Trustees

Sioned Bowen

Sioned Bowen’s career includes teaching in communities around Brixton and Brent, headships in Wales, HMI with Estyn and working as a Corporate Director for Lifelong Learning. Her commitment to community focused schools has held firm over nearly forty years in education and learning.

Sioned Bowen served as a Chair of the Association of Directors of Education in Wales (ADEW).  Following retirement, she is now one of ADEW’s Executive Advisors. Other activities include serving on the Children in Wales Policy Council, recently launched by Jane Hutt AM, the All Wales Youth Offending Implementation Strategy, Governor of a Further Education College, Trustee of ContinYou, in addition to a range of consultancy work in Wales and further afield.

Geraldine Brennan

Geraldine Brennan is Books Editor of The Times Educational Supplement, which has approximately half a million readers who work in education, and has worked in print journalism since 1978. Her areas of interest and expertise include educational and children's publishing, creating reading cultures in schools and communities, tackling social exclusion through reading and innovative work with writers in education.

Other activities include:

• Judge, 2005 Booktrust Teenage Prize
• Judge, 2004 Nestle Smarties Award for children’s books
• Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
• Contributor to Frightening Fiction, a critical work on popular fiction for young adults in the Contemporary Classics in Children's Literature series published by Continuum (2001).

Ian Caulfield

Ian Caulfield served as Chief Executive of Warwickshire County Council from December 1986 until he retired in summer 2005, after being the longest serving County Chief Executive in the country (18 years).  He was educated at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys and the University of Manchester. He has held planning posts with Liverpool, Lancashire and Oxfordshire Councils and joined Warwickshire Council in 1978 as Assistant Executive. Ian is a member of the Board of Governors of Coventry University, and he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Warwickshire from 1 January 2006. He was awarded a CBE, for services to local government, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2000.

Dr Michael Goldstein

After an earlier scientific career, Dr Goldstein’s interests in science education, especially chemical education, developed. More recently, his focus has been on the role of higher education in economic and social development, particularly in support of local areas and regions, and in partnership with other organisations. Since retiring from leading a University, he has undertaken a range of consultancy assignments, and developed interests in professional regulation of forensic practitioners, and education marketing. He was awarded the CBE for services to Higher Education in 1997.

Dr Goldstein's education includes a PhD in Chemistry, Doctor of Science, CChem FRSC and Hon FCGI. His employment history includes Lecturer to Principal Lecturer at Northern Polytechnic, London (1963-1973), Head of Department of Chemistry and Dean of Science at Sheffield City Polytechnic (1974-1983), Deputy Director/Director at Coventry Polytechnic (1983-1992), and Vice Chancellor at Coventry University (1992-2004). He is currently self-employed as a consultant.

Other current activities and memberships include:

• Member of the Council of Coventry and Warwickshire Learning and Skills Council (2001 to date)
• Chair of the Search Committee, Solihull College (2004 to date)
• Chair of Coventry Creative Partnerships (2004 to date)
• Member of the Board (2002 to date) then Deputy Chair (2003 to date) of Coventry’s City Centre Management and Tourism Company, CVOne Ltd
• Chairman of the marketing services company, HEIST Enterprises Ltd (2004 to date)
• Chairman of the Council for the Registration of Forensic Practitioners (2005 to date).

Heather Loveridge

Heather began her career working for the Welsh Counties Committee (now the WLGA). She was selected by the Council to undertake a Masters Degree in Business management in the United States and spent a year there in the mid 1980s. On her return, she worked as Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive.

Having trained as a teacher, her real interest was in education and in 1991 she took up post as Senior Policy Officer in the Education Department. In 1996, she was appointed Assistant Director (Strategic Services) in the Education, Children’s Services and Recreation Directorate. During the twelve years she was in this role, she chaired a number of partnerships including the Young People’s Partnership and the Children and Young People’s Partnership Board. She was also responsible for the work of the Directorate to support the Community Focused Schools agenda.

In 2008, she trained as an Additional Inspector for Estyn and has been involved in the inspection of Local Authority Education Services in South Wales . In addition, she has been working for Capita Symonds as a consultant on the Academies and Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programmes. The Extended Schools offering is an integral element of the BSF and Academy programmes.

Steve Stewart

Steve is the Executive Director of Coventry and Warwickshire Connexions. Prior to this, he worked for six years as the Chief Executive of Quality Careers Services Ltd, and for twelve years for the Careers Service of Coventry City Council as Deputy Principal Careers Officer, Assistant Principal Careers Officer, and Senior Careers Adviser, which involved managing and leading careers education and guidance services to the Coventry community. Formerly, he was a careers adviser with Rotherham Borough Council and Derbyshire County Council.

As Executive Director, Steve Chairs the “Investing In Young People” Programme Delivery Group of the Coventry Community Plan; is a Director of the ILM Company, Cov Wise; is a Joint Venture Partner in the New Deal arrangements in Coventry; Chairs the Board for the Coventry Foyer Trust; and Chairs the Coventry Partnership for Youth Board which provides a strategic partnership for £8.7m of SRB funding focused on improving the lives and life chances of young people aged 14-24 in Coventry.

Steve was a Labour Councillor on Rugby Borough Council and held the position of Leader and Deputy Leader for a number of years.

Steve was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in June 2003 for his services to supporting young people.

A native of Oldham, Steve is currently enjoying the resurgence of Manchester City Football Club into the Premier League.

Hilary Wilce

Hilary is a longstanding education journalist who writes a weekly education advice column in The Independent, plus regular feature articles. She has written for most major national newspapers including The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times, and The Times Educational Supplement (TES). She has written a book for parents which, despite its title – Help Your Child Succeed At School – is NOT a manual for pushy parents! She has spoken at many conferences on issues of education and parenting, and taken part in TV and radio broadcasts. As an editorial consultant she most recently worked for the National Teaching Awards, and for Early Years magazine.

Hilary has considerable international experience of education. As international editor of The TES she visited schools and colleges in Europe, Africa and the United States.

She has written nine romantic fiction novels and many prize-winning short stories, is a trained adult literacy tutor, and has worked as a volunteer tutor in both the UK and the USA.

She currently volunteers on a programme supporting teenage asylum seekers, and is a trustee of the charity People United, which works to promote kindness in schools and communities. Hilary is also just completing training as a personal development coach.