NFER Senior Management Team

Carole Willis is Chief Executive of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). She joined NFER in December 2013.

Widely respected across the education sector and social science community, Carole has extensive experience of leading research and analysis in both the public and private sectors. Her focus is on raising NFER’s profile and increasing our impact, ensuring that our robust research and assessments actively inform education policy and practice. She is passionate about promoting quantitative analysis in education, and making better use of the rich administrative data sets available to understand how to improve education outcomes.

Prior experience and professional background

Before joining NFER, Carole was Director of Research and Analysis at the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department’s Chief Scientific Adviser. She had responsibility for leading DfE’s community of analysts, setting direction for the Department’s research activity, and building capability to use analysis and evidence effectively to drive education policy reform.

Her earlier roles included leading analysis of immigration and crime at the Home Office, research into productivity and growth at the Department of Trade and Industry (now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills), and delivering pension reform at the Department for Work and Pensions. She worked as an Economic Consultant on competition and transport policy at National Economic Research Associates (NERA) and undertook research on poverty, equity and growth at the World Bank.

Carole has a BA (Hons) degree (first class) in Economics from the University of Nottingham and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Lesley joined NFER in January 2015. She leads the research department which designs and delivers research and evaluations, specialist information and reviews, develops assessments and provides expert advice. The department also manages the Foundation’s bid development function.

Prior experience and professional background

Lesley is an experienced and respected researcher, who has led multi-disciplinary teams in the Home Office, the National Policing Improvement Agency, and the Royal College of Nursing, covering a diverse range of social policy issues. Motivated by improving service users’ experience of public services and committed to helping policy, she has designed and tested survey instruments, developed evidence-based national clinical guidance for government agencies, including the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence, and delivered programmes of research and analysis to understand and discover effective ways of responding to issues.

Lesley has a BSc in Psychology from Goldsmiths College, an MA in Social Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies and a PhD in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Simon Tarr is Chief Financial Officer of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). He joined NFER in June 2024.

Simon is a senior executive with extensive commercial, charitable and not-for-profit experience. At NFER, Simon's focus is to contribute to the organisation's strategy, guide commercial decisions, draw out key insights from complex financial data and oversee the effective management of risk.

Prior experience and professional background

Simon has had exposure to a varied number of customer focused companies and has had responsibility for leading key support functions including finance, human resources, IT, facilities management and the management of corporate risk. Before joining NFER, Simon was part-time CFO of UK Hospitality Industries (hospitality trade association) and CFO of Enable (not for profit organisation working in partnership to deliver health, leisure and community services and events).

His earlier roles included Chief Executive/ CFO of People 1st (performance and management consultancy); Finance and Project Consultant at Diamond Trading Company and Financial Director at Sports.com.

Simon has a BA (Hons) degree (2:1) in Economics at Portsmouth University and is a Chartered Accountant (ICAEW). Simon served as Chair of Governors at Manby Lodge Infant School and is currently a trustee and member of the Social Policy Committee at LHA London - a charity providing young people with affordable, safe and secure accommodation in London.

Maddie is Director of Communications and leads the Sales, Marketing and Impact (SMI) teams at NFER.

Greg Woodcock is Director of Operations

Phil took-up the role of NFER Interim Chief Digital Officer in June 2024.

Prior experience and professional background

Phil is a very experienced senior finance and IT professional who has undertaken interim roles across a wide range of not-for-profit and private sector organisations. Phil has led IT functions in several of his roles before joining NFER, both locally and internationally, and has been responsible for developing and delivering IT strategy and major platform changes in a variety of contexts. The combination of his senior financial and IT management expertise and extensive executive leadership has led to Phil’s strong record of achievement.

Phil is a fellow Chartered Management Accountant (FCMA).