We are pleased to announce the appointments of Chris Davison as the new Chair of Challenge Partners and his predecessor, Sir Jon Coles, as Honorary President.
Both are dedicated supporters of Challenge Partners who have brought diverse skills and experience to bear as the education charity has grown and flourished in its first 10 years, facilitating collaboration, challenge and professional development for over 500 schools representing more than 250,000 pupils each year. In their new roles, Chris and Jon will support future development, after a year in which partner schools and trusts showed great generosity and innovation to collaborate, support each other and share excellent practice.
Challenge Partners CEO Dr Kate Chhatwal said: “I am delighted that Chris has agreed to take on the role of Chair. Since joining the Board in 2016, his sound strategic and commercial acumen, extensive skills and experience in business and communications, and unfailing generosity with his time and expertise have brought considerable benefit to the Board and schools in our network. I have no doubt these advantages will be amplified as he steps into the role of Chair and we develop our strategy to deliver even greater benefits to schools and trusts in the next 10 years, with the mission of reducing educational inequality and improving life chances among those they serve. I am thrilled too that Jon will move from his role as Founding Chair to Honorary President, so that we will continue to benefit from his immense knowledge and education sector expertise.”
New Challenge Partners Chair Chris Davison said: “I am honoured to take on the role of chairing an organisation doing such important work to shape the lives of future generations. In the five years I have served as a Trustee, I have been incredibly impressed by the willingness and determination of schools in our network to work together in pursuit of better outcomes than any could achieve alone. Their openness to challenge and new ideas, and willingness to draw on the best from business as well as education has led to remarkable and humbling achievements in the first 10 years. I look forward to working with them to develop a strategy that will enable them to flourish further in the next decade.”
Honorary President Sir Jon Coles said: “Ten years since its inception, Challenge Partners continues to go from strength to strength. I am delighted that Chris Davison will take over as Chair for the next exciting phase. He has already shown huge commitment to the charity and provided great support to Kate and the team. It’s a privilege to be asked to stay involved and I look forward to continuing to support Challenge Partners in whatever way I can.”
Chris Davison has been a Challenge Partners trustee since 2016. He is a Partner at Permira, a global growth-focused private equity firm, where he leads the investor relations and fundraising teams. Prior to joining Permira in 2005, Chris launched a financial research business, having previously spent almost a decade as a journalist writing about economics and politics.
Sir Jon Coles, is CEO of United Learning, was a founder of Challenge Partners and its Chairman for 10 years. He spent 15 years in the Department for Education, including four years on the Board as Director General for Schools and then Director General for Education Standards. Sir Jon led work to raise participation post-16 and attainment at 19 and reduce NEET numbers. As Director of London Challenge, he was responsible for developing and implementing the strategy to improve secondary education in London, which led to similar approaches in other parts of the country.
As Honorary President, a newly created role, he will be an ambassador and the face of Challenge Partners to our network, partner organisations and the public.
Partners will have an opportunity to talk to Chris and Sir Jon at forthcoming events including our National Conference on 28 April 2022.