Unlocked Graduates Appoints New Chair of the Board

Unlocked Graduates is delighted to announce the election of a new Chair of our Board of Trustees.

Unlocked’s Trustees have elected Dame Sally Coates DBE as the new Chair of the Board. Dame Sally has been a member of the Unlocked Graduates board since the organisation was founded in 2016 and has worked closely with the Unlocked team over the past nine years.

Dame Sally has an extensive background in school leadership and is an experienced headteacher. She has also chaired several independent, government-commissioned reviews. In 2015, she chaired the Coates Review into prison education, from which the original concept for Unlocked Graduates came. She was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2013 New Years Honours List.

Dame Sally will replace our founding Chair, the Rt Hon David Laws, who is stepping down after nearly nine years in the role. David is a former Member of Parliament and Minister in the Treasury and the Department for Education.

During his time as Chair, David has overseen the development and growth of Unlocked Graduates into one of the largest UK prison reform charities. Nearly 900 outstanding graduates have been placed on the landings of prisons around the country, driving system reform and breaking cycles of reoffending.

The Rt Hon David Laws said: “It has been a privilege to serve as Unlocked Graduates’ Chair since 2016 and I am very grateful to have worked with an outstanding team over the past nine years. However, in the interests of good governance, it is now time for a new person to take the reins. I am incredibly proud of what the organisation has achieved and the impact the nearly 900 Unlocked Graduates continue to have in some of our country’s toughest prisons. Having worked closely with Dame Sally on the board since Unlocked’s inception, I know she will bring unrivalled expertise and a determination to drive the organisation forward. I am excited to see what the future brings.”

Dame Sally Coates DBE said: “I am pleased to have been elected as Unlocked’s new Chair. On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank David for his tireless work over the course of nearly a decade. Under his stewardship, Unlocked has created a movement of change makers inspired to make our prisons more rehabilitative, and made a real difference to hundreds of thousands of prisoners lives in the process. I look forward to building on his excellent work in the years to come, working closely with the organisation’s leadership team.”

Natasha Porter OBE, Founder and CEO of Unlocked Graduates said: “We are incredibly grateful to David for all his support and leadership over the past nine years, as we have built Unlocked Graduates into one of the most successful graduate schemes in the country. Dame Sally has been an incredibly important part of the Unlocked team as a founding Board member, and I am looking forward to continuing to work together in our mission to develop outstanding leaders to break cycles of reoffending.”