Corporation members

Corporation Members Governing bodies vary in the size and in the balance of the various types of members they have. The balanced membership of the City of Bristol College Corporation ensures that it has the benefit of views from the community served by the College, its learners and staff, its local authority and the business community.

All governors are appointed as individuals, including staff and student governors. They are required to put the interests of the Corporation and the College first and are not allowed to accept a mandate from any other organisation.

Board members

Phil Smith (Chair of the Corporation)

Steve Bennett (Joint Vice Chair)

Steve has returned to live in the Bristol area recently after a career in London. He is an experienced further education professional, who started his career as a secondary geography teacher before entering further education. Steve took on various leadership roles in two London colleges and most recently was assistant principal with a sharp focus on curriculum, outcomes and student experience. Steve helped lead his former college to successive ‘good’ Ofsted grades. Steve was seconded to a London-wide ‘value-added’ project for two years during which he visited over 30 of London’s colleges and 100 of its schools. Steve remains a committed friend and supporter of the work that colleges do for their communities. Steve is Chair of the Curriculum & Quality committee.

Andrea Arlidge

Andrea Arlidge is the founding CEO of Wellsway Multi-Academy Trust. The trust runs 13 schools in East Bristol and Bath, including primary, secondary and special schools. She has 16 year’s headship experience in three schools: Wellsway School in Keynsham 2005 – 2016; St Katherine’s School in Pill 2000 – 2005 and carried out an interim headship role at Sir Bernard Lovell School in Oldand Common during 2014/15. Alongside her role as CEO Andrea is Chair of the Trust Board of the County Sports Partnership for the West of England (WESPORT). She also sits on the Ofsted South West region Headteachers’ Reference Group and is a member of Ofsted’s South West region Scrutiny Committee. In 2018 Andrea was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Education by Bath Spa University and was named a National Leader of Education as part of a successful bid to set up the Great Western Teaching School Alliance.

Dan Amin

Dan Amin

Dan has been working in the Higher Education sector, since 2007, and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is currently a Quality and End-point Assessment Manager for Advance HE, as part of their apprenticeship service, however prior to this he spent many years working in various lecturing and leadership roles within college-based higher education.

In addition to this, Dan also spent five successful years as a governor for a college in South Yorkshire, and having recently moved to Bristol is looking forward to bringing this experience to the current board at City of Bristol College.

Tony Antonius

Tony is a Chartered Accountant and former partner at KPMG where he worked for 34 years. He is currently a Director at BDO LLP where he advises companies on a variety of matters including assurance and risk management issues.

Tony is Chair of the Audit Committee. Tony is also a non-executive Director of a number of locally based companies.

Steve Boardman (Joint Vice Chair)

Steve Boardman is an experienced executive and non-executive director in health and social care. He was Director of Corporate Development with United Bristol Healthcare Trust, Director of Business Planning with the NHS Management Executive South West and Director of Strategy with NHS Bristol. He was a director of Finnamore Management Consultants, the specialist health sector consultancy, for many years. He was also non-executive Chair of Brunelcare, a Bristol based housing association and charity which provides sheltered housing, community care and nursing homes for the elderly.  After retiring from consultancy, Steve joined the Peninsula School of Medicine and Dentistry as a lecturer on their MBA Healthcare programme. He is now an Independent Review Panel Chair for the NHS. Steve is Chair of the Finance & Resources committee.

Julia Gray, Principal & Chief Executive

Julia has worked in the FE sector for more than twenty years and has been responsible for the writing, delivery and leadership of all the different provision types in that time, from entry-level programmes to master’s degrees. Julia began her FE career working in land-based teaching within her specialist subject of equine studies, and moved into urban general FE at leadership level, where she felt completely at home serving a diverse community on the doorstep of the College. She has had leadership responsibility for professional services teams including Human Resources, has had Designated Safeguarding Lead responsibility for the last five years, and has an excellent understanding of the broad workings of a further education college beyond the delivery of the curriculum. Julia is passionate about FE and the difference it can make to the lives of the communities it serves.

Sandra Gordon

Sandra Gordon

At the heart of everything Sandra does is one central aim – to give everyone a chance to be the best they can be and to bring balance and equality to those groups who are disadvantaged in our society.
Her business provides organisations with services to assist their EDI journey, including organisational culture, mainly in supporting organisations in areas of Gender and Race. It also provides Life coaching, Career coaching, Executive coaching, Leadership coaching -especially supporting women into these positions and equitable, inclusive leadership.
Sandra has worked as a senior leader for a number of trusted brands, including managing call centres for Royal Mail. A career break allowed her to undertake voluntary work in Africa, job coaching the homeless, and to become an accredited Life Coach. She has a creative business where she works collectively with Artisans in Africa, which helps to support their sustainability.
Sandra is a co-founder of Rise, which provides opportunities for Black and Brown businesses to promote what they do to a wider audience.
Her work for women’s equality includes working with Bristol Women’s Voice, and as a member of the Mayoral Women’s Commission. She is currently a Director for the Bristol Women in Business Charter, whose ambition is to help accelerate the pace of change for the benefit of women, the businesses they work in and the communities they live in.

Sandra became a Commissioner and Co-Chair for the Mayoral Commission on Race Equality to help work on collective solutions to tackling the race inequalities faced by so many in the city. She is also passionate about inclusion and representation and was honoured to be appointed as a Magistrate and as a Governor of City of Bristol College.

Marc Griffiths

As Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean within the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences at the University of the West of England, Professor Griffiths is responsible for an annual budget of £80 million and holds extensive strategic and executive leadership responsibilities. His current role includes leadership of the strategic planning within the Faculty; student number planning, strategic space and estates mapping/redevelopment, executive oversight of health and safety, strategic leadership of academic planning and resources allocation, leadership and management of technical support staff, sustainability champion, leadership of marketing and recruitment.

He holds a number of external appointments including Appointed Trustee within the Council of Deans of Health, Chair of the South West and South-Central England Regional Health Deans Network and of the Health Education England Workforce and Training Cell, Fitness to Practice panel member at the HCPC, Vice-Chair and principal assessor for the College of Radiographers Approval and Accreditation Board. He is an External PhD examiner at the University of Salford and an Editorial Board member of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, Radiology and Radiation Therapy.

Marc is passionate about widening participation, access to social mobility, enhancement of the student experience and the effective use of resources.

Judi Harper

Judi is a highly experienced manager in the FE sector, and her final full-time post was Vice Principal, Curriculum, Performance and Strategic Planning. Eleven years ago she moved into interim FE management and has since worked in a variety of roles in FE colleges throughout the country, including Assistant Principal, Director of HE, Head of Student Services and a variety of curriculum-based roles

 

Dan Jones

Dan is a Chartered Human Resources professional with 20 years of experience working in a range of HR roles. He has worked in board level HR roles for the past 10 years across a variety of organisations, including a global education software and services business and a South West university.

He is currently the Director of HR for Clarke Willmott LLP where he leads the development and delivery of the people strategy for the firm alongside working with the senior management team in overall strategic planning and leadership. 

Dan is passionate about the impact that education can have on transforming lives and is looking forward to supporting the College in the critical role it plays to widen participation and provide the skills required for the future world of work. 

Shawn Smith

Shawn Smith

Shawn is a certified accountant and has held senior finance roles in a number of industries, most recently having been the Chief Financial Officer for Europe and India for a major aerospace company. The role required significant regular travel throughout the UK, Europe , India and Canada however, Shawn is now enjoying spending more time in his home city of Bristol.

Shawn likes to spend his spare time attending the theatre, concerts and cricket matches.

Zoe Taylor

Zoe Taylor

Zoe is the Chief Executive of Sparkols a multi media/software company.
She has extensive experience of the industry and supporting young people reach their goals within employment.
Zoe has a passion for the employability agenda and helping people develop skills needed for the world of work.

Neil Dimes

Neil is a Chartered Accountant having recently retired as an Audit Partner at BDO LLP. Prior to that he held a number of senior roles within various National and International accountant practices based in the Bristol area, where he specialised in advising Entrepreneurial growth business and not-for-profit organisations. Neil is a member of the Audit Committee.

Jessica Winkler

Jess joined the Corporation board in September 2023.

Jess is a registered social worker with 11 years of experience in statutory health and social care specialising in mental health, autism and learning disabilities before moving to work in higher education in 2017.

She is currently Head of Complex Student Casework and Safeguarding at the University of Bristol.

Staff Governors

Danny Alfaraj (Curriculum and Quality Committee)

Steven Tunn (Finance and Quality Committee)

Co-opted members

Felicity Brown

Felicity Brown (Audit Committee)

Since qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Felicity has held senior roles in a wide variety of organisations including charities providing support and services for the young, people with learning disabilities and the elderly.

Now retired, Felicity is a volunteer adviser with Citizens Advice as well as other community roles. She is looking forward to resuming her travel plans once the pandemic subsides.

Jo Greenwood (Audit Committee)

Jo joined Business West, in 1996 as a management accountant and progressed to the position of Finance Director in 2000. In the last 20 years she has been responsible for the strategic financial direction of the company, which has grown from £3m turnover to over £15m. Business West is now recognised as one of the most influential independent business leadership organisations in the UK.

Jo is also a director of Destination Bristol, Bristol’s Destination Marketing company, Recognising Excellence and Bristol Chamber of Commerce, as well as being a Governor of her local village primary school.

Student Governor

S Mahmood

Contacting The Corporation

If you would like to know more about the Board of Governors, or about membership, please contact Lynette Wilson, Director of Governance and Clerk to the Corporation, at lynette.wilson@cityofbristol.ac.uk.

Governor vacancies are advertised as they arise, and applications are welcomed from all groups across the community.  For an informal discussion about becoming a governor, or for any other matters relating to governance, please contact governance@cityofbristol.ac.uk.

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