The Board

Rosemary Campbell-Stephens

Rosemary is the Director of RMC UK Ltd. She is a consultant trainer in leadership and currently a consultant leading on the diversity strand of the National College’s succession planning strategy in the UK. She has combined public speaking and community activism with a professional life supporting organisations at a strategic and operational level to address issues of equity and diversity. Within the broad field of leadership, diversity, race equality, equity and social justice, her particular interests lie in not only diversifying the face of leadership, but enabling a new cadre of leaders to lead radically differently across sectors, with a particular focus on education and health.

Rosemary developed Investing in Diversity (IiD), for the London Centre for Leadership in Learning, Institute of Education, University of London. This leadership preparation programme has had 1000 teachers complete in London, doubling the number of Black Headteachers and other senior leaders in some London boroughs. The programme was rolled out in Leeds March 2009, and has inspired a sister programme called Diverse Leaders for Tomorrow in Yorkshire and Humberside. in the Autumn of 2009, Investing in Diversity went international when the Leading for Equity leadership programme was launched in Toronto, Canada.  Rosemary is currently expanding on this work within the NHS as a Pacesetter provider following her own model of professional development as well as being a presenter on the Clinical Leaders Network.

Rosemary’s expertise is based on her experience, as a teacher, deputy and head teacher in the secondary sector, OFSTED inspector, local authority officer, consultant and public speaker in a career spanning three decades.

Ahmed Choonara

As a senior member of staff over 15 years, Ahmed has been responsible for mentoring and coaching staff formally and informally and over the last three years has specifically worked with a number of Black staff on this aspect of management development.

Gordon Critchlow

Gordon Critchlow is a Chartered Eletrical/Energy Engineer who has considerable business experience having worked as Director of Operations for several blue chip companies with responsibility for several thousand staff at each location. His main areas of responsibility cover recruitment, training and retention of staff, as well as total operational management for service performance and financial delivery. Additionally, Gordon manages his own property portfolio of some 40 dwellings.

Professional Experience:

• Member of BME Independent Business Counsellors Board 1997
• Vice Chair Small Contractors Federation
• Business Governor Hackney Community College
• Member 2012 Olympic Advisory Forum

Peter Daley

May Dare 

May K ‘Dare is the Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director Corporate Services at Hackney Community College. He joined the College in September 1992; he successfully led the preparation of the College to be financially independent of the local council as a prerequisite of becoming an incorporated exempt charity. His current brief is to ensure that the College operates a robust corporate and business infrastructure that enables high quality teaching and learning experience for all students.

He was previously Vice President – Finance and Administration, Miller Druck International, a subsidiary of Olympic and York Inc, developers of Canary Wharf. He was responsible for the development of the accounting and administrative systems, that catered for the over £150million transaction at the peak of the developments. May was there from 1988 to August 1992.

May had previously worked with an Electrical Manufacturing Company as a Group Accountant and prior to that worked as a Company Accountant for an office supplies Company.

May has 24 years' post qualification experience as a fellow chartered Accountant, a fellow of Chartered Institute Personnel and Development (CIPD) and has an MBA in Financial Management and Corporate Finance.

Gerry Davis

Gerry Davis started his working life as a scientific assistant at the Atomic Energy Authority during which time he achieved an ONC through day release at the local FE college.

He qualified as a teacher in 1971 and taught at comprehensive schools in Lewisham and Newham before securing a Head Of Year post at a school in Haringey in 1974. In 1978 Gerry was seconded to set up and manage the Multicultural Curriculum Support Group and for 2 years worked alongside teachers to develop the curriculum and necessary materials to teach skills and concepts using content which conferred value on the variety of ethnic groups which make up the diverse British nation. From this post Gerry was appointed as an education adviser in LB Brent with the remit to develop multicultural education in order to eradicate the institutional racism in schools and colleges. Following a 3 year period as a District Inspector Secondary (ILEA – Tower Hamlets) he returned to LB Brent in 1988 as Deputy Director of Education.

In 1992 Gerry was appointed as Chief Executive of the City Challenge regeneration company with responsibility for the environmental and economic development of Harlesden which is the area in which his family settled when they arrived from St Vincent in 1959.

In 1998 he returned to LB Brent as Director of Community Development from which he retired in 2002 to set up his company - Davis Consulting Ltd. He was interim general manager of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust for nearly 2 years.

In 2006 Gerry retired from paid employment and spends his time as one of his mother’s carers and doing voluntary work including sitting on a number of Boards and committees:

• Chair of the Corporation of the College of North West London
• Member of Corporate Sustainability Committee of HSBC bank
• Member of the Social Responsibility Commission of the London District of the Methodist Church
• Member of the Methodist Council (national)

Gloria Dolan

Arvinda Gohil

 Arvinda is a management consultant with 27 years' experience. Her career has included working for a Women's Refuge; setting up and running positive action programmes; working as Chief Executive of two housing associations; setting up a training and capacity building agency in South Africa to assist emerging housing associations; running a Regeneration partnership for a local authority; working as Assistant Director for London at the Housing Corporation and as the Director for Membership & Regions at the National Housing Federation.

She has a high profile in the housing sector and a well-deserved reputation as an empowering leader. She brings an enormous amount of enthusiasm and energy to her work and her particular specialisms include governance, equalities, service excellence, team building and coaching/mentoring

She is a member of the Hanover Housing Group Board, where she holds the equalities portfolio and is chair of Praxis a voluntary organisation assisting displaced people, including refugees.

Arvinda has a strong track record of working with BAME communities. The women’s refuge was specifically set up to provide support to Black and Asian women and children fleeing violence; the housing associations, where she was CE, were providing housing and related services in Black and Asian communities; the positive action schemes were specifically geared to attracting Black and Asian people into professions where they were under-represented and her regeneration work focused specifically on community cohesion and engagement of communities that are disenfranchised from the main stream. At the Housing Corporation she was responsible for introducing a particular assessment on race equality performance by housing associations. As a management consultant she assists and advises organisations on how they can improve their performance on equalities across all strands. 

Asha Khemka OBE

Asha took up her post as Principal and Chief Executive of West Nottinghamshire College in May 2006. It is one of the largest colleges in the country with 25,000 students and an annual budget of over £50 million. Under Asha`s leadership, the College went through a full Ofsted inspection in May 2008 with an 'outstanding' grade profile across the board, leading to Beacon Status recognition.

The College was also successful in achieving Best Companies one star accreditation in January 2009 and again in January 2010. It also ranked 14th in the Sunday Times 75 Best Places to Work in the Public Sector 2010. The College has been successful in winning AoC Beacon Awards for 5 consecutive years, 2 of which were for Innovation in Information Learning Technology.

In July 2007, Asha was awarded the National Jewel Award for Excellence in Healthcare and Education, in recognition of her contribution to the FE sector. In May 2008, she was honoured with the Asian Women of Achievement Award. In January 2009, Asha received Royal recognition for her contribution to Further Education and was appointed an OBE. In October 2009 she was awarded the Midlands Businesswoman of the Year.

Asha is a board member of several national organisations, including the Association of Colleges (AoC), the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) and the City and Guilds Council. She is also a member of the Nottingham University Council and Derby University Court. She is a founder member of the Inspire and Achieve Foundation whose main objective is to raise the aspirations of working class young people.

Robin Landman OBE

Robin’s family were political refugees from South Africa. A Politics graduate, Robin spent 10 years in London schools, including an exchange in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1987 he moved to Brixton College, and in 1990 to Southwark College. Following this, he worked in the FEFC, during which time he qualified as a part-time inspector. In 1997 he was appointed as Assistant Principal at Bilston Community College, then in 1999 was recruited as FET Adviser to the British Council, from which position he was seconded to work as General Manager of the Colleges Collaboration Fund in South Africa until 2001. His most recent post in FE was as Deputy Principal at Hackney Community College. He is currently Chief Executive of the Network and Director of LMS Associates Ltd consultancy, and was appointed OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list 2010.

Robin is also a member of the following:

• Learning and Skills Research Advisory Forum
• Lifelong Learning UK
• Portsmouth City Council Education Board
• Portsmouth Lifelong Learning Partnership
• Chair, Black Leadership Steering Group
• Director AoSEC (Director – invited by the Board)
• DfES Stakeholder Steering Group
• Centre for Excellence Advisory Board (BLI Representative)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• ACM National Council

Stella Mbubgaebu CBE

• Learning and Skills Research Advisory Forum
• Lifelong Learning UK
• Portsmouth City Council Education Board
• Portsmouth Lifelong Learning Partnership
• Chair, Black Leadership Steering Group
• Director AoSEC (Director – invited by the Board)
• DfES Stakeholder Steering Group
• Centre for Excellence Advisory Board (BLI Representative)
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• ACM National Council

Sir David Melville CBE 

David Melville is the Thames Gateway Skills Envoy and Chair of Lifelong Learning UK. From 2001 to 2007 he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent. Previously he was Chief Executive of the Further Education Funding Council, and before that he was Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University.  He was a member of the Tomlinson Review of 14-19 Curriculum and Qualifications, the Foundation Degree Task Force and the Foster Review of the Future of Further Education Colleges.

He has been a board member of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit, The Place and the Council for Industry and Higher Education and Chair of the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the Learning and Skills Council in Kent and Medway, the University Vocational Awards Council and Higher Education South East.

He recently chaired the ‘HE in a Web2.0 World’ Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience and conducted an independent review into financial issues at London Metropolitan University. He is a board member of Edexcel, the IFS School of Finance, West Kent College, London South Bank University and the Thames Gateway Strategic Executive and is patron of the 157 group, Comprehensive Future, the Disabled Sailors Association and the Thames Gateway Young Chamber. In 2002 he was presented with the NBP award for outstanding contribution to race equality in FE. He was educated at Sheffield and Columbia Universities, has Honorary Degrees from Southampton, Derby, Middlesex, Kent and Sheffield Universities and was awarded a CBE in 2001 and appointed a Knight Bachelor in 2007 for services to further and higher education.

Sujinder Singh Sangha OBE

Sujinder Singh Sangha is the Principal/Chief Executive of Stockton Riverside College. Previously, he was the Deputy Principal of City College, Birmingham, Vice Principal at Handsworth College and he has been associated with further, adult, sixth form, community and higher education for 40 years.

Sujinder’s career developed from the Black Country’s engineering industry and industrial relations work in the 1970s. He founded and led community, cultural, faith and literary events for the British Punjabi/Indian community. He has written and published two books, established a publishing company and edited a bi-lingual fortnightly journal between 1987 and 1994.

Sujinder gained his BA (Hons) Degree from the Open University, did an RSA Diploma in Teaching and completed his MSocSc Degree with the University of Birmingham. He completed his PG Certificate RM qualification in 2003 and is registered for a Doctorate research degree in Leaders and Leadership in Education at the University of Birmingham.

He has served on a number of England’s local, regional and national advisory/executive bodies, relating to Further and Higher Education, the National Health Service and the BBC. He has also done some field research for the Commission for Racial Equality with the Social and Community Research Institute, London. He has been a member of the Centre for Excellence in Leadership’s National Advisory Board, the Association of College’s National Review Group, the National Council of Faiths and Beliefs in FE and the Minority Ethnic Group of College Chairs and Principals. Sujinder is a member of the Professional Council of Principals, British Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society, the North East Higher Skills Network Council and the North East Regional Council of the Prince’s Trust and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Sujinder was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year 2010 Honours List by Her Majesty The Queen in recognition of his significant contribution to national and local FE.