The Corporation, also known as the Governing Body, at East Durham College consists of 16 Members.
- The Principal
- 12 External Members
- Two Student Members, who are elected by the students at the College
- Two Staff Members, who are elected by the staff at the College
David Butler (Chair of the Corporation)
David Butler is a Fellow and Past President of the Chartered Institute of Housing. He is also a Chartered Surveyor and Charted Secretary and has a Masters Degree (M.Sc) in Public Sector Management.
David retired from full-time employment in 2008 after a 40 year career in housing and local government which includes 15 years as Director of Housing at Newcastle City Council, and 10 years as Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing. During his 10 years at the CIH membership grew by 40% and CIH launched HouseMark, now the sector's leading data and analysis service.
Since retirement he has been a member of the Learning and Skills Council for the North East; an Advisor to Dunelm Property Services, part of the Esh Group of Companies, and a member of the Durham Cathedral Property Committee.
He is currently Vice Chair of Karbon Homes having previously been Chair of Cestria Community Housing and a Board member of the ISOS Housing Group.
He has been a Governor at East Durham College since 2012 and was appointed Chair of the Corporation in February 2014.
Suzanne Duncan (Principal & Chief Executive)
Suzanne Duncan, a BA (Hons) graduate in Travel and Tourism Management, was appointed as Principal and Chief Executive in March 2012, taking up post in September 2012. Suzanne has worked in the Further Education sector for 25 years, in teaching and management roles at a number of colleges in the North East. This included previously working at East Durham College as Assistant Principal from 2003 to 2007. For the last eighteen years, Suzanne has also undertaken work as an inspector for Ofsted.
James Bromiley (Vice Chair of the Corporation)
James was brought up in Durham City. He is a chartered accountant and is currently Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer of Elevate Multi Academy Trust in North Yorkshire. He has worked across the public sector in director roles in both education and corporate services - including at the Department for Education, HM Treasury, Middlesbrough Council and North Yorkshire Council. He is passionate about making sure that every individual has the opportunity to achieve their full potential through an educational route which works best for them. He is also driven by trying to get the maximum value from public money and brings that skill set to the College.
Outside of work, James is a non-executive director of Northumbria University and the Horizons Academy Trust in Stockton. He also coaches under 13s cricket at Yarm Cricket Club and enjoys running, drinking wine and looking after his two children.
Richard Harrison (Governor & Chair of Audit Committee)
Richard was appointed to the Board in summer 2019, and as well as serving on the board is the Chair of Audit Committee and a member of Curriculum, Quality and Standards Committee. Richard is currently Deputy Director of Academic Services at Newcastle University (responsible for quality assurance, quality enhancement and digital education, as well as supporting the development and implementation of education strategy), and has also held posts working across learning and teaching, policy and planning, and strategy development at Durham, Essex and Lancaster universities. Prior to this Richard was a research fellow at the History of Parliament Trust, during which time he also contributed articles to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Richard is a reviewer for the Quality Assurance Agency, and is both a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
Stuart Laverick (Governor & Chair of Curriculum, Quality and Standards Committee)
Stuart is a son of East Durham. He attended primary school in Murton and then progressed to Grammar/Secondary School in Peterlee. Studies at York, Manchester, Loughborough, Derby and Warwick universities provided the higher education input needed to support a successful professional education career that started in the mid-1980s and finished in the mid-2020s. He has taught in the secondary and university education sectors, although the bulk of his teaching/leadership experience has been in Further Education.
Stuart spent the last 13 years of his career in Worcestershire as an FE College CEO/Principal. Stuart also spent more than a decade doing benchmarking research for the Economist/Management Today to identify Britain’s Most Admired Companies. Since retiring from full-time employment Stuart has been working with the FE Commissioners team mentoring senior leaders across the FE sector. Gardening, exercise, reading and travel are now taking up a much healthier proportion of his time. The only main stress remaining in his life is football. Oh to be a Sunderland supporter!
Sarah Robson (Governor and Chair of Finance & General Purpose Committee)
Sarah was appointed to the Board in the summer of 2023 and is also serving as Chair of the Finance and General Purposes Committee. She works for Karbon Homes, a large housing association with homes across the northeast and Yorkshire, as Director of Development and Regeneration. Before this, she had a long career in local government, most recently as corporate director for growth, enterprise, and environment for a local authority in Teesside and before that, she worked for Durham County Council for a decade as the lead for economic development and housing. She also spent 8 years working as a project director for an Urban Regeneration Company in Teesside on major development projects.
Brought up in Hartlepool and having lived in the northeast since leaving University, Sarah is passionate about the people and places of the region. She has worked in non-executive roles for many years and is delighted to be working with the team at EDC to ensure students have outstanding futures.
Alex Brennan (Governor)
Alex Brennan is currently employed at Northumbrian Water as Talent and Development Manager for the last 5 years and has over 25 years in learning and development, mainly management development. She has spent most of her career in the utilities sector in various roles including transformation, change management, continuous improvement, but always with a people development slant.
Alex has a degree in Biology and Physiology, a degree in Education, PGCE and a Masters in coaching. Her passion is people development and is really looking forward to helping to shape the lives of young people at the college.
Outside of work, she loves being outdoors and has recently taken up touch rugby and kickboxing and loves the caravan in the summer!
Michael Curry ACMA CGMA (Governor)
I was born in Little Thorpe Hospital in 1964 and have lived in Peterlee all of my life. I started school in North Blunts Primary and continued my education at Dene House. Early jobs in the area were in administration at Saluki Fabrics, porter handyman/care assistant at Glendale home in Blackhall, labouring for Easington District Council, dry lining fitter nationwide for WA Brown in Billingham and eventually joining the Civil Service at National Savings in Durham in 1986. It was there I eventually began my studies to be an accountant, qualifying with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in 2001. I subsequently went on to be the CIMA President for the North East Coast in 2005 and still have an active part in accounting activities in the region, representing the area in the regional committee.
I have always loved sport, playing football and basketball to a high standard in my youth. I even played for Peterlee College when the basketball team moved there from Dene House. I also coached and refereed at the college too. I have always been an avid Sunderland AFC supporter and still go along to most home games. I am married with two grown up sons, the youngest of which is currently a student at the college.
I am proud to say I am from Peterlee and have a great love for the town and the county. I see this opportunity to join the college as a Governor as my chance to give something back. My position on the Audit committee is a great place to start, using my accounting experience to its best advantage.
Guy Dullage (Governor)
Guy is responsible for all aspects of Human Resources, Executive Compensation and Corporate Communications across the Greencore Group*. Prior to this, Guy served as the HR Director for Greencore’s Convenience Foods business.
Guy joined Greencore in 2015 having worked in the automotive sector for nearly fifteen years. He is a Statutory Director of the UK subsidiaries and served as a Trustee Director of the Irish pension schemes for Greencore, prior to taking a lead on pensions management for the Group in 2020. He has managed several significant projects, including the design and launch of an award-winning leadership development programme, a full Group wide rebrand and the launch of a colleague share incentive plan, to name but a few.
Previously, he held a variety of senior HR roles in the UK and Europe and spent time working in North America. Much of his experience over this time has been within the manufacturing and logistics sectors. Areas of HR specialism include Compensation & Benefits, Employee Relations and Leadership Development.
Guy studied at Buxton College prior to his undergraduate degree and Master’s Degree in Human Resources and Business, and became a Fellow of the CIPD in 2014. He has held several Directorships and Pension Trustee Directorships during his career and served a 3-year term on the Engineering Employers Federation (EEF) Employment Policy Development Committee.
Outside of work, Guy enjoys spending time with his family, with some of his favourite pastimes being walking and sailing.
*Greencore is an Irish convenience food company, supplying a range of chilled, frozen and ambient foods to UK retail and food outlet customers. A major supplier to British supermarkets, Greencore is the largest sandwich maker in the world with 14,000 people across 23 manufacturing units. Greencore has £1.7b in revenue, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 250 index.
Gareth Edmunds (Governor)
Gareth has worked for over twenty years within the public, commercial and voluntary sectors. Experienced in successfully leading corporate services and governance structures he has recently had the opportunity to act as a seconded CEO/Accounting Officer in a mixed-phased trust. He is CIMA, CIPA, Prince2 and CIPD qualified. Gareth joined Northern Education Trust in 2013 as a Director and progressed in 2019 to lead a wider range of corporate services and governance responsibilities as the Chief Operating and Financial Officer and Trust Secretary.
Gareth has held several Non-Executive Director posts and in 2016 co-founded the North of England Schools and Academies Forum (NESAF). In 2018 Gareth was recognised at the Northeast Accountancy Awards as Director of Finance of the Year.
Jason Smith (Governor)
Jase Smith is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute. He is also a Certified Expert and Ambassador for the Institute of Supply Chain Management and Technical Member of the Institute of Occupational Health. He has a BA(Hons) in Leadership and Management and PGCE in FE.
Jase resigned from the British Army in 2021 after an exciting 35-year career to establish his mental health and safety business. His entrepreneurial spirit has seen him co-found another business in 2023 in collaboration with Durham University Business School and he retains his links with the military through service with the Army Reserves.
He has been a Governor at East Durham College since 2023 and sits on the Finance and General Purpose Committee.
Michael Young (Governor)
Professor Michael Young is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at the University of Sunderland, responsible for the curriculum portfolio, quality and standards, excellence in teaching, and students’ academic experience and outcomes. He was formerly Pro Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) at De Montfort University, Pro-Warden (Students and Learning Development) at Goldsmiths, University of London, and the Head of Music at Goldsmiths. He is a Professor of Music Computing with interests in artificial intelligence in music, improvisation, and jazz.
Vacant (Governor)
Currently vacant position on the board.
Kirsty Tate (Staff Governor - Peterlee)
Following the completion of a BA (Hons) in Sport Science, and a Postgraduate Certificate of Education, Kirsty gained employment within the sports department at East Durham College. Over the last decade, she has taught across many curriculum areas, including health, public services and initial teacher education. In addition, Kirsty spent much of this time working across the organisation as a professional development coach – supporting teachers to improve the quality of education – and as an e-learning practitioner, looking to enhance the use of educational technologies.
As a result of this, Kirsty gained her Advanced Teacher Status and Chartered Teacher Status. She is currently working towards achieving her PhD in education, with a focus on teachers’ digital skills, professional learning, and the integration of technology in the classroom, and has recently been appointed as programme area lead for Uniformed Public Services, Catering, and Travel and Tourism.
Vacant (Staff Governor)
Bi-op to follow
Student Governors, 2023/24
EDC Student's Union President: Gemini Flanagan
EDC Student's Union Vice President: Dylan Jackson Alderson
Clerk to the Corporation
Samantha Pritchard
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