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Our trustees

  • Sir David Bell
    Chair of Trustees

    Sir David Bell is also a non-executive director of The Economist and is Chairman and board member of numerous organisations and universities.

    David was educated at Cambridge University and the University of Pennsylvania. He received his knighthood for services to industry, the arts and charity.

  • Amy Leonard MBE
    Trustee & Founder

    Amy set up The Talent Foundry in early 2009 and is the driving force behind achievements including the establishment of Rock Assembly as an annual end-of-term futures fair and pop concert for over 10,000 young people at Wembley Arena.

    Amy is a consultant advising a range of organisations on their communications and positioning. Amy was awarded an MBE in 2020 in recognition of her establishing the charity and for services to young people and education.

    Amy stepped down from her role as CEO in 2023 and joined The Talent Foundry Board in 2024. Amy is the Trustee Lead for Safeguarding.

  • Fiona Ryland
    Trustee

    Fiona has been the Government Chief People Officer since September 2022. She joined the Civil Service from University College London (UCL) where she was Vice-President of Operations.

    Before that, Fiona led the HR, Communications, Corporate Responsibility and Business Excellence teams for Compass Group UK and Ireland. She also has extensive experience of HR management and operations at retailers including Comet, Dixons and Asda – in particular, establishing new apprenticeship and graduate programmes to benefit young people and colleagues at early stages of their career.

    Fiona graduated in Chemical Engineering from Bath University and also has a BSc in Psychology from the Open University.

    Fiona is the Trustee Lead for HR.

  • Luke Bradley-Jones
    Trustee

    Luke is President at The Economist, joining the Group in August 2024 and leads The Economist business. Previously Luke served as General Manager of Disney+ EMEA, responsible for the roll-out and rapid growth of the service across the region including strategy, operations, and commercial performance.

    Prior to Disney, he worked at Sky as Chief Marketing Officer, where he led the transformation of its on-demand services and launched a range of new products. Before Sky, he held leadership roles in digital, business development and strategy at BBC Worldwide (now BBC Studios).

  • Lord Newby
    Trustee

    Lord Newby has been an adviser to The Talent Foundry since its inception in May 2009, and was subsequently elected as a Trustee.

    Lord Newby is leader of the Liberal Democrat Group in the House of Lords, and has previously worked for the Lib Dems as Treasury Spokesperson, Government Deputy Chief Whip and Chief Whip.

    He has also worked extensively in consultancy and communications.

  • Mohsen Ojja
    Trustee

    Mohsen is an experienced teaching professional and is the Chief Executive of the Education Development Company in Morocco. He was formerly CEO of the Anthem Schools Trust.

    Prior to this, Mohsen worked as Deputy CEO at The Mossbourne Federation as well as Principal and then National Director of Education for E-ACT, a multi-academy trust responsible for 28 academies. He is also a trustee for the United Westminster and Grey Coat Foundation, and the AQA.

  • Sarah Richardson
    Trustee

    Sarah is Editor-in-Chief at Research Professional News, a leading global specialist research and higher education news service published by Ex Libris.

    She also has overall responsibility for all editorial coverage in the regional titles Research Fortnight, Research Europe and Research Africa, and regularly appears as a conference speaker on issues relating to higher education and research policy.

    Her broader journalistic experience includes work for the New Statesman and arts publication Three Weeks. She studied English at the University of Cambridge.

  • Duncan Scott
    Trustee

    Duncan Scott is a Director in PwC’s Risk practice, specialising in the resilience of banks’ operations and their risk management approaches.

    Duncan leads some of PwC’s most significant banking projects in these areas, including the support of a number of the UK Government's Covid-19 support schemes and advising the world's largest banks in implementing upcoming regulation.

  • Catherine Murphy
    Trustee

    Catherine is Head of Finance at the Houses of Parliament Renewal and Restoration Delivery Authority, responsible for financial management across the company.

    Catherine is an experienced finance professional, and chartered accountant with a career leading finance teams across local government organisations. She also worked for KPMG, where she led corporate transformation programmes.

    Before moving into finance Catherine was a Geography teacher at an outstanding comprehensive school in inner London, as part of the TeachFirst programme.

  • Graeme Waind
    Trustee

    Graeme is Commercial Finance Director at Tesco, responsible for the financial strategy across the commercial and customer organisations to ensure financial success and long-term growth.

    Graeme is an experienced finance professional, and chartered accountant with a career leading large finance teams within the retail industry, both in the UK and in Europe. He has previously worked for Asda as well as bringing experience gained from working in both financial and legal service sectors.

Our Patrons

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Mike Green

Mike Green is the CEO at Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO). Prior to this he was Chief Operating Officer of the Department for Education (DfE) and Director General of the Operations directorate.

Mike is a graduate of the Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA) at Saïd Business School, Oxford University and is Senior Responsible Officer for two of the department’s major programmes.

Before joining the Civil Service, Mike was a civil engineer and spent his career in the private sector working for companies such as Boots.

Mike has been an ambassador for The Talent Foundry since 2013, first taking on the challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, and then serving as a Trustee for six years. He founded our annual cycle challenge which has raised over £250,000 since 2019.

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Lord Puttnam

Lord Puttnam spent 30 years working as an independent film producer and has won multiple awards for his films, which include The Mission, Local Hero and Bugsy Malone.

Since 1998 his focus has shifted from film production to education and the environment. He founded the National Teaching Awards in the same year, which he chaired until October 2008, and was founding Chair of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. He is Chancellor of the Open University.

David was Vice President and Chair of Trustees at BAFTA in 1994-2004, during which time he was appointed President of UNICEF UK in July 2002 and has promoted advocacy, awareness and fundraising objectives for them.

David was awarded a CBE in 1982, received a knighthood in 1995 and was appointed to the House of Lords in 1997. In France he has been honoured as a Chevalier ('85), Officer ('92) and Commander of Arts and Letters (2006).