an MBE for her services to education.

Steve Munby Chair and Consultant/Speaker on Leadership and System Reform

Steve was previously CEO of Education Development Trust.

Before that, Steve was chief executive of the National College of School Leadership and director of education in Knowsley, Merseyside, and was awarded Commander of the British Empire for his services to leadership in schools and children’s services.

Steve is now a consultant/speaker on leadership and system reform, and chair of the Teaching Awards Trust.

Priya Lakhani OBE Founder of Century Tech

Priya Lakhani OBE is an entrepreneur who founded Century Tech, developing the latest artificial intelligence and big data technology to understand how the brain learns.

Trained as a barrister, Priya left the security of the legal profession to pursue her passion for business. She founded the Masala Masala food brand and built it from a kitchen table idea to a line of products stocked in major supermarkets.

Lakhani founded Century Tech, a company bringing together AI, neuroscience and education. Century’s aim is to measure and simulate brain responses to tuition, analyse what works for whom and how, and ultimately produce personalised learning. By understanding how the brain learns and responds, educators can receive real-time insights, tailoring the learning experience and improving student performance.

As well as starting businesses Priya has worked with government as a member of the Department of Business, Education and Skills’ Entrepreneur Forum.

Christine Gilbert Chair of Future First

Christine is chair of Future First, and leads the board and supports the senior leadership team to ensure Future First has maximum impact on schools and colleges across the country.

Christine is probably best known for her role as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector at Ofsted. However, she has also been a teacher, headteacher, director of education and local authority chief executive.

Christine received a CBE in 2006 for services to education and local government.

Sir David Carter National Schools Commissioner

Sir David Carter became National Schools Commissioner on 1 February 2016, having previously worked for as Regional Schools Commissioner for the South West. He is the former CEO of the Cabot Learning Federation, a post he held from 2007 to 2014.

Sir David is a music graduate of the University of London and has taught music in comprehensive schools across the country since he started teaching in 1983.

In 1997, he became headteacher of Cirencester Deer Park School in Gloucestershire. In 2003 Sir David joined the Department for Education to spearhead the National Remodelling Team, supporting primary, special and secondary schools to introduce the workforce remodelling programme.

In 2004, he was appointed Principal of John Cabot City Technology College in Bristol and led the formation of the Cabot Learning Federation, now made up of 12 schools. He became one of the first National Leaders of Education and, in the summer of 2011, the Cabot Learning Federation successfully applied to become one of the first Teaching Schools in the country.

Sir David received a knighthood for his services to education in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2013.

Geoff Barton General Secretary, ASCL

Geoff studied English and Linguistics at the University of Lancaster, then trained to teach at Leicester University. From 2002 to 2017 he was headteacher of King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds, a comprehensive school of 1650 students.

He is a Founding Fellow of the English Association and writes for a range of newspapers and journals. He has worked with various organisations, including the Department for Education, on leadership and literacy.

Geoff was a longstanding member of ASCL Council, former chair of its Pedagogy Committee, is Patron of the English and Media Centre, and a ‘Leading Thinker’ for the National Education Trust. He became General Secretary of Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) in April 2017.