Principal, Redcar and Cleveland College 

Gary has been in the further education sector for 22 years. Having spent nine years in second tier assistant principal positions he is now in his seventh year as principal of Redcar and Cleveland College.

Gary is involved in a number of local and regional groups including representation of the FE Sector within the Local Enterprise Partnership for Tees valley, as an active member of the Children’s Trust Board and the Local Strategic Partnership in Redcar and Cleveland.

Sub regionally Gary is a member of the Higher Education Business Partnership of Teesside University and the FE Plus group of Tees valley Colleges working together.

Regionally Gary Chairs an FE sector STEM Board while representing the FE Sector on a regional STEM board and has been recently re-appointed as the Tees Valley Colleges representative for the Association of Colleges (North).

Gary has been involved in the Quality Improvement agenda in Further Education for many years including a range of frameworks and standards over this time.  He has been nominee for college inspections and more recently has seen his own college recognised for major improvements with Ofsted designating the college overall as ‘Good’ and subsequently recognising the College as having made significant progress.

No stranger to new build programmes Gary incepted and completed the programme for the new £35M capital improvement project rebuilding Redcar and Cleveland College which opened in September 2009 followed immediately by an additional £4.5m capital programme resulting in a Higher Education & Conference Centre which opened on the campus in September 2010.

This inspirational new building, together with its recognised quality improvements, has created a major uplift in the brand value of the college in its community; there is a palpable buzz in the community.

A champion of continuous improvement Gary is now driving the college forward on its ‘journey to outstanding’.