Meet Tassomai’s Education Advisory Board

Tassomai has established an Education Advisory Board bringing together expertise from education, academia, business and policy making.  The board will provide strategic advice to the management team and help shape the future direction of the company and its products.

The Board is chaired by Alex Burghart MP (@alexburghart) who is a former teacher and school governor. Alex was previously Director of Strategy to the Children’s Commissioner, an expert adviser in the Department for Education and a Special Adviser to the Prime Minister on social justice. He is also a Non Executive Director of New Scientist Ltd.

Alex is joined on the Board by:

Kristen Weatherby (@KWresearch)

Kristen started her career as a middle school teacher in the US before moving to Microsoft, where she spent most of her 14 years there managing parts of their global education programme Partners in Learning. She then moved to the UK with Microsoft to run their schools-focused work in England, Scotland and Wales.

In 2011 Kristen moved to Paris to work at the OECD, where she ran the 2013 cycle of the Teaching and Learning International Survey, which surveyed over 104,000 teachers in 34 countries. Kristen moved back to the UK to finish her PhD in Education at the UCL Institute of Education and has been working as a researcher on their EDUCATE programme since its inception.

Kristen has been a school governor for her local primary school for the past four years and is on the board of trustees for a local charity that provides music education to students who cannot otherwise afford it.

Jenny Gaylor (@jennygaylor)

Jenny is currently Vice Principal of a secondary school in South London and also PiXL’s Curriculum and Science Lead. Jenny has held a number of leadership posts, including assistant headship and Key Stage 3 science consultant with a local authority. She holds a Bachelor of Science in zoology and has a number of postgraduate qualifications, including National Professional Qualification for Headship and Professional Qualification for School Inspectors.

Jenny loves to travel and cook, sometimes combining both! She is also a keen runner who has completed 2 marathons and is aiming to complete an ultra-marathon in 2019

Henry Warren (@henrywarren)

Henry is a multi-award winning innovation expert and entrepreneur specialising in Education Technology, Henry has helped a wide range of companies, charities and philanthropists launch new education-based businesses around the globe. Recently, Henry has spent much of his time working for His Highness The Aga Khan, rethinking the technology strategy for his 200+ schools in Asia and Africa. Prior to this, Henry led Innovation for the Core markets of Pearson plc. where he pioneered amongst other things; Virtual Reality Based Training, mobile learning in emerging markets and Flipped Vocational Learning.

A dad of three and the alter ego of Barry T Tooth Fairy, Henry holds one of the more unusual Guinness World Records and has also rafted the Nile holding a London traffic cone!

Simon Barber

Simon is currently Principal of a secondary school in South London. He has held a number of senior posts, with over 25 years of experience in school leadership. Simon is London area leader for PiXL and on the National Steering Group for Teach First. He is passionate about transforming life chances for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and leads on the PiXL TRIP (Tough Realities Improvement Programme) for over 70 Alternative Provision schools.

Simon is also a season ticket holder at Crystal Palace and the owner of Tilly the Cockapoo who loves to listen to students read at school!