Southwark Governors

Jane Button

Jane joined NCG's Lewisham College in December 2020 as Vice Principal Learner Experience and Resources, with an impressive track record in the FE sector and a commitment to inclusive education and supporting those with significant social barriers to learning. She has a wealth of experience in curriculum, support services management and commercial as well as a cross-college view of the learner experience, helping to secure her recent appointment as Principal of Southwark College.

First in her family to go to university, Jane studied English at Huddersfield University and went on to gain her Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) before starting her first post as a Media and English Teacher at Newham Sixth Form College in East London in 1999. She moved into her first management position in Brooke House Sixth Form College (BSix) in Hackney in 2001, a role which forged her passion for curriculum innovation and delivery.

Jane's commitment to inclusive education can be seen throughout her 20 years of experience leading and managing post-16 education in some of the most disadvantaged London Boroughs, including Newham, Hackney, Westminster, Lambeth, and Lewisham.

With over 10 years of experience in senior leadership roles in Further Education colleges, Sixth Form colleges, Adult Education Services, and as a founding Principal of an employer-led National College, Jane has a wealth of experience in curriculum, support services management and commercial as well as a cross-college view of the learner experience.

Kim Caplin

Kim has worked in the education sector for over 30 years and has held a range of management and leadership roles in both schools and Further Education colleges. A qualified teacher she has a thorough knowledge and expertise in curriculum design and its role in enhancing quality for learners, staff and the organisation. She has also led on systematic improvements to teaching and learning and especially the role of innovative teaching. She is currently Director of Jasia Education where she works on a range of projects which support partnerships of schools and colleges with universities and employers.

Until 2020 Kim was Principal of Westminster Kingsway College, a General Further Education College and DCEO of Capital City College Group previously having been Vice-Principal for 7 years. The college is known for its excellence in vocational education especially for its award-winning work in Hospitality where it received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education. During this period the college has also won several awards for its partnership engagement, careers education and work with learners with special educational needs. Updating her expertise, she completed the Strategic Leadership Programme for Principals and CEOs at the SAID Business School, Oxford University.

She has advised on policy development at a local, regional and national level, and has been a member of the DFE Advisory Group for 16-18 Study Programmes and advisory groups for the Youth Justice Board. Kim has also been a Trustee for Coram Life Education a national children’s charity for 8 years and is currently also a Trustee for Inspire! Education Business Partnership and OCN London. She is a member of the London Symphony Community Choir, enjoys cycling and hopes to ride for charity once COVID subsides.

Holly Roberts-Harry

Holly is a financial services professional having spent the majority of her career in investment banking. Holly works at NatWest where she has held a range of investment banking roles - both customer facing and strategic. She currently supports the Infrastructure and Utilities franchise, supporting these customers with financing and risk management needs. Prior to that Holly advised the CEO of NatWest’s Markets franchise during a period of significant transformation in addition to the pandemic.

Holly is a CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) charter holder and is passionate about championing climate action. In 2021 completed she the NatWest Group Climate Change Transformation Programme in partnership with the University of Edinburgh.

Roy Senoga

Roy Senoga is a Paralegal at MYPINPAD Ltd (a software company) and has more than five years’ in-house experience in commercial and corporate paralegal roles supporting global businesses that provide regulated post-trade technologies and solutions to the banking and payments industries. During such time, Roy gained experience shaping and instituting corporate governance structures and practices aimed at facilitating strategic decision-making and effective oversight.

Roy has also been an active promoter of diversity, inclusion and greater representation. He is currently a diversity and inclusion champion at MYPINPAD and he was previously a member of the leadership team of DTCC’s Black Business Professional Network in which he was part of a global team of employees who pushed for greater representation of the diversity of DTCC’s black employees; and sought to create a more inclusive work culture through various events spanning networking opportunities, Q&A sessions and black history events.

Prior to the start of his career, Roy graduated from the University of Hull with a Bachelors in Law with Philosophy (European Legal Studies) which included a year studying law abroad at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

As a governor, Roy will exercise scrutiny and oversight from a position of empathy and understanding of a community that has been his own for many years.

Jasmine Ali

Jasmine is a local Councillor, serving the people of Rye Lane Ward, where she lives with her partner and two children. She is Lead Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Adult Social Care in Southwark.

Between 2014 and 2018 Jasmine chaired Southwark Council's Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee at Southwark. I have a background in local government as an officer, senior manager and more recently a local politician.

Jasmine has 20 years’ experience in the public sector, with 15 years of senior management experience, including Westminster City Council, where she had a major focus on the provision of services to vulnerable and disadvantaged children. As Head of the London Asylum Seekers Consortium (LASC), Jasmine was responsible for operational and strategic direction for all London local government, on all aspects of asylum support and refugee integration.

Austen Atkinson

Austen has been a strategic and tactical project lead in novel technology, Ai, immersive, communications & broadcast, and digital for blue chips such as Google, the BBC, News International, Sky / Fox, Pearson, History, Channel 4, and local government. He has worked all over the world and has now have come home to North East UK with the intention of making a difference in his home region. After his early years at Marvel Comics, he worked initially in broadcast and the BBC trained him in interactive tech, working on Video On Demand platforms. To understand user narratives and how people think and react, Austen was trained under Hollywood story guru Robert McKee whose work a lot of advertisers use to understand the psychology of people. Then as Project Lead, Austen created technology and content strategies for some of the largest and most influential global organizations and leading brands: ABC, Virgin, ITV and many others. Ultimately becoming project lead for Google US / UK, innovating novel technologies which ended up being applied to tech in everyday use, like immersive mapping, VR and lens. Austen has developed a sound practical knowledge of product and service development, with a critical perspective on team-building. Austen likes to create a strategy, and problem-solve, digging into a puzzle and working it out, across all platforms. Using tracking, user data, all media, social, web, you can build a profile and get useful information about humans, whatever the project is – improving health for example. Austen could also use this know-how to get evidence. Ideally, he likes to work on projects that makes a difference to communities, consequently, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRSA) for his work in digital. Austen now lives in Sedgefield. Using digital as a multiplier, working remotely, he helps businesses all over the world and across the UK. Austen’s primary focus at the moment is smart tech, having developed smart City strategies for the UK, XR and metaverse, ai, situational awareness, data analytics and developing deep understanding of users and customers' data.

Jo Young

After A-Levels Jo was fortunate to stumble across an interesting role as a Trainee Healthcare Scientist which, through in service training and day release education, led to a fully funded MSc in Medical Radiation Physics and a fulfilling 30 year career in the NHS, including time at King’s College Hospital, Bart’s Health, Health Education England and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. This has made Jo passionate about supporting others to find the right career path for them regardless of starting point, and through various projects involving Apprenticeships, working with education providers and under-represented groups Jo found a new career leading on Widening Participation at Guy’s and St Thomas’.

As a South Londoner, Jo is passionate about ensuring local people understand and have access to the broad range of roles within the NHS, no matter what their background or starting point.
As well as being a Governor of Southwark College, Jo was a Governor or Southbank University Technical College for 8 years and is now a Trustee on the Southbank Academies Multi Academy Trust Board. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics & Engineering in Medicine and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Healthcare Science.

Hannah D’aguiar

With nearly 20 years’ experience in the education sector, I have considerable knowledge in education strategy, management in Further Education and the Not for Profit Sector. I have been responsible for successfully, restructuring curriculum and assessment systems whilst managing a team of teachers through organisational change. Having over 5 years’ experience in developing strategic goals and brokering new opportunities at a leading Disability Charity, gave me the opportunity to develop innovative ways of delivering work experience and work-related learning programmes for young people with SEND.

My strong educational knowledge led to my appointment as a Governor and later Chair, of a Primary school. I am a Trustee of two organisations, one an award winning Theatre Company, whilst the second is a Not for Profit arts organisation. I am an elected member of the Schools Forum for a Local Authority and have sat on Independent Review Panel’s for School Exclusions where I have also been the SEND Expert.

A published author with a keen interest in learning development, policy and governance, I would welcome the opportunity to use my knowledge and skills to be part of Southwark College’s Governing Body. A setting where I now work as Head of Faculty for Supported Learning and ALS.