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 founder and CEO at 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 over 600 graduates to be prison officers, working with over 20,000 prisoners across the country.

Natasha has a background in public sector start up and was previously a teacher and senior leader in inner city schools. This included 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 in the Westminster think tank Policy Exchange.

In her spare time, Natasha is an advisor to the Children’s Commissioner and a charity trustee at Impetus PEF and Get Further, with a particular interest in improving outcomes for vulnerable and disadvantaged children. She also 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.

Bodil joined Unlocked Graduates as an experienced leading adult trainer who has a passion for researching and applying the best teaching and learning techniques. She has spoken widely on these issues and been a course tutor for BPP’s PGCE (post-graduate certificate in education) as well as contributing to two books on initial training and continuing professional development. Bodil was a founding teacher and Head of Department at Michaela Community School, a free school in Brent. She is a Teach First Ambassador and spent two years as a Maths teacher in a Lee Valley school.

Liam has a passion for applying insights to help public services and leaders maximise their performance and impact for social good. He joined Unlocked Graduates in 2023, with a background in public sector graduate leadership having spent six years as Head of Impact at Police Now, which works to recruit diverse and outstanding graduates to the police service. Prior to this Liam worked in strategic research, evaluation and performance roles across the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime and Metropolitan Police Service.

Liam has an PhD in Sociology and has published widely covering issues relating to organisational cultures, performance and legitimacy. He holds voluntary positions as a trustee with StreetDoctors and the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust, providing support on impact evaluation and data storytelling.

Bella joined Unlocked in 2019 as Head of Region (North) overseeing the expansion into working with prisons across Greater Manchester and then the Midlands. She started in her role as Programme Director in February 2023.

Bella has expertise in Education, leadership development, coaching and management.  Having started her career as a Spanish teacher and head of department at an academy in London, Bella then moved to Manchester where she worked for education charity Teach First in a variety of roles, supporting and training teachers and managing teams, for eight years.

As Recruitment and Marketing Director, Erin leads the overall strategy for how we attract, select and retain the best candidates to start our Leadership Development Programme and works closely with our key stakeholders.

Erin joined at the start of 2023 after seven years working in graduate recruitment at Teach First. Erin started her career as a languages teacher and was a Head of MFL in Grimsby and North Manchester.

Sam joined Unlocked in 2023, bringing with him a wealth of policy and external relations experience. He 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 trade, he started his career at a large Magic Circle 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.

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.

Samantha started with Unlocked in 2020 as the Programme and Events Manager, before moving into her current role as Head of Delivery.

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

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).

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.

Grace joined Unlocked as a participant of the 2018 cohort where she worked as a Prison Officer at HMP Isis. After completing the two-year programme, she worked with the probation service, and later moved to a charity organisation as their London Programme Coordinator and Mentor.

Following this role, Grace returned to Unlocked Graduates as a Recruitment (Selection Officer) to support and recruit applicants for future Unlocked Graduate cohorts.

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.

Jasmine joined Unlocked in January 2022 as a Team Coordinator, working between the Recruitment and External Relations teams. She aids candidates through their application and onboarding processes for the Unlocked graduate programme and helps to communicate the Unlocked mission across various platforms.

Jasmine received her BA (Hons) in Hispanic Studies and French from the University of Warwick in 2020, before working on a translation project for Prison Insider with UN Volunteers. She then went on to complete an MSc in Global Governance from the University of Exeter, where she furthered her interest in social justice and policy.

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.

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.

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.

Gillian joined Unlocked in 2022 as Head of Curriculum, and oversees the design and development of the training participants receive over the two year programme.

She has expertise in the design and delivery of professional development and coaching programmes and worked as an education consultant in the international development space. She is driven by her desire to develop programmes that are informed by knowledge of international best practice, and current evidence from research in the science of learning.

Gillian started off her career as a Primary teacher in London, and has since supported the development and design of training programmes, educational resources, policy frameworks and professional standards, in South America, Africa, Asia, and the UK, and has taught in institutions in Uganda, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Spain and the UK.

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 where she helped to provide urgent food assistance to communities affected by disasters and emergencies.

At Unlocked, she is responsible for ensuring the smooth running of internal processes and acts as the Executive Assistant to the CEO, Natasha Porter OBE. Her passion for humanitarianism and social justice continues to inform her work, as she strives to make a meaningful difference in the lives of those around her.

Chloe sits within the Recruitment Team as an Attraction Officer. She first joined Unlocked as a participant on the 2020 Cohort, working at HMP Manchester across a variety of operational functions. Chloe provided support to at-risk prisoners on induction and complex cases units. She also took on additional responsibilities in a HMIP Liaison role.

Following the programme, Chloe worked as an Area Manager for a major UK Food Retailer, and later in Commercial Property Tax. She holds an MSc in Applied Custodial Leadership, and has a keen interest in driving the Unlocked mission forward by placing bright graduates into our prisons to carry out one of the toughest, but most rewarding, jobs there is.

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.

As an Attraction Officer, Sarita is passionate about identifying and recruiting top talent to join Unlocked Graduates’ two-year award-winning Leadership Development Programme. With over 5 years of experience in recruitment, Sarita enjoys building meaningful relationships and creating a positive candidate experience.

Prior to Unlocked, Sarita worked for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and The Football Association, where she enjoyed meeting inspiring individuals, and looks forward to meeting many more through Unlocked.

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.

Sarah joined Unlocked in 2023, with previous experience in the charity sector coming from the not-for-profit, Recreate NZ. She brings a vast skill set of stakeholder relationship knowledge, event planning, and management skills. As Recruitment Manager, she is the driving force behind our talent acquisition strategy. Sarah is dedicated to attracting top-tier candidates for our graduate scheme and oversee the entire recruitment process, from initial attraction through to onboarding.