David is the executive chairman of the Education Policy Institute, and the Education Partnerships Group – the international arm of the Ark education charity. Alongside this, David is a senior adviser to GK Strategy, a Trustee for the Teacher Development Trust, an advisory council member for Future First, and Chairman of the UPP Advisory Board. Following roles at J.P. Morgan and Barclays, David left the City to work in politics. David was elected MP for Yeovil in 2001, and served in this capacity until 2015. From 2012 to 2015 David was Schools Minister and Minister of State in the Cabinet Office.

Sally is Director of all United Learning Secondary Academies. She also chaired The Dame Sally Coates’ Review of Prison Education. She joined United Learning in September 2014. Her previous role was as Principal of Burlington Danes Academy, which she turned around from one of the lowest performing to one of the highest performing schools in the country. She was acting as Executive Principal at Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton until July 2012 and Executive Principal of Ark Putney and West London Free School until July 2014. Prior to that, Sally was Head of Sacred Heart School an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ VA school in Camberwell, London Borough of Southwark. Sally chaired The Review of the Teaching Standards and most recently chaired the Skills Test Review. She also served as a member of the Key Stage 2 Test Review Committee under the chairmanship of Lord Bew. Sally was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2013 New Year’s Honours List.

James has been working in Graduate Recruitment for over 20 years and in late 2018 he spotted an opportunity to build on nearly 15 years’ experience with Teach First to help address the wider public service leadership challenge the UK by setting up the charity ‘Transform Society’ an alliance of the five programmes recruiting top talent into the most needed roles in society (Teach First, Frontline, Police Now, Think Ahead and Unlocked). In addition, he supports Teach for All and their partners across the world with marketing, positioning, scale, partnerships and recruitment. James is a founding Trustee of Frontline, Police Now, Think Ahead and Unlocked, and an advisory board member of The Springboard Bursary Foundation. James also supports a number of university employer/career services including Birmingham, York and Leicester.

Having started his career in Commercial Property Finance at Continental Bank and HSBC, Robert recently retired from a role as Head of European Real Estate and member of the Investment Committee at Doughty Hanson. For 12 years before this he was CEO of The Langham Estate. Robert has a longstanding commitment to social mobility, especially in the context of education. He served as Vice Chair of Governors at Cambridge School in Hammersmith, a special educational needs school, which led to him becoming a Founding Governor of Skinners’ Academy in Hackney and subsequently Chair of Governors, providing a critical link between the sponsoring livery company and the school.

Nicola Marfleet has over 20 years of experience of working within the Prison Service. She started out on the frontline as a prison officer in 2000.  Since then, she has worked in a wide variety prisons across the country. Her roles have spanned institutions serving women and young people through to the high security male estates. These have included HMP East Sutton Park, HMP Swaleside, HMP Elmley, HMP Pentonville, and HMP Woodhill, where she currently leads in her role as Governor.

Nicola is passionate about developing potential in teams, growing leaders, and mentoring women in the workplace.  She speaks widely on team dynamics and shifting culture within the workplace, and is a guest lecturer for Leadership College London.

Nathan is a 2019 Unlocked Graduates Ambassador, and currently works as a Skills Strategy Advisor at the Department for Education. During his time on the programme, Nathan supported and safeguarded some of our society’s most vulnerable and challenging young people in HMYOI Feltham; drafted a group policy paper focused on improving remand prisoners’ treatment; and was a member of Unlocked’s inaugral Diversity and Inclusion Advisory group. With a particular interest in tackling inequalities in criminal justice and education, Nathan has also held a range of advisory roles at various charities and initiatives. This includes being a member of the Careers and Enterprise Company’s youth advisory group and advising the Metropolitan Police through their Central London Youth Forum.

Emma is a qualified solicitor who has worked for law firms such as Allen & Overy and as the head of legal in various multinationals. She now operates as a consultant providing legal support and management skills training to lawyers.

Emma’s involvement in the criminal justice system ranges from her experience as a referral order panel member, volunteer for the charity StoryBook Dads, an advisor for Children Heard and Seen and as an Independent Monitoring Board member at a women’s prison. She has experience as a trustee of various charities and is currently also a trustee of Unlock (a charity for people with criminal records).

Tom Shinner is Chief Operating Officer of Entrepreneur First (www.joinef.com), which brings together extraordinary people to found technology startups in Bangalore, Berlin, Paris, London, Singapore and Toronto. EF has helped more than 3,000 people build more than 500 companies currently worth more than $7 billion. Before EF, Tom spent seven years in the UK Civil Service, serving on the main board of two departments – as Director of Strategy at the Department for Education, and as the director at DExEU coordinating the UK’s domestic policy and technical implementation of Brexit across government. Tom started his career at McKinsey & Company, serving in the London and Middle East offices, and in 2010 he co-founded a thriving Free School in South London.

Angela currently works for a global insurance company and heads up the Firm’s Finance team within the Europe Asset Management division. She has previously held senior roles at JP Morgan Chase and Accenture.

Angela is also a Non Executive Director at a medical charity and at a UK social enterprise. She is an Alumni Ambassador for Pembroke College, Oxford, and Chair of the College’s BlackPembroke group.

Natasha is the CEO and founder of Unlocked Graduates. She developed the concept while working with Dame Sally Coates on her review into prison education and has led the organisation from its inception in 2016. Since then, Unlocked Graduates has recruited nearly 900 graduates to be prison officers, working in 38 prisons across England and Wales, currently reaching more than 30,000 prisoners.

Natasha has a background in public sector start-ups and was previously a teacher and senior leader in inner city schools, co-founding King Solomon Academy and leading their frontier cohort to groundbreaking GCSE results in 2014. Natasha has also worked as a government adviser and at the Westminster think tank Policy Exchange.

Natasha is an advisor to the Children’s Commissioner and a commissioner for The Times Crime and Justice Commission. She is a charity trustee at Impetus PEF and Get Further, with a particular interest in improving outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. She sits on the Grants and Evaluation committee at the Youth Endowment Fund and the Building Future’s Advisory Board at Prison Reform Trust. In 2022 Natasha was awarded an OBE for services to HM Prison and Probation Service.

Libby joined Unlocked in 2017, and has held various roles including Head of Region and Programme Director. In her current role as Chief Operating Officer, she oversees all aspects of the day-to-day performance, governance and delivery of the organisation.

Libby brings a wealth of experience in education, teacher training and leadership development. She trained as a teacher in 2009 before moving to work at charity, Teach First where she designed and delivered teacher training. The travel bug kicked in and in 2014 Libby moved to Hong Kong where she took up the post of Head of English, and later Vice Principal in an international school.

Laurence rejoined Unlocked in 2024 as Recruitment and Marketing Director, having previously worked as the Head of Delivery from 2020 to 2022. Laurence leads the overall strategy for how we attract, select and retain the best candidates to join our Leadership Development Programme. In between Unlocked roles, he was the co-CEO at the Runnymede Trust, the UK’s leading independent race equality think tank.

Laurence has a background in third-sector programme and operational leadership, including having led the delivery of the National Citizen Scheme at The Challenge. Laurence started his career in youth work and continues to volunteer for a number of charities supporting disadvantaged young people.

Laura joined Unlocked in 2024 and, as Programme Director, oversees our largest team. She is responsible for every aspect of our participants’ journey – from the start of their initial training, through a two-year leadership development programme, and as they begin to take the next steps in their careers as Unlocked Ambassadors.

Before Unlocked, Laura held various senior roles in the criminal justice system and Government, focused on  innovative and evidence-based policy design and delivery including at the Home Office, running the What Works Team in the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit, leading the Strategy unit in the Youth Justice Board and a stint at the UN. She has also served as a trustee to several charities including the Stephen Lawrence Trust and the Griffins Society. Most recently, she was the Head of the Serious Violence Reduction Unit at the Home Office with oversight of Government policy and programmes to tackle serious violence and homicide.

Sam joined Unlocked Graduates in 2023, bringing with him a wealth of policy and external relations experience. As External Relations Director, he leads the team responsible for Unlocked’s communications and public affairs activities.

Prior to joining Unlocked, Sam spent several years working in government and was the head of several ministerial offices at the Department for Education, where he worked directly with ministers on all aspects of higher education policy. A lawyer by training, he started his career at a large Magic Circle law firm and was most recently a senior director at a US litigation boutique specialising in cross-border disputes and crisis management strategies for international private clients.

Liam joined Unlocked Graduates as Associate Director of Impact and Insights in 2023, with an extensive background in public sector graduate leadership. He has a passion for applying research evidence to help public services maximise their performance and impact for social good.

Before joining Unlocked, he spent six years as Head of Impact at Police Now. Prior to this, Liam worked in strategic research, evaluation and performance roles across the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and within the Metropolitan Police Service. Liam has a PhD in Sociology and has published widely on issues relating to organisational cultures, performance and legitimacy. Additionally, he volunteers with the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, providing support on impact evaluation and data storytelling.

Samantha started with Unlocked in 2020 and has held several roles including Programme and Events Manager and Head of Delivery. She is currently Associate Director of Middle Leadership, overseeing Unlocked’s new middle leadership development programme Unlocked ChangeMakers

Samantha has a background in events within the higher education sector. She previously worked at University College London (UCL) and SOAS University of London, where she led the organisation of recruitment events and graduation ceremonies.

Mike joined Unlocked Graduates as Head of Finance in 2024, bringing extensive finance experience from the charity sector. He is passionate about applying his skills in a mission-led organisation to help teams understand budgets and maximise their effectiveness.

His background includes roles as Finance Manager at ActionAid UK, International Project Auditor at PKF Littlejohn, and Financial Controller at GOAL Haiti, with experience across Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean. Mike holds a CIMA finance qualification, a master’s in Education, Gender, and International Development, and is fluent in French.

Ailsa joined Unlocked Graduates as Head of Curriculum in 2024, where she leads the design and delivery of Unlocked’s two-year programme. With a strong foundation in evidence-informed pedagogy and extensive experience in secondary education, Ailsa has held senior leadership roles, including Senior Vice Principal, where she focused on enhancing educational quality and advancing teacher development.

Ailsa also brings deep expertise in graduate leadership programmes. At Teach First, she oversaw high-quality instructional coaching for trainee teachers, while at Frontline, she developed curricula for both trainee social workers and their mentors. She later expanded her impact by designing and implementing the Pathways curriculum, tailored for managers and leaders in children’s social work.

Danielle started her career in the prison service in 2008 working with female prisoners, before moving to work across a range of establishments where she trained new staff and worked as a Custodial Manager.

Danielle initially joined Unlocked Graduates in 2017 as a Mentoring Prison Officer (MPO) on secondment, and now works as Head of Region (South) developing and training our MPO’s, overseeing participant progress and building relationships across our placement prisons in London and the South East. Danielle has a passion for developing staff and supporting mental health. She is a Mental Health First Aid Instructor for both the Adult and Youth qualifications.

Tessa joined Unlocked in 2022 as Regional Manager (North) from The Difference, a school inclusion charity where she worked as Operations and Programme Manager.
Tessa has a background in social innovation, coaching and programme management, with experience across a number of third-sector organisations. Tessa started as Head of Regions (North) in 2023.

Beginning her career within international development, Tessa turned her attention to UK social issues, completing the Year Here Fellowship in social innovation and entrepreneurship. Tessa previously co-founded her own social enterprise, Lemonade which used coaching and creativity to support young people with their mental health. As a participant on the British Exploring Stellar Leadership Development programme and a member of the She Leads Change community, Tessa brings a keen interest in ethical leadership and social change to Unlocked.

Mike joined the Prison Service in 2005, working at HMP Wandsworth as an Operational Support Grade before becoming a Prison Officer in 2007.  He has undertaken several roles, including that of a POELT Mentor for new staff where he was introduced to the Unlocked programme. In 2020, Mike joined Unlocked Graduates in the role of Regional Manager (South).

Sam joined the team in 2023 as Regional Manager for the south, overseeing the progression and success of the Unlocked prison officers in this region. Her career started in London as a primary teacher where she was maths lead and was responsible for implementing and driving curriculum change. She also coordinated a teacher research group that lead to embedding mastery within schools in southwest London. With a background in psychology and education, Sam enjoys fostering relationships with others and empowering them to ensure they achieve their highest potential.

Ryan worked in the prison service for over 6 years. He started his career at HMP Wymott, and then worked in a variety of roles such as Band 3 Officer, Operations Team Member, and SO/Programmes Facilitator.

Before joining Unlocked Graduates, Ryan was Acting CM where he managed the VP induction and General Population. He has a particular interest in rehabilitation and developing new staff. Ryan was attracted to the Mentoring Prison Officer role as a chance to share his knowledge and promote rehabilitation culture. Ryan currently works as the Regional Manager for the North.

Karan was appointed Ambassador Network Manager in May 2022. He is a 2018 Unlocked Graduates Ambassador having spent two years as a frontline Prison Officer on the programme and former Ambassador Board Trustee of Unlocked Graduates. Karan is responsible for managing and working with the Unlocked Ambassador Community and supports ambassadors to continue working toward the mission of reducing re-offending beyond their two years on the programme.

Kate joined Unlocked in 2021 as Programme Intern and now works as Programme Officer, supporting the delivery of high-quality events and communications with Unlocked participants and stakeholders.

Kate received her BA in history from Bristol University and has previously worked for Stratford Literary Festival, a charity that promotes the benefits of reading and writing in schools, the community and prisons.

Jack was a participant in the first cohort of Unlocked Graduates starting in 2017, where he worked as a Prison Officer at HMP Brixton. After completing the two-year programme, Jack worked as a Project Coordinator for the charity User Voice; helping them mobilise two new service user council projects in the South West of England.

Following this role, Jack returned to Unlocked Graduates as a Programme Officer (Curriculum Focus). As part of this role Jack helps to design and develop the curriculum content that participants receive at Summer Institute and throughout their time on the programme.

Katie joined Unlocked in March 2022 as the Events Officer, co-ordinating and managing the delivery of our busy events calendar and looking after various logistical elements of our Summer Institute.

Katie has previously worked at HMP Thameside in the Resettlement function, organising in-prison employment events and assisting men approaching their release with developing skills for employability.

George joined Unlocked as Communications Officer in 2024, bringing experience in corporate and strategic communications working with healthcare and life sciences organisations.

At Unlocked, George looks after the organisation’s media relations, social media, brand and messaging, and supports the rest of the External Relations team with public affairs activities and our work with a variety of partner organisations.

Sakya joined Unlocked as Operations Coordinator in April 2023. After receiving her BSc in Biological Sciences, she went on to work for the United Nations World Food Programme in Sri Lanka. Here, she supported the EPR team in delivering urgent food assistance to communities affected by disasters and emergencies.

At Unlocked, Sakya is responsible for office and HR management, staff event planning, collaborative support across teams and acts as the Executive Assistant to the CEO.

Keshav joined Unlocked Graduates as an Impact Coordinator in May 2023, eager to apply his background in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioural economics to pioneer evidence-based strategies that demonstrate the organization’s impact. He holds a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Glasgow, where he conducted research on the neuroscience of learning and memory.

In his role at Unlocked Graduates, Keshav looks after research and evaluation efforts, leveraging his analytical skills to extract key insights from data and statistics.

Prior to joining Unlocked Graduates, he gained valuable experience as a research assistant in Glasgow. Keshav is passionate about translating scientific findings into real-world impact. With his background in behavioural science and his passion for evidencing social impact, he looks forward to innovating strategies that further the organization’s positive influence.