University of the First Age

John Ling (Chair)
John possesses business experience in firstly engineering, then sales, business development and general management roles on both a UK and an international basis.
Latterly, non-executive and executive roles have enabled him to also gain a good appreciation of the opportunities and challenges of the UK Public Sector.

John's core areas of expertise lie in improving operational Business Performance, Board facilitation, complex negotiation, and Business Strategy development. He has also been involved in the initiation and management of partnering, joint venture and alliance relationships, which have enhanced company share value.

John's current role is as CEO of BXL Services, a not-for-profit organisation based in Birmingham focused on helping people in the Midlands increase their employability through work-related learning.

Peter Brammall
Peter's early career was in the private sector, spending 11 years in corporate banking, initially with NatWest in London's West End. During his time with NatWest, Peter also spent 2 years as a Tutor at the bank's Staff Training College in Oxfordshire, designing & delivering management development programmes. Peter then joined Yorkshire Bank plc in the North West, becoming Senior Business
Manager at the Lancashire Business Centre, managing business portfolios ranging from SMEs to mid-large corporates.

In 1999 Peter moved into the public sector, joining the Legal Services Commission in the North West, developing the regional contracting strategy for the new Community Legal Service and delivering it through a network of private practice solicitors and Not For Profit organisations.

Joining the LSC in 2001, he became Director of Planning & Budgeting, responsible for the funding allocation & management of the national programmes for Further Education, Work-based Learning, School Sixth Form and Adult & Community Learning. Peter joined Derbyshire LSC in 2004 as Executive Director and took up his current role, as Area Director of Birmingham & Solihull LSC in September 2007.

Sarah Evans
Sarah Evans has been Head of King Edward V1 High School for Girls since 1996, a girls independent selective day school in Birmingham. Before that she was head of a co-ed boarding and day school in Essex.
Sarah Evans has been involved in the Academy of Youth for some years.
Professionally she has chaired an Education Committee for a heads' association and currently chairs the Independent Schools Council National Teacher Induction Panel.
She runs from her school summer holiday courses through the Independent State School partnership scheme.
Sarah Evans is a columnist for the Birmingham Post.

Maggie Farrar
Maggie's love of teaching and working with young people started in West Africa where she taught in a large secondary school in Northern Ghana. She then moved to London to work first in Newham, Greenwich and then in Hackney. Her last teaching post in London was as Deputy Head of Haggerston School in Hackney. She then moved to Birmingham to work with Tim Brighouse where she set up the University of the First Age, a national charity which develops extended learning experiences for young people in school and community settings. She has worked with the DSCF on the development of study support and partnership programmes that involve the community and voluntary sector. Since May 2003 Maggie has been working at the National College of School Leadership where she is an Operational Director responsible for Every Child Matters and Standards. Her work at the NCSL includes working with other sectors on a multi agency team development programme, the setting up and support of the new NPQICL (National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership) for early years leaders, supporting Local Authorities on the 'Change for Children' agenda, promoting a learning to lead in communities programme for community leaders and the development of leadership programmes for leaders of extended schools
Maggie leads the research, policy and development group at NCSL. She has responsibility for our work on evaluation and impact, succession planning, policy development and implementation, research, and extended and integrated leadership development. She also has responsibility for the work of NCSL as part of the development of the wider children's workforce.
Prior to taking on this role Maggie was the NCSL Operational Director for Every Child Matters (ECM) and Standards. She qualified as a teacher and spent many years in teaching and leadership positions in London schools before moving to Birmingham to set up the University of the First Age, a national charity working with schools, families and communities to provide enrichment opportunities to children and young people beyond school.

Arti Halai
Arti Halai has spent twelve years in the media industry working for both radio and television. During that time she has worked for some of the country's largest organisations like the BBC, ITN News Channel, LWT, Mirror Group and Sunrise Radio.
She has presented, reported and produced everything from news and current affairs to magazine and lifestyle programmes. She is currently a television Presenter for ITV1's regional news output in the Midlands, Central News.
Arti also presents a number of live events. She hosts award ceremonies, Annual dinners for organisations and companies, is asked to chair panels at conferences and business breakfast seminars as well as doing live entertainment events. For example she interviewed film stars and pop stars at the largest Asian lifestyle event, the Mela at the NEC in Birmingham a three day event that attracted more than twenty thousand people.
She lends her support to a number of charity events throughout the year, and spends time visiting schools where she talks to groups of children about her role in the media and inspires them to think about their future.
Through her work here she has gained a broad and deep understanding of behavior, communication and the most effective way to get a message across. She continues to build positive relations with others through her friendly and approachable manner.
Arti has a company called AH Action! This specialises in offering workshops and seminars in communication and presentation skills.
She is a Practitioner of NeuroLinguistic Programming and NLP Life Coach INLPTA trained. She has a Diploma in Stress Counseling and Management from the European College Collective and a BA (Hons) in Social Policy from the University of Sussex.

Dr Barry Henley
Barry is from Liverpool and studied Chemical Engineering. He worked for BOC in industrial and medical gases for ten years in several rôles, including production manager in Manchester of what was the largest air separation unit in Europe and as BOC's youngest-ever branch manager in Barrow-in-Furness.

In 1981 he moved into the electronic security and fire protection industry. In time he became the Marketing Director of Chubb Alarms and was responsible for the introduction of many new products including radio transmission of alarm signals and the first trial of electronic tagging of offenders. Barry represented the UK industry in Europe and contributed to the writing of British and European Standards that still guide good practice in fire and security today.

Chubb asked him to turn around two underperforming businesses in the UK. The first was in electronics manufacturing, and then the second was in fire engineering for oil rigs. The company appointed Barry to run their Singapore operations. In four years at Chubb Singapore Barry tripled profits in the 'tiger economy' of the time.

Barry returned to Birmingham in 2000. He has served as a Birmingham City Councillor, and is currently a school Governor at Uffculme primary school, and at King David Primary School. For five years he was Chief Executive of the Technology Innovation Centre which is Birmingham City University's faculty of engineering, computer technology and media production, and was responsible for its move up the University league tables, record levels of home and overseas recruitment, and huge expansion of its support for local industries.

Dr Henley is now a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Adviser helping businesses with their research projects by involving University faculties. In a KTP an academic with the appropriate technology skills supervises an Associate who is a new graduate part-funded by the Government to carry out the work.

His interests include voluntary work on the committees of amenity groups and an economic regeneration group where he lives; politics; and watching football.

Mike Hibbert
Mike is 52 and was born and raised near Manchester. He came to Birmingham in 1974 to attend Aston University, studying Management Science and graduated in 1978 and joined Whinney Murray, a predecessor firm of Ernst & Young. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1982. Mike spent his last years with Ernst & Young as a Senior Manager in Business Services, assisting mainly privately owned businesses. He left Ernst & Young in 1995 and joined Birmingham Chamber of Commerce as Finance Director. The Chamber operated Birmingham & Solihull Business Link for 6 years to 2007, handling public funding of over £20million p.a. His current responsibilities include Company Secretary of the Pension Fund Trustee Company. Mike is married with 3 adult children living in Solihull with a lingering support for Oldham Athletic FC.

Councillor Jon Hunt
Jon is the elected member for Perry Barr Ward, Birmingham. He joined the Council on the 1st May 2003 and his office expires in 2012 and represents the Liberal Democrat party. Positions Jon has held include Chairman of the Children and Education Overview & Scrutiny and Vice-Chairman of the Vulnerable Children Overview & Scrutiny. His committee membership includes Children and Education Overview & Scrutiny, Co-ordinating Overview & Scrutiny, Vulnerable Children Overview & Scrutiny, Local Government Association, Educational Regional meetings and West Midlands Passenger Transport Authority.

Jason R Smith
Jason R. Smith (FCA, DChA, BA Hons). Jason is a Chartered Accountant with over twelve years of working with clients across a broad spectrum of industries and sizes, ranging from listed international groups to small owner-managed businesses. His recent experience has focussed on charitable entities, and he achieved the Diploma of Charity Accounting in 2008. Jason has led a Midlands-wide programme of community involvement at his current employer for the past four years. He is also the Chair of Governors at his local Infant school, and vice Chair at the Junior school, represents Derbyshire School Governors on the Derbyshire Schools Admission Forum, and is treasurer for three local organisations.