Martin Cross MA, FCIS, FCIPD, MCMI, FRSA
Chairman, Edexcel

Martin Cross has been Chairman of Edexcel since it joined the Pearson group in 2003. He is currently Chairman of the Police Promotion Examinations Board (2002-present); has been a governor of both schools and colleges, and has served as a member of a number of national bodies in the field of education and training.

An experienced practioner in the fields of assessment and qualifications, he was formerly Chief Executive, RSA Examinations Board, and Director-General, OCR (1982-99). An Oxford graduate in PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), he holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Education from the University of London. He spent fifteen years working in various colleges of further education in Oxford, Sussex and Kent, and then as Vice Principal of City and East London College, before joining RSA as its Examinations Director in 1982.

Amarjit Basi
Principal and Chief Executive of Walsall College

Amarjit, the eldest son of a first generation Sikh immigrant, was born, schooled and started his teaching career in Sandwell, West Midlands - just five miles from Walsall. His subsequent career provided broad experience of further education, including roles as Faculty Director, Deputy Director and Interim Principal.

He has worked at five very different colleges - most recently at Ealing, Hammersmith, and West London College. He has also had roles as a part-time inspector for OFSTED and as a consultant for LSDA and the QCA.

Amarjit became Principal and Chief Executive of Walsall College in September 2008.

Rod Bristow is President of Pearson UK, which includes all of Pearson's education businesses in the UK for schools, colleges, higher and professional education, encompassing Heinemann, Longman and FT Prentice Hall, as well as Edexcel, the UK's leading awarding body. He has been involved in education for his entire career. In 1993, he became Managing Director of Pitman Publishing and was appointed President of Pearson's Higher and Professional Education business in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2000. In 2010, he was appointed President of Pearson UK.
 
Rod is married with two children and lives in Buckinghamshire.

John Fallon
Chief Executive International Education

John Fallon, aged 49, is responsible for Pearson's education businesses outside North America, and is a member of the Pearson management committee. He joined Pearson in 1997 as director of communications and was appointed President of Pearson Inc., a role he combined with his communications responsibilities, in 2000. In 2003, he was appointed CEO of Pearson's educational publishing businesses for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMA), and since then has gradually taken on a broader international education brief.

Prior to joining Pearson, John was director of corporate affairs at Powergen plc, where he was also a member of the company's executive committee. Earlier in his career, John held senior public policy and communications roles at Westminster and in UK local government. He graduated from Hull University in 1983 with a degree in economics, politics and sociology. John is married with two children.

Stephen Grix
Principal and Chief Executive of Mid-Kent College of Higher & Further Education 

Stephen Grix started his academic career as a lecturer in brickwork at Bexley College, Kent, in 1977, then progressed through teaching posts in Barking and Basingstoke colleges of technology. He then joined Barking and Dagenham local education authority as General Inspector of Post-14 Education in 1990, before moving to Barking College as Director of Curriculum Planning and Quality Assurance in 1993, where he was subsequently promoted to Deputy Principal. In 1996 he was appointed as Principal of Sir George Monoux Sixth Form College, Waltham Forest.

Stephen then joined the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) as Head of Post-Compulsory Education Division in May 2000, and in May 2002, he was appointed Corporate Director, Education for the London Borough of Tower Hamlets with responsibility for 100 schools, Early Years, Adult Education and the Youth Service. Stephen was subsequently appointed as Principal and Chief Executive of Mid Kent College on 7 March 2005.

Ziggy Liaquat
Managing Director, Edexcel
Operations Director, Pearson UK

Ziggy became Managing Director of Edexcel and Operations Director of Pearson UK in January 2010. 

He joined Edexcel in 1995 and has since held a number of posts within the company including Head of Business Development, Programme Director and, more recently, Operations Director. In his post as Operations Director, Ziggy had responsibility for overseeing the delivery of tests and assessments, including the National Curriculum test programme, GCSEs, A levels and BTECs.

Iain Mackinnon
Managing Director of the Mackinnon Partnership

Iain chaired the board of Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College (EHWLC) from 2005 to 2010. He remains a governor, and chairs the college’s charitable trust. EHWLC is one of the largest further education colleges in Britain, with 23,000 students and £55m turnover.

He is Managing Director of The Mackinnon Partnership, a public policy consultancy specialising in the skills field, working with skills, employment and regeneration bodies throughout the UK, including on qualifications reform.

On graduating from Cambridge University, Iain joined the Civil Service, including both national policy work and senior operations management, with a spell as Assistant Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Employment. He left to become chief executive of a training and jobsearch charity, then of a Training and Enterprise Council, and set up his own consultancy firm in 1999. Iain has also been an NHS non-executive director, a school governor and a member of the Basic Skills Agency’s Advisory Committee.

Sir David Melville CBE
Thames Gateway Skills Envoy

David Melville is the Government Thames Gateway Skills Envoy. From 2001 to 2007, he was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent. Previously, he was Chief Executive of the Further Education Funding Council, and before that, he was Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University. He was a member of the Tomlinson Review of 14-19 Curriculum and Qualifications, the Foundation Degree Task Force and the Foster Review of the Future of Further Education Colleges.

He has been a board member of the Higher Education Careers Services Unit, The Place and the Council for Industry and Higher Education; Chair of Lifelong Learning UK, the Higher Education Statistics Agency, the Learning and Skills Council in Kent and Medway, the University Vocational Awards Council and Higher Education South East; and Vice-Chair of the Marlowe and Folkestone Academies and the Kent Public Service Board. He is currently a board member of the IFS School of Finance, South and West Kent College, London South Bank University, the Network for Black Professionals and the Thames Gateway Strategic Executive, and is patron of the 157 Group, Comprehensive Future, the Disabled Sailors Association and the Thames Gateway Young Chamber.

Professor Roger John Lloyd Murphy
Professor of Education, University of Nottingham

Professor Roger Murphy is a specialist in the field of educational assessment. Over the last 30 years, he has undertaken a large number of national and international research projects, and has written over 100 books and articles about educational assessment. His interests span all phases of education and lifelong learning, and he has carried out research in primary and secondary education as well as further and higher education and work-based learning.

Professor Murphy is currently Director of the Centre for Developing and Evaluation Lifelong Learning (CDELL) in the School of Education at the University of Nottingham. He is a former Head of Department in the School of Education, and Dean of the Faculty of Education and, in 1995/6, he was President of the British Educational Research Association. He is also a qualified schoolteacher and experienced university educator. As well as his work with the main UK awarding bodies, Professor Murphy has worked with a number of government agencies and other assessment bodies both in the UK and internationally.

Isabel Sutcliffe
Director of Regulations, Standards and Research

Isabel joined Edexcel in October 2006 as its Qualifications and Accreditation Director, following a long career with NCFE. She joined NCFE to head up its assessment and accreditation work when it was still a Regional Advisory Council, and made a significant contribution to its current status as a successful national awarding body, serving as its Chief Executive from 2001 to 2006. Prior to joining NCFE, Isabel worked for one of the many predecessor bodies now comprising AQA. She is currently chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB). In addition to her work with FAB, Isabel is also a trustee of the Cadet Vocational Qualifications Organisation.

Margaret M Wilson, MBA, MSc, BEd, RSA

Margaret M Wilson is Headteacher of a highly successful secondary school in Essex, a qualified NPQH Tutor and Assessor, Facilitator for the British Council, Associate Headteacher of the SSAT, Chair of the Expert Panel for Mathematics and Computing, and non-executive Director of Edexcel Limited. She also works with the DfE as an External Consultant to Academies, following a period as an Executive Principal. She was a Research Fellow at Cambridge University for a brief period, exploring leadership training.