Andy Ratcliffe, CEO, Impetus-PEF
Andy joined Impetus-PEF as Chief Executive in 2016. His career has focused on two issues: tackling poverty and educational disadvantage; and making government work better. As Deputy Chief Executive of the Africa Governance Initiative, he helped build a global charity working with African governments to strengthen their capacity to tackle deep-rooted poverty. Before that, as Senior Policy Adviser for Education in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, he developed government policy on social mobility, secondary schools and skills for 14 to 19 year olds. Prior to this, he worked for the Social Policy Department at Oxford University, developing measures of neighbourhood poverty and educational disadvantage in the UK and South Africa. Andy has an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics and an MSc in Comparative Social Policy, both from Oxford University.
Graeme Duncan, CEO, Right To Succeed
Graeme was the first graduate hired by Teach First in 2003, teaching for two years in a secondary school serving a highly disadvantaged community, where he led the Maths Faculty in the second year. He then joined London First, a business lobby group, as Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive, Baroness Valentine, before focusing on education and immigration projects. From there, he joined Teach First in 2008 to work on fundraising, policy and public affairs before, in 2010, becoming Director of Development at Greenhouse, a charity that uses sport to engage and develop young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In June 2014, he stepped out to set up Right to Succeed. Right to Succeed is a charity developing, piloting and scaling collaborative solutions to the systemic problems of education inequality; its first project supports the turnaround of underperforming schools in Blackpool.
Caroline Rowley, Philanthropy & Engagement, EMEA, Bloomberg
Caroline delivers Bloomberg LP’s philanthropic programming in education and employability in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Caroline has worked in education for almost 20 years with a particular focus on tackling educational disadvantage. She started her career working at an FE College and later moved to the University of Lincoln where she ran widening participation initiatives. Caroline then joined the Ark Schools network, working at Globe Academy before moving to Business in the Community where she ran their education campaign 'Business Class' which developed long-term, sustainable partnerships between businesses and schools.
Jenny Gaylor, Vice-Principal, Carshalton Boys Sports College
Jenny Gaylor has been Vice-Principal at Carshalton Boys Sports College for 12 years, and before this she worked as a head of science and a science consultant for the national KS3 strategy in Liverpool. Jenny leads on curriculum and science education for the ‘Partners in Excellence’ (PiXL) organisation, and regularly advises school leaders on the impact of curriculum change in schools as well as speaking regularly at national conferences on current issues in education.
Russell Hobby, Chief Executive, Teach First
Russell joined Teach First as CEO in September 2017, building on more than 15 years of developing and promoting leadership in schools. Prior to joining Teach First, Russell was General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), which represents over 29,000 school leaders in the UK, and before that, he worked as a management consultant, founding Hay Group’s education practice.
Simon Barber, Principal, Carshalton Boys Sports College
Simon Barber has been the Principal of Carshalton Boys Sports College for the past 16 years. During this period, he has transformed the school from one which was in challenging circumstances to one of the most improved schools in the country. Alongside his role as Principal, he is also PiXL London area leader, coordinating associate work in over 300 London secondary schools and speaking at conferences. In addition, he has been Chair of Governors of The Limes College pupil referral unit which was recently awarded ‘Outstanding’ status by Ofsted.