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| Home > About the Network > The Team > | The Office Team | |
Review the profiles below to learn more about our team of talented professionals.
Rhona Anderson
Lesley Badger
Sian Smith
Michelle Dainty
Grace Haynes
Robin Landman
Rajinder Mann
Sarah Maskew
Chizzie Mbubaegbu
Sang Mendy
David Round
Bobby Upple
Karen Lewis
Lenford White
 Rhona Anderson: PA to Robin Landman
Prior to joining the Network, Rhona had a long career in the Civil Service where she worked as Personal Secretary to various Directors with responsibility for European Funding, Communities & Regeneration and Local Government Practice. During her career she had the opportunity to be seconded to the then Birmingham Training & Enterprise Council, and the newly created Business Link Birmingham. Rhona reached a point in her career where she felt she needed a new challenge, and to that end, decided to leave the Civil Service.
Rhona joined the Network in January 2007 as PA to Robin Landman. |
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 Lesley Badger: PA to BLI Executive Director
Lesley joined the Network in January 2009 as a temporary worker and became a permanent member of the team in September 2009.
Prior to joining the Network, Lesley worked in the financial sector for an insurance company where she worked as a Personal Assistant to the Group HR Director. Lesley also project managed a number of programmes for the company including the Employee Volunteer programme. Working closely with Business in the Community, this programme involved working with schools and charitable organisations within the West Midlands area. |
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Sian Smith: Marketing, Communications & PR Coordinator
Sian joined the Network in May 2009 working as a Project Support Officer on the LLUK Pass on Your Skills Project before moving into her current position as Marketing, PR & Communications Coordinator.
Originally from Liverpool, Sian began her career working in data analysis for Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive. She then spent 5 years working in office & operations management in the retail and construction sectors before moving to Wolverhampton and joining the Network.
Outside of work her interests include music, travelling, snowboarding and surfing.
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 Michelle Dainty: Financial Controller
Michelle Dainty joined the Network at the end of July 2007 to work in Accounts. She brings experience in finance and book keeping, office administration, customer relationship management, problem solving, and of course, her knowledge of various IT packages.
Michelle has a strong service orientation and customer focus, as, in previous roles she has dealt with internal and external customers at all levels. She has gained experience in a range of companies including private enterprises, and a daily newspaper. She has a track record of meeting and exceeding targets, and winning awards for her performance. In one of her workplaces Michelle was four-time winner of the local office award for Sales Executive of the month and twice-winner of the divisional office award across 5 regional offices - all in the same year!
She has acted up as a Finance Manager, and has worked in a security firm as an Office/Administration Manager, where she reported on finance to the Directors. She also carried out an operational and supervisory role for the company's Security guards.
During her working life to date, Michelle has taken time out to travel the East Coast of America, which allowed her to mix with a variety of people from different backgrounds, thus furthering her ability to communicate with all types of people. |
 Grace Haynes: HR Consultant
Grace started her career working for the Industrial Language Training Service where she taught Skills for Life. In 1989, Grace began her long association with Further Education when she took up a research post at Walsall College, working on a two year FEU funded project focusing on the development of community education and equality & diversity. Grace progressed to become a full time lecturer, applying her degree in Social Science to her teaching on a range of programmes such as GNVQ Advanced in Health and Social Care, and the Social Science degree programme run at the college.
Grace developed her career to hold various management positions within a College in the West Midlands and in 2001 decided to change her career path to become a specialist in human resource management. To this end, Grace studied to become a graduate of the CIPD followed by a Masters Degree in HR Management, and a management position as Director of HR.
Over the years, Grace has played a key role in providing training and consultancy to public, voluntary and private sector organisations on issues relating to HR and equality and diversity. She has been commended for her exemplar work in this field by Ofsted and the Learning & Skills Council, and was instrumental in increasing the proportion of black and minority ethnic staff at her college from 5% to 18.5% over a three year period. Grace has provided input into a number of publications including the three Good Practice Guides commissioned by the Commission for Black Staff in FE and the Network for Black Professionals and the recent LSC Race Equality in Employment Standards (REES). Grace now works as an independent HR and Equality & Diversity consultant. |
 Robin Landman OBE: Chief Executive
Robin's family came to the UK as political refugees from South Africa. A Politics graduate, Robin spent 10 years as a school teacher in London, including an exchange year in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1987 he moved to Brixton College. In 1990 he was appointed Head of Faculty at 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 he 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 for Black Professionals and Director of LMS Associates Ltd consultancy.
Robin was a founder member of the Network for Black Professionals. He was a member of the Commission for Black Staff in FE. He is a past member of the Association for College Management's National Council, and is Past Chair of the National Coalition of Black-led Organisations (NCBLO) and has been an occasional columnist in the TES FE Focus & FE Now. He was appointed a OBE in the Queen's Birthdat Honours list 2010. |
 Rajinder Mann: Director, Black Leadership Initiative
Rajinder is the Director of the Black Leadership Initiative, a Leadership and Management programme which provides mentoring, coaching support and secondment opportunities to aspiring Black staff in FE. The organisation addresses the under-representation of Black middle and senior managers in the sector and has won the British Diversity Award for Education. It is now part of the Network for Black Professionals (formerly the Network for Black Managers) which works with sector partners to achieve change in the equality and diversity profile of the sector.
Rajinder has twenty years experience in FE, adult, youth and community education. She was Director of Community Education at Bilston Community College then Principal Officer for Lifelong Learning at the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. She has other Local Government experience in policy development at Birmingham City Council and Wolverhampton Borough Council. She has also worked as a Race Equality Officer at NIACE developing strategies and policies aimed at community cohesion.
Rajinder holds a Bachelor of Education Degree and a Master of Social Science Degree from Birmingham University. She is passionately committed to the equalities agenda and her voluntary roles include being a founder member of the Network for Black Managers, as well as former Chair. She was Vice Chair of the Commission for Black Staff in FE, and other national committee roles included the Equality and Diversity Committee of the UfI, DfES Race Advisory Group, LSC Equality and Diversity Committee. She is an ACM council member and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has also been involved in local and international woman's groups including the Soroptomists. |
 Sarah Maskew: Project Administrator
Sarah joined the Network in October 2008 working as Project Administration for the LLUK project Make a Difference, before moving onto Pass on Your Skills.
Prior to joining the Network, Sarah began her career in the Building Industry as a Secretary for the Director, before spending 4 years working in the Steel Industry as a Secretary for the Operations Manager. Sarah is now currently working towards a degree in Business Studies through the open university.
Outside of work her interests are working out at the gym and all kinds of sports, music and travelling home and away to watch Manchester City. |
 David Round: Operations and Policy Manager
David is currently seconded from the University of Wolverhampton to the Network. An historian by background and educated at the University of Salford and the University of Sheffield, David has worked in higher and further education, in Adult Guidance and in IT in the private sector.
David has taught on a range of programmes up to degree level including management, computing and IT, communications and trade union studies. He has occupied various management roles at the then Bilston Community College and at Solihull College, including Head of Department of various curriculum areas, IT and MIS Director, ILT Manager and Assistant Principal. David also has experience in the private sector as an ICT consultant for Research Machines plc and in career education for adults.
David has a passionate interest in the benefits of education for social justice. At the University of Wolverhampton, he works in the area of widening participation as part of the national Aimhigher campaign. David believes that despite the commitment of both further and higher education sectors to providing access to educational opportunities for Black and Minority Ethnic students, progress has been slower for staff working in the sectors, particularly at senior management level.
David is a season ticket holder at Wolves F.C. and is a keen follower of cricket, rugby union and most sports. He regularly completes half-marathons and enjoys badminton. |
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 Baljinder (Bobby) Singh Upple : Regional Development Manager, Midlands & East
Bobby began a teaching career in the Computing department of Leicester College in 1996 having joined the organisation as an Information & Admissions Assistant a year earlier. Within a year he assumed course management responsibilities for a number of programmes and also became an Associate Lecturer for DeMontfort University.
Following merger and management restructuring in July 2002, he was promoted to Programme Area Manager for Computing with responsibility for operational management of the department. A year later he was appointed Programme Area Manager for External Provision in Computing, a new role to lead on the development of external provision both commercial and community based, and to manage educational partnerships with schools, universities, training providers, etc.
In July 2005, he left to take up a 1-year BLI Secondment with the National Office of the Learning & Skills Council where as a Senior Policy Manager in the Skills Group, he led on the development of a national standard for employer responsiveness (Training Quality Standard), and also worked on a number of other LSC programmes including Train to Gain, National Skills Academies, and Framework for Excellence. Bobby left the LSC in March 2007 following two extensions to his secondment, the last 3 months in the role of Equality & Diversity Projects Manager.
He joined the Network for Black Professionals (NBP), to manage their professional training & development service, the Black Leadership Initiative (BLI). He was responsible for delivering a range of programmes and services funded through organisations including LSIS, LSC, DCLG, and bespoke programmes across England with themes including social mobility, community cohesion, positive leadership models for young people, and intercultural working.
In November 2009, Bobby was appointed the Regional Development Manager for the Midlands & East of England, where he is responsible for supporting NBP members in the region, and to develop the Network’s membership further. He is also Project Director for the Network’s Future Jobs Fund contract with DWP.
He is a Governor at South Leicestershire College, associate member of IfL, member and approved trainer for ILM, a BLI mentor, committee member (Sports and Education) for a Sikh Gurdwara in Leicester, player/coach for community football club, plays league cricket, and is married with three young children.
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 Karen Lewis: PA to Director/Programme Coordinator
Awaiting profile.
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 Lenford White: Regional Development Manager, North
Lenford has a broad range of experience across the FE system and in mainstream statutory education. He graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 1984, and then went on to take his Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at Hope University College in 1985 before completing his Masters Degree in race relations and ethnic studies at the University of Liverpool in 1991. He started his professional career as a secondary teacher, thereafter working in local government and the voluntary sector and latterly in adult education.
From his strategic base in the North West, Lenford’s primary responsibility is to further develop the work of the Network throughout the north of England and to explore ways of extending its offer to a range of sectors across the FE system, including Local Government, the Voluntary and Community Sector and Higher Education and is Project Director of the Tackling Racial Inequalities programme.
Lenford brings a number of useful skills and over 20 years experience to his position having been a Development Officer in NIACE with a brief around race equality and having managed a pioneering race equality Unit as part of his Senior Education Officer role within Liverpool City Council.
As an experienced trainer, Lenford will bring enthusiasm and commitment to his new role and will be eager to draw on his publication and writing skills and his practice around policy and strategic development.
Lenford has a keen interest in the voluntary and community sector and currently chairs a multi-faith organisation in Liverpool called Liverpool Community Spirit.
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