Group Chief Strategy Officer and Deputy CEO LASER Education Foundation

Louise is the Group Executive lead for Strategy, Policy and Research, Marketing, Communications and External Affairs, Strategic Development and Capital Projects. Over the past five years, Louise has brought together expert teams to secure over £40M of inward investment. This includes leading DfE and GLA-funded collaboration networks of 23 FE, HE and AEB providers across the Local London region on developing Green and Digital Skills.

Currently Louise leads the delivery of the Group’s Capital Projects Team, which is delivering a total programme worth more than £70M. This includes the building of a new campus in Greenwich.

Since joining the organisation in 2015, Louise has worked on mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and a capital investment programme. Her portfolio has spanned the group and encompassed her current responsibilities as well as those of human resources, student services, safeguarding, and governance.

Before joining the Group, having worked in both Secondary Education and in a Local Authority Advisory and Inspection Service where she completed her Masters in School Improvement, Louise worked in the charity sector for 12 years. This experience has given her direct experience and insight into education provision as well as a holistic perspective on broader social issues. In 2001, in the charity sector, she covered a range of policy agendas, working with government departments and non-departmental bodies to implement national strategies and programmes at regional and local levels.

Louise has led the design and implementation of the current Group Strategy. She has led the approach to monitoring and reporting on the Group’s social value and impact. During her leadership in this area, national recognition has been achieved, resulting in the College and Group winning five national awards: The Queen’s Anniversary Prize, a national Public Sector Leadership Award for Social Value, three TES FE Awards, including FE College of the year and TES Trust of the Year 2024.

Louise leads the group's social and charitable enterprise work and is Deputy CEO of the new LASER Education Foundation. She draws on her experience and instrumental role in establishing the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust in 2008.

Within the Business and Skills sector, Louise is a member of the London Local Skills Improvement Advisory Panel with Business LDN, a Director of the South East London Chamber of Commerce and a member of the GLA’s Green New Deal Anchor Working Group. Externally within education, Louise is a Trustee of the national school improvement charity Challenge Partners. She is also a Member of the Strategic Education Partnership for Bexley and has been both a Trustee and a Chair of a local Multi Academy Trust.