EKC Group CEO and leadership

As Chief Financial Officer and Assistant CEO, Chris leads on all elements related to the Group's growing business portfolio, and its funding streams. He heads up all aspects of the Group’s strategic financial planning and ensures that the Group remains financially resilient and sustainable. Born, bred and educated in Folkestone, from a young age Chris found a love for music and sport. As a result of his talent he was selected for the junior Kent cricket team at the age of 13. Despite planning to go to university, at the age of 17 Chris decided to follow his dreams and signed a recording deal with an international record label. He performed in a duo, ‘The Clique’ and then a Britpop outfit ‘The Prophets of Pop’ for around nine years and, to this day, still finds time to enjoy his passion for music with a studio at home, as well as playing cricket for his local village team. Alongside his career in the music industry, Chris worked in retail before joining South Kent Community NHS Trust in 1993. He trained as a management accountant before joining the NHS Logistics Authority in 1998. Remaining in the public sector, Chris joined South Kent College in 2000 as a Management Accountant before being quickly promoted to Head of Finance & Payroll.

Paul is the Group’s Chief Strategy Officer. His role sees him lead on the Group’s strategic work, and planning for future growth and projects.

He also takes the lead on key stakeholder engagement, developing partnerships which support the Group’s strategic objectives across its provision. This involves him investigating how the Group can explore and exploit strategic initiatives with our key partners, while building new networks and consolidating existing partnerships. His role also sees him take responsibility for Group services.

Paul led on the merger of East Kent College and Canterbury College which has delivered the EKC Group. His expertise in stakeholder management ensured that this complex transaction was negotiated at a pace, and resulted in exceptional outcomes for all partners.

Holding a degree in Human and Computer Sciences, Paul began his career in the executive search sector, developing his talent for building relationships. He then moved to the Learning and Skills Council (the Skills Funding Agency’s predecessor), leading project teams responsible for implementing organisational change and performance management systems.

Paul progressed through a number of roles before becoming a Partnership Director where he developed relationships with FE Colleges and strategic partners across Kent, ensuring the delivery of key government policies and programmes including Apprenticeships, capital investment programmes and vocational education reform.

Before leaving the SFA, Paul worked as Head of Area Relationships with responsibility for £150m of public and private sector education and training contracts, as well as for strategic stakeholder partnerships.

Paul is married and lives in Tenterden with his wife Frances and their two children. Frances is a musician who works at the Royal Opera House accompanying ballet dancers and she also teaches piano. Paul is involved in music production but also enjoys hiking and running.

Lucy started her journey in the FE sector in 1998 as an English Foreign Language (EFL) Lecturer after spending a few years teaching English in northern Thailand. Inspired by her gap year experiences backpacking around the world after leaving school, Lucy’s time in Thailand followed her undergraduate studies at Lincolnshire University, where she graduated with a 2:1 in Environmental Studies. Back in the UK, Lucy built her career in FE, becoming a Programme Leader, and later progressing up the ranks to Director of Partnerships, where she was responsible for programmes for the unemployed, the management of subcontracting, and apprenticeships. In 2015, Lucy took on a new challenge as Vice Principal for Widening Participation at the former East Kent College. In this role, she steered the strategic direction of student support, and was the Senior Safeguarding Lead. She later progressed to become Principal of Broadstairs College, before joining Canterbury College in 2017. Most recently, Lucy took on the role as the Group's Chief Further and Higher Education Officer and Assistant CEO. Passionate about student voice, Lucy is committed to giving her students the best experience possible, going beyond just achieving a qualification. How a student develops personally whilst at College is a key focus of hers. Besides her role at the Group, Lucy also chairs the Kent and Medway Care Leavers Progression Partnership, which is committed to improving the progression opportunities of care experienced young people. Lucy is now married with two young children, who keep her fully occupied when she is not at work.

Nick started his career in the FE sector as a Lecturer in Art and Design before taking time out to work in India to develop an art school in Rajasthan.

On his return to the UK, Nick went on to gain experience in Advertising, but ultimately came back to FE and focused on building a career in the sector. During this time, Nick progressed through the ranks and went from Course Leader, to Principal for Partnerships in a matter of years.

After working at a range of colleges, Nick embarked on a new challenge in the private sector, developing commercial strategies and building diverse partnerships for the automotive, retail and fashion sectors.

However, after a number of years, Nick found himself once again beckoning to the call of the education sector, returning to the newly formed EKC Group in 2018 as Principal of Dover Technical College.

Nick is passionate about the student experience and the transformational potential of education and training, at all stages of peoples’ lives. In 2020, Nick seized the opportunity to become Principal of the Group’s Folkestone College.

Since then, Nick has been working to ensure the College’s purpose is directly aligned with regional opportunities, developing strong links with local employers and stakeholders who share his commitment to ensuring everyone has the opportunity to fulfil their highest potential; both academically and personally.

Alongside his role as Principal of Folkestone College, Nick is looking forward to drawing upon his wealth of experience to help develop the curriculum across EKC Group’s family of Colleges and Business Units as Chief Curriculum Officer.

Simon is the Group’s Chief People Officer, with a remit to take overall responsibility for the strategic people agenda and HR service delivery across the whole of EKC Group. As a seasoned HR leader, Simon has spent more than two decades working across the whole Human Resources sector. He has held a variety of HR leadership roles. Within this experience Simon has led on the formulation of overall people strategies within a number sectors, including Insurance, Travel, Financial Services and Higher Education. Within all of his former roles Simon has taken a pro-active approach to supporting, coaching and partnering executive business leaders and managers at all levels, in order to develop and implement people solutions that are tailored to the organisational needs. Simon has also led sizeable change projects in a number of former roles. These have included developing Recruitment and Smart Working Strategies for the Saga Group, as well as the strategic review of the remuneration, reward and commission schemes within sales and service centers throughout the UK. During his time at the University of Kent he was responsible for the design, development and deployment of a new appraisal scheme (RPD) that was successfully deployed to Academic and Professional Service employees. Within that role Simon also led numerous organisational design projects to create more cost effective and efficient business structures. As the pandemic began he also supported a number of cost saving initiatives across the University. Simon has been resident in east Kent throughout his life, living in both the Thanet and Deal areas. As a boy he attended school in Ramsgate, and also attended Broadstairs College for one day per week to undertake his GCSE in IT. Simon has been happily married for 21 years and lives in Deal with his wife Jenny, and grown up children Emily and Harry. He is a keen sportsman and still plays veterans football alongside enjoying the great outdoors whether on a run, cycle or a long walk.

Working as the Group’s Chief Operating Officer, Andrew leads the delivery of a whole host of the Group’s centralised services. He is the strategic lead for human resources, technology and systems, estates and a range of other business critical functions.

For Andrew, it is almost a case of ‘returning home’ as he is one of Broadstairs College’s alumni. He took his A-Levels at the College in 1991, when it was known as Thanet Tech, before beginning his career at Thanet District Council as a filing clerk. After five years with the council, and craving professional development and a new challenge, Andrew departed for Norfolk, taking up a position at Kings Lynn Council. He remained in post for the next four years, gaining experience and growing his skillset.

However, as an East Kent native, he yearned to return to the county, and in 1996 accepted the position of Benefits Manager at Shepway District Council (now Folkestone and Hythe District Council). He spent 2 years in post, before progressing to Canterbury City Council in the same role, but with an expanded remit.

In 2005, Andrew decided he wanted to experience service delivery in the private sector in order to develop a broader knowledge of his specialisms. He took up an Executive Consultant position with Civica which is a market leading specialist in digital systems. His time at the company gave him the opportunity to immerse himself in systems development, building a strong understanding of digital technologies and the way they could be implemented. After 18 months with Civica, Andrew returned to Canterbury City Council as the Head of Revenues and Benefits. He spent more than four years in the role, developing his team and leading the service successfully for the council.

In 2010 Canterbury City Council, Dover District Council and Thanet District Council decided to partner on a range of services. As a consequence, Andrew was tasked with setting up and delivering the new East Kent Shared Services within a very short period. After just months in his new role as Head of Shared Services, Andrew had developed the new sector-leading organisation, and began delivery for the three client councils. During his tenure as the Head of Shared Services Andrew brought the different systems together, aligning the various ways in which staff across the councils worked and creating significant efficiencies within the service as well as winning national awards.

Andrew lives in Ramsgate with his wife and two children. A keen runner he’s tackled 26 marathons through the years and still runs half marathons now. Within these, he’s also taken on a couple of ultra-marathons, showcasing his determination and resilience. As a person who loves living on the coast, Andrew’s also passionate about marine life, and highlights some of his most memorable and enjoyable experiences have been when he’s been able to dive with sharks!