Professor Sir Kevan Collins

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Kevan is a member of the Cognita Board. He was Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) from 2011 to 2019.

About Kevan

Prior to setting up the EEF as its CEO Kevan was Chief Executive and Director of Children’s Services in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Kevan started his career teaching in east London he went on to leadership roles in Yorkshire and London and became the National Director of the Primary National Strategy in 2002. Kevan has gained international experience working in Mozambique, supporting the development of a national literacy initiative in the USA and advising Goodstart, Australia’s largest early learning provider.

Kevan is Executive Vice Chair at Learning by Questions an Education Technology company currently supporting more than 20,000 children to provide instant feedback to more than 2 million responses every week. He serves on the board at Cognita supporting their work with more than 80 schools around the world and Kevan has recently been appointed to the inaugural board of Australia’s Education Research Organisation (AERO) Kevan chairs the Youth Endowment Fund managing a £300 million pound UK Home Office fund generating and mobilising the evidence around what works to reduce youth crime and violence. Kevan completed his doctorate in 2001 and is a visiting professor at the University College London Institute of Education. He was knighted for his services to education in 2015.

Trustees

Chair

Dame Christine Gilbert

Dame Christine Gilbert DBE was the Head of Ofsted, also known as Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills between October 2006 and 30 June 2011.

Naomi Eisenstadt

Naomi is Deputy Chair of the Poverty and Inequality Commission for Scotland and has had recent fellowships at the University of Oxford and LSE.

Sir Peter Gershon

Sir Peter is a former Chair of National Grid, a non-executive Chairman of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance Management Board and a Trustee of The Sutton Trust.

Lucy Heller

Lucy is Chief Executive of Ark. Lucy joined Ark in 2004 from TSL Education, a subsidiary of News International, where she was joint Managing Director.

Professor Sir Kevan Collins

Kevan is a member of the Cognita Board. He was Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) from 2011 to 2019.

Hanneke Smits

Hanneke Smits is the CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management. She is also Chair of Impetus and Global Chair of 30% Club.

Sonia Thompson

Sonia Thompson is the Headteacher at St Matthew’s C.E. Primary School and the Director of St Matthew’s Research School in Nechells Birmingham.

Sarah Breeden

Sarah Breeden is Executive Director for Financial Stability Strategy and Risk, and a member of the Financial Policy Committee at the Bank of England – the body tasked by Parliament with ensuring the UK financial system is resilient.

Graham Elton

Graham is a Partner at Bain & Company where he ran the Private Equity practice in EMEA from 2005 to mid-2018 and is now Chair. He has 15 years of experience on the firm’s Investment Committee and was also a leader in the Media practice.

Zoe Lewis CBE

Zoe became Middlesbrough College’s first female Principal in 2013 and has since developed the college substantially in skills priority areas such as engineering, green energy, construction, health and digital sectors.