Dame Julia Cleverdon is Vice President of Business in the Community and a Special Adviser to the Prince's Charities on responsible business practice. Prior to this she was Chief Executive of Business in the Community from April 1992 to March 2008 and grew the business-led organisation from £2million to £24 million turnover with 400 staff. In addition to this she developed with the Prince of Wales his Seeing is Believing programme involving more than seven thousand business leaders visiting inner city schools, prisons, homeless hostels, community groups and social enterprises in the most deprived communities in the UK.

Dame Julia was listed by The Times as one of the 50 most influential women in Britain and was appointed CBE in 1996, CVO in the New Year's Honours' list in 2002 and a DCVO in the Queen's Honours list in 2008. She chairs the board of trustees of Teach First and also sits on the board of Teach for All.

John Rink spent 35 years with international law firm Allen & Overy. In 1993, he was elected Managing Partner, a position he held until his retirement. In addition to his career at Allen & Overy, John spent two years seconded to British Aerospace plc (as it then was) as their Legal Director. Since his retirement in 2003, John spent three years as the senior non-executive director at Brixton Plc, a public company in the property sector. He also spent three years as a non-executive director with a major firm of accountants and was a non-executive director with the largest 'domestic' law firm in the UK until April 2009. In his spare time he is an active golfer, fell walker and opera fan. John has been a trustee of Teach First since June 2007 and became Deputy Chair in 2010.

Lord Andrew Adonis joined the Institute on 1 September 2010. He served 12 years in government as a Minister and special adviser. He was Secretary of State for Transport, Minister for Schools, Head of the No.10 Policy Unit, and senior No. 10 adviser on education, public services and constitutional reform.

He pioneered key public service reforms including the Academy programme, which established over 200 independent state schools to replace failing secondary schools, the radical university tuition fees and grants reform of 2004, and the plan to develop a high-speed rail line from London to northern England and Scotland. He was also a key supporter from the beginning of Teach First.

Before joining government, Andrew was a journalist and academic focusing on public policy and constitutional analysis. He was Public Policy Editor of the Financial Times, and Fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford, where he gained a PhD in modern political history.

Andrew is also author of six books and has been a member of the House of Lords since 2005.

Glenn Earle is a Managing Director and the Chief Operating Officer of Goldman Sachs International. He has worked at Goldman Sachs in various roles in New York, Frankfurt and London since 1987.

Glenn is a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge and Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA with High Distinction and was a Baker Scholar and Loeb, Rhoades Fellow.

Glenn is a Board Member and Trustee of the Royal National Theatre and Chairman of the Advisory Board of Cambridge Judge Business School. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the educational charity the Sutton Trust and of the Development Advisory Forum of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. His previous responsibilities have included membership of the Board of Trustees of the Goldman Sachs Foundation and of the Ministerial Task Force for Gifted and Talented Youth. Glenn became a Trustee of Teach First in 2011.

Lou is a Teach First Trustee, appointed in 2009, and is a Managing Director at Citigroup. He has been an active member of the Teach First National Advisory Council and speaker at Teach First events for over five years. Lou also sits on the Invest in Futures Board for the Prince's Trust. Lou has a BS from Rutgers College, Rutgers University.

Mary Meaney is a partner in McKinsey's London office. She leads the Transformational Change practice for Europe, Middle East and Africa; is one of the global leaders of McKinsey's Organization practice and is the founder and leader of the McKinsey women's initiative in EMEA and McKinsey's 'Women as Leaders' programme. She has served a variety of energy, basic materials, high-tech, metals and mining, private equity, public sector and consumer product organisations focusing on performance improvement. Before joining McKinsey, Mary worked for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. She directed a junior high school in the South Bronx and worked with semi-nomadic polygamous tribes in western Kenya. Mary graduated Summa cum Laude with a BA in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University. She earned a D.Phil in Politics from the University of Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship.

Vanessa Ogden is Head teacher of Mulberry School for Girls. She is also completing an Education Doctorate at the Institute of Education, specialising in urban leadership. Her areas of interest in education are in policy and schooling in areas of urban challenge. Vanessa's teaching career has spanned two decades of practice in inner-city schools across London, and involved significant work in school improvement and school effectiveness.

Vanessa is a trustee of Teach First and President of the Association of Maintained Girls Schools. The AMGS is the professional association representing the Heads of leading state girls' schools in the UK. The organisation's mission is to inform and influence national educational debate, to raise awareness of the benefits of single-sex education for girls, to promote high standards of education for girls and to support members through the provision of a broad range of services. Vanessa won the Women of the Future Inspirational Educator Award in 2009.

Vanessa has published both academic and professional writing on education.

Jo Owen is one of the co-founders of Teach First. He is also one of the founders of Future Leaders and of Teaching Leaders, which develop head teachers and middle leaders for schools in the most challenging circumstances. He is also a founder and Chairman of Start Up, which helps offenders start their own businesses on release from prison.

Jo is the author of ten best selling business books, including How to Lead and How to Manage. He is also the author of Tribal Business School, which shows what modern business can learn from traditional societies. He was formerly a strategy partner in Accenture's financial services group. He has also built a business in Japan and was the architect of HBOS business banking in the UK. He is a speaker on the subjects of tribes and leadership as well as being a C-suite coach. Jo earned his MA at Queens' College, Cambridge, and his MBA at London Business School.

After completing his economics & management degree at Oxford University, Tom taught business and enterprise at Cardinal Pole School in East London. In his second year he founded Enabling Enterprise, to encourage students to meet and work with students from other schools, and to develop vital enterprise skills, whatever the subject.

This year, over 2,500 students will be involved in Enabling Enterprise's programme across London, Manchester and Birmingham. Tom's work has been recognised with the Teach First Excellence Award, and he was also the 2009 UK Entrepreneurship Teacher of the Year.

Sarah has been a partner at Deloitte since 2002. Deloitte is a professional services firm with over 12,000 partners and staff in the UK, and recruits approximately 1,100 graduates a year. Sarah provides audit and transaction support services to clients in the media, technology and services sectors. Sarah was Deloitte's graduate recruitment partner for seven years and in this role has worked with Teach First for over five years. Sarah studied economics and maths at Bristol University and went travelling during a gap year after graduating, after which she trained as a Chartered Accountant.

Brett Wigdortz has led Teach First as its CEO since its launch in July 2002. Teach First is currently the 3rd most prestigious graduate recruiter in the United Kingdom and is working to close the achievement gap in England and Wales Brett wrote the original business plan for the charity while working as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and then took what was originally planned as a six-month leave of absence in February 2002 to develop and build support for the idea.

Before coming to London, his previous time at McKinsey was spent as a consultant in Indonesia, Singapore, and Manila - focusing on retail banking, organisational effectiveness, and Asian microfinance. Prior to McKinsey, Brett developed southeast Asia policy and business programmes at the Asia Society in New York City. He has also worked as a journalist in Asia and as a researcher at the East-West Center in Honolulu, focusing on energy and economic development issues.

He is originally from New Jersey and has also lived in Virginia and Israel. Brett has an Honors Bachelors degree in Economics from the University of Richmond and a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Hawai'i. He currently serves as a trustee of PEAS (Promoting Equality in African Schools) and Future Leaders, which recruits and train the next generation of outstanding headteachers for challenging urban secondary schools. He is also a co-founder and a trustee of Teach For All, an organization created in partnership with Teach For America to help other countries start similar programs and create a global network of leaders dedicated to addressing educational disadvantage.

He was recently named the 2007 UK Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year and the 2010 CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) European Leadership Award. Brett is married with two small children.

John joined Teach First as Chief Operating Officer (COO) in January 2011. As head of the operations team he is responsible for HR, Finance, IT, Facilities and Governance. Prior to Teach First, John had a 22-year career in investment banking at JPMorgan Cazenove where he held a number of senior positions (including COO) and was a member of the Executive Committee. Before joining the City, John was an economist at HMTreasury. He has a long-standing interest in education including two years teaching Economics at the start of his career and being the governor of a primary school. He is married and has four teenage children.

Sarah joined the Senior Leadership team of Teach First back in 2004, leading on the design and delivery of the charity's ambitious work to mobilise, equip and inspire its rapidly growing ambassador community to drive meaningful change in education from both within and outside of education. In 2012, following a nine month maternity break, Sarah transitioned into a new role as Director of Collective Impact, leading on the organisation's approach to working in meaningful partnership with others to deliver against the organisation's Statements of Intended Impact for the next 10 years. Prior to joining Teach First, Sarah was Managing Partner of Oasis Media Communications, a communications consultancy working within the charity sector. Sarah has also taught English and Drama at a secondary school in Kent and worked as an educational journalist for the BBC. Sarah is a former Trustee of the sport and development charity Alive and Kicking UK, which she helped found, and currently sits of the Board of RISE, an Teach First Ambassador-led social enterprise. Sarah graduated from the University of Bristol with a PGCE and the University of Kent with a BA in English & Drama.

James has proudly headed up the graduate recruitment department since 2004 and has seen Teach First grow from a 'modest' recruiter to an established 'volume' recruiter, consistently appearing in the top ten of the prestigious Times Top 100 Graduate Employers. James has been in graduate recruitment for over 12 years and came to Teach First from Credit Suisse, where he was European Head of Graduate Recruitment.

Before this he took a year off to travel around the world and fulfilled life-long ambitions, including walking on the Great Wall of China, climbing the highest mountain in SE Asia, swimming with wild dolphins and hiking along the ancient Inca trail to Machu Picchu.

Prior to travelling, James spent two years at Deutsche Bank as Global Head of Fixed Income graduate recruitment and at the same time served as a Director of the AGR (Association of Graduate Recruiters). Before this James headed up graduate recruitment for United Biscuits and worked for a number of years in Purchasing for both UB and Spiller Petfoods. James graduated from Liverpool University with a BSc in Psychology and Computer Science and Information Technology.

Will joined Teach First in April 2010 with a focus to support the ongoing growth of the organisation. He has a strong background in commercially focused HR roles with experience across a blend of generalist HR and specialist Learning and Development positions. Will has been in HR for more than ten years and has experience ranging from the design and implementation of global capability frameworks to the setup of HR teams. Before starting in his career in HR, Will worked as a support tutor with blind and partially sighted students in further education and prior to this graduated from Swansea University with a joint honours degree in psychology and politics. Outside of work Will is frustrated that he is too old and slow to play rugby, but still enjoys watching it!

Belinda joined Teach First at the beginning of May, as maternity cover for Sarah Connor. Previously Director of Fellowship at the RSA - overseeing an international network of more than 27,000 Fellows - Belinda has a background in membership and network development and social innovation programme management. In her spare time, Belinda works with the Massive Change Network, which inspires, connects and empowers entrepreneurial designers to work together on large-scale social change projects.

Belinda is originally from Australia, where she worked in international policy and long range strategic planning for the Australian Government.

After successfully leading our expansion from 2006 onwards from London into four additional regions across England, Amanda now heads up the design, development and delivery of our two-year Leadership Development Programme. She oversees the effectiveness of the programme to ensure our participants are making the greatest impact possible during their two-years in schools, and are equipped at the end to effectively address our mission long-term as ambassadors. Amanda's remit also includes the six regions Teach First operates in: East Midlands, London, the North West, West Midlands, Yorkshire and the Humber and our newest region, the North East. An alumnus of Teach For America, Amanda taught primary school for three years in Compton, California and went on to join the Los Angeles staff of Teach For America as the Managing Director of Program. Most recently she worked in the Superintendent's office of the Los Angeles Unified School District before relocating to Teach First in February 2006.

James joined Teach First in October 2009 to head up the External Relations department where he leads on fundraising and development, communications and events, and data and impact. Prior to this, James worked for BBC News as its education and social affairs correspondent. During a distinguished 18-year career in broadcasting, James appeared regularly on flagship TV & radio programmes including the Six & Ten O'clock News and the Today programme. As well as helping launch News 24 in 1997, he has held a number of senior posts including that of the BBC's health correspondent. James has won several awards including Programme of the Year from the Royal Television Society. He also reported from around the world on major news stories, including the Asian tsunami and the flooding of New Orleans, spending two years posted abroad as one of the BBC's Washington correspondents.

Reuben brings a wide variety of experience in education to the post of Senior Regional Director. Prior to joining Teach First he was a Vice Principal in a South London School. He has also worked as a Lecturer in Education at Canterbury Christ Church University and as an Advanced Skills Teacher. Reuben has also volunteered as a school governor and, in his spare time, enjoys travelling, cycling and rugby. (The latter as a spectator rather than participant.) Reuben graduated from the University of Edinburgh in history and politics and completed a PGCE at the University of Cambridge in history education. Reuben has created materials for use with interactive whiteboards on behalf of SMART Technologies and written articles for Teaching History magazine.

Matt is Senior Regional Director in the Leadership Development department. With responsibilities for the North East, East Midlands, London, Kent and Medway regions, as well as for the Classroom Leadership Team, the role is focussed on facilitating the development in each region so Teach First can positively impact on the outcomes of children and young people across the country. Matt comes to this role after serving as Regional Director in the East Midlands for nearly three years. Prior to this he taught in London for four years as a Teach First participant ('04), focusing on English and then politics, while also working as the school's community development officer. Prior to teaching, Matt took a Masters in International Studies at SOAS and worked in London at the Telegraph newspaper, and in Parliament as a researcher for two MPs.Lis Roberts, intrem Regional Director, Yorkshire

Tom leads our London region and oversees all elements of the Teach First Leadership Development Programme within the region, including our relationships with schools and training providers and the delivery of the programme. Tom is a Teach First Ambassador, having taught English and RE as part of the 2003 cohort at The Business Academy, Bexley. Subsequently Tom spent nearly five years in strategy consulting in both London and Mumbai working in a variety of sectors from frozen food to live music before making the decision to return to education with Teach For All as the liaison between Teach First and the global network of similar programmes addressing educational disadvantage. His role at Teach For All role took him to the Teach For America 20th anniversary summit where he realised the answer to the question of the day "What will you do?" was to apply for a role where as a Teach First ambassador he was having a more direct impact on our mission in London. Tom has a classics degree from Oxford, still claims he has not quite retired from playing rugby and is married with a little boy.

Jo leads our West Midlands office and oversees all elements of the Teach First programme within the region, including the placement of participants across West Midlands schools and the Leadership Development programme. She also works with partner organisations within the region to increase community awareness. Jo is a Teach First ambassador, having taught design technology as part of the 2003 cohort at St Saviour's and St Olave's School in Elephant and Castle, London. Whilst teaching, she set up the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and worked with an architecture practice to engage her GCSE students in local regeneration projects, having graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Manchester.

Matt taught business studies and economics in Edmonton, North London as a Teach First Participant ('07). He then went on to work at the Department for Education on a range of policy areas including raising the participation age, special educational needs and Achievement for All. During his time at the department Matt was involved with Teach First through a number of Ambassador initiatives including taking on the role of Associate Tutor Coordinator at the 2010 summer institute. Matt loves to keep fit, ski, sail and spend time in the great outdoors. Originally a Morecambe boy, Matt is pleased to be back in the North all be it on the other side of the Pennines!

Nick Hall is Regional Director for the East Midlands which gives him the privilege of seeing how the East Midlands participants develop as leaders and have a positive impact on their schools and communities. Nick has been an English AST for eight years and had also been working with the University of Nottingham's Education Department until he joined the Teach First team. In a short space of time the East Midlands region has become one that prides itself on excellence and working single-mindedly to improve the educational outcomes of the pupils participants teach. It is also a region that recognises the importance and value of working together and supporting each other.

Graihagh is Regional Director for the newest of the Teach First regions - Kent and Medway. Graihagh will be setting up the region, forging school partnerships and building a team who will work to ensure that the Kent and Medway participants are best supported to have the maximum impact on the pupils in their care. After graduating from Cambridge with a degree in English literature, Graihagh completed a Fast Track teaching PGCE in English and Drama at the IOE and then taught in London from 2005-2009 at St Augustine's C of E High School in Kilburn Park and Holland Park School. As a Lead Teacher at Holland Park, Graihagh was involved in developing Teaching and Learning across the school. Since 2009 Graihagh has managed the HEAPS team at Teach First, working with ambassadors to support increasing numbers of pupils from Teach First schools to access University. The Kent and Medway Regional Director gives Graihagh the opportunity to once again work closely with schools and teachers with an absolute focus on outcomes for pupils. Graihagh hails from the Isle of Man and loves spending time there walking by the sea.

Hannah Essex recently joined Teach First as Associate Director of Communications. In this role she oversees the charity’s media, public affairs, marketing and digital media work.

Prior to joining Teach First, Hannah was Head of Communications and Business Development at Teacher Support Network, a charity providing practical and emotional support to training, serving and retired teachers.

Before joining Teacher Support Network in 2005, Hannah spent three years in campaigning roles as a student officer, first as Vice-President of the University of Essex Students’ Union and latterly as National Women’s Officer and then National Vice-President of the National Union of Students.

Briony leads the Networks and Communities team for the Ambassador Department. The Networks and Communities team inspires ambassadors and employees to interact with, and influence the wider social movement. Currently she is refining team activities to reflect the clear network strategy that is under development.

Briony started her Teach First journey as a 2003 participant, teaching science at Quintin Kynaston, London. She later worked as a business centre manager at the professional services firm Deloitte in the consultancy service line. After two years, she moved to Australia to travel and work as a website producer for Lend Lease.

Caroline has worked within the Teach First’s Graduate Recruitment department since 2008 and currently manages the Selection team. She oversees two teams (Candidate Contact and Assessment Centre) to ensure all applicants to Teach First are provided an excellent service throughout our robust selection processes.

Prior to joining us, Caroline recruited finance staff for organisations within the private sector. She graduated from Cardiff University (Caroline is a proud Welsh person) with a degree in Law & Spanish and counts tennis, hot yoga and shoe shopping amongst her hobbies.

Claire manages the Attraction team, part of the Graduate Recruitment, and is responsible for marketing the talent attraction campaign to graduates, both on and off campus. A large part of Claire’s remit is to ensure the growth of our brand and candidate service in line with this.

Claire joined the Graduate Recruitment department in August 2007, holding various positions from university recruiter to Talent Manager, before moving into the Associate Director role in June 2011.

Claire is an ’05 ambassador, having taught English for two years at Crown Woods school in South East London, following various youth work roles and gaining a degree in English Literature from the University of Sheffield.

Elin leads the Graduate Recruitment Development team, with responsibility for driving efficiencies and seeking opportunities to enable the future growth and sustainability of Graduate Recruitment at Teach First. Elin is a Teach First Ambassador, having taught Science as part of the 2006 cohort at Uxbridge High School in London.

Elin completed a Teach First summer project working for ‘Promoting Equality in African Schools’ (PEAS) in Uganda at the end of her first year of teaching and consequently set up a charity and enterprise club in her Teach First school.

Elin has worked in a variety of roles across the Graduate Recruitment team over the last few years and recently completed a secondment with Teach For India, training new teachers embarking on the Teach For India programme in schools across Pune and Mumbai.

Jay joined Teach First in 2006. As a teacher, Jay taught RE, PSHE, Citizenship and Health and Social Care at the West London Academy – and became the Head of Health and Social Care.

After three years he moved to Christ the King Sixth Form College in Lewisham as part of Teach First colleges, and initiative to encourage ambassadors to work in Further Education. While at the college, Jay started a Social Enterprise, Inquisitive People. Their flagship programme runs one day events for KS3 and KS5 students where they can learn about career options and develop their inquisitiveness for further education.

Jay joined Teach First as Associate Director - 10th Anniversary this year, working as part of the Strategy team in the CEO’s office, and focussing on delivering an impactful 10th Anniversary for Teach First. A major focus of next year will be the Anniversary Summit in September 2012, involving 3,000 members of the Teach First community.

John arrived at Teach First in July 2011 on an interim contract as Financial Controller in Finance, after working in a wide variety of charity roles. He oversees the day-to-day running of the department, provides financial management information to support the senior leadership team and Associate Directors in their roles, and brings his significant experience in the third sector to address charity-specific issues at Teach First.

John is a trustee for Action for Refugees in Lewisham, and has previously volunteered with the Disasters & Emergency Committee. He has a love of travel, and in his spare time takes every opportunity to broaden his travelling experiences – even spending last Christmas in the Antarctic.

Liz joined the Teach First staff team in September 2009 as the Senior Strategy Officer in Leadership Development. Having taken on the Associate Director role for NITTP in an interim capacity in March 2011, she is now permanently in post. Her priorities are to continue building a strong partnership – and to ensure that the collaboration is facilitating everyone (all our University partners specifically) contributing their individual areas of expertise to the partnership.

Liz is a ’03 Ambassador of the Teach First programme – teaching for 2 years in East London. Since then, she has worked mostly within educational research, but also for a local community charity. In 2007-8 she studied for an MBA in Corporate Social Responsibility and has a specific interest in the role of businesses in developing our communities and building social capital.

Louise brings a wide variety of experience in education to the post of Associate Director for Primary Development. Prior to joining Teach First she worked for several years as a consultant and trainer for several organisations within the education sector including Creative Partnerships in London and Essex. Before this she worked for sixteen years in primary schools across England, including three years as a head teacher of an inner city primary school in London.

Louise volunteers for a children’s charity, developing learning resources and delivering diversity training in Early Years settings and Primary schools. She loves travelling, cooking and improvisational theatre (sadly no longer as a performer). Louise holds a BEd from the University of Liverpool and the NPQH (National Professional Qualification for Headship). Louise is the co-author of ‘Building Bridges’ a Key Stage 2 to 3 learning skills programme and a diversity in the foundation stage learning resource.

Sam joined Teach First in 2009 and was appointed Associate Director for Development the following year. The Development Team works closely with businesses, trusts, foundations and individuals, who are committed to partnering with us in order to deliver our mission and realise our vision. Teach First’s supporters provide invaluable resources, expertise and experience, which are crucial to undertaking our charitable work.

Prior to joining Teach First, Sam lived and worked in the US, where he served concurrently as Assistant Director of Development at Yale University and as a Visiting Fellow at Yale’s Berkeley College. In addition to his experience in education on both sides of the pond, Sam previously founded and managed a successful language solutions company. A graduate of UCL and the University of Oxford, Sam enjoys playing a variety of sports, following his beloved Southampton Football Club and is an avid marathon runner.

As a participant in the inaugural Teach First cohort, Sid taught ICT in a West London school where he raised the aspirations and attainment of students. After working as a management consultant, he returned to engage with the Teach First mission by working on spreading the model and building sister programmes in the Middle East. Sid now leads on expanding the geographic area served by Teach First. He works to bring the impact of Teach First to all parts of the UK.

Outside Teach First, Sid continues to work on raising the achievement of disadvantaged students in London. The rest of his time is dedicated to the welfare of Muslim community.

Simon joined Teach First in January 2011 and is responsible for the organisation’s gathering and use of evidence to establish its impact. Originally a research chemist (and a trained primary school teacher), he has worked for the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), the Wellcome Trust and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). Simon spends an inordinate amount of time clad in lycra and cycling or running, usually to the horror of his two children.

Tim joined Teach First as Associate Director of Teach On in August 2009, leading the team that provides professional guidance and development for ambassadors continuing to lead change in challenging schools across the country.

He graduated from Newcastle University in 2000 with a first in Physiological Sciences and quickly joined Pfizer Global Research & Development where he spent 3 years working on drug discovery projects. He joined the 2005 Teach First cohort and taught science at Robert Clack School in Dagenham for 4 years, where he was promoted to Director of Science Specialism, leading overseas trips & coordinating school projects. Amongst his proudest personal achievements are representing England Schools Athletics Team on the track, learning to fly a plane solo and cycling 400 miles to Newcastle.

James Townsend was elected by the Teach First participants to represent their views and needs throughout the organisation. He also works to celebrate and promote the Leadership Development Programme to its external partners and supporters.

James is an '09 Ambassador and taught in the Maths Department at Copley High School in Greater Manchester. Whilst teaching at the school, James also served as a Teacher Governor.

Before joining Teach First, James read History at the University of York. He also sits on the General Synod, the governing body of the Church of England.

Past Participant Presidents:

• Jason Arthur 2010/11
• Charlotte McCormick 2009/10
• Rhys Parry 2008/09
• Ruth Carney 2007/08
• Deji Odunlami 2006/07
• James Townsend 2005/06