NATIONAL EXTENSION COLLEGE - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Co - Founder of the National Extension College, Brian Jackson

Co-founder of the National Extension College, Brian Jackson nurtured NEC from his role as director of the Advisory Centre for Education (ACE). In NEC's first ten years he used his skills as a writer, educator, publicist and fundraiser to support NEC, and the College was launched by an article in ACE's magazine ‘Where?' in the autumn of 1963. He went on to help found the National Children's Centre and proposed a series of television programmes to the BBC which in turn led to the foundation of the National Childminding Association (now called the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY)).

Job Titles:

• Divisional Managing Director for Santander Business
• Vice Chair of Finance Sub - Committee

Colin is Divisional Managing Director for Santander Business having forged a successful career in commercial banking. He has previously worked for HSBC in the UK and China and now oversees Santander's Business Banking operations across the North of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. His team provides local face-to-face relationship support to small and medium sized businesses, helping them to prosper in their domestic and overseas markets. Over the last twelve years, Colin has enjoyed advising numerous businesses, sharing his in-depth understanding of business financials and industry dynamics to help stimulate further growth. In his role as a trustee at the NEC he brings leadership experience, analytical thinking, business acumen and exceptional communication skills. Earlier in his career Colin gained first-hand experience in the classroom, as a teacher in North London for Teach First. As an NEC trustee he relishes the opportunity to contribute once again to an organisation committed to making a positive impact on society through education.

Job Titles:

• Business Manager
• Chief Operating Officer

Corrinne Callaway is a chief operating officer and business manager who led the not-for-profit funding organisation Social Finance between 2008 and 2012, the period in which it became an authorised entity in the UK and Europe. She has worked in business management roles in the banking sector for RBS, Natixis Global Asset Management, JPMorgan Chase, ABN AMRO and Deutsche Bank. She is currently contracted as Chief Operating Officer for Banque Transatlantique. Corrinne Callaway graduated with a BSC in information technology in 1991, became a Full Member of the Securities Institute in 2000 and was awarded a CII (Chartered Institute of Insurers) Diploma in Financial Planning in 2013. Corrinne brings to the NEC Board a broad range of skills encompassing strategic planning, business growth and business management, in the global banking sector and beyond.

Michael Young, Lord Young of Dartington Michael Young believed in open learning and in the early 1960s identified a generation of adults whose lives had been disrupted by the Second World War, who would want to come back to education but would need the educational provision to fit around their lives. A social entrepreneur and Labour politician, he founded the National Extension College (NEC), along with Brian Jackson, in 1963, and used his vision and energy to get many initiatives designed to help individuals and families get off the ground. These included the Open University and International Extension College - both of which had particular links to the NEC; the University of the Third Age; International Research Foundation for Open Learning (IRFOL); the Open School and the Open College of the Arts; the Consumers Association (WHICH); and the Advisory Centre for Education (ACE). With his charismatic leadership and forward-looking attitude, Michael Young was a visionary ahead of his time.

Job Titles:

• Clerk
• Vice Chair of Trustees

Rachel Marshall is Clerk to the Corporation of North Warwickshire and Hinckley College of Further Education, a role she has held since 2009. The corporation provides further and secondary education to 20,000+ students and has an annual turnover of £55 million. Rachel reports to the Chair of the Corporation and CEO of the college in a role combining the duties of company secretary for Midland Academies Trust with governance support to the board of directors of the federation and to four academy governing bodies. From 2006 to 2009 she was Deputy Justice's Clerk at Loughborough Magistrates Court, providing legal advice and support to 70 magistrates, district judges, staff and court users, managing bench activities and a team of seven legal advisers. She was appointed Head of Legal Services at Loughborough Magistrates Court in 2001. She is a law and sociology graduate of De Montfort University. To the NEC board she brings experience of senior leadership in further education, and skills in strategic planning, governance systems development and implementation of continuous improvement strategies.

Job Titles:

• Chairman of Board of Trustees & Finance Sub - Committee

Richard has spent decades working in a variety of education roles, including teaching and advising. In 1988 he was appointed Assistant Chief Executive of the National Curriculum Council, which was responsible for introducing England's first National Curriculum. He later became the Acting Chief Executive of the School Examinations and Assessment Council, which regulated GCSEs and A-levels and was responsible for SATs. He then joined CACHE as Chief Executive and Company Secretary, retiring in September 2013 after 19 years at the helm. Richard brings to the NEC Board his experience of running a charity and of supporting students, many of whom have either not achieved in a school environment or who are adult returners to education.

Job Titles:

• Member of the Board

Ros has been involved with NEC since 1987 and describes working with the late Michael Young as both a pleasure and a privilege. Ros left school at 17 and was a second chance learner herself, returning to study anthropology at Cambridge University's New Hall as a mature student. In 2002, she was chosen as one of five Britons to become an honorary fellow of the Commonwealth of Learning, receiving the honour at an international awards ceremony in Durban, South Africa. In 1994 she received an honorary doctorate from the OU for services to distance learning. Ros stepped down from NEC after 16 years as Executive Director in 2003 to follow her interests in international education. She returned to NEC in December 2011 to start the process of rebuilding the college following an unfortunate merger with the Learning and Skills Network. In 2014 she was named the Further Education Leader of the Year by the Times Educational Supplement, and received an OBE for services to further education in the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours list. Ros has subsequently retired as CEO in April 2021 but has remained on the board of trustees.

Job Titles:

• Deputy Chief Executive of MEI

Vanessa is Deputy Chief Executive of MEI, the mathematics education improvement body. From 2011 to 2017 Vanessa was an Assistant Director at the Department for Education where she held responsibility for mathematics education policy and programmes and worked on STEM education and education technology policy. Vanessa worked with Sir Adrian Smith on his review of post-16 mathematics, helped launch Core Maths qualifications and led the development of the Maths Hub programme, working closely with the NCETM to introduce mastery teaching approaches to schools in England. Prior to 2011 Vanessa led the evidence and research function at Becta, the UK agency for technology in education, and before that headed up a social science department at Sheffield Hallam University.