Board of trustees
Futurelab Chairman:
Lord Puttnam of Queensgate
David Puttnam spent 30 years as an independent film producer (his many award-winning films include The Mission, The Killing Fields, Local Hero and Chariots of Fire). He retired from film production in 1998 and now focuses on his work in education and the environment. He is Chancellor of the Open University, was the founder (in 1998) and is Chair of Trustees of the National Teaching Awards (until October 2008), and served as the first Chair of the General Teaching Council (2000-2002). He was founding Chair of NESTA, and for ten years chaired the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, as well as serving as a Trustee of both the Tate Gallery and the Science Museum. David was also Vice President and Chair of Trustees at BAFTA from 1994 to 2004, and was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in 2006. He was appointed President of UNICEF UK in July 2002, and has played a key role in promoting UNICEF’s advocacy, awareness and fundraising objectives. In February 2006 he became Deputy Chairman of Channel Four, and in April 2006 Chairman of Futurelab. In April 2007 he became the Chairman of Profero, and in the same month was also appointed Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Climate Change Bill Scrutiny Committee. His most recent appointment is as Chairman of North Music Trust, The Sage Gateshead. 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 (1985), Officer (1992) and, most recently (2006) Commander of Arts and Letters.
Other trustees:
Peter Hyman
Peter Hyman is Associate Deputy Head at Greenford High School in Ealing - a mixed comprehensive for 11-18 year-olds. He teaches history and politics. Before going into teaching he worked for nine years as political strategist and chief speechwriter to Tony Blair, and ran the Strategic Communications Unit at 10 Downing Street between 2001-2003. He spent much of his time dealing with strategies to reform public services. Peter is author of ‘1 out of 10, From Downing Street Vision to Classroom Reality’, and is a contributor to the Guardian, Observer and Newsnight. He is a governor of Rokesly Primary School.
Gareth Mills
Gareth Mills is an influential thinker engaged in curriculum innovation and learning design. He is adept at working with others to turn ideas into action and has a successful track record of leading change at national, local and school level. While Head of Futures, Innovation and e-learning at the QCA, Gareth led major developments in the curriculum in England so that it might better prepare young people for life and work in the 21st century. He is committed to promoting 21st century skills and cross-curricular themes, such as the global dimension and sustainability, as important features of a modern world-class curriculum. He sees education as the most important route to making a difference to the lives of young people, their communities and the wider world.
In addition to his work with Futurelab, Gareth is a member of 21st Century Learning Alliance and is involved in promoting new developments in technology and learning. Gareth’s current portfolio includes work with Human Scale Education and the Curriculum Foundation. He is the founder of the World Class Curriculum organisation, an alliance of international curriculum developers promoting the exchange of ideas to support education innovation.
Gareth began his career as an art teacher. He became an advisory teacher and later, as a school improvement advisor and inspector, he helped set up and run a successful local authority in West London. In 2001 he moved to QCA where he became Head of Curriculum Development. In the past twelve months he has worked alongside Sir Jim Rose on the recent proposals for the primary curriculum in England. As a writer and education advisor he has worked with media companies and has produced teaching materials for C4 learning and the BBC. His writing has been published in the TES, Guardian and numerous magazines.
Jeremy Silver
Jeremy Silver is an entrepreneur and strategic advisor specialising in music, technology and digital media. He was CEO of Sibelius Software for six years, having been brought in by the founders and investors to help grow and sell the business. He took a narrowly focused company and expanded it to cover many more aspects of music education. He successfully achieved an exit with the sale of the business to Avid Technology in 2006. He remained with the company for two years, taking on the additional role of Global Head of Education for Avid Technology, covering both audio and video. Jeremy previously ran the pioneering playlist sharing service, Uplister Inc, based in San Francisco, backed by August Capital. For five years before that he was Vice President of New Media for the EMI Music Group in London and then in Los Angeles. Prior to that, he was Director of Media Affairs at Virgin Records where he worked closely with many well-known recording artists including Brian Eno, and Massive Attack. Jeremy serves as an advisor to numerous digital media businesses and is a frequent presenter and panellist at digital media events. He is currently providing interim and advisory services through his consulting company Mediaclarity.
Sue Thexton
Sue Thexton is Managing Director of ITN Archive - one of the biggest archive footage collections in the world representing British Pathe, Channel 4, Granada, Reuters and Fox Movietone. Prior to that she was Vice President for Macromedia Europe, the multimedia internet software company, for 10 years. She also set up and built Adobe UK, the company responsible for Photoshop. Well known in the new media industry, Sue speaks regularly at conferences. She is Honorary Visiting Professor at Middlesex University, and has been the Chairman of the British Interactive Multimedia Association, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and also a Governor of Thames Valley University. Sue has been an active member of the BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Committee since its inception in September 1997 (Chair between 1999 and 2004) and a member of BAFTA Council since 1999.
Lynne Turner
Lynne Turner is Group Director of Financial Control at Centrica plc. She joined Centrica in 2002 as Goldfish Bank Finance Director and has also held the position of Finance Director, British Gas. Prior to joining Centrica she spent 14 years in a variety of finance and operational roles at Alliance & Leicester plc. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in 1988.
Dylan Wiliam
Dylan Wiliam is Deputy Director of the Institute of Education, London. In a varied career, he has taught in urban public schools, directed a large-scale testing program, served a number of roles in university administration, including Dean of a School of Education, and pursued a research programme focused on supporting teachers to develop their use of assessment in support of learning.
John Willis
John Willis began his career at Yorkshire Television where his award-winning documentary programmes included Johnny Go Home. Later as Controller of Documentaries and Current Affairs he started the acclaimed documentary series First Tuesday. In 1988 he joined Channel 4 Television first as Controller of Factual Programmes (introducing new documentary strands like Cutting Edge) and then as Director of Programmes (overseeing programmes and films in several genres including Father Ted, The Politician's Wife, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Trainspotting). After Channel 4, he became Chief Executive of United Productions as it expanded in both factual programmes and drama including Hornblower, Oliver Twist and several Paul Watson documentaries. When Granada Media bought United, John moved to become Managing Director of both United Productions and London Weekend Television, and subsequently MD of Granada's International Production. In 2001 he won the Royal Television Society Gold Medal for Creative Contribution to Television. In June 2002 he joined WGBH, America's biggest public television station, as Vice President in charge of National Programmes. In June 2003 he became the BBC's Director of Factual and Learning with responsibility for factual production across all channels, where his department was responsible for award-winning productions like The Secret Policeman and Planet Earth, as well as Education output for the majority of British schools. John is now CEO of Mentorn.