The Board

Sir Geoff Hall, Chairman of the information authority (appointed January 2011)

Geoff retired from his post as Principal and Chief Executive of New College Nottingham (NCN) in July 2011. Prior to NCN, he was a national director at the Learning and Skills Council and the Further Education Funding Council, where his responsibilities included funding and data. 

Before that, Geoff was Director of Education in the London borough of Bexley. He has also written a number of publications about leading change in the further education sector.  

Geoff was awarded a knighthood for services to further education in the 2012 New Year Honours List.

Frank Bowley, Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills (BIS)  (appointed April 2013)

Frank is Deputy Director for Skills Policy Analysis at BIS. He is responsible for providing analysis and research of the current vocational education policy and emerging strategic themes.

Frank has worked in BIS for five years and has been working in skills for just over one year.  Before skills, Frank was working as a senior economist in the Economic Development Directorate focusing on economic growth across England.

Prior to working in BIS, Frank worked in HM Treasury for six years on macroeconomic analysis and forecasts, and improving the delivery of public services.

Jon is Operations Director of National Training Resources and prior to becoming one of its founding directors, was involved in training for some 24 years previously as Chairman and board member of Fylde Training. 

With a broad knowledge of government and European Union funding policies, he has been involved with design and implementation of conceptual programmes for small and medium enterprise (SME) business managers and employee development models. Jon also oversees the Excellence in Learning division.

Mario Ferelli, Head of Funding and Analytical Services, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)  (appointed October 2006)

Mario’s academic background is in maths, statistics and operational research and prior to joining HEFCE in 1991 he worked for Unilever Research modelling markets and the University of Lancaster in their Computing Department supporting their mathematics and statistics software.

He joined HEFCE as a Principal Analyst/Statistician responsible amongst other things for designing and implementing the infrastructure to support data collection systems and funding models. Mario became the Head of Funding and Analytical Services at HEFCE in 1999.

Alison Fisher, Head of Statistics, Ofqual (appointed September 2012)

More details to follow...

Sara Goldie, Operations Director, HIT Training Ltd (appointed September 2012)

With a background in five-star hotel management, Sara has managed teams in work-based learning for over 15 years. She is now Operations Director for HIT, a private company specialising in training for the hospitality and leisure industries.

Sara ensures that HIT's 26 area teams operate efficiently to the delivery models produced by the development team. Sara also chairs the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) south east provider network.

Julia Goldsmith, Chief Information and Systems Officer, Warwickshire College (appointed September 2012)

More details to follow...

Julian Gravatt, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Research and Development, Association of Colleges (AoC)  (appointed October 2006)

Julian has been at the AoC since 2003. Prior to his current role, Julian was the Director of Funding and Development at AoC, where he worked closely with principals, governors and finance directors to ensure that government and Learning and Skills Council decisions take accounts of the needs of colleges and the people they serve.

Julian has worked in the college sector since 1992, including eight years at Lewisham College and three years at the City Lit. He contributed to the transformation of Lewisham College in the 1990s and to the redevelopment of City Lit in the early 2000s.

Pauline Hagan, Principal, New College Pontefract (appointed September 2012)

Pauline joined the college as Deputy Principal in 2009 and is the first female Principal appointed since 1987, when the former girls grammar school became a college. Since that time the college has grown rapidly, attracting increasing numbers of young people from north east Wakefield and beyond.

Pauline has extensive experience in post-16 education, having worked at senior level in three sixth form colleges and also a brief spell leading on developing education in the prison service.

Chris Jeffrey, Strategy and Policy Adviser, General Physics (UK) Limited  (appointed September 2012)

Chris was the Managing Director of Academy of Training for 22 years until the sale of the company in November 2010 to General Physics (UK) Ltd, part of the General Physics corporation based in America.

Chris is also a Director and active member of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and the hair and beauty champion. A Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) council member since 2009, Chris also represents the council and members interests on the Perfomance Review Panel.

Robert Pike, Chief Statistician, Ofsted (appointed September 2009)

Rob Pike is Chief Statistician at Ofsted with responsibility for ensuring that its statistics are produced to high standards. He is also Divisional Manager for Ofsted’s Inspection Data and Information Tteam, providing information to support inspection across the range of remits, including learning and skills.

Before joining Ofsted, Rob worked at the Office for National Statistics where he was responsible for producing and disseminating the Consumer Prices Index and Retail Prices Index.

Ian Pryce, Principal and Chief Executive, Bedford College  (appointed September 2007)

Ian Pryce has been Principal and Chief Executive of Bedford College since 1998, having joined the College in 1996 as Finance Director. 

He was previously a regional Finance Director at the Further Education Funding Council and has also worked as a Director or Senior Manager in retail, electricity generation and local government. He is a member of the Institute of Directors, the accountancy body CIPFA, a member of the CBI Regional Council, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Councillor of City and Guilds. 

Ian was awarded a CBE for services to further education in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

David Pye, Senior Analyst, Local Government Association (LGA) (appointed June 2010)

David Pye is a Senior Analyst within the Research and Information Team at the LGA and Research Director at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).

Prior to this, David was Principal Research Officer at NFER and was involved in a range of evaluations of education and training initiatives both within the UK and overseas. David has also lectured and researched at a number of higher education institutions.

During his career, Keith has worked in both the private and public sector undertaking a variety of roles - he has managed programmes for the unemployed, was the author of ‘Planning for Success’, and he led the introduction of Minimum Levels of Performance within the Further Education and Skills sector. He led the introduction of simplified contracting and tendering arrangements and has developed performance scorecards and frameworks.