About Us

David holds a number of executive and voluntary posts, including chairing the boards of Energy UK and the trade association for the UK energy industry.

Earlier in his career, David was elected as MP for Yeovil Constituency in 2001. He served on the Treasury Select Committee, and then held a variety of Shadow posts – in the Treasury, Work and Pensions, and Education portfolios. He was one of the negotiators of the 2010-2015 Coalition Agreement, and served as Chief Secretary, Schools Minister and Cabinet Office Minister, before leaving parliament in 2015.

David is also a governor of an independent school in Surrey.

Mark retired from Cancer Research UK where he spent five years as Executive Director of Human Resources. He has over 35 years of human resource and general management experience gained in multinational corporations including AB Agri (Associated British Foods), Constellation Brands Inc, Campbell Soup Company, Yardley Lentheric and International Distillers.

Having worked in various senior leadership roles, he has a wealth of experience developing people strategies within large and complex organisations. He has led on equality, diversity and inclusion, employee and industrial relations, compensation and benefits, including advising remuneration committees on pay practices, talent acquisition and development, and the people aspects of mergers, acquisitions, disposals and large capital projects.

Mark has undertaken extensive voluntary work as a non-executive director, advising on remuneration, pay and reward practices. He has also been a board member and chair of trustees for several large occupational pension schemes and was deputy-chair of governors for one of the UK’s largest further education (FE) colleges.

Mark is the Chair of AQA’s Remuneration Committee.

James graduated from Jesus College Cambridge in 1995 with a degree in Classics. He has taught at a number of leading independent schools and has, at various times, been Head of Department, Head of Sixth Form, Housemaster, Director of Admissions and Marketing, and Deputy Head (Pastoral).

Since 2013, James has worked at Wellington College in Berkshire, becoming the school’s first internally appointed Master in 2019. He also sits of the Board of Governors at three other schools. Throughout his career, James has taught GCSE, iGCSE, A-Level and IB Diploma, and is a passionate advocate of holistic models of education.

James is a member of AQA’s Curriculum and Assessment Quality Committee.

Ann is an experienced executive who has held senior roles in the energy, banking, and not-for-profit sectors. For more than 25 years she has specialised in leadership development, working in a wide range of strategic HR roles focused on identifying talent, succession planning, organisational development and change programmes.

Ann teaches with the Open University, helping students who might not otherwise have gained access to tertiary education and those who want to develop their careers.

In addition, Ann is the founding chair of governors of an academy in West London, and for the Girls' School Trust is chair of the academy trust board and council member. Since 2014 she has been Vice-Chair of Council, Royal Holloway University of London and recently became a member of the Remuneration Committee, Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge.

Anne was a senior civil servant until 2020, spending much of her career at the Department for Education. Many of her various roles involved support for disadvantaged learners including her role as Director of Further Education. Before joining the civil service, Anne spent seven years as an officer in the Royal Air Force serving in Hong Kong and at RAF Cranwell, although began her working life in retail management. She is currently chair of trustees for a growing multi-academy trust in Leicestershire and chair of council for a university in Lincoln. She is also vice-chair and lead education trustee for NACRO, a national social justice charity. Anne holds an MBA from Nottingham Business School and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Tom is Vice President and General Manager, International, for LEGO® Education at the LEGO® Group, where he runs the international business and channel partners taking LEGO® Education solutions out to classrooms.

He is passionate about the potential technology brings to business and learning, as well as the social and business impact of education, with particular interests in the role of play-based learning in the classroom, and education technology in addressing education inequities.

Tom previously held leadership positions at Pearson and Penguin Random House UK and is experienced in enabling new market opportunities, leading global teams through complex change management programmes, and creating partnership ecosystems. He also sat on the board of the British Educational Suppliers Association and as a member of the Board of Directors of Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF).

Tom has a degree in Modern Chinese Studies from Durham University and Renmin University of China, and is based in the UK.

Tom is a member of AQA’s Finance Committee.

Before joining AQA, Colin was at HarperCollins for eight years. During his time there, he was promoted to MD of Collins Learning, merging the Education, Language and Geo divisions of HarperCollins UK, and he launched Collins India. He also chaired the Education Publishers Council from 2014 to 2018.

Find out more about Colin from his Executive team profile

Tom is Chief Technology Officer at News UK, a national media organisation and news publisher. He has almost 30 years’ experience in managing digital technology, leading the development and delivery of data and digital strategy in media, publishing and educational settings.

Prior to his current role, he led the data and AI team, transforming and activating data to give readers, listeners and viewers a better, more personalised experience of accessing the news.

He has developed digital strategies for educational publishers from primary to higher education and headed content and production for one of the world's largest collections of digital curriculum materials for students and teachers.

Tom has recently served as vice-chair of governors at a secondary school in Bedfordshire.

Elizabeth taught in a number of inner London comprehensive schools, becoming headteacher of The Camden School for Girls in 2010. She moved on from this role in 2021, after transforming the school into one of the most successful in the country.

An experienced trustee, Elizabeth served on the board of the charity Young Enterprise from 2017 to 2023, chairing the Remuneration Committee.

A trustee on the board of AQA from 2017,Elizabeth played a significant role in establishing the exam board’s unique Student Advisory Group, which she co-chairs. She is also the Chair of the Curriculum and Assessment Quality Committee and a member of the Remuneration, Nominations and Commercial Oversight Committees. She served as the board’s safeguarding trustee for a number of years.

Mike joined the University of Cambridge in October 2021, having previously worked as Director of Undergraduate Admissions and Outreach at the University of Bath (2014-21) and University of Oxford (2006-2014), and Head of Undergraduate Admissions and Student Recruitment at the University of Essex (1998-2006).

Mike heads the team responsible for supporting undergraduate and postgraduate student admissions, student recruitment and marketing (UK and international), scholarships and funding, and widening access and participation. He also has oversight of the team developing the University Foundation Year for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, which had the first intake in October 2022. He is also one of four deputy heads in the Education Services department, with a particular responsibility for admissions, access and participation. He is also a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

In addition, Mike is Vice Chair of the UCAS Council, the stakeholder advisory group that advises the UCAS Trustee Board on sector issues. He is also a Trustee and Treasurer of the Council of International Schools (chairing the Finance Committee). He has recently joined the Sutton Trust’s Education Advisory Board, and the Rethinking Assessment Advisory Board.

Mike graduated in 1990 from the University of Sheffield with a degree in English and History and attended Allegheny College, Pennsylvania for a year as an exchange student. He was the first member of his extended family to go to university, after attending state-funded comprehensive schools in Gateshead.

Mike is the Chair of AQA’s Higher Education Advisory Group.

Deirdre has over 30 years’ marketing and brand strategy experience in large multinational companies, Nestlé and Mars. She ensured that their strategies aligned with their corporate social responsibilities, including marketing responsibly to children, ensuring the sustainability the firms’ brands, diversity and inclusion. Deirdre has experience transforming business processes across large organisations and has worked in many markets, including Ireland, Switzerland and Ukraine.

Deirdre led a government/industry initiative in Ireland to give young people work experience and career advice. Between 2017 and 2020, she taught marketing strategy to students at Sheffield Hallam University taking an apprentice degree sponsored by Nestlé, giving young people the opportunity to study whilst working. Since 2019 she has been a volunteer with The Prince’s Trust as an advisor to young people in start-up businesses. Deirdre left full-time employment to use her experience to help young people find their path to study and work. She is a Trustee at Basildon Academy and Involve Kent.

Deirdre is the AQA Trustee Sponsor of Safeguarding and a member of the AQA Finance Committee.

Murray is an investment banker with 40 years’ experience in the financial services sector, providing corporate finance advice to clients internationally and across many sectors. He has significant not-for-profit senior governance and board experience, including at Greenwich University where he is on the Board of Governors and is Chair of the Finance Committee.

Murray has an Economics and Accounting degree from Bristol University. He is also a qualified Chartered Accountant, and completed the Duke Fuqua Business School Advanced Management Programme.

Murray is the Chair of AQA’s Commercial Oversight Committee and a member of the Finance Committee.

Ginny is a qualified teacher and has worked as a secondary school headteacher for ten years. She is currently CEO of The Circle Trust, a multi-academy trust consisting of ten schools (and growing!). The trust encompasses the age ranges of nursery to post 16 and includes specialist resources for pupils with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and with total communication needs (hearing impairment).

Alongside this work, Ginny is a governor at Wellington College where she plays a pivotal role in developing the state and independent school partnerships and is a serving OFSTED lead inspector. Ginny is also a leadership coach and regularly speaks at PiXL partnership (Partners in Excellence).

In 2024, Ginny was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Reading University.

Ginny is a member of AQA’s Curriculum and Assessment Quality Committee.

Paula was a Partner at KPMG from January 2013 to September 2023, and was KPMG’s UK Head of Banking from June 2019. She has over 20 years’ experience in senior finance and operational roles at a number of global banks. Much of her career has focused on management responsibility for control and reporting functions, oversight of capital market business, financial planning and analysis.

Shehas had extensive involvement in senior governance and direct contact with global regulatory authorities in her roles at senior leader level in a high regulated sector.

Paula is an independent member of the Supervisory board of Morgan Stanley ESE.

Paula is the Chair of AQA’s Finance Committee.

Isabel Sutcliffe has had an extensive career in the education and skills sector, most recently acting as an independent consultant in the qualifications and assessment sector.

Prior to her working independently, she was Pearson’s International Standards and Quality Director, based in India, and before that Pearson Education’s Regulation, Standards and Research Director, which included the role of Responsible Officer. Isabel joined Pearson, having left her position as Chief Executive of NCFE in 2006.

Isabel’s extensive career in qualifications’ development, assessment and quality assurance has covered school, college and work-place standards, and has included national, international and customised awards.

She is chair of the Institute for Apprenticeship and Technical Education’s(IfATE) Independent Assessment Group, chair of the City & Guild’s Quality & Standards Committee, a Co-opted Governor of Harrogate College of FE and a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Educators.

Isabel is passionate about assessment, accreditation and the role of awarding organisations in supporting the lifelong learning needs of individuals, employers and society at large.

Isabel is a member of the AQA Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee.

Martin is an accomplished senior executive, with over 18 years’ experience operating at board level in various roles with complex FTSE 100 organisations, as well as more recent experience of working in the public sector.

He brings specific expertise in risk, governance, regulatory engagement, business transformation and organisational change, combined with broader commercial skills ranging from strategy development to customer and client engagement.

Martin has an MA in Natural Sciences from St John’s College Cambridge, and an MBA from the University of Warwick Business School. He is a qualified associate with the London Institute of Banking and Finance, and holds a Diploma in Financial Studies. He is also a member of the Association for Project Management.

Martin is the Chair of the AQA Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee, a governance committee reporting to the AQA Board of Trustees.