We are the Buckinghamshire College Group

Chair

Martin is a highly skilled policy and political professional with 20 years’ experience working as a senior member of corporate management teams in complex environments at national and local level. Currently Chief Executive for Transport for the North, his strategic vision provides nationally recognised leadership. He has extensive experience of applying the governance framework and supporting the executive conduct the organisation’s business.

Throughout his career Martin has championed the importance of investing in and supporting the next generation in realising their potential. Living in Aylesbury, Martin is keen to continue his commitment to volunteering in support of his local community as a Governor of Buckinghamshire College Group.

Vice Chair and Chair of Remuneration and Finance Committees

David has run his own business for over 25 years working with large companies in the private sector, government departments and the NHS on performance improvement, business restructuring and leading change. Previously he held senior roles in both Human Resources and General Management with blue chip companies.

He is a qualified Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma and a member of the British Psychological Society. David previously served as a Governor of Amersham and Wycombe College and is currently Chair of the College Remuneration Committee. He is keen to ensure students are prepared for the challenges they face in their lives and in the workplace after leaving college. His main outside interests revolve around sport. He is a keen student of military history and is learning Brazilian Portuguese

Principal

Jenny is the Principal and Chief Executive of the Buckinghamshire College Group. Jenny has a strong leadership and management background in Further Education holding a number of senior positions including Deputy Principal and Vice Principal of Curriculum and Quality. Prior to her time in Further Education Jenny worked in Corporate Banking with Barclays Bank.

Jenny is a passionate advocate of technical, professional and vocational skills, education and training. She is dedicated to enabling all students to flourish, thrive and achieve more than they ever thought possible through leading an outstanding team delivering inspirational learning experiences. She strongly believes that colleges should be at the heart of the community they serve, working closely with employers and wider community stakeholders to transform lives and drive local and regional economic success and social well-being.

Staff Governor

Adam has been employed as the HealthTec Centre Manager since June 2017 and experienced the merger of the former colleges and the great steps taken to enhance the learning provision across Buckinghamshire by the College Group.

Adam lives in Aylesbury and is currently both a serving Parish Councillor (and former Chairman) of Coldharbour Parish Council and the Buckinghamshire Unitary Councillor for Aylesbury West (encompassing Fairford Leys, Prebendal Farm, the Hartwell estate, the Willows and Walton Court). These roles have provided Adam with skills and attributes that are highly valuable in the role of Staff Governor.

Adam takes a keen interest in health and fitness and competes in Triathlons and cycle events in his spare time. He also has a young son.

Staff Governor

Alex’s career started in the healthcare sector and her passion to train other care staff was what led her to join the College. She has a wealth of experience as both an Assessor and on the teaching side, most recently supporting the T-Level provision and as Course Leader for Level 2 Health & Social Care.

Amir is an Organisational Psychologist with over 10 years of experience in the NHS. Currently working as the Deputy Director of HR, Organisational Development and Education at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. Additionally he has worked with multinational organisations such as Xerox, KPMG and PA Consulting, national organisations, such as British Steel Corporation and Voluntary sector and regional organisations such as local authorities & colleges of further education.

His passion is supporting & developing people in their workplace. He is an accomplished leader with many management and senior management roles and qualifications including MSc. Occupational Psychology, PGCE in Adult Education, PG Diploma in Leadership & Management, PRINCE2 Practitioner, Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma, BPS assessments Level A & B qualified, Qualified executive Coach.

Student Governor

Ben is studying Level 3 Public Services at our Aylesbury Campus and hopes to join the Police in the future.

Bethan is a finance lawyer by background, working as a partner at London law firm, Farrer & Co. Her practice includes acting for or for organisations lending to, charities, not for profit organisations, educational institutions and cultural organisations.

This is her first governship role and she is looking forward to helping the group move forward and using her skills to assist with this.

In her spare time, Bethan enjoys spending time with her husband and two small children, walking, climbing, cycling and watersports.

Cathie has had a long and extensive career in further education. Previously, she held a number of Executive roles including interim Principal, Deputy Principal and Vice Principal Curriculum and Standards. Cathie currently serves as a co-opted member on the Board for Activate Learning having previously been an independent board member of East Surrey College and Guildford College and was Vice-Chair of the Standards Committee for Surrey Police Authority.

More recently Cathie has managed her own consultancy company that provided bespoke coaching for senior leadership and curriculum and quality reviews. She was an Ofsted inspector for 9 years before being appointed an FE Adviser for the Further Education Commission in 2017 until July 2021. Cathie believes that further education should be accessible and of high quality.

Charlie Young is an ex-rocket engineer. His career started in the UK space industry and included working at the European launchsite in South America. However, his real interest was to become a designer and after 10 years as an engineer, he changed career and pursued a mostly unsuccessful one in graphic and web design. Then, he discovered service design whilst working in cancer service improvement in the NHS, a metier he has applied in his work ever since.

Working both in and with the NHS, Charlie was closely involved in developing the first online digital health tool - NHS Direct - and went on to design innovative concepts for mental health, patient experience and clinical research.

Tiring of the health sector after a decade or so, he returned to the space sector in 2020, where he runs two businesses - one focused on making sure the UK capability in vertical launch is safe and that new opportunities for commerce and research can be derived from this, and secondly, training the future space engineering workforce in safety-led engineering practices. Also, because of his obsessive nature, he is part of a start-up focused on calculating the carbon impact of launch vehicles and satellites during manufacture.

Alongside his governor role, he advises government on spaceflight safety and skills and works with academia to bring life science research into partnership with the space sector. He has a dog called Jupiter who suffers from selective hearing problems when it suits him.

Chris is a finance director with extensive UK and international experience, having worked in many businesses in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods, engineering and construction sectors. A qualified chartered accountant, he has worked in Private Equity, PLC and family owned businesses.

He has a strong commercial and strategic focus and works closely with the CEO and Board to deliver the business strategy and its financial targets, whilst ensuring there is a tight corporate governance framework. He has also led several major change projects and business turnarounds.

Chris has been a careers mentor for undergraduates at the University of Birmingham for the last three years. His other interests include sport, travel and the arts.

Chair of Audit Committee

Edward Weiss, by training a chartered accountant, has recently completed two non-executive appointments, one with an NHS Foundation Trust and one with a Government Commission, the Security Industry Authority. Prior to this he was a member of the Criminal Cases Review Commission dealing with alleged or suspected miscarriages of justice. Edward has also been a non-executive director of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.

Prior to taking up these appointments Edward was Chairman of certain Loss Reviews at Lloyd’s of London and on Lloyd’s Corporate Finance Panel. He was a main board director of Chubb Security, Lindustries and Drake & Cubitt in each case being Finance Director. Within the Institute of Chartered Accountants, he was Chair of the Pensions and Euro Committees and Deputy Chairman of the Business Law Committee. He was on one of the Treasury’s Euro Advisory Committees. He was a member of the Appeals Panel of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and on the ACCA Disciplinary Panel.

Chair of Estates Committee

Ian is currently the Director of Estates and Facilities for Frimley Heath NHS Foundation Trust, which includes Frimley, Wexham Park and Heatherwood Hospitals. He has spent almost all of his career in healthcare, starting in the NHS General Management Training Scheme in 1991 before taking on roles ranging from a private hospital manager to the Strategic Estates Director for NHS East Midlands and the East of England. He has also been a Programme Director for the development of acute hospital and community buildings. He is a member of the Association for Project Management and the Royal Society of Medicine and holds the Institute of Directors’ Certificate in Company Direction.

Ian was raised and educated in south Buckinghamshire and his family has strong connections with the local furniture industry and Wycombe Wanderers FC. He is passionate about the professional and personal benefits of education and is a particular proponent of vocational learning and for many years lectured at the University of Sheffield to MSc students.

Outside of work he is developing an interest in photography and for the last 12 years has coached at Amersham and Chiltern RFC

Chair of Quality and Curriculum Committee

Ian has worked in education and training since 1996, initially for a major retailer in London and then for 14 years at a private apprenticeship training provider in Buckinghamshire. In 2014 he joined Buckinghamshire College Group and Bucks New University's partnership to oversee the development of University Campus Aylesbury Vale and now works for the university as its Commercial Director and Director of Apprenticeships.

Having been educated in Bucks and then having lived and worked in the county for most of his life, Ian understands the educational and training landscape in the region.

Martina has over 25 years of experience in the film and television sector, working as a Production Manager and Producer on several short films. Martina also developed a number of feature films and continues to work in the industry.

In 2011 Martina set up All Spring Media as an independent training provider to bring together her experience of industry and education. Before that, Martina managed the Film and Digital Media Exchange, a £2.5 million project at the University of Hertfordshire designed to build a bridge between education and the film and digital media industries. Martina was also Head of Skills and Innovation at zero-one. She managed a pilot City and Guilds qualification for new entrants and First Post, an innovative fast-track scheme for the post-production industries. Since 2017, Martina has been heavily involved in the creation of apprenticeship standards for the screen industries and was on the Employer Panel for the T-Level in Media, Broadcast and Production.

Martina is a qualified Assessor, IQA and a member of the BAFTA. Martina is also a Board Member of the Bucks Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and is the TV Lead for the Buckinghamshire Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) as well as being Chair of the Skills Advisory Panel and the Creative Industries Sector Action Group.

Co-opted Member of Audit Committee

Nick spent his working life in a variety of higher education institutions and his last post, prior to retirement, was Pro Vice-Chancellor, Director of Library and Student Support at Middlesex University. At Middlesex he managed most of the University’s generic student support services including a campus-wide help desk, library and learning enhancement, IT support, disability and counselling, and other specialist advice teams. During his tenure, the University was shortlisted three times for a Times Higher Education award for activities and projects managed by his staff.

During his career, Nick contributed to several professional publications, presented at conferences and workshops, and for three years he was Hon. Chair of the London-based M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries. In retirement he enjoys having more time for cultural and academic pursuits, including a return to part-time study with the Open University.

Student Governor

Sana is studying the Level 3 Diploma in Performing Arts (Musical Theatre pathway) at our Amersham Campus.

Incoming Chair of Audit and Risk Committee

Sarah is a partner at a top accountancy firm that provides audit, tax and consulting services worldwide.

She’s a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and holds the Diploma in Charity Accounting.

Sarah has considerable knowledge of the financial reporting and auditing requirements of FE Colleges and other educational institutions. Throughout her career, she has worked in both internal and external audit, and now focuses on the external audit of education and other regulated industry clients.

Sarah has held various non-executive roles, including Governor of a major London FE College, Trustee of a counselling charity in Milton Keynes, and Trustee and F&GP Chair of an independent school in Windsor. She is delighted to continue her volunteering journey as a Governor and incoming Audit Committee Chair of Buckinghamshire College Group.

When she’s not working, Sarah liked to game online or garden, depending on the weather!

Following graduation from the University of Southampton, Tim joined BBC Radio as a studio manager. He subsequently moved to TV where, as producer/director, won BAFTA and RTS recognition for shows such as the Nelson Mandela Birthday Concert and HM Queens Visit to China. He became Head of BBC TV Events responsible for a wide variety of events, sports, and entertainment programmes.

In 1990 he moved to Walt Disney as Senior Vice-President responsible for global branded TV production. Tim has been a senior production consultant at the Athens, Beijing and London Olympics. He has worked internationally on big events with a galaxy of global music stars and for 15 years produced the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall as well as several seasons of West End Heroes supporting Help for Heroes. In 2015 he was awarded an OBE for services to service and ex-service personnel.

Tim’s current interests include AI and virtual production in TV/Film. He currently has several non-executive director and consultant roles in the technology/media sector and lives in Penn, South Bucks.

Tomas has lived and worked in Aylesbury since he came to the UK from Cracow in Poland for a six-month contract in 2005. He stayed because of the educational opportunities for his young children at that time. In 2013, he established the web design company Framework Digital, serving charities and the local council. The company offers work placement and supports local charities as part of its social responsibility.

In 2015, he co-organised a TEDx conference in Aylesbury with a small group of volunteers. Tomas is a fellow member of the Royal Society of Art (FRSA). He has governing experience from a local grammar school.

Tomas is motivated by the work of Sir Ken Robinson and his vision for education that inspires creativity, collaboration and social awareness.