Somerset College

Barbara Bennett
Academic Staff Member

Barbara joined the College in 1989 as a lecturer in Travel and Tourism responsible for introducing the first GNVQ into the College and for the launch of Venture Travel, the College’s own travel agency.  In 1997 Barbara held two roles; one as College Lead Tutor and another as Assessment & Verification Co-ordinator. Over time these developed into the role of Manager for Quality Improvement, which Barbara held until 2007. In March 2007 Barbara took on the challenging role of Head of the Construction Division.

Jaqui Besley
Management Consultant

Jaqui has been working as a Management Consultant for eleven years for a wide range of industry sectors ranging from the music industry to metal mining, upstream oil and utilities and more recently in electricity and gas customer services, but predominantly in the finance function. For the last four years Jaqui has also been involved in a local Sports Club, responsible for the Ladies Hockey section comprising five active teams. Jaqui supports her husband in running the family businesses, including commercial and residential lettings, a farm shop and an organic livestock farm. They have two sons, the second was born this year.

Kath Gigg

Following a successful career with British Gas, Kath combined growing family commitments with a career in the Open University Business School, teaching and managing their postgraduate business programmes. In 2004 she launched ‘The Cheese Gig’ an award winning internet retailer of specialist West Country Cheese. In 2006 she set up and continues to chair ‘Somerset Women in Rural Enterprise’ which is a networking group for budding female entrepreneurs. Her freelance work has increased and in 2007 she set up her own independent consultancy ‘KmG Management Consultants Ltd.’ She now works in the UK and Europe in strategy development, implementation support and performance coaching.

Jon Keyte

Jon was born and brought up in Taunton. After graduating from Warwick University with a degree in MORSE (Maths, Operations Research, Statistics and Economics) he qualified as an accountant with Price Waterhouse in London but left in 1994 to take the role of Finance Director in an insurance agency. This was then subject to a successful MBO. In 1999 Jon set up an online new car retailing business, in which he persuaded Virgin to invest the brand and capital to form Virgin cars. Within 2 years the business was turning over more than £25M and employed more than 90 people. In 2003 Jon moved back to Taunton to participate as Finance Director in an MBO of Air Control Industries Ltd, a manufacturer of Fans and Blowers. Jon is happily married with three sons, and lives on a 200 acre Crown Estate farm producing dairy cow replacements and wheat as the main crops. When not playing golf, Jon coaches mini rugby at Taunton Rugby Club.

Claire Merchant-Jones
Support Staff Member

Claire joined Somerset College in September 2003, tasked with building a successful advice and guidance service within Student One Stop. In 2006 Claire was appointed as Learning Support and Disability Equality Officer, and her responsibilities include ensuring that the College meets the legislative duties within disability equality and working with staff, learners and external organisations to create a successful transition process for our most vulnerable learners.

Ray Dowd

After 40 years learning, teaching and leading within the FE sector, in March 2007 Ray commenced his planned new project of renovating an old mill house and cottage in South West Somerset. Immediately prior, Ray spent one year as the LSC's champion for their 'agenda for change' and before then worked for over 11 years as a College Principal, at Hopwood Hall Tertiary College and Wirral Metropolitan College of Further and Higher Education. As a result of his extensive experience in turning around colleges in severe difficulty, he was asked to act as interim Principal at Salisbury College for 10 months, following the suspension of their Principal. In 2005 he acted as interim Principal of Halton College after they had suspended their Principal. He lead Halton College into merger with Runcorn and Widnes Sixth Form College (which had also suspended their Principal). He fulfilled both of these interim assignments whilst continuing his full time role at Wirral. In November 2007 Ray was elected as the President of the British Association of Construction Heads and works closely with Construction Skills. In addition since giving up full time work in the FE world Ray has also undertaken a small and select number of assignments with IBM and Edge. He has lead training sessions for the Governing bodies at Kendal and Walsall Colleges, acted as an adviser to several colleges, including York on the appointment of Principals. He has also made a number of presentations to national conferences on the work of Further Education.

Elizabeth Payne-Ahmadi

Liz studied world religions at the University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and after completing a Doctorate in the same field has maintained an interest in faiths and cultures. She trained as a teacher and taught in both Newcastle and Bogata (Columbia) before moving into teacher education. Liz is also qualified in marketing and is a Chartered Marketer. She has worked for many years in the public sector in communications and customer services, including at Somerset College. She has just retired from Somerset County Council, where she was responsible for corporate communications, customer access, equality and diversity

Gregory Reece-Smith

Gregory qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, London, where he headed a wide variety of UK and international assignments before moving to the USA to consolidate the North American operations of a listed electronic components group. On returning to the UK he established his own development consultancy, which led to him joining the boards of several public and private companies in both an executive and non-executive capacity. He has a good understanding of private / public sector co-operation as well as experience with the media and helping to develop new operations.

Chris Spencer

Chris Spencer is a Senior Partner at Pardoes Solicitors based in Bridgwater, Taunton and Yeovil.

Brian Tanner

Brian is a Chartered Accountant and in his career has held several County Council posts at senior level, including County Treasurer and then Chief Executive of Somerset County Council. In 2003/2004 Brian was the High Sheriff of Somerset. Brian retired in 2006 as Chairman of the Taunton and Somerset NHS Trust and now holds several voluntary sector posts.

Ian Tunbridge

Dr. Ian Tunbridge is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Enterprise) at Thames Valley University. He has a PhD in Sedimentology from the University of Reading. He worked for Shell UK before accepting a post at the University of Plymouth as a Lecturer in Geology. He established, and later became Dean of, the University of Plymouth Colleges Faculty, which supports some 5,000 students spread across 18 college sites. In 2007 he was appointed Executive Director of Combined Universities in Cornwall (CUC), a partnership of seven universities and colleges working together to expand higher education opportunities and support economic regeneration in Cornwall. He was granted an OBE in the New Year Honours list 2008 for services to higher education. Ian lives with his wife and two children in his native Cornwall. He is a school governor and sits on the board of the Devon and Cornwall Learning Skills Council.

Ian Vaughan

Ian has thirty-five years experience of business in the Automobile and Packaging Industries, including Group Director positions in Human Resources and eight years as Managing Director of subsidiaries of the multinational packaging company Royal Packaging Industries Van Leer in Australia and New Zealand. He has also worked in France and The Netherlands. He retired in 2001 and has been resident in Somerset since then. Ian is a Non–Executive Director of the Somerset Partnership and NHS Social Trust.

Bettina Walker
Clerk to the Corporation

Prior to joining Somerset College, Bettina worked for 15 years in the University/HE Sector in a variety of Registry-based administrative roles, including student administration (enrolments and exams), Awards Ceremony organisation, degree programme validations and research administration. She has held the part time post of Clerk to the Corporation at the College since November 1997. Bettina acts as Company Secretary for three small companies and also runs a property development business with her husband.

Nick Moore
Chair of Board of the Corporation

Professor Nick Moore is the Managing Director of Acumen, a company he established in 1993 to explore a wide range of issues concerned with the use of information in society. He has extensive international experience of research and consultancy. He has presented numerous conference papers all over the world and has published widely.

He was appointed the first Professor of Information Management at Birmingham Polytechnic in 1987. In 1989 he joined the Policy Studies Institute to establish a programme of information policy research. During this period he developed a series of studies into the European information content industry. In 1995-6 he was associated with the British Council, studying the development of information societies in East Asia and advising the Council on its information strategy in that region. In 1998 he re-joined Acumen to continue his research and consultancy. He was a part-time Professor of Information Policy at City University between 1998 and 2000 and is now Visiting Professor of Information Strategy at the University of Brighton.

Nick is the Chairman of the Board of Dignity in Dying.

Rachel Davies
Principal and Chief Executive

Rachel Davies was appointed Principal of Somerset College in September 2007. Prior to her appointment Rachel was Principal for 8 years at Uxbridge College in west London. She has spent much of her 30 years career in education having trained initially as a teacher. Throughout her career she has worked in teaching and managerial roles in colleges in London and the midlands before moving to the south west. She has always been active in supporting other local organisations in educational and economic development contexts having held roles as governor in two secondary schools, including a new academy and also Council member of Brunel university. Previously she has been a member of the west London Council for the LSC, a former Director of the Training and Enterprise Council and Executive member of chambers of commerce and a small business enterprise company.

Graham Theedom
Vice Principal Curriculum & Quality

Graham joined the College in September 2008 as Vice Principal for Curriculum and Quality. Graham previously worked at the City of Bristol College before coming to work at Somerset College. Before being appointed in his current position, Graham worked as a FE Management Consultant.

Liz Hurst
Vice Principal Finance and Resources

Liz joined the College in February 2007 as Vice Principal of Finance and Resources. Her role covers areas such as Finance, Estates, Registry, MIS and IT support. Liz was previously Director of Finance at Wakefield College prior to joining Somerset College.

Tim Yeandle
Director of Student Services and Marketing

Tim joined the College in 2008 as Director of Student Services and Marketing. He has worked in Further and Higher Education since 1991. As a Lecturer Tim taught Business Studies and Sociology and has enjoyed three management posts each relating to Student Support and Marketing in three large colleges. With this experience, over the two years prior to joining Somerset College, Tim has worked with Colleges across the country helping them to further improve. Outside of work, his main interests are family, music and rugby. Tim is a qualified Somerset Rugby Football Union Referee and plays the Saxophone in local bands.

Sheena Murphy-Collett
Director of Human Resources

Sheena has been at the College since May 2005 where she started her college life as HR Manager. In 2006, Sheena was promoted onto the Senior Management Team as Head of HR. In September 2008 Sheena was promoted to the Director of Human Resources. Sheena began her career in HR in 1997 but prior to this she worked in the private sector and also for the NHS. On leaving school, she undertook an apprenticeship and qualified as an apprentice engineer. Later Sheena trained and qualified as an Electrician and later moved in training in 1997.

Sue Parker
Director of Enterprise & External Relations

Sue joined the College in 1995 and in 2004 was appointed as Head of Division of Social and Professional Studies. In June of this year, Sue was appointed the new Director of Enterprise and External Relations. Sue responsibilities include all Business Operations, The Conference Centre and Genesis the Sustainable construction Centre for the South West.

Howard Spear
Academic Registrar and Standards Manager

As Academic Registrar and Standards Manager, Howard leads the academic standards team and focuses on the College’s quality assurance and enhancement processes. His team actively reviews and enhances documentation and other resources and supports quality and standard developments. Howard also manages the Initial Teacher Education Team and supports teaching and learning developments, including working closely with the Advanced Practitioners and Subject Learning Coaches.

Brent Craig
Head of Funding & Information

Brent joined the College in 2008 as Head of Funding and Information. He is responsible for IT, Enrolments and Registry. He has been working in Further Education since 1993. Brent has had a variety of role before coming to the college including Network Manager, Teacher, Tutor and eLearning Manager. Brent is a keen mountaineer and enjoys a wealth of sport.

Helen Freeman
Head of Marketing

Helen joined the College in 2000 as Marketing Operations Manager and took on a variety of Marketing roles until appointed as Head of Marketing in 2007. Helen’s role encompasses all college marketing for FE, HE, Business and Part-time. She is also lead sustainability champion. Prior to working at the College, Helen worked in the private sector, textiles industry, PR and professional bodies.

Simon Cook
Head of Service Industries Division

Simon joined the College in 2004 as Head of Service Industries. Before coming to the college, Simon experienced a wealth of backgrounds in the services sector predominantly working in the hospitality and catering sector. Simon has first hand experience of being a product of Further Education as he undertook an apprenticeship in the late 80’s. Simon initially moved to Somerset from Buckinghamshire but prior to this move, Simon has lived all around the world including such places as London, Germany and South Africa.

Barbara Bennett
Head of Construction Division

Barbara joined the College in 1989 as a lecturer in Travel and Tourism responsible for introducing the first GNVQ into the College and for the launch of Venture Travel, the College’s own travel agency.  In 1997 Barbara held two roles; one as College Lead Tutor and another as Assessment & Verification Co-ordinator. Over time these developed into the role of Manager for Quality Improvement, which Barbara held until 2007. In March 2007 Barbara took on the challenging role of Head of the Construction Division.

David Harvey
Head of Foundation Learning Division

David is Head of Division for Foundation Learning. David is a proactive leader and manager who is committed to learning and learners at Foundation level. Safeguarding and Equality and Diversity are parts of David’s role.

Chris Taylor
Head of Arts & Design Division

Chris became Head of Arts and Design in 2003 having managed the FE Arts curriculum before being promoted. Chris is responsible for all arts courses offered at the college, including Fashion, Textiles, Graphics and Fine Art.

Chris Lacey
Head of Technology Division

Chris joined the College in 1996 as Lecturer in Computing but was soon promoted to Curriculum Manager in Computing. This role was later expanded to include the Mechanical and Electronic Engineering curriculum. Chris was later promoted to Deputy Head of Technology prior to being appointed Head of Division in January 2008. The Technology Division now includes the curriculum areas of ICT, Computer Games Development, Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering and Automotive Engineering.