Ambition Institute welcomes five new trustees and two advisors

We welcome:

• Jo Heaton OBE, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Lights Learning Trust.
• John Camp OBE, Chief Executive Officer of Compass Partnership of Schools.
• Natalie Perera, Chief Executive Officer of Education Policy Institute.
• Paresh Modi, Senior Director, Market Development at the GSM Association.
• Sarah Mulholland, Deputy Chief Executive of The Northern Powerhouse Partnership.

Jo, John, and Paresh will join from September 2024, and Natalie and Sarah will join from January 2025.

We also welcome two new advisors to the Board:

• Hardeep Dhaliwal, Head of Data Products at ITV.
• Summer Turner, Deputy CEO of Broad Horizons Education Trust.

Rich Jefferson, Chair of the Board of Trustees, says: “I’m delighted to welcome Jo, John, Natalie, Paresh and Sarah onto the Board as Trustees, and Hardeep and Summer as advisors to the Board.

“Our new Trustees join us at an exciting time. We are now reaching more teachers and school leaders than ever before: in 2023/24, we worked with 1 in 9 teachers and over 4 in 10 state schools in England. We continue to have an important role to play, supporting the sector to tackle challenges and do even more to support children facing disadvantage. Earlier this year, we launched a new long term strategy: working with the sector to develop and deliver effective solutions to tackle educational disadvantage, with a particular focus on SEND, early years, maths, literacy, behaviour, and recruitment and retention.

“We are keen to bring in a range of skills to help guide our long term strategy, and to help increase our impact as a charity. The breadth of expertise and experience of our new Trustees will help us continue to focus on our charitable mission. They bring a huge range of skills, including educational expertise, a deep understanding of different types of disadvantage, and technology and data expertise. Consistent with our organisational ethos and values, we are also pleased to have recruited Trustees from a range of backgrounds, personal characteristics, and geographical locations.

“Their expertise will be extremely valuable as we seek to have maximum positive impact in the years ahead. I look forward to the support and challenge our new Trustees will bring to help Ambition keep getting better.

“We also want to thank two Trustees who are concluding their terms, James Fulton and Ian Hale. Their dedication and expertise have been invaluable in driving our impact and effectiveness. We are very grateful for their considerable contributions.”

You can find out more about our trustees here.