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.
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.
Sheena Murphy-Collett
Director of Human Resources and Customer Services
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.
Chris Lacey
Director of Curriculum (FE)
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.
Paul Bailey
Director of Curriculum (HE)
Paul joined the College in 2010 as Head of Arts & Design. Previously he was Head of Interior and 3D Design at Birmingham City University working across all levels from Doctorial to Foundation, in the UK and Hong Kong, in design, design management and spatial architecture. He has exhibited design work extensively, from the NEC to Abu Dhabi, as well as publishing in the field of spatial psychology in a number of journals. Paul holds a BSc (Hons), a Ph.D. in Architectural Psychology, and a PGCertHE. In addition to this he is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, an Associate and Chartered member of the Society of Dyers & Colourists, as well as being representative on a number of national & international panels relating to arts, design & education. Paul's interests are his young family, motorbikes, and rugby - where he is an active, qualified referee as well as occasional player.
Jo Burford
Vice Principal
Jo Burford joined Somerset College as Vice Principal in February, 2011. She has worked in Secondary, Tertiary and Higher Education for 32 years, with the last 16 years devoted to middle and senior management.
Her previous post was Head of the 14 -19 Academy at Reading College, where she worked for the last 10 years. Her responsibilities included two Outstanding Nursery settings, a Sixth Form Academy, Access to Higher Education, a new build Post 16 Vocational Centre and more.
Before this she was Head of Division for Health and Education at Swindon College where she worked for 15 years. Her responsibilities included Pre Nursing, Teacher Training, Care and Early Years, GCSE and A levels.
Jo initially trained and worked in secondary education as a teacher. She has studied extensively and holds education qualifications from Bristol University, Oxford University (Master of Education) and Leicester University (Master of Business Administration - Educational Management).
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.
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.
Ray Dowd
Vice-Chair of the Board of the Corporation
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 and has recently completed her MBA.
Chell Sowden
Coming soon.
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.
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.
John Snell
John served in the Police for thirty years. Whilst in service he was a member of the Somerset Children and Young person's Partnership, Chair of the Somerset 13-19 Commissioning Group for Children's Services; a Member of Somerset's Safeguarding Children's Board, a member of Somerset's Children's Fund Management Board; a Member of Somerset's Change for Children Steering Group and Director, Somerset Connexions.
Following retirement from the role of Chief Supt. District Commander Somerset West in 2007 John has run a leadership support and development group in the South West for Chief Executive Officer- level members from a mixture of private and public sector backgrounds. He also operates as a consultant in Children's Services and is currently the Independent Chair of Somerset's Local Safeguarding Children's Board. He is a member of Somerset's Children's Trust and a School Governor at The Castle School.
Martin Kitchen
Martin has had a successful career in the fire service and in local government during which time he Chaired the National Committee on Fire Service Operational Provision and was a Ministerial Adviser on standards of fire cover in the UK. After retiring, Martin moved into health service governance as Chair of a Primary Care Trust and then the ambulance service covering Surrey, Sussex and Kent. He has also served as an independent member of a Police Authority and was a NED for a fire service strategic procurement company. Martin is passionate about continuous development and mature learning, a principle that he has personally experienced all his adult life.
College Management & Governance
Senior Management Team & Executive
Role of the Board and its Sub-Committees
The Board of the Corporation
The Board of the Corporation is the College's governing body responsible for the determination of the College's educational character, its mission and for setting the strategic framework within which the College operates.
The Board is also responsible for ensuring the effective and efficient use of resources and the solvency of the College, similar to a Board of Directors at a commercial company. The Board is not, however, responsible for
the day to day management of the College, which is the remit of the College Senior Management Team.
The Board is made up of 18 members, 13 of whom are external Independent Members drawn from business and the local community. Board membership also includes representation from within the College - the Principal is a member, and there is one member from the Support Staff and one from the Academic Staff, as well as two Student Members.
Board Sub Committee
Curriculum and Quality Committee
The Curriculum and Quality Committee reviews and monitors all aspects of the academic side of the College, from learner enrolments to learner success rates and progression, the curriculum portfolio, learner perception questionnaires, self-assessment reports and quality improvement plans, preparation for Inspections, action plans from Inspections and other formals reviews, developments in FE, HE and employer engagement.
There are four Independent Board Members, Academic Staff Board Member, two Student Board Members and the Principal.
Audit Committee
Somerset College is audited by a variety of external organisations, and the audit reports and associated action plans are reviewed and monitored by the Audit Committee. The Audit Committee sets the schedule for the College’s internal auditors, who regularly look at all aspects of the operation of the College from financial and student records to governance. The Committee also discusses in detail the regular reports from the internal auditors and the annual report from the financial statements auditors.
There are three Independent Board Members plus an external Co-opted Member, who is an expert on Audit.
Employment Committee
The Employment Committee reviews and monitors all aspects of staff recruitment, terms and conditions of employment, including staff appraisal, staff development and training, staff disciplinary, staff sickness absence, equality and diversity, human resource policy and procedures. The Committee also reviews Health, Safety and Welfare including reports on incidents and accidents.
There are three Independent Board Members, the Principal and Chief Executive and the Support Staff Member.
Finance and General Purposes Committee
The Finance and General Purposes Committee reviews the detail of the College’s finances by monitoring budgets, monthly management accounts and end of year financial statements. This Committee also reviews and monitors the detail of the College’s major building projects and is involved in the appointment of professional firms and consultants.
There are four Independent Board Members and the Principal and Chief Executive.
Governance Committee
The Governance Committee is responsible for advising the Board to ensure effective governance of the College; employment of senior postholders and the Clerk; and the appointment, induction and training of Board members.
It consists of Chair of the Board of the Corporation, the Vice Chair and the Chairs of the Curriculum and Quality, Employment and Finance and General Purposes Committees.
Read Bio
