NFER Board of Trustees

Lorna Cocking became Chair in May 2017 and has been a Trustee of NFER since 2015. She has a BA (Hons) in Ancient History and Archaeology from the University of Birmingham and an Honorary Doctorate from Middlesex University.

Having spent the first 17 years of her career as a classroom teacher in Norway, Canada, Finland and England, Lorna has a wealth of experience in the education sector. She became an Advisor at ILEA's Television and Publishing Centre in 1980, was appointed Publishing Director at The Open College in 1990, and Director of Learning Development Services at the University of Sunderland in 1992. From 1993 to 2010 she worked at Pearson Education, first as UK Publishing Director and then as Director of Education.

Lorna was a member of the Confederation of British Industry Education and Training Council from 2003 to 2007 and of the Board of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust from 2009 to 2012. She has been Chair of the Governors of Amherst School, Hackney (2000-2004), and of the Boards of Middlesex University (2004-2010) and Learning Light (2005-2007). From 2007 to 2014 Lorna was Chair of the Council of the Girls' Day School Trust.

She is currently Chair of the Board of Governors of Kent College, Chair of the Board of the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools, and Pro-Chancellor of Middlesex University.

Melvyn Keen has an MA in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and of the Royal Society of Arts.

Melvyn began his career in finance in 1976. During the 1980s he had various roles in consulting and finance in companies such as Andersen Consulting and Argyll Group. Melvyn was a Senior Manager in the Consulting Division of Price Waterhouse in the 1990s, serving as Deputy EMEA Training Leader and Global Training Operations Leader for the final four years of his time at PW.

In 2000 Melvyn transferred to the Higher Education sector by first joining the University of Cambridge as Interim Finance Director and then Middlesex University as Director of Finance and subsequently Deputy Chief Executive, a post he held until 2014.

He was, until recently, a Trustee of CASE Europe, has been Chair of the Board of Governors at his local primary school, a Governor of Tottenham University Technical College from 2013 to 2014, and recently a Trustee of Chase High School.

Fiona Capstick is currently Associate Partner at Ernst & Young. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from the Open University and an MBA from Manchester Business School. Fiona began her career in IT Operations at Brooke Bond Oxo and Conoco before she joined IBM as a Software Customer Engineer in 1984.

In 1989 she was promoted to Services Sales and Operational Support of Financial Services before she was appointed Executive Assistant to the General Manager of Global Services in 1996. In 1997 Fiona was promoted to CIO Leader for UK & Ireland, Netherlands & MEA and she was subsequently appointed CRM Solutions Leader in 1999 and Learning Services Executive in 2000.

In 2002 she progressed to the role of Director of Service Delivery for the Global Account and was subsequently appointed Director of Business Operations for the Office of the CIO in 2004 and Vice President for the Office of the CIO in 2007. In 2010 Fiona was appointed Chief Executive Officer of South West One before she again served as Vice President for the Office of the CIO in 2012. She assumed her current role in 2014.

Michael is currently a freelance Education Consultant and assumed this role in 2016. After a number of different roles in education, Michael joined the Civil Service holding director roles first at the Teacher Training Agency and then the Training and Development Agency.

Prior to his current role, he worked at the University of Roehampton as Professor and Director of the School of Education. Michael also advises as Council Member for the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) International Council on International Educational Benchmarking.

Paul James is Chief Executive of the River Learning Trust, a Multi Academy Trust in Oxfordshire and Swindon, which also includes a Teaching School Hub and a large School Centred Initial Teacher Training provider. He has a MA (Cantab) in Natural Sciences (Neurophysiology) and a PGCE from the University of Cambridge.

Paul began his teaching career in 1994 as a teacher of science and has held various senior leadership roles in a range of secondary education settings. He has also been a primary school governor and Interim Executive Board member. Until 2016 he was Headteacher of The Cherwell School, a comprehensive school of over 1900 students, which is currently a Teaching School Hub. He was accredited as a National Leader of Education in 2013 and is the founding Chief Executive of RLT.

Paul is also a member of a steering group for the Community Impact Zone in Oxford which seeks to tackle inequality and increase social mobility. He also Chairs the Oxford Strategic Partnership which brings together senior representatives from the public, business, community and voluntary sectors to help provide direction for the city's future, respond to local priorities and engage more effectively with local concerns.

Karen Kroger is currently Chief Financial Officer at Queen Mary University of London, where she has responsibility for finance, strategic planning and a project management change function. 

Karen started her career at KPMG, before spending a number of years working in professional education with BPP, where she was both an accountancy tutor and responsibility for the management of the courses for the Scottish qualifying body. 

In 2005 she moved into international development, holding a number of finance and support service roles with global third sector organisations, both in London and overseas.  During her time at Save the Children International, Karen oversaw the financial integration of the in-country operations of 17 global Save the Children member organisations. 

Karen moved into higher education in 2015, initially at the University of London where she held the role of Finance Director, before joining Queen Mary in 2020.

She is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, and has a BA in Economics and Politics from the University of Warwick.   

David Madoc-Jones is a former KPMG Partner and retired from the firm in 2020. He holds a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature from Durham University. In a 17 year banking career, David had a number of roles in retail and corporate banking.

He left Bank of America in 1999 to join KPMG’s Debt Advisory business. Over the next 20 years, he advised a wide range of public and private companies and not for profit organisations, including charities and universities, on all aspects of their debt financing. David is also a Governor at the University of Portsmouth.

Donya is a seasoned financial services executive with global strategy, general management and leadership experience, and a strong track record of delivering results over a 20 year plus career. Most recently, over a 14-year period, she has held senior roles at Deutsche Bank including Global Head of DB’s internal consulting division, COO UK & Ireland, and DB Global Transaction Banking.

In addition to her banking experience, she has a combination of general management as well as classical management consulting and entrepreneurial/start-up experience. Prior to relocating to London from New York, she was Chief Market Strategy and Innovation Officer of Carver Federal Savings Bank, a NASDAQ listed New York-based. In addition, she held a number of senior general management and management consulting roles, including at American Express Company and Accenture.

She was also a founding partner of RLP, a management consulting firm that provided strategy and operations counsel to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as divisions of large corporations. As the author of white papers including “Big Data Turning Data into Insight” and “Delighting Customers & Democratising Finance: Digitalisation & the Future of Commercial Banking”, Donya is recognized as a thought leader and innovator. She continues to maintain a keen interest in the intersection of banking and technology and fosters close ties to the fintech industry.

Donya holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Georgetown University and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

Neil Hollister is currently CEO at the Learn Centre. He has an MA from the University of Cambridge in Computer Science. Neil has held a variety of technical, sales and management roles within the IT and business information industries. He was Strategy and Marketing Director at OnCue (2000–2001) and Managing Director at Datamonitor (2001–2005).

Neil also has a broad commercial background, most recently leading a management buy-in of Cryptocard in 2006, and serving as Chairman and CEO until the sale of the business to the industry leader Safenet in 2012. Neil has a keen interest in education – practically, as a father of three children, but also based on his belief that better education leads to a better world. Neil was Vice-Chairman of the governing body and head of the finance and personnel committee of a local school for many years.

Neil has been closely involved with NFER's work in e-assessment and was a trustee between 2007 and 2024.

Sam Macdonald is a partner at Farrer & Co, solicitors. He has a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature from the University of Manchester and CPE and LPC from the College of Law, Guildford.

Sam began his career in 1995 as a trainee at Farrers, qualified at the firm and was promoted to Partner in 2004. He specialises in charity law and advises charities on governance and regulatory issues, fundraising and tax, and in a range of related fields. He has a special interest in educational charities and advises a number of schools and universities.

He has a particular specialism in the law relating to public benefit. Sam was a governor of Sherborne School from 2002-12 and is now a governor at St John's College School, Cambridge. He is also a trustee of a grant-making charitable trust and sits on the executive committee of the Charities Property Association.

Conor Ryan is the former Director of External Relations at the Office for Students. He has a BA and an MA in Political Science from University College Dublin. Conor started as a Communications Officer for the British Youth Council in 1984.

He then worked for the Inner London Education Authority as a Schools Press Officer. In 1993 he joined the office of David Blunkett as Senior Press and Research Officer and was his Senior Special Adviser, when David Blunkett served as Secretary of State for Education and Employment.

In 2005 Conor became senior education policy adviser to Tony Blair. In 2012 he assumed the role as Director of Research and Communications at the Sutton Trust which he held for six years before joining the Office for Students in 2018.

He has also been an adviser to many senior education leaders and written and edited several education policy books as well as writing for many newspapers. Since 2002 Conor has been a governor at Wellsway School in Keynsham, and he is also a Director of the Wellsway Multi-Academy Trust.