Meet the OCL Board
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Chairs
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Caroline Taylor OBE, Chair of the Board
Caroline joined the board of OCL in October 2021, having previously servd on the boards of the Oasis Charitable Trust and Oasis Inernational, and as Chair of Stop the Traffik, a charity which is pioneering intelligence-led prevention of human trafficking and modern slavery.
Caroline is a senior business executive who has spent more than 30 years leading large, complex organisations in the technology sector. She retired from IBM in 2020, where she was the Chief Marketing Officer for IBM’s international business operations, gaining deep experience of transforming organisations and developing teams across the globe.
In the January 2017 New Year Honours, Caroline was awarded an OBE in recognition of her business achievements, as well as her work on diversity and inclusion, and contributing to the prevention of human trafficking.
Andrew Simmonds, Vice Chair of the Board
Andy is a member of the OCL Board and chairs our Finance, Audit and Risk Committee. He is a qualified chartered accountant and was, until 2013, a partner in Deliotte. In addition to monitoring the executive risk management programme, the Audit and Risk Committee maintains its own Trustee-orientated risk register which drives specific monitoring actions at OCL Board meetings.
Andy is also a Trustee of OCL’s parent body, and s a Trustee of Tonbridge Counselling Service and Recovery Two.
N.B: The Chair of the A&R Committee is the link Trustee for Health & Safety and Whistleblowing, these responsibilities are managed via the Board governance calendar which informs the agendas.
Craig Dean, Chair of Board People
& Remuneration Committee,
Trustee & Careers Link Trustee
Craig joined the OCL Board in October 2014. Educated in Oldham and a Cambridge graduate, he travelled extensively before returning to his hometown to become the Chief Executive of a significant local IT employer, where he won multiple regional and national awards. Regularly guest lecturing in local universities and judging coding competitions, he became a regular fixture in the Greater Manchester Digital community and Chamber of Commerce.
Stan Chan, Chair of the Finance Committee
Stan is a chartered accountant and has held senior finance roles in listed companies and their subsidiaries: he now provides freelance consulting on strategic and financial matters in the private and third sectors. Stan is an experienced board trustee and chair of finance, audit and risk committees in organisations reflecting his interests in empowering young people and building communities to create better places. Stan is also on the board of CBF Funds, a National Investing Body (NIB) of the Church of England (CoE), overseeing c.£3bn of investments from Anglican churches and charities. He is on the CoE Ethical Investment Advisory Group to provide advice on ethical investment that is distinctly Christian and Anglican to the three NIBs.
Julian Scholefield, Chair of Curriculum &
Learning Committee & SEND Link Trustee
Julian joined the OCL Board in March 2023 and has more than 25 years’ experience of working in special education. He is currently the CEO of an academy trust consisting mainly of special and alternative provision schools. He is also an Ofsted inspector and member of the Advisory Board to the regional directors of the Department for Education in the East Midlands. Previously, Julian was a headteacher of two special schools in Derbyshire and worked as a school improvement advisor.
Trustees
Andy Blundell, MBE
Andy is a retired primary headteacher. He is married with two children and five grandchildren. During his 37 years in education, he was head of three Kent primary schools. He was also briefly an executive head in Tunbridge Wells and spent some time as an Ofsted inspector. Andy has also been a volunteer with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award for 35 years and currently runs the Tonbridge Gold Open Award Centre.
A keen mountaineer, he specialises in preparing young people for their gold expeditions in wild country. He was awarded an MBE in 2015 for services to education.
Ann Holt, OBE, OCL Trustee
Ann was the Director of Education for the Diocese of Chichester. She was previously Director of External Relations for the Bible Society. She has spent all her working life involved with educatin, starting her careers as a history teacher and has also worked at the Department for Education (DfE). Throughout this time she has been a governor of several schools, primary, secondary and nursery.
Ann has been a national trainer and consultant to Local Education Authorities, the DfE, and independent schools, Adamson Books have published her book ‘Joined-up Governance,’ co-authored with Jane Martin.
Dave Rasmussen, OCL Trustee
Dave joined the Board in March 2020 and has over 30 years’ experience of the public sector. He has led teams in the Home Office, Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC). He leads work at local, regional, national and international level: and at operational, policy and strategy level. Since 2017, Dave has worked as Head of Agents and Insight, Customer Compliance at HMRC. Between 2013-2017 Dave worked as Head of Crime Strategy and External Relations at HMRC.
Rachel Arthur, OCL Trustee & Safeguarding Link
Trustee
Rachel Arthur joined the OCL Board in March 2023 and is Head of Computing at Teach First where she is responsible for computing initial teacher training programme. Previously, Rachel worked as an Assistant Headteacher in Oldham and worked at Oasis Academy Oldham. Before teaching, Rachel worked at PwC in cyber security and now brings her technical understanding to education settings by working with and researching how education technology can support all pupils.
Dr Gordon Carver, OCL Trustee
Gordon joined the Board in March 2023 and has worked for the past sixteen years in the education sector as a management consultant and senior leader, including PwC, GEMS Education, and Capita. Gordon’s past ventures include establishing a girls’ education charity in Ghana, and a primary school chain in Tanzania (Silverleaf Academy). Gordon is also a Trustee of Lively Minds, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).
Yvette Hutchinson
OCL Trustee
Yvette is the Research Lead for the British Council’s Schools Connect Global Programme. Yvette spent the first years of her career teaching English. After graduate studies in the US, she returned to the UK to lead a Supplementary School and then lecture in Education Studies and Teacher Training. Yvette has worked for Local Authorities as a School Improvement Adviser and led the programme for Early Career Teachers in Oxfordshire. Yvette is the Executive Chair of the UK Forum for international Education and Training (UKFIET) and a member of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Education Advisory Group.
Dr Grace Healy
OCL Trustee
Grace joined the OCL Board in May 2024. In her role as Education Director (Secondary) at the David Ross Education Trust, Grace holds strategic oversight of the Trust’s secondary curriculum and teacher development work, which includes leading a team of Trust-wide subject leads in their stewardship of Trust-wide subject communities. Grace has completed her PhD at IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society and holds a National Professional Qualification in Executive Leadership. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and Associate Fellow of the UCL Centr for Climate Change and Sustainability Education and has previously served as a Trustee (Honorary Secretary (Education)) of the Royal Geographical Society.
Jayne Keller
OCL Trustee
Jayne joined the board in May 2024 and has been working in education for more than twenty years, with over half of that time spent in school leadership roles. Previously a headteacher and executive headteacher, Jayne is currently a Director of a Multi-Academy Trust in the South West. With extensive experience as an Ofsted Inspector and school improvement leader, Jayne has a deep understanding of educational standards and excellence. Passionate about the power of collaboration and schools working together, Jayne has worked with numerous local and national networks of schools. This work included chairing the education advisory group of a partnership of more than 400 schools across the country.
Robert Allen
OCL Trustee
Rob joined the OCL Board in March 2023 and has spent his career working in and with the public sector in roles spanning performance improvement, transformation and policy and strategy. Rob is Deloitte’s lead for performance and delivery across government and has led improvements in risk management and governance across a wide range of public sector organisations, typically in the context of reform and change. Rob is past Chair of the Board of Carers Network, a charity supporting unpaid carers across London, and is actively involved in a number of community development initiatives in his hometown of Scunthorpe.
Advisors
Graham Mungeam, OBE, Advisor to the OCL Board and Board Finance, Audit & Risk Committees
Graham has been part of Oasis since 1989. Graham was the Chair of the OCL Board from 2008-2015, and remained on the Board as a Trustee until 2020. Since 2020, Graham has acted in an advisory capacity and is a valued asset to the OCL Board.
Following a short Academic career in research and teaching at Cambridge University, he joined the Treasury as an economist in 1964 and held senior positions in several Government departments, including the Department of Education and Science between 1982 and 1989. There he led the Lower Attaining Pupils programme, the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative, and the Macro- electronics Education Programme. In 1984, working closely with the BBC, he led a government delegation to India to promote the use of computers in Indian schools.
In 1989 he resigned from the Civil Service to become OCT’s first Executive Director, later becoming International Director and Chairman of the Oasis International Association. Graham has also been Chairman of InterHealth Worldwide and the Salmon Youth Centre in London. For 33 years he was a church leader in Tonbridge, Kent. In 2015 he was awarded an OBE for services to children and families.
Ali Layne-Smith, Advisor to the Board People & Remuneration Committee
Ali joined the Board as Trustee in March 2020 and is an experienced HR Director who has made exceptional contributions to demanding and complex organisations. She is an accomplished leader of a large HR function with previous experience of leading smaller specialist teams, and as a stand-alone Business Partner. Ali has worked for the London Ambulance service as their Director of People and Culture and prior to this from 2017-2019 Ali worked as Director of People & Organisational Development for the West Midlands Police. Ali stepped down from the OCL Board in 2024 but kindly remained as an advisor to our Board People & Remuneration Committee.
