The key to quality service is quality people.

Cocentra has developed its Excellence Chain™ to bring the best people and partners into the organisation — people and partners who have outstanding experience and track records.

At the heart of our culture is a set of people principles developed by our staff which help guide us in all that we do.

A selection of our people is shown below:

Steve has over 25 years' experience in education and specialises in Strategic Management, school improvement and developing stakeholder relationships. He has held the posts of Director of Education Services and Chief Inspector in London LEAs and has also worked in school improvement services in West Sussex and Cumbria. Prior to this he held teaching and management positions in Kent and Avon LEAs. He also has experience of providing training and consultancy services to international schools.

Terry has been working in education for over 32 years. He has worked in a number of primary schools at a senior level, including four headships, and has held positions in the advisory services of three local authorities. The most recent of these was as Joint Head of School Improvement in an inner London Borough, where he had shared responsibility for the strategic direction and management of the service. He is an experienced Ofsted Inspector and has been the lead inspector on a number of inspections. Terry is currently the Head of School Improvement for Cocentra, which involves working directly with a variety of schools and local education authorities providing training and consultancy support.

Nick has over 20 years' experience in the commercial and public sectors. He has held board appointments in a variety of organisations including HSBC, Midland Bank, ITNET plc as well as Public Private Partnerships. Nick has extensive experience of leadership of large organisations and experience across public relations and press, marketing, sales, customer services, financial, IT, human resources and legal functions in both public and private sectors.

Paul has over 30 years' experience in education including over twenty years as a senior manager in local education authorities. He has been a Director of Education in a London Borough, an adviser to the Association of London Government, and a senior adviser in the Department for Education and Skills. He spent his early career as a teacher in secondary schools and at the National Foundation for Educational Research. He is particularly interested in supporting the leadership of LEAs, and the implementation of both national and local programmes to address school improvement.

Andrew has a commercial background in Finance and ICT gained from working with HSBC, Sky and Yahoo, both here and in the US. As well as being a Chartered Accountant, he is a qualified Corporate Treasurer and has been involved with the raising of development funding and large scale cash management. He has managed several major project implementations including significant ICT lead process change initiatives.

Geoff is the Cocentra Head of Development. He has over 20 years’ experience in the education sector, having previously worked in the commercial world. His career has largely been based in London, where having started as a secondary teacher of Geography, he moved into business education and ICT. He has worked in schools in a variety of contexts including inner city comprehensive schools and schools in the more affluent suburbs. Geoff's last post in a school was as the Head Teacher of a Beacon school. He has subsequently held posts as Principal Adviser - Secondary and Head of School Improvement for an inner London LEA. Geoff's particular interests include school self-review and evaluation, performance management, teaching and learning, ICT in education, leadership and organisational culture, and the use of data to raise standards.

Vicki is the Administrator for Cocentra. She provides high quality administrative support to customer contracts, Cocentra staff, and to the business processes within Cocentra. Prior to working with Cocentra, Vicki has gained full secretarial and administrative qualifications, skills and experience working for a leading defence company and moving on as PA to Chief Executive level within an IT Consultancy.

Chris has worked in a number of primary schools at senior level. He has also worked in teacher training facilities overseas, secondary pupil referral units and in an advisory capacity for a local authority with specific focus on improving the quality of teaching and learning and advising on the management of behaviour. Chris currently works as a consultant adviser for Cocentra which involves working directly with a variety of schools and local education authorities.

David is the Director of Education and Quality for Cocentra. Before this he gained 22 years’ experience in the public education sector. Until October 2002 he was Director of Education for a very high achieving unitary authority. He previously worked in senior positions in metropolitan and shire LEAs. He has particular interests in LEA leadership, local management of schools, school leadership and governance, school improvement and performance management. His career began as a secondary teacher; he is also a trained and experienced Ofsted team inspector.