Nick Stuart was educated at Harrow and Oxford. He joined the Department for Education and Science in 1964 and served as private secretary to the Minister for the Arts (Jenny Lee) in 1968-69; the Head of the Civil Service (Sir William Armstrong) and to successive Prime Ministers (1973-76). He also served as an adviser in the Cabinet of the President of the European Commission (Roy Jenkins) in 1978-80. He was appointed CB in 1992. He went on to hold a number of posts as director general in the Education and Employment Departments between 1987 and 2001 when he retired as director general for lifelong learning.

Maggie is Chair of the Learning and Work Institute Board. She is also a Council Member of the Open University and the Royal Anniversary Trust further education advisory panel. A past President of the Association of Colleges, a College Principal for 16 years and more recently a Chair steering a college out of intervention and into merger she has broad and deep experience of colleges and their delivery partners. As a former member of the boards of national funders, regulators and improvement bodies she also has a keen interest in policy and its impact. Maggie was made CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to local and national further education.

Charlotte is Managing Director of Innovate Awarding which is a regulated awarding body and end point assessment organisation focused on providing the best chance of assessment success for apprentices, employers and providers. Charlotte’s career within education commenced in 1996 with RSA Examinations Board and she has vast experience in curriculum, assessment and qualification design. Charlotte has spent much of her career working in partnership with thought leaders in education to influence curriculum delivery and development, and to ensure best practice is assimilated into the development of qualifications, assessments and delivery. Much of Charlotte’s work has included building relationships and interpreting the needs of employers. In addition, Charlotte is a Governor at Walsall College and a board member of The Federation of Awarding Bodies. She is also an Independent Governor for a secondary school that’s vision is led by national employers.

Hâf Merrifield is currently Director of Strategy at the Open University. Before joining the University sector Hâf spent much of her career in the Civil service, including as Director for Children and Learners for the East Midlands for the Department for Education with previous roles in the Department of Trade and Industry, Cabinet Office and, briefly, the European Commission. She also has experience as a senior manager in local government. She has a longstanding interest in the power of education and skills to transform life chances.

Jeff Greenidge has over 25 years of senior level strategic leadership and management within the public, commercial and non-profit sectors in the UK and Europe. He was previously responsible for delivering learndirect contract in Wales and England and has served on the Board of WEA South Wales and Agored Cymru and Rubicon Dance. His career started as a teacher at Oakdale School in Gwent and then as Head of Department at Llanrumney High school in Cardiff. This was followed by three years in the Civil Service designing and implementing the National Curriculum for modern foreign languages in schools and two years as a Post Graduate Teacher Trainer at University College Swansea. He has also worked a consultant to Cardiff Local Education Authority on curriculum development, and at the WJEC was responsible for the development of a portfolio of European vocational training projects. A firm believer in strong partner relations as a means of getting more value to from line services and of ensuring timely responses to local and national priorities.

Jeremy was until recently Director-General for Policy at the Department for Work and Pensions. He now has a portfolio career. Previously, at the Department for Education, he worked on both schools and HE policy and was for 4 years a non-executive director of the Student Loans Company. He spent 2 years on secondment to HM Treasury heading the Housing Urban and Transport team. He also worked for a number of years at the Economic and Social Research Council. Jeremy is deeply interested in human capital issues and the critical importance of lifelong learning. He is also strongly committed to the use of evidence and analysis in policy making.

Mike Langhorn is currently internal audit director of ICE Futures Europe. Prior to this, from 2009-2011 he was general manager of internal audit at ITOCHU Europe Plc. From 2006 to 2009 he was European audit manager at Teather and Greenwood dealing with investment banking and venture.

Ruth Spellman was the first and only female chief executive in the 116 year history of the WEA - the UK’s largest voluntary sector provider of adult education in England and Scotland. She recently stood down from this role to become an Ambassador. Ruth uses her extensive knowledge and experience of how education can change people’s lives, to shape the future of WEA and in her capacity as Board Member for various education charities. Ruth was awarded an OBE in 2007 for services to workplace learning and she holds three Honorary Doctorates. Ruth’s early experience in the public sector saw her lead the HR consulting practice at Coopers and Lybrand and at NSPCC as a HR Director, modernising the organisation’s approach to developing its people and winning the Employer of the Year Award in 1996. Ruth progressed to lead Investors in People where she overhauled the IIP brand, which subsequently became an acknowledged Superbrand. She departed achieving IIP for 33,000 employers, of which 15,000 were SMEs. Ruth was the first female Chief Executive of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, where she led a strategy that focussed on retention of female talent, development path for young engineers, admittance to professional membership and engaged with public policy on transport, energy and the environment.

Tim had a long career in local authorities, retiring as finance director of a major Midlands local authority. Since then he has had a portfolio of activities including finance and organisational consultancy for the local authority, private, higher education and voluntary sectors, and non-executive roles in the public and private sectors. He is currently Chair of Audit for the local authority and Clinical Commissioning Group in North East Lincolnshire, and a non executive director of a tenant-led housing association. He was a governor of a local further education college for 17 years, and is a Trustee and local school governor for the Midland Academies Trust . Tim is a trustee of several local charities including a foodbank, Worklink Hinckley, that provides training into work for people with learning disabilities; and is Treasurer of his local Anglican church.

Alison is the Sir Roy Griffiths Professor of Public Management at Kings College, and a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords. She specialises in the relationship between education and the labour market. In March 2011 she completed the Wolf Review of Vocational Qualifications, and in 2015/16 was a member of the independent panel member on technical education, chaired by Lord Sainsbury, which formed the basis of the Government’s Skills Plan.

Professor Dame Carol Black is currently Chair of the British Library, the Centre for Ageing Better, and Think Ahead, the Government’s fast-stream training programme for Mental Health Social Workers. She chairs NHS Improvement’s Advisory Board on Employee Health and Wellbeing, and is Adviser to NHSI and PHE on Health and Work. She is also a member of RAND Europe’s Council of Advisers, and of the Board of UKActive. On 27th February 2020 Dame Carol’s Independent Review for the Home Office on illicit drugs was published. She recently completed her seven-year term as Principal of Newnham College Cambridge, where she was a Deputy Vice-Chancellor. She still sits on the University’s Advisory Board for the Centre of Science and Public Policy, and the Strategy Board on Student Mental Health and Wellbeing. She is a Patron of the Women’s Leadership Centre in the Judge Business School.

Charlotte is the director at Reform thinktank. She was previously the Capitalism Editor and columnist, and then Managing Editor, of the media start up UnHerd.com. Charlotte has worked in a variety of roles across the public, private and third sectors looking at how to reform public services in order to deliver better outcomes and better value for money, including Department for Work and Pensions and Centre for Social Justice.

David Hughes became Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges in September 2016. Before that he was CEO at Learning and Work Institute, a leading think tank, research and policy organisation which was formed in 2016 from a merger he led between NIACE and Inclusion. From 2000 to 2011, David worked in senior roles at the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). At the LSC and SFA David led the funding and improvement relationships with colleges and providers and successfully took on trouble-shooting roles to rescue crises in capital funding and Educational Maintenance Allowances. Prior to that, David worked in the voluntary sector across a wide range of roles and organisations in the UK and Australia, in social housing, co-operatives, welfare, regeneration and community development. David has held many Board and Committee roles, including a few years as Vice-Chair of the East Midlands Regional Assembly in the 1990s. He played a leading role in establishing the new Education and Training Foundation in 2013 and has established and supported several third sector organisations.

Ian was the 2016/17 President of the Association of Colleges. He was Principal of Hackney College between 2007 to 2016 and prior to that a Principal and Senior Manager in two London Colleges. He previously worked in the local government and voluntary sectors and is now working as an executive coach and in educational consultancy.

John is the member of the Welsh Assembly for Newport East. He worked as a lecturer in Further and Higher Education, prior to becoming a solicitor and then being elected to the Welsh Assembly. He has previously served in a number of Ministerial positions and is currently Chair of the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee.

Sir Alan Tuckett OBE is Professor of Education at the University of Wolverhampton, Past President of the International Council for Adult Education and Honorary Fellow of UNESCO's Institute of Lifelong Learning. He led the work of L&W's predecessor NIACE from 1988-2011, and since then has been an honorary life member and emeritus research fellow. At NIACE Alan started Adult Learners' Week in 1992, and saw its adoption by UNESCO and spread to more than fifty countries. Alan worked at the Friends Centre Brighton 1973-81, where he helped start the national adult literacy campaign; was Principal of Clapham-Battersea AEI in ILEA 1981-88, and policy adviser to ILEA's Chair FHE 1987-8. Alan has honorary doctorates from eight universities, he is a Fellow of City and Guilds, of the College of Teachers and of the Assessor's Guild. he was inducted to the International hall of Fame of Adult Educators in 2006, and made Distinguished Professor of the International Institute of Adult Education in Delhi. He has worked recently with UNESCO, the World Economic Forum, CREFAL in Mexico, OECD and numerous governments. He is Vice Chair of the 2019 Commission on Adult Education.

Dan Finn is professor emeritus at the University of Portsmouth and an international expert on the design and delivery of public employment services, activation policies and partnership working between public and private providers. Over the past 30 years he has been published extensively and has supervised and managed a wide range of policy-focused comparative research projects and evidence reviews. Dan has been an expert adviser or consultant for international bodies, including the World Bank, the European Commission and the ILO, and for UK bodies including the National Audit Office and the House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee.

Dave Simmonds OBE was the chief executive of the Centre for Economic & Social Inclusion up until its merger to form Learning and Work Institute. Dave was the co-founder of Inclusion in 1996 and built it to be a respected voice in UK ‘welfare to work’ research and policy. Dave has also worked as a special adviser to the House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee, and the OECD. Dave has advised the Scottish and Welsh governments, as well as the Northern Ireland Executive and the Republic of Ireland on their work on unemployment. Dave was awarded an OBE in the honours list for summer 2005 and is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Employability Professionals. Prior to Inclusion he was interim director for England at the National Lottery Charities Board, now Big Lottery, and held various posts at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, where he was responsible for economic policy and voluntary sector involvement in labour market programmes.