Leicester College Board of Governors

Danielle is an alumnus of De Montfort University and a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants with significant experience working with a wide range of businesses from a large plc to niche professional services consultancies.

As Managing Director of the EMB-Group, she helped build the business from start up to a +£10m group of companies selling market leading business consultancy. She is a keen supporter and promoter of education and learning, working with both FE and HE in a pro-bono capacity.

Danielle was a founder member of the International Women’s Day Trust and the King Richard III Visitors Centre Trust and is a key member of the Leicestershire business community.

Revd Dr Tom Wilson is Director of the St Philip’s Centre, an interfaith training and resourcing centre based in Leicester. The Centre works with people of all faiths and no faith to enable people to understand the impact faith makes on daily living and to encourage people to learn to live well together.

He is married with two children and enjoys cycling, reading and hill walking.

Verity joined Leicester College in January 2013 from the Skills Funding Agency after 20 years in public and civil service roles.

Since gaining a law degree from New College, Oxford in 1988, Verity has pursued a career in further education and previously worked for the City and Guilds of London Institute, the Training and Enterprise Councils and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). She held a number of senior positions within the LSC including Regional Director, East Midlands and National Director of Funding, Planning and Performance and has served on the governing bodies of schools and colleges in London and the East Midlands.

Verity is a Board member of the Leicester and Leicestershire LEP, a Board Director and Trustee of the Skills and Education Group, a Trustee of the National Space Centre, a Board Director of the Leicester Community Sports Arena Ltd, and a non-Executive Director of the Board of the Office for Students. She has chaired the Student Loans Company’s Advanced Learner Loans Stakeholder Group for several years. More recently (in June 2023) she became a member of the Lifelong Education Institute Advisory Board.

Chan Kataria, OBE is the Group Chief Executive of emh group, a housing and care group with a turnover of £125m, 1,100 employees and over 20,000 homes in management. The group is a major developer of affordable homes and provider of care and support services in the East Midlands. Chan was given the CEO of the year award in 2019 and was a top 10 power player in 2018.

Chan has been in this role since 2004. Prior to this he worked for various local, regional, and national housing organisations. Chan is a Board member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) professional body and a Board member of Housemark. He is also a Trustee of a regional Hospice and Honorary Associate at De Montfort University.

Formerly, Chan was Chair of a National Housing Federation Chief Executive’s Forum in the East Midlands and also a Board member of the national PlaceShapers alliance.

Zubair is currently Deputy Director of Finance at De Montfort University with responsibility for treasury, tax, pension, insurance, financial accounting, financial systems and transactions.

Having worked in practice at E&Y in Zimbabwe and KPMG in the UK, Zubair has significant external audit, internal audit and financial reporting experience, been involved with forensic audit work/investigations and has a keen interest in governance.

Zubair has worked with many Higher and Further Education institutions, as well as Academies, and enjoyed a brief period working with a Local Authority. Along with leading the audit service at an independent accounting and audit practice, he has provided general accounting, business and tax advice to a varied portfolio of private businesses and charities.

Zubair is currently the Chair of the Audit Committee for Leicester College and a serving member of the Local Pensions Committee and Investment Subcommittee for the Leicestershire County Council Pension Fund.

Specialising in the not-for-profit sector, Roger has been an audit partner for 25 years, working with PwC, BDO and Hacker Young.

After graduating from Bristol University, he trained with a global accountancy firm in London where he was promoted to partner and helped to set up a new branch in Poland, before moving to the East Midlands 23 years ago.

Louisa qualified as a Chartered Accountant 20 years ago. After qualifying she went to work for KPMG in Australia and Leicester before moving into industry where she’s gained experience in several industries and in heavily regulated companies. Most recently she joined Spirit Health Group as Group Finance director.

Louisa is also a trustee at LOROS and when time allows enjoys a challenge. She’s successfully climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and walked the West Highland Way.

Louisa enjoys travelling, spending time with friends, interior design and skiing holidays.

Zoë is an Associate Dean (Academic) at De Montfort University. As an academic leader awarded National Teaching Fellowship (2020), Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (2018) and a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (2022), she is recognised nationally for her impact on the student learning experience in Higher Education. She drives change through inspirational leadership, improving the experience of students and colleagues with a philosophy underpinned by embedding mental wellbeing in the curriculum.

Zoë is passionate about enhancing teaching and learning for students and colleagues, and continually seeks new opportunities to develop her own skillset to share with and empower others.

Jai is an experienced further education and skills practitioner. He has 14 years’ experience in FE, initially as a lecturer in social science, law and ESOL for several FE and HE institutions, followed by roles as head of department, quality manager and director of planning and quality in a large college in the Midlands. Jai has also taught at undergraduate level for the Open University and acted as an external moderator for Access to HE programmes.

He joined the Adult Learning Inspectorate as a lead inspector in 2002 and moved over to Ofsted as an HMI from 2007 to 2019. Jai has led and assisted on inspections of FE colleges, community learning and skills, independent learning providers and prisons.

Jai left Ofsted in 2019 and currently works as a freelance consultant to the further education and skills sector.

Lee is originally from Leicester and trained in Catering at the former Southfields College. Lee retired from working at a strategic director level in the NHS, private sector and in Further and Higher education.

He was previously Director of Estates and Facilities for Canterbury Christ Church University. Lee was responsible for developing over £150 million of new University academic buildings in addition to managing professional facilities services with a budget of £19 Million and commercial income of £12 Million. During this time, he developed a “student focus” for the Estates and Facilities student services Involving students, staff and the local community in the planning and building including new Student Union facilities, student residential accommodation and other projects was a key feature of his work. Lee previously served as a Governor of South Devon College, Vice Chair of the board, member of the Finance and Resources Committee and designated Governor for Health and Safety.

He is looking forward to supporting the Executive team and Governing body in continuing the delivery of the huge challenging agenda for Leicester College students, staff, and the wider community.

Lisa is Director of Re-engagement, English and Maths at Leicester College. She has worked in the FE sector for over 20 years and has taught and managed in multiple settings across different funding streams. These include study programmes, adult and community, probation, school links, apprenticeships, high needs, and teacher education.

Lisa also spent several years at both the Learning and Skills Council and Leicestershire County Council working regionally and locally on education and skills funding and policy.

Shaun Curtis has been with the College since September 2017, being Director of Estates and Campus Services since July 2019. Shaun is passionate in providing Environments which facilitate exceptional learning and has had a varied career in property from heading up the Commercial Property Team at a Local Authority to working at a Motor Racing Circuit.

Outside of College, Shaun is a keen sports enthusiast.

Neil is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. His working experience includes leading engineering teams in manufacturing and consultancy across a number of industries including automotive, aerospace, defence and power generation.

Most recently, Neil served on the Board of Frazer-Nash Consultancy as their Engineering Director (2005 - 2008) and Managing Director (2008 - 2021).

Neil is married with two grown-up children. He lives near Lutterworth and enjoys walking and watching rugby.

Harmesh was born and bred in Kolkata, India. After completing his primary school, he moved to Punjab with yearly holidays at his birthplace. Apart from being a fluent Punjabi and Hindi speaker, Harmesh uses Urdu, Gujrati and Bengali routinely to converse with the main Southeast Asian communities.

After completing his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in English literature from Punjab he migrated to the UK. After spending a short stint in retail and service industries, Harmesh trained as a teacher and taught ESOL in industry to mainly Asian workers. After 18 years teaching, teaching English to speakers to other languages (ESOL) and multicultural education, he rose through the managerial ranks to become an acting principal of an adult college in the West Midlands.

Harmesh has worked in three local authorities and taught in four FE colleges. From 1988- 1991 we went on part-time secondment to embed a national FEU project (Staff Development for a Multicultural Society in 10 local authorities and 70 colleges in the West Midlands.

Since 2001 he has been a lead inspector with the Adult Learning Inspectorate inspecting the whole range of training institutions and programmes including apprenticeship and adult learning. In 2007 he joined Ofsted as one of Her Majesty’s Inspector. After retiring from Ofsted in August 2020, Harmesh took up the position of director of change and quality enhancement at a local FE college to put his experience as an inspector to good use to improve leaners’ experience. He was a non-executive director of an independent training provider from March 2021-April 2023. Harmesh has extensive interests, but his main passion is FE as it transforms peoples’ lives particularly those who did not have opportunities in their lives for a variety of reasons.

Robert has been an auditor for most of his working life, acting primarily in the SME sector. The last 25 years as a partner at Rowleys in Leicester.

He has also worked in the training sector with a company called Mercia Group, which set up training hubs throughout the country to train independent firms of accountants. This involved writing material and lecturing to all levels of staff in audit, general taxation and specialist audit sectors of pensions and company secretarial (CPE rather than exam training).

A past Director of MGI UK Ltd, which is the UK conduit for an International network of firms of accountants.

A current trustee of Leicester Vineyard Church and past trustee and chair of North Memorial Homes in Leicester.

Robert has always played sport, notably tennis, but loves walking, particularly in the Lakes and spending time with family and friends.

Sallyann has worked in the FE Sector for over 22 years working across the 16-18 and 19+ landscape – 16-18 Foundation Learning, ESOL, International and Employability.

Having worked as lecturer, Learner Recruitment Coordinator, and Head of Academy she has extensive skills in college operation and management. Currently she is the Assistant Principal – Adult Skill – English, Maths and Essential Digital Skills, Part Time ESOL, International English and Employability at the Sheffield College working with a wide variety of external partners across the sector.

Sallyann is passionate about ensuring that everyone can access high quality Teaching, Learning and Assessment to achieve their academic and personal aspirations. Inclusivity, Equality, Fairness, Respect, Diversity and Engagement are her personal values. Sallyann is a trustee of The Sheffield City of Sanctuary and spearheaded the Sheffield College to become one of the first Colleges of Sanctuary. She also sits on the National College of Sanctuary Board.

Lesley Giles is a Director at Work Advance, where she undertakes applied research and analysis, and consultancy work, around skills, labour markets and the world of work. She is a senior executive with extensive experience in leadership and change management, involving complex stakeholder relationships. This has been acquired operating at the heart of Government for over 20 years and through public sector and commercial agencies, and most recently as a Director of two commercial management consultancies: including the Work Foundation, at Lancaster University as well as Work Advance.

For instance, Lesley was Deputy Director and Company Secretary at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills, where she worked with Industry and Government to enhance the operation of the skills and employment system. In that capacity she served 7 Government Departments across the UK, including HM Treasury (HMT). In addition, she has also worked at: the Sector Skills Development Agency; the Department for Education and Employment, the Employment Service, the Cabinet Office, the Institute for Employment studies, the University of Portsmouth’s Business School and the University of Central England.

She has built up a substantial international profile as a thought leader and practitioner, using evidence to improve policy and practice in the UK and abroad, working through networks such as those run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Lesley is a graduate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was a Governor of the University of Derby for 6 years up to 2021.

Jackie is an independent further education and skills consultant and author based in Leicester, with over 30 years experience in the sector She started her career as a lecturer in health-related exercise and fitness before moving into teacher education and progressing into senior leadership roles. She is also an experienced inspector. Passionate about education, she holds an MA in teaching and learning, and is Fellow member of the Society for Education and Training (SET) and part of the JoyFE movement.

Jackie enjoys theatre and is a member of the Little Theatre in Leicester, and Oadby Drama. She also plays tennis regularly, and is a member of Oadby Granville tennis club, where she is also the Welfare officer.