ESFA welcomes new Management Board Chair Irene Lucas CBE.

ESFA Management Board appointments which completes the ESFA management board recruitment process.

Irene Lucas CBE, who recently joined the Department of Education Board as a non-executive board member, has been appointed as our Management Board Chair. This completes the ESFA Management Board recruitment process.

Irene has a wealth of experience working in the private sector, as Chair of the Hays Travel group, and across the civil service and local government.

This follows on from the appointment, in September 2018, of Stuart McMinnies, Martin Spencer and Hunada Nouss as non-executive members of the ESFA Management Board. Additionally, Hunada also takes on the role of ESFA Audit and Risk Committee (ARC) Chair, from Friday 1 February 2019, and is joined by John Lakin, who was appointed to the Audit and Risk Committee earlier this year alongside current non-executive members Nigel Johnson and Ian Hickman.

Following the creation of the ESFA in April 2017, an interim Management Board has been in place while we conducted a thorough public appointment process to recruit a new chair and board members, who can bring expertise and challenge to the organisation. These members had been through the public appointments process, as part of their current role on the Audit and Risk Committee of the ESFA or DfE Board.

Eileen Milner, ESFA Chief Executive said:

It is great to have Irene leading the Management Board and having all members now appointed. The role of the Management Board is to provide crucial scrutiny, challenge, advice and oversight, to hold us rightly to account as a public body. I look forward to working with Irene and the rest of the board members.

Details on the board members and all future meeting minutes will be published on our governance page.