Governance

Robert Cohen

Chief Executive, Corum Advisers Limited
Chair of Governors – Linked to Maths

Robert Cohen is an experienced and entrepreneurial chief executive who founded and developed business and property ventures and had diverse corporate experience of leadership in manufacturing and distribution, banking and retail. He holds a B. Comm and MBA. He spent the formative years of his career with a large industrial group where he progressed through strategy and finance then becoming head of manufacturing and ultimately chief executive of a business with 5 manufacturing sites, 40 distribution and retail outlets and over 4,000 employees. In this role he was involved in major change programmes and negotiations with unions, government and business groupings as South Africa transitioned to democracy and new ways of working. He subsequently co-founded a private equity investment group (listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) which targeted growing entrepreneurial businesses that needed both finance and skills in order to achieve their potential. He spent seven years in the City of London, as head of group investments for a bank where he chaired numerous investment banking committees, subsidiaries and investee companies, as well as being on the credit and risk committees. He currently runs a property investment and development portfolio.

A large part of his career has been involved with manufacturing businesses including construction. He values the technical and human skills required in these sectors which are vital to the success of our societies. Manufacturing and design is detailed and often difficult work, but it provides far more satisfaction for its practitioners than many other occupations. In a globalised world these skills and careers hold out great opportunities for young people and he wants to be part of promoting and encouraging education and opportunity in design and engineering. He believes that the opportunity to work with our world leading industry and university sponsors is a huge advantage for Elutec’s students.

Pat Chandler

Manager Chassis Integration, Global Commercial Vehicles, Ford Motor Company UK
Governor – Linked to Engineering

Pat currently manages a team of 50 engineers, working in the UK, North America, Germany, China and Turkey. Previously he had programs based in Japan with Mazda on the new Fiesta programme.

Pat’s responsibilities have expanded from the delivery of European programs to global ones. He has to manage conflicting market requirements and rationalise specifications and expectations to ensure the philosophy of truly global products is delivered.
His responsibilities start with initial design concepts and their development, formulation of the budget, resource plan and manpower, development of engineering statements of work and the sourcing of design development partners and manufacturers.
He is also responsible for the welfare, development and progression of the Chassis Team in the UK. This includes health and safety, human resource issues, training and ensuring that they delivery is to the highest standards on time. The team is very loyal to the Transit programme and there is a good mixture of ages, experiences and expertise in the group.

Pat was approached by one of the directors at Ford to support Elutec. He really enjoys this role and through the two supervisors Scott Lister and Mike Corder, he feels that Ford has supported Elutec very well.
He looks forward to continuing to support Elutec for the young people of the area, continuing and seeing it go from strength to strength.

Emanuela Tilley

Professor of Engineering Education, University College London (UCL)

Governor

Emanuela Tilley is the Director of the Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP) and Professor of Engineering Education in the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at University College London (UCL).

Before becoming IEP Director, she designed the curricula for IEP projects and global challenges to introduce problem, experimental, research and enquiry-based learning to a multi-disciplinary first- and second-year engineering student cohort at UCL. She champions a teaching and learning programme focused on self-awareness, teamwork and leadership aimed at supporting students in their development of engineering skills.

Emanuela is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and has a record of sustain effective strategic leadership in academic practice and academic development as a key contribution to high quality student learning. With a background in mechanical and civil structural engineering, prior to joining UCL she worked for years as a professional consulting engineer, leading multi-disciplinary engineering teams in the design of the world’s most unique tall towers, structures and masterplans.

Emanuela is an active member within the symposium of research on engineering education occurring within UCL, nationally and internationally. Effectiveness of assessment and feedback systems, and understanding the student learning experience of context rich, authentic problem-/project-based learning pedagogy are the foci of her current research.

Councillor Evelyn Carpenter

Born in London and educated at a girl's grammar school in Leytonstone. Higher education at Nottingham University and Girton College, Cambridge, where I studied Philosophy. More recently, I was awarded a Distinction for the MA in Museum and Gallery Management at the City University.

My professional career started in adult education in Nottingham, Hackney and Macclesfield in a variety of settings including the Workers' Education Association and a further education college. This was followed by a career in local authority education management in Manchester and the London Boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Waltham Forest and Camden. I was then self-employed working in the cultural sector for 8 years supporting museums and arts organisations widen their audiences as well as evaluating the effectiveness of their external funding.

In 2006, I was elected a representative of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham for Becontree ward and re-elected in 2010, 2014 and 2018. I have been the Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment and School Improvement since 2014. I am chair of the advisory board of the Council's Adult College Curriculum, Skills and Work Board, and a member of the Corporation of Barking and Dagenham FE College.

My ambition is to ensure that all Borough residents, including children and young people in our schools and colleges, are supported through the challenges that we face, and to help realise the vision for Barking and Dagenham - One Borough, One Community, No One Left Behind.

Benyoucef Houheche

Mr Benyoucef Houheche is a very experienced Financial Controller that has been working in the finance property sector for the past 25 years, the past 5 years has been in the charity sector with CEME Ltd. He has set up control systems within the finance team across the various companies that he worked for. He is not just a number person but he knows the importance of a good coherent team work and how to bring best out of staff.

During his career at Edinburgh House an international property company, he used his knowledge of languages he speaks (English, Arabic, French) to complete various projects despite the language obstacles.

Folashade Akinmolayan Taiwo

Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Engineering Education, Queen Mary University of London

Governor - Linked to SEND

Folashade Akinmolayan Taiwo is the Director of Student Experience in the School of Engineering and Material Science and Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Engineering Education at Queen Mary University of London.

She received her MEng and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering from University College London. Following this, she was a Teaching Fellow at UCL, where she focused on implementing a new engineering curriculum structure by improving engineering education through the use of student-centred teaching methods.

She was appointed as a Lecturer in Engineering Science and Education at Queen Mary 2018, where she developed new curricula for the Chemical Engineering Programme centred around her research interest in Team based pedagogy and inclusive educational practices. She is passionate about promoting the engineering discipline to school children as a higher education option and has been invited as a guest speaker to numerous events.

She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Associate Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Nigel Titchener-Hooker

Dean of Engineering, University College London (UCL)
Professor of Biochemical Engineering

Nigel Titchener-Hooker is Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at UCL. He is a Professor of Biochemical Engineering, a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He earned his Bachelor of Science (Honours) from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1983 and his PhD in Biochemical Engineering in 1987 from UCL.

A major focus of Nigel’s work has been the creation of whole bioprocess models and the use of these to gain process insights and understandings, including some of the earliest studies of decisional tools, addressing the interface between bioprocessing and business issues.

Nigel leads the EPSRC Future Hub for Manufacture of Targeted Healthcare. This is a £10M grant with a group of six leading universities and 44 user companies. He directed the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacture in Emergent Macromolecular Therapies and was the past lead of the UCL Innovative Manufacturing Research Centre (IMRC) in Bioprocessing programme.

In 2013, under his headship, the department of Biochemical Engineering won a Queen’s Anniversary Price for Higher Education for its significant impact on global healthcare through the creation of processes for the manufacture of many key biological drugs. He has also been awarded the IChemE Donald Medal for his contributions to Biochemical Engineering, the Danckwerts Prize from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the Peter Dunnill Award from bioProcess UK.

Alison Calnan

Alison Calnan is a retired HR professional and Occupational Psychologist.

She worked for Ford Motor Company for twenty years holding a variety of HR Management positions including an international assignment in Moscow. Prior to leaving Ford, Alison was the Apprentice and Skills Strategy Manager and during this time she served as a Governor for Elutec.

She is delighted to rejoin the Elutec team. Alison is passionate about delivering education that will lead to high quality employment prospects.

She has a BSc in Psychology from U.C.L. and a MSc in Organisational Psychology from the University of Manchester (UMIST).