Our Trustees
Julius Weinberg (Chair)
Julius is co-Chair of the Buckinghamshire Cultural Partnership and was Chair of Ofsted until August 2020. He was Vice Chancellor of Kingston University until 2017. He qualified in Medicine and trained first as an Infectious Disease Physician and then in Public Health. He also worked in Zimbabwe and in Bosnia for the World Health Organisation during the war. Following a move into Higher Education, he was at City University before moving to Kingston University in 2011. A serial consumer of distance education, he also has degrees in Art History, Education and Psychology.
Jo Adetunji (Deputy Chair)
Managing Editor of The Conversation UK, an independent source of news and views, sourced from the academic and research community and delivered direct to the public. Before joining The Conversation UK, Jo Adetunji worked as a reporter and editor at the Guardian, covering stories from UK knife crime to the Arab Spring. She was also associate editor of the Guardian's Public network, focused on the civil service. She has also written for The Times, The Independent and Telegraph newspapers.
Polly Curtis (Deputy Chair)
Polly spent much of her career at the Guardian where she reported on health, social affairs and education, before joining the lobby team as Whitehall Editor, writing about government and policy. She went on to be digital editor of the Guardian, then led newsrooms as Editor-in-Chief at HuffPost UK, a Partner at Tortoise Media and Managing Director at PA Media.
Her book, Behind Closed Doors, an investigation into social services in England, was published by Virago in February 2022 and was a finalist in the Orwell Prize for political writing. In it, she sets a vision for a different way that the state and communities can work together to solve problems. She is now chief executive of the cross party think tank, Demos and serves as a Non-Executive Director of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. Polly lives in North West London and has two children.
Alison Gow
Alison has worked in journalism for more than 30 years, and has held various roles including newspaper and website editor for Wales on Sunday, Wales Online and the Daily Post. She was Innovations Editor and Audience and Content Director, Audio and Video with Reach plc, specialising in the development and implementation of digital journalism, where she also led the award-winning Laudable Podcasts, an initiative for niche and local news audio.
A former board member and President of the Society of Editors, she was recently awarded a Fellowship of the SoE for contributions to the industry.
She currently works as a media consultant and editorial leadership coach.
Isabelle Roughol
Independent writer, consultant on media leadership and innovation, and journalism instructor. She was a cofounder of LinkedIn's editorial team and led its global expansion across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia from 2012 to 2020. She received a Bachelor’s of Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and worked as a reporter and editor at The Columbia Missourian (USA), The Cambodia Daily (Phnom Penh) and Le Figaro (Paris).
Meera Selva
Chief executive of Internews Europe, a not-for-profit organization which supports independent media and information ecosystems in over 40 countries. She is an experienced journalist who has reported from the field across Europe, Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. She is also a senior research associate of the Reuters Institute and an associate fellow of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford, and co-founder of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network.
James Westhead
Head of Engagement at Better Society Capital, the UK's leading social impact investor with a mission to mobilise more money for positive social impact. He leads on communications, policy and advocacy, and engagement with government, investors and the social sector. Previously James led external relations for the education charity Teach First, helping build it into the country's largest recruiter of graduate teachers. Prior to that, he spent twenty years as a BBC News Correspondent specialising in education, health and social affairs, including two years as the BBC's Washington correspondent.
