Founder and Chairman
Peter Rosengard
Peter Rosengard is one of Britain’s leading Life Insurance salesmen. In 1990 he earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for selling the largest ever Life Insurance policy. Peter has been involved in a number of hobbies throughout his career: In 1979 he founded The Comedy Store in London, thus helping launch the careers of Alexei Sayle, Ben Elton, French and Saunders and many others. He enjoys reading, writing, drawing people in restaurants, painting, and riding around London on his red Vespa scooter.
Board of Trustees
Sir Anthony Seldon
Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham since 2015, is one of Britain’s leading contemporary historians, educationalists, commentators and political authors.
He was a transformative head for 20 years, first of Brighton College and then Wellington College. He is author or editor of over 40 books on contemporary history, including the inside books on the last four Prime Ministers, was the co-founder and first director of the Institute for Contemporary British History, is co-founder of Action for Happiness, honorary historical adviser to 10 Downing Street, UK Special Representative for Saudi Education, a member of the Government’s First World War Culture Committee, was chair of the Comment Awards, is a director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the President of IPEN, (International Positive Education Network), Chair of the National Archives Trust, is patron or on the board of several charities, founder of the Via Sacra Western Front Walk, and was executive producer of the film Journey’s End. He appeared on the Desert Island Discs in 2016. For the last fifteen years he has given all his money from writing and lecturing to charity. He has three children; his wife of 34 years, Joanna, died of cancer in December 2016.
Dame Sally Coates
In September 2014 Dame Sally joined United Learning and is National Director of Secondary Education. United Learning is the biggest Multi Academy Trust in the country with Dame Sally managing 46 secondary academies and 14 independent schools. Dame Sally was Principal of Burlington Danes Academy an 11 – 18 Ark Academy in Hammersmith & Fulham from 2008 – 2014. The school has 67% pupil premium and mostly serves the very deprived White City Estate. Burlington Danes was graded ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted in November 2013. She acted as Executive Principal at Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton until July 2012 and was Executive Principal of Ark Putney and West London Free School until July 2014.
Dame Sally was previously Head of Sacred Heart School an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ VA school in Camberwell, London Borough of Southwark. She has always worked in inner city schools in London and has been in teaching since 1976.
Dame Sally chaired The Review of the Teaching Standards in 2012 and also chaired the Teaching Skills Test Review in 2013. Her book ‘Headstrong’ 11 lessons of school leadership was published in February 2015. The Secretary of State for Justice, Michael Gove, asked Dame Sally to conduct an independent review into Prison Education in 2015. The Coates Review reported its findings in May 2016.
Sally was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2013 New Years Honours List. Dame Sally was awarded Fellowship of the College of Teachers in May 2016 and Fellowship of City and Guilds in April 2019.
Professor Colin Diamond CBE
Colin has worked in education leadership roles for over 40 years. He was a headteacher in London, Inclusion Adviser in the North East of England and Director of Education/Children’s Services in North Somerset and Birmingham with over 450 state schools. He led the education adviser team at the Department for Education and became Deputy Education Commissioner in Birmingham for the Secretary of State to lead the recovery following the Trojan Horse episode.
In 2018 he took up post as Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Birmingham with the mission to create an Education Leadership Academy that blended the best research with excellent practice on the ground.
He was awarded a CBE for services to education in 2016.
He is a lifelong supporter of Liverpool Football Club and used to play keyboards in probably the best blues band in the South West before Birmingham took over his life.
Dame Cressida Dick
Dame Cressida Dick spent over 38 years in public service, beginning as a patrol Police Constable in Soho. She served in the Met Police, Thames Valley Police and at the National Police College as well as spending two years as a DG at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As a senior police officer in the Met she held command roles in police responses over a 20 year period to multiple terrorist attacks both in the UK and overseas – beginning with 9/11 and the first ever deployment of UK family liaison officers overseas to a mass casualty event. Between 2007 and 2009 she was in charge of security and protection in the Met, and between 2011 and 2014 led UK counter terrorism policing before becoming Commissioner of the Met in 2017- a post she held for five years. She has always had a keen interest in how ‘communities beat terrorism’ and the importance of education in countering extremism in all its aspects.
Lady Lucy French OBE
Lucy French founded the charity, Never Such Innocence (NSI) in March 2014, and is currently CEO. NSI is an educational charity that gives young people across the UK and internationally the opportunity to reflect on conflict and how conflict impacts their lives and the world around them through poetry, art, speechwriting and song. It nurtures the next generation of thinkers, leaders and peace keepers through the arts, cultural exchange, dialogue and debate. NSI currently works with 9-18 year olds in 105 countries and fosters international dialogue, through workshops, roadshows and special events to bring children from different communities and indeed, countries together. Prior to Never Such Innocence, she opened the St. James Theatre, the first new theatre complex built in London for three decades. Over the years she has campaigned and fundraised for theatre, the arts and the voices of children.
Lucy sits on the Advisory Board for ‘Getting on with it: the micro-dynamics of post-accord intergroup social relations’ at Bristol University, is a Governor of Fairley House School, a committee member for the 2022 Lord Mayors Big Curry Lunch, an advisor to the Royal School of Church Music.
She was awarded an OBE in the 2019 New Year’s Honours List for Services to Young People and the Arts.
Matthew Hartley
Matthew is a legal consultant specialising in debt capital markets transactions with over 25 years’ experience working at Allen & Overy LLP, one of the leading legal practices in this area. He currently works as an Adviser at the Bank of England. Over his career, he has been involved in a wide range of different types of debt securities offerings across various jurisdictions, including emerging markets. Matthew also has experience of tax driven structures, capital issues for banks and UK building societies, sovereign debt restructurings and corporate reorganisations. Whilst a partner at Allen & Overy LLP, Matthew was trusted by clients to advise on complex strategic financings and restructurings, notably advising the bondholder committee in the Greek restructuring in 2011/12 (the largest ever sovereign bond exchange offer), advising Co-op Group on the recapitalisation of the Co-op Bank in 2013 and advising GE on its corporate reorganisation in 2015 (the largest ever corporate bond exchange offer).
Matthew is a liveryman in the City of London Solicitors’ Company and is chair of the Governance Advisory Group of the Ruth Strauss Foundation.
Ishtiaq Hussain
Ishtiaq Hussain is a Senior Civil Servant and an expert on countering extremism. He has led counter extremism work in several government departments since 2010 including setting up the Department for Education’s Due Diligence and Counter Extremism Unit (2011), being a lead member of the Acheson Review of Islamist Extremism in prisons, probation and youth justice at the Ministry of Justice (2015-16), heading the Extremism Disruptions and Counter Extremism Strategy teams at the Home Office (2017-20) and being a voluntary advisory board member on Ofsted’s Safeguarding Board (2017-20). In his current role he has established the Societal Resilience and Anti-Extremism Unit at the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (2022). He has also led work on tackling Race and Ethnic Disparities, Serious Violence and Violence Against Women and Girls.
Ishtiaq has also published articles and reports and delivered presentations in schools, colleges and universities nationally on specialist topics including Faith and National Security.
PATRONS
Lord Stanley Fink (Patron and Founding Supporter)
Lord Fink is CEO of International Standard Asset Management (ISAM) and is Treasurer of the Conservative Party. He studied at Trinity Hall College, Cambridge, qualifying with an MA in Law in 1979, then qualifying as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen. He joined Man Group in 1987 and held a number of key positions leading to Group Chief Executive in March 2000 and was appointed Deputy Chairman in March 2007. He is a committed philanthropist whose focus is health and education and his roles include being a Trustee of ARK, the Mayor of London’s Charity and Chairman of the Trustees of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. He is also chair of the board of governors of Burlington Danes Academy School.
Sir Simon Schama (Patron)
Sir Simon Schama, CBE, FRSL, FBA, is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University and a Contributing Editor of the Financial Times. He is the author of nineteen books and the writer-presenter of fifty documentaries on art, history and literature for BBC2.
SINCE 9/11 is a non-political and non-denominational charity. Registered Charity number 1136568. Registered in England number 7230819. Registered office Botanic House, 100 Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 1PH
For submitted accounts and details of our charity framework, please see our page at the Charity Commission.