Christine Gilbert

Professor Christine Gilbert, CBE was Chief Inspector, Education, Children’s Services & Skills at Ofsted from 2006 until 2011. Prior to this, Christine was Chief Executive of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. She joined the Council in 1997 as Corporate Director, Education, having been Director of Education in the London Borough of Harrow. Christine spent 18 years teaching in schools, eight of them as a secondary school headteacher.

Currently, Christine is Visiting Professor of Education at the Institute of Education. She is also undertaking a number of local and national education projects.

Chris Husbands

Chris Husbands is the Director of the Institute of Education and Professor of Education. He has research interests in curriculum and teacher development and in policy in relation to schools and pedagogy. He is an appointed Board Member of the Training and Development Agency for Schools and of the National Trust Learning Panel.

Brett Wigdortz

Brett Wigdortz has led Teach First as its CEO since its launch in July 2002. Brett wrote the original business plan for the charity while working as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and then took what was originally planned as a six-month leave of absence in February 2002 to develop and build support for the idea. Before coming to London, his previous time at McKinsey was spent as a consultant in Indonesia, Singapore, and Manila – focusing on retail banking, organisational effectiveness, and Asian microfinance. Prior to McKinsey, Brett developed southeast Asia policy and business programmes at the Asia Society in New York City. He has also worked as a journalist in Asia and as a researcher at the East-West Center in Honolulu, focusing on energy and economic development issues. He was recently named the 2007 UK Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year and the 2010 CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) European Leadership Award. Brett is married with two small children.