AoC Governors' Summit 2024

Simon Perryman is the Chair of the Board of Governors at Barnsley College. He was appointed, in 2018, to be a National Leader of Governance for the Further Education sector and was elected as the Chair of the National Chairs Council of the Association of Colleges in November 2021. Simon also runs a private TVET consultancy business, advising governments, business and the vocational education sector on skills systems and strategies. He has recently conducted a number of External Board Reviews of FE Colleges. He was previously Executive Director of the employer led UK Commission for Employment and Skills.

Charles Buchanan is an independent management consultant and business mentor, having previously been Chief Executive Officer of London Ashford Airport and CEO of Manston Airport in Kent over five years. Prior to this he spent more than 10 years at London City Airport, ultimately as Strategy and Communications Director. Throughout his career in airport management, he has been responsible for commercial development and infrastructure investment programmes, combined with governmental and public relations.

Graham is the current Chief Executive Officer at East Kent Colleges Group. Over the past 14-years he has led the growth and development of the Group, which now boasts six Colleges based across the east of the county. In spite of growing substantially, quality at the provider has continued to increase and the Group was awarded ‘Outstanding’ in its most recent Ofsted Inspection, also becoming the first general further education provider to receive ‘Outstanding’ judgements against every strand of the new inspection framework, as well as a ‘Strong’ skills judgement.

David Hughes became Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges in September 2016. Before that he was Chief Executive at Learning and Work Institute and spent over 10 years at the Learning and Skills Council and Skills Funding Agency where he had national responsibility for funding and improvement with colleges and providers. David holds several Board positions including with the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics and the Bell Foundation. He was Vice-Chair of the East Midlands Regional Assembly in the 1990s, founding Chair of the Education and Training Foundation in 2013 and has helped set-up several third sector organisations.

Lewis is Director of Public Affairs and Campaigns at the Association of Colleges. Prior to this, Lewis was Director of the Independent Commission on the College of the Future, a UK-wide review which set out a vision for the role colleges can play for people, productivity and place, with a series of nation-specific and thematic reports. Lewis worked previously for a decade in a number of different roles at the National Union of Students, and at two Westminster-based think tanks.

Sue Attewell is the co-leader of the National Centre for AI in tertiary education where she is actively involved in driving the advancement of AI capabilities within our member institutions. Our centre plays a critical role in this regard by providing thought leadership and practical advice, guidance and training and piloting AI products. Sue leads on our student research and has a thorough understanding of student concerns and issues relating to generative AI.

Heather Jackson has a background in Further and Higher Education having worked at a number of colleges and universities across Yorkshire in various roles including student services, marketing and communications and business development. She spent 10 years at the Higher Education Academy as Director of Operations before working for a number of local charities in Governance and Management roles. She has worked for Barnsley College for 5 years.

Ian has worked in the Further Education in teaching, managing and senior leadership toles for over 30 years; both within colleges and more latterly with AoC. Ian is AoC Director for Sustainability and Climate Change alongside his role as AoC national lead for Health and Social Care.