Board of Directors +

Pamela Chesters: Board Chair

Pamela is currently the Chair of Council at the University of Bath and an Associate with NHS Providers, delivering training in matters of governance. She has recently stood down as a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, completing her six-year term of office. She is a former Chair of the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust, Anchor Trust and Action for Children, and served as an adviser for Health and Families to the London Mayor from 2009 to 2012. Prior to that she held a series of senior management positions at British Petroleum between 1979 and 1998.

Pamela is a former primary school governor, special needs school governor and FE college governor and in the late 1990s served on the Local Government Education Executive. She was awarded a CBE in 2013 for services to vulnerable children.  

Dr Carolyn Brown

Carolyn joined the ISI Board in 2019. She has worked as a CIO and leader of transformation in a variety of industries world-wide, including Higher Education, Retail and B2B ecommerce. She has extensive experience of strategy and IT leadership in both public and private sectors, and has been responsible for quality and governance in an awarding body.

She has taught both maths and computing at school and university level.

Dr Simon Camby

Simon is currently Group Education Director for Cognita – a global school group with schools in 12 countries.  Simon has worked in a range of roles in the education sector including as a teacher and Head of School in the UK and Middle East. He was also the founding Chief Executive of a multi academy trust in the UK and Director of Evaluation & Development at the Council of International Schools.

Simon is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and holds a doctorate from University College London. He is also an Academic Associate at the Institute of Education UCL where he teaches on the MBA (Educational Leadership).

Carol Iddon

Carol was Deputy Chief Executive of Action for Children and Managing Director of Children’s Services at Action for Children, a role she has had since 2016 with overall responsibility for the delivery of services across the UK, including safeguarding and practice improvement function.

Carol joined Action for Children (then NCH) in July 2003 and during her time with Action for Children she has held several senior roles including Assistant Director for Business Development, Operational Director Children’s Services for North West England, Strategic Director for England North and Director of Children’s Services for the UK North, with responsibility for managing all operational services across Scotland and the North of England. Carol was also interim CEO between February 2018 – August 2018.

Carol is a qualified social worker and she worked for 18 years in local authority children’s services in a range of services for children, young people and families including child protection, looked after children and children in need. Prior to qualifying as a social worker Carol worked in children’s residential care. Carol is the safeguarding lead on the Board. 

Robert Okunnu

Robert is the Chief Executive Officer of the Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health.  He joined the college in March 2019 as Director of Policy and External Affairs and became Chief Executive Officer in October 2022.

Robert is a strategic communications leader with over 20 years’ experience across a mix of organisations and sectors. As Director of Membership, Policy & External Affairs, he oversaw the College’s teams covering membership, marketing, events, media, public affairs, policy, campaigning, digital and creative media. His extensive experience spans prior leadership roles in private and public sector organisations such as Water UK, Tesco PLC, the pharmaceutical company MSD and the British Medical Association.

Robert is a Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Chartered PR Practitioner.

Andreas Raffel

Andreas was appointed to the ISI Board in May 2022. He is a senior leader and non-executive with over 30 years of Board-level experience across multiple sectors and geographies.

Andreas has advised private and public sector boards in numerous strategic transactions, plus held significant global leadership positions at Rothschild and Morgan Stanley.

As a non-executive director, committee chair and senior advisor, Andreas has extensive knowledge of and experience in resolving board and corporate governance issues. He is also an investor in early stage ventures in the UK and overseas.

Steve Watmough

Steve was appointed to the ISI Board in May 2022. He is currently Executive Chair of Mason Advisory – an independent digital and technology consulting firm. This follows a career spanning over 30 years across the IT management and consulting industries.

Steve has broad ranging non-executive and senior advisory experience. This includes as a Trustee for the Child Poverty Action Group UK, a Vice President and Board Member of The Management Consultancies Association (MCA), a Member of the Digital & Technology Commission for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and as a member of the Cabinet Office’s SME Advisory Panel.

Steve is a competitive Masters runner and sits as an Independent Non-Executive Director for Triathlon England.

Sally Stephens

Sally joined the ISI board in 2023. She is the Senior Governance Consultant at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the sector infrastructure body supporting charities across England. She specialises in board and governance reviews, training for trustees and senior leaders, and in complaints management processes. 

Prior to her work in consultancy, Sally was the head of governance at a large charity, where she not only worked closely with board directors but also led on strategy development and implementation. She has a particular interest in effective monitoring and evaluation of strategic initiatives to create social impact. 

Outside of work, Sally has a keen interest in the arts and youth sector, and has held board positions with a number of community arts charities. She has also acted as secretary for a charity supporting families who have experienced sudden child bereavement. 

Leadership team +

Vanessa Ward: Chief Executive-Chief Inspector

Vanessa joined ISI in February 2021 in this newly merged role.

After graduating from the University of Edinburgh with MA (Hons) in English Literature, Vanessa attended the College of Law in London and Guildford before qualifying as a solicitor with first class honours. She practised for a number of years in London, specialising in commercial and media law. Having retrained as a teacher, her career in education leadership includes the headship of one of the highest performing state schools in the UK. While a headteacher, Vanessa was a member and elected vice-chair of the local authority schools forum.

Vanessa joined Ofsted as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors Education (HMI), where she led inspections in both the state and independent sectors. Vanessa was seconded to the newly-formed Unregistered Schools Taskforce, which conducted criminal investigations into illegal educational provision. Vanessa also has commercial experience building a successful education consultancy practice supporting school improvement. She has combined this with her work as a School Improvement Partner (SIP) for Achieving for Children in Richmond and Kingston local authorities, while continuing her work with Ofsted as an Ofsted Inspector.

Vanessa has also served on a school governing body as both foundation and parent governor, including chairing the governors’ personnel committee.

John Timothy: Chief Operating Officer

John joined ISI in May 2021 as Chief Operating Officer. His role is responsible for all operational functions within ISI including Finance, HR, Information Services and Inspection Delivery.

Prior to joining ISI, John was Chief Executive of the Portman Group, the UK alcohol industry’s marketing and labelling regulator. As CEO, John oversaw the development and implementation of a new Code of Practice, seeking to drive up standards in the responsible marketing of alcohol. Prior to this, John spent more than ten years working in a range of senior communications, policy and public affairs roles at Tesco, spanning the UK, EU and Asia. In his final role, he led the company response to Brexit, working across the business to identify the key issues arising from UK withdrawal from the EU and seeking to enact measures to mitigate the impact on customers and staff.

John is also Deputy Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Brilliant Club – an education charity that seeks to increase the number of less advantaged pupils accessing the UK’s most competitive universities and to support them to succeed when they get there. John has previously served as a school governor in a Hertfordshire primary school.

Michelle Winter: Senior Director (Inspections)

Michelle joined ISI in September 2021 having previously worked at Ofsted for 11 years as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI).  This included leading inspections across maintained schools and academies, non-association independent schools, British schools overseas and initial teacher education. Michelle was also a Senior HMI for six years, managing a team of HMI and with leadership responsibilities including for the quality of inspections across the East of England region. Prior to joining Ofsted, Michelle was the headteacher of two London schools. Since joining ISI, Michelle has held responsibility for inspection quality, training and leadership of national inspections. Since November 2024, Michelle leads our work across all inspection remits.

Board code of conduct +

The Board, acting individually and collectively, must observe the following Code of Conduct.

In particular, they must strive at all times to act in accordance with ISI’s values.

All Board Directors must:

Observe the highest standards of integrity, objectivity and independence, so that confidence in ISI is sustained by both staff and stakeholders.

Uphold the values of ISI, including promoting an inclusive and diverse culture, where different perspectives and backgrounds are encouraged and valued.

Deal with people fairly, efficiently, effectively and sensitively, to the best of their ability, whether acting in an ambassadorial capacity or with ISI staff or inspectors.

Apply their skills, knowledge and experience to the work of ISI, ensuring that they work at all times in the best interests of the organisation.

Ensure that value for money remains a guiding principle in inspection services, and appropriate arrangements are in place to secure the effective stewardship of funding from schools, colleges and other bodies we provide services to.