Learning and Skills Network (LSN)

Mr Chris Hughes CBE – Chair
Between 1998 and 2004, Chris Hughes was the Chief Executive of the Learning and Skills Development Agency (LSDA). He was previously a college principal for 13 years and was appointed a specialist advisor to the House of Commons Education and Training Select Committee in 1997. Chris recently resumed that role with the current Committee. He also contributed to the Sir Andrew Foster Review of the role of further education (FE) colleges and recently completed a review of quality and performance of the vocational education system in Northern Ireland. Chris was awarded a CBE in the 2005 New Years Honours list in recognition of his services to FE.

Mr Chris Blythe
Chris Blythe is the Chief Executive and Institute Secretary of the Chartered Institute of Building. He assumed this post upon joining in 2000. Chris has been involved in vocational education and training for the last 18 years. Between 1991 and 2000, he held senior posts at the Mid Cheshire Training and Enterprise Council, becoming its Chief Executive in 1994. Chris’s early career involved a number of financial roles in the private sector.

Mrs Kate Griffin
Kate Griffin is the President of the International Confederation of Principals. From 1991 to 2008, she was Head of Greenford High School, Ealing, London. Kate was President of the Secondary Heads Association (SHA) between 2002-2003 and a Board member of LSDA from 2002-2006. She is currently a member of the London Challenge Leadership Board and the DCSF Headteachers Mathematics Reference Group.

Mr Bill Stokoe
Bill Stokoe is currently a Governor of City Lit and was a member of the Foster Review Advisory Group. From 1991 to 2004, he was Chair of Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College. Prior to that, Bill had a career in banking that spanned 30 years and he spent 12 years in investor relations.

Professor Michael Thorne
Professor Thorne became Vice Chancellor at Anglia Ruskin University in 2007. Prior to that he was Vice Chancellor at the University of East London from 2001. He has a first-class honours degree in Pure Mathematics and a PhD in Computational Group Theory.

Professor Thorne is the author, co-author and editor of a large number of books and academic papers. He has contributed to many television and radio programmes and is in high demand as a speaker. Professor Thorne is Chair of the Parliamentary Skills Commission’s enquiry into Information, Advice and Guidance. He also sits on the Board of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, and chairs the Government's Advisory Committee on Libraries. In his spare time, Professor Thorne conducts Wagner operas and other large-scale musical works.

Ms Christine Whatford CBE
Christine Whatford started her career as a history teacher before being appointed Head of Abbey Wood School in 1983. In 1989, Christine was appointed Director of Education for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, a post she held until her retirement in 2002. Christine has also been closely involved in a wide range of education initiatives and organisations, including the London Partnership, the Church Schools Review Group, the National Foundation for Education Research and the Public Management Policy Association. She currently chairs the UK UNESCO National Education Committee. In the Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honours, in June 2002, Christine was awarded a CBE for her services to education.

Mr Tom Bewick
Tom Bewick is the founding Chief Executive of Creative and Cultural Skills, the UK-wide sector skills council for advertising, crafts, design, cultural heritage, music and the arts.

Tom has spent most of his professional career working at national and regional level on industry-driven skills and employment initiatives. During the 1990s, he was a policy advisor to the Training and Enterprise Councils’ National Council. Tom was also a co-founder of the Centre for Social Inclusion, and an Executive Director of the National Training Organisations’ National Council. Following the election of the Labour Government in 1997, Tom’s advice was regularly sought by politicians, culminating in a period as the Labour Party’s national officer responsible for education and employment policy (1997-99). In 2001, he became a specialist adviser to the Minister for Adult Skills at the Department for Education and Skills. In Government, Tom was the main architect of the reform of 73 national training organisations, resulting in the policy document ‘Meeting the Sector Skills and Productivity Challenge’ (2001). In 2003, he led the first ever Skills Audit of the Thames Gateway region, before taking up his current post in September 2004.

Tom is a member of the British Council’s vocational education and training committee (VETC) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). He holds several non-executive directorships including the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils and the Creative & Cultural National Skills Academy Ltd.

Ms Stella Mbubaegbu CBE BA (Hons), MA, PGCE, MEd, FRSA
Stella Mbubaegbu has been Principal and Chief Executive of Highbury College, Portsmouth, since October 2001. This made her the first ethnic minority female Principal of an incorporated FE college in the UK. She was awarded a CBE in January 2008 for services to FE.

Stella is currently:

• Chair, Black Leadership Initiative (BLI) Advisory Board
• Vice President, Association of College Managers (ACM)
• Board Member, Learning & Skills Improvement Service (LSIS)
• Member, Ministerial Expert Group 14-19 (Children's Plan)
• Board Member, Learning & Skills Network (LSN)
• Council Member Lifelong Learning UK (Sector Skills Council)
• World Skills UK Champion, South East Region
• Director, Association of South East Colleges (AOSEC) Board
• Association of Colleges IT Skills Champion
• Council Member, Hampshire St John Ambulance Brigade
• Member, Institute of Directors
• Member, Portsmouth Economic Wellbeing Partnership
• Member, Portsmouth Education & Lifelong Learning Partnership
• Member, Children & Young People’s Executive Board
• Fellow, Royal Society of Arts
• Fellow, Institute for Learning