New trustees appointed to City & Guilds of London Institute

Experienced professionals from telecommunications and finance worlds take on key governance role

The former Chairman of the National Skills Academy for Rail and the deputy chief executive of Innovate UK are among the leading figures who have been appointed as trustees of the City & Guilds of London Institute to bring business expertise from the worlds of finance, telecommunications and transport.

Four new trustees have this week been added to the governance body, which oversees the City & Guilds Group, including Chris Fenton, the former chief executive of the Rail Safety and Standards Board and chairman of the National Skills Academy for Rail and KPMG partner Ann Brown, who was previously HR Director at Nationwide. The other new additions are Andy Marchant, who has held senior roles at HSBC, NFU Mutual, and Ageon UK, and Kevin Baughan of Innovate UK, who previously worked as a director at Virgin Media.

The trustee board, which is led by the former Olympic Delivery Authority chairman Sir John Armitt, comprises members of the Council of the City & Guilds of London Institute who are elected to serve as trustees.

The trustees represent a diverse range of industries, and bring a wealth of experience, serving for up to nine years. The new appointments will join the board immediately, serving alongside the current trustees which includes Allan Johnston, David Illingworth, Dr Tim Strickland, Peter McKee, Andy Smyth, Dr Ann Limb OBE and Professor Alison Halstead.

They join at an important moment for the City & Guilds Group, which is committed to supporting Britain’s skills development needs in the context of Brexit and with widespread concern about skills gaps in a number of critical industries.

Commenting on the new appointment, Chris Jones, Chief Executive of the City & Guilds Group said: ‘It’s fantastic to welcome these four impressive individuals to the board of the City & Guilds of London Institute. All bring with them unrivalled expertise in business and an understanding of Britain’s skills needs now and in the future. We are hugely grateful for their service and I know the City & Guilds Group will benefit from their wisdom and guidance over the coming years.’

About the new trustees 

Chris Fenton

• Chris is Governor of Middlesex University and a Non-Executive Director of JTL, a large, not-for-profit apprenticeship provider.
• Chris was previously the Chairman for the National Skills Academy for Rail (2014-2016), a Non-Executive Director for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (2012-2015) and a Non-Executive Director of Tube Lines (2008-2010).
• Most recently, he was the Chief Executive of the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) (2014-2016).
• He worked at Amey plc as Group Director of Strategy, Marketing, NBD and Innovation (2010-2012) and was the Managing Director of Inspectorate (BSI) (2003-2005).
• Chris has a 1^st class honours in material science from St. John’s College, Cambridge and an MBA from Manchester’s Business School.

 Andy Marchant

• Andy was Interim Head of Wealth Development at HSBC UK (2014-2016). Previously he was the Interim Head of Propositions at NFU Mutual (2013-2014).
• Andy held the position of Marketing Director at Aegon UK (2008-2011) as well as other senior positions at the company. Prior to this he was the Managing Director, Financial Services (2000-2001) and Marketing Director, Financial Services (1999-2000) at Direct Line.
• Andy worked at RBS, first as the Retail Product Director (1996-1998) and then the Retail Marketing Director (1998-1999).
• Andy’s volunteering experience includes: founding and being the treasurer of Friends of Chernobyl’s Children – Edinburgh (2005-2008); acting as the marketing advisor to Edinburgh Zoo (2009) and chairing the Maggie’s Centres Advisory Board, Bike & Hike (2010-2014).
• Andy holds a BSc (hons) in Economics from Bradford University.

Kevin Baughan

• Kevin is Deputy Chief Executive of Innovate UK, where he leads on the development and delivery of Innovate UK’s £1 billion public sector investment in high growth technologies across the UK (2017-date). Prior to this, he was the Director for Development and the Director of Technology and Innovation. He was worked with Innovate UK since 2014.
• Kevin served on the Technical and Business Operations Committee of Virgin Media’s main Board (2009-2012).
• Kevin was appointed to a Government Science & Technology Advisory Board in 2011.
• He joined Virgin Media (NTL at the time) in 2004 and has held a number of positions there since.
• He was the Managing Director and co-founder of Prolego Technologies, a start-up which focused on novel networking technologies (2002-2004).
• Kevin holds a BSc in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Birmingham, an MSc in Computer Science from Aston University, Birmingham, an Exec MBA with distinction from Imperial Business School, and was an Honorary Professor at the University of Birmingham (1999-2008).

Ann Brown

• Ann is a Partner at KPMG LLP (2016-date).
• Previously Ann was the HR Director of Nationwide Building Society (2014-2016).
• Ann worked at Capgemini (2001-2014), latterly as Senior Vice President.
• She was previously the Group HR Director of COLT Telecom Group plc (1997-2001).
• Ann worked at Cable and Wireless plc (1989-1997) holding a number of positions, including: HR Director, Senior HR Manager, Company Employee Relations Manager and Regional Personnel Manager.
• Ann holds a BA Modern Arts in English from Kingston University and completed a masters programme in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University.
• Ann is currently a Visiting Fellow at Kingston University Business School and she actively supports university initiatives that encourage women into STEM degrees.
• Ann has received a number of HR awards, including Payroll Team of the Year (2010), Creative Employee Benefits (2010) and Opportunity Now ‘where women want to work’ (2006-2014).

 About the City & Guilds Group

• The City & Guilds Group’s purpose is to help people, organisations and economies develop their skills for growth.
• Backed by a Royal Charter, the City & Guilds Group has more than 135 years’ experience in making sure that people are prepared to contribute to successful businesses and thriving economies.

• The City & Guilds Group partners with more than 200 companies to develop the skilled workforces that they need, and invests in learning technologies to help people learn whenever and wherever they can.

• The City & Guilds Group is made up of City & Guilds, ILM, Kineo, The Oxford Group, Digitalme, e3Learning and Gen2:

• City & Guilds develops programmes of vocational learning, learning technology, certification and assessment, to support colleges, training providers and governments.
• ILM helps individuals, education providers and businesses improve the standards of leadership and management through qualifications and accredited training. ILM awards qualifications to over 95,000 managers across the world every year.
• Kineo is a global workplace learning company. It offers a fresh approach to elearning management systems and managed learning services.
• The Oxford Group provides bespoke management training, leadership development and executive coaching to the world’s leading companies.

• Digitalme designs credentials, using open badges, to recognise individuals’ skills and talent. It works with employers, training providers and over 2,000 schools across the UK.
• e3Learning specialises in online workforce management and elearning.
• Gen2 is the largest training provider to the UK civil nuclear industry working with over 250 employers.

• Combined, the City & Guilds Group operates in over 100 countries, through 10,000 training centres, delivering qualifications in 26 different industries.
• For more information about the City & Guilds Group visit: www.cityandguildsgroup.com