Governance

Andrew McConnell OBE

Chair of Governors

Andrew is a Chartered Accountant and is the Director of Finance at a local University.

Throughout his career Andrew has had a commitment to education, taking governance roles at schools, colleges and a university in the local area.

Andrew is also a Board member of the Education and Training Foundation which is responsible for workforce development in the FE sector; he is a Board member of Wakefield and District Housing Ltd; and he is a Board member of the Higher Education Statistics Agency Ltd (and Chairs its Audit Committee).

Andrew was invited to become a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute in 2017 and he was awarded an OBE for services to accounting and the community in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for 2015.

Sam Wright

Principal

Having worked in the further education sector for more than twenty years, Sam was delighted to become Principal of Wakefield College in March 2011. She feels that Wakefield College is a very special college, committed to ‘transforming lives through learning’ and is passionate about the College’s values, where the learner is very much at the heart of everything it does.

Sam’s vision for the College is to be an outstanding institution that serves the needs of all of Wakefield’s communities and is leading the development of strong partnerships to meet these needs, and to provide excellent lifelong learning opportunities for young people, adults and employers alike.

Dmitry Fedotov

Dmitry’s experience in the youth work sector has taken him throughout most of South and West Yorkshire. He works for The Youth Association – the UK’s oldest youth work charity with a proud history of developing some of the most innovative work in its field.

As ‘Enterprise and Communities Manager’, Dmitry manages the organisation’s business and enterprise work, as well as all its community-based provision across seven local authority areas in Yorkshire. Among other areas of experience, Dmitry leads the bulk of the HR functions at The Youth Association, including recruitment and headhunting. Dmitry is also responsible for building and maintaining strategic partnerships with the larger grant funds providers and local businesses.

Martyn Shaw

Martyn is the Executive Director of Technical Services at Wakefield District Housing and a Chartered Construction Manager. He is responsible for leading a large workforce across a full range of trades, ensuring his teams work within regulatory frameworks, such as those relating to Health and Safety, Gas, Electrical and those specific to the Housing sector. As part of the Executive Team, Martyn takes a lead on the Compliance and Assurance Committee, and is involved in business continuity, ensuring WDH is prepared for largescale, unforeseen events.

Prior to working at WDH, Martyn’s early career was in the energy industry which gave him extensive project and programme management experience. He then went onto working in a national role as the Operations Director at Eon Property Services, as well as running his own local business for a period of time before joining WDH. As well as this, Martyn has also undertaken voluntary roles, as a Magistrate and as Director of the Gas Industry Safety Group.

Throughout his career, Martyn has had a passion for developing people and their skills, as demonstrated by his commitment to supporting apprentices working within the trades to complete their training and progress their careers. Martyn has also been involved in a project to encourage more females to consider working within the trades to break down gender stereotypes and to promote diversity within the workforce.

Julie Craig

Julie has lived and worked mainly in the Wakefield area for the last 36 years, initially as a teacher of Economics and latterly as an Executive Headteacher and CEO of a cross-phase Multi Academy Trust. Following her recent retirement from the day job, Julie was delighted to be invited to join the Governors, hopeful that her skills and experience would not be lost, but instead might be useful in supporting her local College to achieve further success.

Julie is passionate about raising aspirations for the next generation in her district by providing the best opportunities, teaching and support and is committed to ensuring that the state education sector achieves this.

Ruth Sacks

Ruth Sacks is the Founder of Boardroom Focus providing bespoke executive development and leadership programmes.

Ruth has worked in higher education and the private and public sectors. She is able to combine practical entrepreneurial and business experience with a facility to share her learning in an academic context. She is passionate about creating engaging learning experiences on-line and face to face.

Ruth has led a range of culture and strategy change projects in the UK, Europe and the USA. Clients have included HSBC, Barclays, Swissport, the NHS, Cadbury Trebor Basset, and The United Nations. She lived and worked in Paris for 14 years and speaks fluent French. Ruth has a Doctorate in Business Administration and a Masters in Organisation Development.

In her free time Ruth enjoys spending time with friends and family, travelling abroad and going to the theatre.

Neil Warren

A former student at the college, Neil is the Chief Finance Officer at Wakefield Council, with responsibility for all aspects of the Council’s financial affairs.

Neil qualified with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in 1997, and became a Fellow of the Association in 2002 before going on to complete a Masters’ degree in Finance and Accounting.

He has lived in Wakefield all of his life and is passionate about improving the life chances of people across the Wakefield District.

Claire Corneille

Claire Corneille is the Head of HR at Sheffield City Council, where she is responsible for the implementation of the Council’s people vision and strategies, through leading a range of strategic and operational HR services.

Prior to her role in the Council, Claire worked for over 20 years in the healthcare system. Initially working on the development and implementation a range of NHS Workforce policies, whilst working in the Department of Health and Social Care, and more recently in a range of HR roles, where she has developed and embedded HR Business Partnering, managed large scale organisational change and led a range of HR functions.

Claire is a values driven individual who is passionate about people, ensuring that they have a voice which is heard, and understood, and that everyone has an opportunity to be the best they can be.

David Powell

David followed his father, a Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design, into FE, starting as a part-time hourly paid lecturer in Travel and Tourism at Stafford College of Further Education in 1986. He moved into senior management and then, via staff development, into teacher education in 2005 when he became a Lecturer in Teacher Education at Craven College. David joined the University of Huddersfield as a Senior Lecturer in Teacher Education in 2009 and until April 2020 was the Director of the Education and Training Consortium, an initial teacher education (ITE) partnership between the University of Huddersfield and over 20 FE colleges.

Ben Porter

Academic Staff Governor

Ben has been a member of the academic staff team at Wakefield College since 2017 and in this time has gained experience of both FE and HE teaching. Ben has also undertaken various roles including programme leader and union representative and has been involved in various working groups such as the Digital Steering Group and the eLearning Project Group.

Through his roles as a lecturer and academic staff governor, Ben hopes to help the organisation grow, thrive, and succeed and continue to provide opportunities to and meet the needs of the College’s students, staff and community.

Yasmin Ayub

Support Staff Governor

Yasmin is part of the Student Experience staff at Wakefield College and oversees the Tackling Inactivity Project developed by Sport England. Her main aim is to provide sport and physical activity opportunities to all students in a bid to reduce inactivity and improve student’s overall health and wellbeing. Yasmin has worked in sport and physical activity primarily in Further Education for over 11 years and has been a member of staff at Wakefield College for 6 of these. With a passion for creating inclusive opportunities both in and outside of sport and physical activity, Yasmin also oversees the student Equality and Diversity group and is also an active member of the staff Equality and Inclusion group.