Cognus has its own Board, comprising of a Chair and six Non-Executive Directors (NEDs).
The Board meet bi-monthly and there is an annual meeting (AGM), where the company formally shares its accounts and business plans, and discusses items requiring shareholder sanction and approval. A number of the NEDs act as Board Champions for priority strategic areas including customer care, finance, staffing and quality assurance.
Our Board Members are:
Ian Comfort (Chair)
Ian is an educationalist and lawyer. He started his career as a maths teacher and youth worker. He has extensive experience in the management and direction of education services gained as a local authority director of education, chief executive of a large academy trust and an adviser, nationally and internationally, on education infrastructure and reform.
As a lawyer, he specialises in education and regulatory law and is a member of the Association of Regulatory and Disciplinary Lawyers. He currently chairs professional conduct tribunals for a range of occupations and sits as an employment judge and judge of the first tier tribunal. Alongside his professional practice, Ian is actively involved in direct work with children, young people and communities. He chairs the multi-award winning Ebony Steelband; the Carnival Village Trust, a national portfolio organisation for the Arts Council responsible for the Tabernacle arts centre in Notting Hill; and the Notting Hill Carnival, Europe’s largest street festival.
Kieran Holliday (Non-Executive Director)
Kieran Holliday is the Director for Education, Integrated Services and Safer Communities. He leads the education functions, with the London Borough of Sutton having overall responsibility for education funding, education policy and strategy. Part of his portfolio also includes Targeted Early Help, Children’s Residential Provision and Community Safety. Prior to this, he was the Head of Pupil Based Commissioning, leading on the Borough’s school organisation and capital strategy. He has held numerous roles in Education at Sutton, Surrey, and in other education organisations over the last 20 years both in the public and private sector.
Bradley Peyton (Non-Executive Director)
Bradley Peyton is Head of Financial Planning and Business Partnering for Sutton Council. Bradley is responsible for the council’s budget planning and the provision of financial support and guidance to its various services. In previous roles he has been pivotal to the implementation and ongoing success of the integrated insurance services provided to various Surrey councils and education insurance schemes providing cover to over 100 maintained and academy schools. Bradley has developed high-performing, revenue-generating services for Sutton Council and contributes this expertise to the board.
Jenny Sims (Non-Executive Director)
Jenny has spent all her working life to date in education working as an English teacher in London and Milton Keynes in secondary schools as well as working in adult and further education for over 40 years as a teacher, assessor, verifier, manager, and principal. Jenny has extensive experience working as an External Examiner and Moderator for GCSE and vocational qualifications from pre-entry levels to level 5. Additional experience gained working as an Ofsted inspector highlights a key interest in quality assurance and improvement. Jenny is currently working within the education field maintaining currency and understanding which she also applies to her Governor roles being a Chair of Governors in 2 primary schools and Jenny is the Chair of the Board of Governors of Sutton College . Jenny is also currently the Chair of the Schools Forum.
Other key interests in the Borough include being Chair of the Board of Trustees for Community Action Sutton
Akin Akintola (Non-Executive Director)
Akin is an experienced NED and qualified Chartered Accountant with a good mix of using CFO (strategic) and hands on FD/Programme Director skills in a career spanning 25 years covering business development, business modelling, funding for growth, acquisition and divestiture experience in commercial, NFP/Local Authority and SMEs. Akin has extensive experience of transformation and customer facing programmes, in UK Education sector; service-based businesses, retail and manufacturing operations, in the UK and Internationally, resulting in the change in organisational culture and profit improvements /value propositioning and enhancements.
Joanne Guerin (Non Executive Director)
Joanne is a highly experienced and dedicated Headteacher with over 20 years of expertise in mainstream education. She has a proven track record of leading schools through significant transformation, most notably guiding her current school out of special measures. Passionate about social mobility and inclusion, Joanne is committed to ensuring that every child receives the best possible educational experience.
With a strong profile in school improvement, she is particularly focused on understanding children’s behaviour, fostering a supportive environment where every child can thrive. Under her leadership, her school has been recognised as a Centre for Excellence for Inclusion. She continues to drive high standards in all aspects of school life, always striving for educational excellence and working tirelessly to raise the aspirations and achievements of all students.
Tracey O’Brien (Non-Executive Director)
Tracey O’Brien is a headteacher and has worked in London schools for over 30 years. She has been responsible for improving teaching and learning, delivering high-quality CPD, planning school self-review and evaluation, and has also led on behaviour and inclusion. She worked for London Challenge, supporting other schools, and was the Director of one of the early National Teaching Schools. Tracey is a leadership coach, has written leadership courses for middle and senior leaders, delivered teaching programmes as an Advanced Skills Teacher and was awarded one of the few London Commissioner Teacher roles. She has published ‘School self-review – a sensible approach’, and ‘Rethinking School inspection’. She is passionate about inclusive education and the ‘every child matters’ agenda.
Joanna Cassey (Managing Director)
Joanna has worked in education throughout her professional career starting as a secondary school teacher in West Sussex, progressing on to various school leadership positions before moving into other education-related roles including founder/director of a nationwide teacher training company; senior examiner for AQA exam board; published author of a variety of education resources; South East Director for Skillset; South East Lead for the Teacher Development Agency, senior leader within the Department for Education and education leadership roles across several local authority areas including Powys, Surrey and Buckinghamshire.
Joanna is an Institute of Leadership and Management Executive Coach and has Chartered Management status. Joanna is a Director of Sutton Music Trust (a subsidiary charity of Cognus) and is Cognus’ Designated Safeguarding Lead.
Joanna sits on a range of local area partnership Boards including the Education Leadership Group, Education Operations Group, Local Area Safeguarding Partnership, Sutton SEND Strategic Partnership and the Helping Early Board.