Chairman, Michael Grabiner

Michael Grabiner is a Partner at Apax Partners. He joined Apax in 2002 and leads the Portfolio Management team.  He was previously Chief Executive of Energis plc and a Director of BT Europe.  Michael’s Non-Executive Directorships have included Chelsfield, Telewest Global, Littlewoods, Viag Interkom, Albacom, Tim Hellas and Bezeq. Michael is also Chairman of the UK Movement for Reform Judaism.

Michael has an MA in Economics and Politics from King's College, Cambridge. He is a Sloan Fellow of the London Business School and an ACMA.

Board members: 

Richard Baldwin

Richard has a portfolio of interconnected activities. His last industry post was as a main Board director of Alfred McAlpine plc.  He was previously a main Board director of APV plc and prior to that a Divisional Managing Director of GEC.  He has had extensive domestic and international experience with all aspects of the manufacture and provision of capital projects including electrical power transmission systems, products and services, and stainless steel products and process systems for the food , beverage and pharmaceutical industries.  At Alfred McAlpine he was responsible for the Building and Special Projects Divisions with a full range of construction projects and services, including leading PFI consortia for health, prisons and schools. 

Apart from his role on the Board of Partnerships for Schools and membership of the Investment Committee of BSFI, Richard is today Executive Chairman of Community Health Partnerships Ltd (previously Partnerships for Health), and is a non-executive Director of the private contractor, Geoffrey Osborne Ltd. He has active links with the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, Imperial College and the universities of Salford, Loughborough and Reading, all related to innovation programmes. He chairs a national Centre for Innovation in Health and Social Care involving all four universities, and is a member of EPSRC sponsored Advisory Boards on Innovation in infrastructure at Imperial and Salford. He is a Visiting Professor to the Centre for Research and Innovation (Construction and Property Management) at the University of Salford.

Christine Davies

Christine is currently leading a national project on 'Narrowing the Gap' (in children’s outcomes) which identifies leading practice in improving outcomes for vulnerable children and young people.  This is a two-year DCSF funded project, hosted by the LGA and supported by IDEA.

She was the former Corporate Director for Children and Young People, Telford & Wrekin Council (1997–2007). Under her leadership, the Council became a national trailblazer for Children's Trusts, Information Sharing and Common Assessment.  The Council was awarded Beacon Status for 'Integrating Children's Services' and last year, received a second Beacon Award for Early Intervention (Children at Risk) – the only Local Authority to have been awarded with both Beacons. In addition, Christine's work has been cited as exemplary in the Government's papers 'Every Child Matters – Change for Children' and 'Youth Matters'.

Christine has also holds a number of national roles;

• Sits on the national 'Stakeholder Board for Children, Young People and Families'
• Advises the Local Government Association on Education and Children's Services
• Sits on the DCSF Ministerial 'Improvement and Intelligence National Steering Board'
• Member of the Ofsted CAA Board

Christine was awarded the CBE in the Queens Birthday Honours for 'an outstanding contribution to education'.

Stella Earnshaw

Stella is Vice-Chair of the West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust and Chair of the Audit Committee. She sits on her son's school parents' comittee and is a corporate trustee of the County air ambulance.
 
She has held various Board positions in the public and private sector, having been on the Board of the NHS Logistics Authority, Board of the Funding Agency for Schools, Hereford and Worcester Ambulance NHS Trust and Mid-Sussex NHS Trust. prior to which she was with Shell International for fifteen years and was a finance director in Shell UK and also headed the Regional Finance for the Far East and Australasia.
 
Stella has a degree in Chemistry, an MBA and is a qualified accountant. She is married with one school-age son.

Brian Rigby

Brian was Chief Executive for the Office of Government Commerce until April 2003, having previously been the Director of the Procurement Group for HM Treasury. He was briefly Director of Strategic Development for Fujitsu after a long career with BT, culminating in being Director of Supplies Management, reporting to the plc. 

Brian sits on the Building Schools for the Future Advisory Group, a Fellow of Warwick Business School and a non-executive director of Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust.