About
A Mancunian by birth, Dame Ann’s teaching career began in Further Education in Manchester and Derbyshire before becoming a Principal & CEO – of Milton Keynes College in 1986 and then Cambridge Regional College in 1996. Joining the civil service in 2001, Ann was responsible for the UK government’s flagship digital learning initiatives learndirect, UK online and gov.uk.
Ann currently serves as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Surrey, Chair of the City & Guilds of London Institute, Chair of Governors of The Manchester College and Chair of the Lifelong Education Institute. She is Vice President of the education sector’s social justice charity, the Helena Kennedy Foundation, which Ann founded in 1998 to take forward the findings of Baroness Kennedy’s report ‘Learning Works’. She is a UUK Commissioner contributing to the recent publication Opportunity, growth and partnership: a blueprint for change from the UK’s Universities.
