Meet the team whose mission is the advancement of education
Chief Executive Officer
John Jackson
CEO
John helped to found LGfL in 2001 and held senior leadership and advisory roles in both central and local government and is passionate about harnessing digital innovation to inspire children and teachers to enable education transformation. John has been named in the top 25 IT Leaders in the UK and is currently a member of the DfE National EdTech Advisory Group.
Customer Success Management
Paul Smith
Service Delivery Lead
Paul has held senior positions within leading Telco companies. Paul’s role incorporates ownership of all service management activity and to make sure services run smoothly and quickly! Paul has huge experience of the telecommunications industry.
Siân Shordon
Customer Success Manager
Siân joins LGfL with 34 years’ experience in local and central government, with the last 17 years focused on schools and pupils being able to safely access and harness technology. She will be supporting schools moving to LGfL and ensuring that all schools are making the most of their LGfL service.
Jose Kingsley
Customer Success Manager
Jose has worked both Education and Public Sector roles. He is a Microsoft 365 Specialist with a focus on Teaching and Learning integration and Cloud migration. He has supported schools in effectively adopting Cloud technology Nationwide to enhance Teaching, and Success Cloud adoption. Jose now works on Customer Success and Onboarding new schools joining the LGfL community.
Steven Smith
Customer Success Manager
Steven has 18 years of experience in education and local government, having started as a primary school teacher. In recent years he managed the school IT service at a Local Authority, supporting schools to get the most out of technology and their LGfL services. As Customer Success Manager, Steven will be supporting schools participating in the #BridgeTheDivide initiative, ensuring that they receive a high quality service.
Safeguarding and CyberSecurity
Mark Bentley
Safeguarding and CyberSecurity Lead
Mark was a secondary school teacher who now leads LGfL’s centres of excellence in safeguarding and cybersecurity. He is passionate about keeping children safe and schools secure. Mark plays an active role nationally advising government and suppliers on safeguarding matters.
Mubina Asaria
Online Safeguarding Consultant
Mubina is passionate about empowering young people online through the positive use of technology. She has worked with primary and secondary schools to develop their online safety provision, has completed a Masters on whole-school approach to tackling cyberbullying through peer-mentoring, and was the Ealing Council Prevent Schools Adviser, where she established a national reputation as a Prevent expert.
Teaching & Learning
Bob Usher
Content Manager
Bob Usher was a former secondary school teacher and pastoral & curriculum leader. Bob leads LGfL’s work on the curriculum content and learning resources and has been responsible for a range of ground-breaking initiatives including the acceleration of new technologies such as Augmented and Virtual Reality across the curriculum.
Laura Smith
Learning Resources Consultant
Laura has 23 years of primary teaching, many of which were spent as a senior leader. Her last role was Deputy Head which included time spent as Acting Head. She now supports schools in creatively using the LGfL Curriculum and Learning Resources.
Bradley Dardis
Learning Resources Consultant
Bradley has been a Primary Teacher for over 14 years. He is a Computing specialist (CAS Master Teacher and SSAT Lead practitioner for Computing), Early Years specialist and Apple teacher and lead consultant for Apple platform. Bradley now supports schools in creatively using the LGfL Curriculum and Learning Resources.
Adam Gordon
SEND and Inclusion Manager
Adam has been in Education for 12 years and was an Assistant Headteacher looking after Curriculum. He is a specialist Computer Science teacher and member of management team at a specialist school for children and young people who are on the autistic spectrum. Adam now works on SEND, Inclusion and Mental Health & Well Being content and resources.
Customer Service
Leeanne O'Connor
Customer Services Lead
Leeanne has been with LGfL since 2006 and has extensive knowledge of the business and its customer’s needs. With her experience Leeanne has played a key role in enabling LGfL schools to maximise the value of their LGfL service and supporting schools with contract extensions and renewals.
Dickon Exton
Fibre Provisioning Lead
Dickon manages the delivery of fibre into schools and works with our technology partners to ensure a trouble free journey for schools joining the LGfL community. Dickon also makes sure that changes in the speed of your connection and any B-end shifts are undertaken as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Debbie Aruliah
Customer Services
Debbie has been supporting LGfL schools since 2007, with an emphasis on bandwidth upgrades and contract extensions/details. Debbie is keen to see all schools get the most out of their service and provides help to schools and MATs alike to ensure they receive support where and when it’s needed.
Lydia Musima
Customer Services
As a first point of contact, Lydia is waiting to help customers that phone in, responding to enquiries and forwarding them to the relevant departments.
Lydia also helps customers access the SmartBuy product licences, processing applications as well as keeping systems up to date.
Ibukun Ogunnowo
Customer Services
Ibukun assists with general customer enquiries over the phone and via email as well as helping customers access the Smartbuy product licences including Adobe Creative Cloud and Neverware.
CEO Office and Human Resources
Kirsty Egan
Human Resources Officer
Kirsty has been at LGfL for 9 years; with responsibility for recording and maintaining staff data, co-ordinating recruitment and on-boarding, maintaining HR policies and all aspects of Health & Safety and Wellbeing in the workplace. Kirsty has over 10 years’ previous experience managing large teams in the recruitment sector.
Amber Denny
Business Admin Support
Amber assists in a varied role, providing business support across teams in LGfL.
She is currently providing support to schools participating in the #BridgeTheDivide initiative; working alongside the procurement and finance team to deliver devices to schools as swiftly as possible. She also provides admin support to the 2020 EdTech Demonstrator programme.
Business Development & Channel Partnerships
Richard Engers
Sales and Marketing Lead
Richard has more than 30 years IT Industry expertise. He started life in procurement, moved into sales and then into sales and project management. Richard supports & guides schools, colleges, MATs and councils through the sales lifecycle. Richard also supports LGfL’s marketing activities and events management.
Dan Robinson
Customer Relationship and Service Development Manager
Dan has been involved in Education for over 20 years, account managing and developing business with schools, colleges, LA’s and MATs across London and the South East. He supports schools including those wishing to on-board, showcasing the safeguards, protections and resources LGfL/NGfL includes in its ‘Save More Than You Spend and Keep Children Safe’ portfolio.
Richard Martin
Digital Transformation Network Lead
Richard has held senior technology leadership roles in the public and private sector. Richard established the Digital Transformation Partnership with nearly 80 suppliers to co-ordinate and support digital transformation nationally using LGfL services. Richard provides advice and support to MAT’s on developing their IT Strategies.
Programme Management
Michael Eva
Programme Manager
Michael Eva has held senior project and security roles in the Public Sector. Michael is leading LGfL’s work on GDPR and supporting the development of LGfL’s security platforms.
Communications and Design
Mark Eagle
Graphic Designer and Web Developer
Mark is an Interdisciplinary Graphic Designer and Front-End Web Developer with a focus on strategic brand design, web + UI, and commercially-driven communications design. Through art direction and creative ideas, he brings the LGfL brand image to life by coding, building responsive websites and creating relevant content experiences that are captivating and a joy to view on every device. The results help to connect with customers and build brand loyalty.
Cy Foster
Communications Assistant
Cy manages all social media accounts for LGfL and EdTech Demonstrator Programme, assisting with all forms of mass communications and marketing of the many services LGfL has to offer. She also provides support for the development of the NGfL and EdTech Demonstrator websites.
PLEDGE 2020: Boosting Bandwidth for ALL Schools!
Richard Hannah
LGfL Pledge 2020 Lead
Richard Hannah has held senior leadership roles in the public and private sector both in the UK and internationally. Richard is leading the implementation of Pledge 2020 which is focused on building one of the fastest and most secure networks in the world.
Procurement
Terry Brewer
Procurement Lead
Terry is LGfL’s procurement lead and has held senior roles in local government and national services. Terry has a track record of delivering innovation and significant savings and has played a key role on the development of LGfL’s SmartBuy service which is saving schools millions of pounds.
Rob Yems
Procurement Manager
Rob is LGfL’s procurement manager and has worked in educational procurement for 15 years supporting organisations such as the Department of Education and directly for many schools and MAT’s. He fully understands the challenges schools face and has helped deliver significant savings to front line education. Rob manages LGfL’s daily procurement activity.
Local Government
John Bagley
Local Government Lead
John looks after LGfL’s Local Government practice which is now available across the UK. John has an extensive knowledge of technology in the public sector and is currently focused on developing a new generation of network services to support public sector transformation.
Dave Thomas
Local Government Service Management Lead
Dave has worked in the Public Sector for many years and has experience in a number of IT related roles. He looks after LGfL’s Local Government service management function and a primary responsibility of his role is as a ‘Customer Champion’ to take ownership of customer service issues and to work with our technology partners and the customer to get service issues resolved quickly and efficiently.
Operations
Lee Murrey
Incident Manager
Lee has worked for a large Academy Trust and has also held a Global role within a large communications company. Lee works within the Operations team, he is responsible for Incident Management and proactively monitors all customers connections and outages 24/7 ensuring that downtime is kept to a minimum.
Ian Bannerman
Technical Support Lead
Ian is a new addition to the Operations Team and has nine years experience working in IT within the Education sector. Ian supports LGfL staff and provides 2nd and 3rd line assistance to Schools.
Kam Varma
Technical Support Apprentice
Kam is responsible for assisting the Operations department to deliver on and off-site technical support to the LGfL / NGfL community. Kam has worked previously in Education as Governing Body Clerk.
Finance
Keith Williams
Finance Lead
Keith is an experienced multi sector chartered accountant who has recently been appointed to LGfL and leads on the development of LGfL’s financial systems and processes.
Alan Phillips
Group Financial Controller
Alan manages the Finance Team as well as external contractors for LGfL as well as LGL to provide a service to all the LGfL Teams in maintaining systems and processes to control, record and report on the financial performance and continued financial viability to the Trustees, Charities Commission and Companies House.
Laura Penn
Financial Systems and Business Intelligence Manager
As a management accountant and experienced Sage consultant with over 20 years’ experience in senior financial management and consultancy roles Laura brings a wealth of experience to LGFL. Currently responsible for implementing the Sage 200 upgrade as well as automating and streamlining processes to support the finance function.
Fay Kingsley
Finance Assistant
Fay has worked at LGfL for 8 years and looks after invoicing, Supplier purchase orders, account management and other Financial duties. She has 28 years of Financial Sector experience.
Lauren Coppin
Finance Assistant
In my role as Finance Assistant I mainly cover our LGL business finances. As well as carrying out my day to day duties I also have some involvement with system upgrades, process changes, training team members and creating task guides. I have a number of years of experience working in Finance and Management accounts at various different companies ranging from Oil and Gas to Media and Recruitment.
Daniele Gouro
Finance Assistant
Daniele is responsible for collecting and recording financial Information into the LGfL systems and posting all cheques, invoices and Credit Note into the Ledgers. She is responsible for running a weekly analysis report, reviewing outstanding payment and liaising with customers to bring their account current.
Shalini Khosla
Finance Assistant
Shalini is a new addition to the Finance team. She has experience in Purchase ledger and Sales ledger duties as well as assisting in the preparation of management accounts. At LGfL, her role is varied, and she assists with all financial duties.
Admissions
Elaine O'Brien
Admissions and Pupil Premium Lead
Elaine supports Councils and schools in London and Surrey with the co-ordinated admissions process across reception, junior and secondary phases of education. Elaine also champions and leads on the Free School Meals eligibility checker which has identified over £50M in potential claims since it was introduced in 2014.
Myra Gore
eAdmissions Services Administrator
Myra assists with supporting Councils and schools in London and Surrey with the co-ordinated admissions process across reception, junior and secondary phases of education, as well as providing support on the Free School Meals eligibility checker