Our people

Alun Francis is the Chair of the Social Mobility Commission and Chief Executive of Blackpool and The Fylde College. Blackpool and the Fylde College is an award winning organisation and is one of the largest and highest performing further education colleges in the country. It has degree awarding powers, a wide choice of T levels and is a Centre of Excellence for World Skills. It is leading the Lancashire and Cumbria Institute of Technology, and is pioneering a new approach to Further Education and Higher Education delivery with Blackpool Council, called “Multiversity Blackpool” which sits at the heart of local regeneration plans.

Resham Kotecha is Head of Policy at the Open Data Institute – a not for profit company that works with companies and governments to build a world where data works for everyone. She has worked for over a decade on tackling social mobility, volunteering with the Prince’s Trust and the Shaw Trust, and giving talks around the UK. Resham worked for a think tank focused on social mobility and served on a Home Office Windrush Working Group. Resham is the Head of Engagement for Women2Win, a Trustee of the Fawcett Society and a Board member at the John Smith Centre. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Cambridge University and has been recognised as as a ‘Global Shaper’ by the World Economic Forum.

Rob Wilson is a former Member of Parliament for Reading East and Minister in the Cameron and May Governments. He spent 12 years as an MP and 10 years serving on the Conservative front bench with roles in higher education, health, DCMS, Treasury and Cabinet Office. He spent three years as Minister for Civil Society 2014-17. Before politics, Rob was an entrepreneur and founded businesses in the health and technology sectors using innovative and disruptive technology to develop new markets. He continues to have a strong interest in new technology. Since leaving Whitehall and Parliament, he has invested in new tech companies and taken a number of business roles that are in areas of interest, but particularly in new breakthrough technologies and products. Rob is chairman of national wheelchair sports charity WheelPower, that supports people with spinal injuries and other disabilities into sport. Rob writes for the Daily Telegraph and has published two books ‘5 Days to Power’ and ‘Eye of the Storm’.

Dr Raghib Ali has a number of roles, including Senior Clinical Research Associate at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. His main research interests are the aetiology and prevention of non-communicable diseases, and establishing prospective cohort studies in populations which have not previously been studied. He co-authored a submission to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in the major causes of mortality and their risk factors in the UK.

Ryan Henson has been Chief Executive Officer at the Coalition for Global Prosperity, a think tank specialising in international development since April 2020. Prior to joining the Coalition, Ryan worked for CAFOD, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, and on human rights policy at the Ministry of Justice. Ryan serves as a Reservist in the Royal Air Force and is a founding trustee of Diversity in Development, a social mobility charity working to widen access to the international development sector. Ryan was awarded an Aspen UK Rising Leaders Fellowship 2022 and was the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Bedford at the 2019 General Election.

Parminder Kohli has 26 years of senior leadership experience across 7 different industries, 3 continents and 4 organisations. The last 20 years of which are with Shell. He is currently Chair of Shell UK Ltd and Shell Group Executive Vice President Sustainability and Carbon business accountable for delivering the bottom-line of the business in 100 plus countries within the region. In May 2022 he was named Involve Empower Top 100 Senior Executives for his work on Diversity & Inclusion. He was a Non-Executive Director for Success For All Educational Trust which runs 3 secondary schools in London Borough of Havering between 2018-20.

Tina Stowell is Chair of the House of Lords’ Communications & Digital Select Committee. She is a former Cabinet Minister, Leader of the House of Lords and Chair of the Charity Commission. Before joining the House of Lords, she spent nine years at the BBC where she was latterly Head of Corporate Affairs. She ran William Hague’s office when he was Leader of the Conservative Party, and was a civil servant for 10 years, working at the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, the British Embassy in Washington, and the Downing Street Press Office.