Our Board Members

Jill joined OCR as Chief Executive in November 2018, bringing over 25 years’ experience in education to the role.

Jill led the UK schools business at education company Pearson for five years, where she was responsible for more than 450 staff across product management and development, marketing and sales, spanning qualifications, digital and print learning services.

Prior to that, Jill spent 22 years in educational publishing. She began her education career as an editor at Oxford University Press and subsequently worked for publishers including Hodder & Stoughton, Harcourt, and Ginn. She has a PGCE and a degree in English Literature from Oxford University.

Jill is Chair of the JCQ Board.

Michael has been working in the education sector since 2004, firstly as a lecturer in further education and then as a teacher and head of department in the post primary sector.

Michael joined CCEA in 2010 and has held a number of roles within the organisation.

He was appointed Interim Director of Qualifications in March 2024 where he is responsible for the design, delivery, awarding and safe delivery of CCEA’s portfolio of qualifications and associated public examinations.

Michael is also CCEA’s responsible officer and on the board of directors of the Joint Council of Qualifications (JCQ).

Ian joined WJEC in 2002. As Chief Executive, he provides overall strategic leadership for the company, working closely with the WJEC Board of Directors. He is also a Board Member of the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and represents WJEC in a range of external settings.

When he joined WJEC, Ian was initially appointed as Deputy Director for the National Grid for Learning project, before becoming Assistant Director for IT Service Management and Collaboration.

Prior to joining WJEC, Ian was Education IT Manager for a local authority, where he was responsible for the strategic development and implementation of technology that supported both administration and more importantly, teaching and learning.

Claire became AQA’s Director of Regulation & Compliance and Responsible Officer in September 2022 and as such, is responsible for maintaining AQA’s ‘licence to operate’ as a regulated general qualifications assessment organisation. In her role, Claire develops regulatory and compliance strategy and leads the Quality, Regulation, Centre Inspection, Exams Integrity and Special Requirements teams.

Claire has almost 30 years’ experience in the education sector. She is a member of the JCQ Board of Directors and a Trustee at a multi-academy trust, developing an ambitious growth strategy for the trust. She also sits on the Board of Directors at OxfordAQA, which is an international exam board delivering British curriculum exams to international centres, operating as a partnership between AQA and Oxford University Press.

After graduating from the University and Bradford, Claire completed a PGCE at the University of Huddersfield and taught at schools and colleges in Cumbria and Greater Manchester before joining AQA as a Subject Officer in 2000. Since then, Claire has gained extensive knowledge and experience of the general qualifications sector through various roles in qualifications and markets, operational delivery, projects and programmes, change management, government contract delivery and assessment. Prior to becoming AQA’s Responsible Officer, Claire’s most recent posts were Director of Assessment and Director of Operations.

Stewart is the Chief Regulatory Officer and Responsible Officer at NCFE.

With a background originally in Manufacturing Engineering, Stewart had a change of career and transitioned into staff development, working in the training departments of both Rolls Royce and Siemens Power Generation. Following a move into further education, Stewart worked in a variety of senior delivery roles and headed up the largest distance-learning unit in the country, where he was the visionary to instigate the funding of National Vocational Qualification delivery, via e-portfolio.

After 14 years of working in further education, Stewart joined NCFE leading on Quality Assurance and Compliance.  After holding positions as Director of Quality & Product, Managing Director of Awarding and Chief Operating Officer, he moved into his current role.  He is also NCFE’s designated Responsible Officer to Ofqual, CCEA, Qualification Wales and SQA in relation to NCFE’s compliance with regulatory conditions as an awarding organisation.

Stewart has an MBA and has studied at Ashridge Business School on their personalised Advanced Management Programme.

Cath is Vice President and Responsible Officer at Pearson. Cath joined Pearson in July 2023. Before joining Pearson, she worked at Ofqual for 14 years, most recently as Executive Director for Standards, Research and Analysis.

Fiona Robertson was appointed SQA Chief Executive and Scotland’s Chief Examining Officer, in July 2019.

She joined SQA from the Scottish Government where she was Director of Learning for six years. During that time, she led the work on the development of Curriculum for Excellence, the National Improvement Framework for Education, the Scottish Attainment Challenge and the Government’s programme of education reform.

Fiona started her civil service career as an Economist, providing advice to Ministers and external commentators on the performance of the Scottish economy and developing successive economic strategies. She has undertaken a number of strategic roles including Head of Economic Strategy, reviewing Scotland’s public bodies, and leading the Scottish Government’s Strategic Spending Review. More recently, her focus has been on improving outcomes for children and young people, first as Deputy Director for Children and Families, and subsequently as Director for Learning. This focus continues as Chief Executive of SQA.

Fiona is a graduate of the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow.

Beth Black is City and Guilds’ Responsible Officer and Executive Director, Awarding Organisation.

Beth joined City and Guilds in 2022 with over 25 years of experience in education and qualifications across various aspects of academic and vocational sectors including teaching, assessment research, technical standards, data analysis, policy and assessment delivery.

Beth has held a number of key positions including Executive Director of Policy, Analysis and Standards at SQA and Director of Research and Analysis at Ofqual where she was responsible for leading and building the research and data analytics functions (including Official Statistics) to support Ofqual as an evidence-based regulator.

During her time at Ofqual, Beth was also responsible for the policy and delivery of Vocational and Technical Qualifications during Covid.