CRAC:: Our Teams

Our Teams

Based in Cambridge, CRAC has:

47 permanent staff
network of associates and over 250 course tutors and directors
18 NICEC Fellows
a Board of Trustees
over 240 member organisations including schools, colleges, universities, professional organisations, public sector organisations, charities, NGOs, SMEs and blue chip multinational companies.

Our Senior Management Team

Jeffrey Defries took up position as Chief Executive of CRAC in April 2006.

After early appointments in university administration, Jeffrey joined the Institute of Cancer Research in 1977, first as Deputy Secretary and then as Secretary. He was Assistant Director of the Science Museum between 1988 and 1998 before moving to London Business School where he held the post of Deputy Dean and Secretary from 1998 to 2001 He was Secretary and Group Director of Corporate Services of NHSU from 2002 – 2005

CPFA qualified, Jeffrey has held a number of not-for-profit and charity board positions in the UK, Europe and the US and was, for a number of years, a visiting lecturer at the Civil Service College. Until June 2008 he maintained a role as Senior Advisor to EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development) and is currently a director of NICEC (National Institute for Careers Education and Counselling).

Anne-Marie Hodgkiss, Head of 14-19

Over the last 22 years Anne-Marie has held a variety of roles within secondary education in both the state and independent sector. Graduating in Economics and Geography from University College London and completing her PGCE at the London Institute of Education she relished the challenges of teaching and managing as she moved from teacher of economics and geography, to head of geography and pastoral year head and then Deputy headteacher. For the last 10 years she has been Headteacher at a girls’ independent day and boarding school in Hertfordshire. She has also been a member of the joint GSA/HMC Professional Development Group and Governor of 3 schools. Anne-Marie is passionate about the development of outstanding careers education and guidance. She has been involved in the teaching of careers for the last 5 years and she has gained relevant careers qualifications.

Barbara Calland, Head of Lifelong Career Development

Following an early career in teaching and personnel, Barbara moved into management consultancy and was Head of HR for Coopers & Lybrand (PwC) from 1990 to 1997. She then worked as a consultant for both public and private sector clients covering all aspects of Leadership Development and HR Strategy. Latterly, her work was focused on levels of employee wellbeing in the workplace.

At CRAC, Barbara has responsibility for our Lifelong Career Development team. The team has a strong focus on supporting all those who help others to make careers decisions, providing up-to-date knowledge and new, innovative ways of working. They also support employers in all aspects of careers-related learning.

Barbara Calland, Head of Lifelong Career Development

Breeda O'Leary, Head of Corporate Services and CRAC Secretary

Breeda has a long history of working in management positions in the charitable sector. During her early career she was Finance Manager at a child care organisation. She moved on to work as Finance Manager with Universities UK, where her position included managing the introduction of SORP accounting (accounting and reporting by charities), developing more modern methods of management accounting, introducing financial procedures and working closely with other managers to produce costings and reports for various funding bodies.

She moved on to work with another membership organisation managing finance and central services and also worked in a management position for Amnesty International and NCH (the Children's Charity).

In addition to being a qualified accountant (CIPFA) with a BA in Public Administration and MSc in Politics and Administration, Breeda has undertaken a number of certificate and diploma courses and is an associate member of the Chartered Management Institute. She has a passionate interest in lifelong learning and the methods used to enable people to develop their potential. Breeda took up her most recent position with CRAC in October 2006.

David Arnold icould Programme Director

David has over 20 years experience of working with the NHS at local and national level. Having trained as a teacher and then in health promotion and community health, he worked in a number of senior management positions within health education. He was an Associate Director at the NHS Leadership Centre leading on work with primary care organisations and senior managers. More recently he has been involved in a number of strategic projects focussing on personal effectiveness, widening participation and career development. David joins CRAC and icould as Programme Director on an 18 month secondment from the NHS.

Dr. Robin Mellors-Bourne, Commercial & Business Development Director

After enjoying the independence and travel of a PhD in geology, Robin elected to move into scientific publishing. In a career of 15 years he worked for a number of companies in editorial and publishing roles, and was Director of Publishing at the IEE (Institution of Electrical Engineers) - a large international technical publisher.

In 2004 he decided to change direction and joined CRAC as Commercial & Business Development Director, where he is able to draw upon experience of both the university world and careers challenges within the science and engineering sectors.

Ellen Pearce, Director, Vitae

Ellen has a history degree from Cambridge and originally a background in theatre production. She began working in the not-for-profit sector for a medical emergency relief charity and joined CRAC in 1999 to work in the events and conferences team on issues relating to career development right across the age and experience spectrum.

As Director of Vitae (which incorporates the previous work of the UK GRAD Programme and UKHERD) and of Researcher Development at CRAC, Ellen is responsible for the work and activities of Vitae, and CRAC’s work with researchers.

Working in the area of personal, professional and career development for researchers since 2002, Ellen has been involved in several key initiatives in the last few years. In 2006, she led the scoping study, funded by RCUK, for a national research career mapping tool, along with a project to explore the coordination of postgraduate researcher and research staff development in the UK. She represents the need of researchers at national and European events discussing graduate education and training.

Ellen has catalysed collaborative activities to support the development of enterprise skills for researchers, including co-authoring a recent report ‘Enterprise at work: exploring intrapreneurship in researcher development’ published in 2008.

Ellen is passionate about people and career development and is a Myers Briggs practitioner; she also CIM marketing certificate.

Gill Wilson, icould Head of Content

After working as a teacher and manager in education for 13 years, Gill set up her own business designing and selling ceramic giftware to outlets across the UK and exporting throughout the world. During this time she also worked with the Cardiff Business School on their Graduate Enterprise Programme and the Welsh Development Agency on the Young Enterprise Programme for Year 12 students. In 1997, Gill sold the business before going to work as a Business Development Manager at the Brunel Centre for Lifelong Learning. Gill took up her post at CRAC as Manager of CRAC's Insight into Management Programme in May 1999. Gill is now icould Head of Content at CRAC.

Philippa Storer, Deputy Head, Researcher Development

Philippa began her career in 1997 with Debenhams Retail Plc as a management trainee following the completion of a four year degree in English and History at Keele University. She joined CRAC in 2000 as a project manager working on the undergraduate portfolio of activities. During her time at CRAC, Philippa has fulfilled a number of managerial positions spanning some of CRAC's biggest projects. Significant achievements include the delivery of 2 high profile award ceremonies for HEFCE, co-ordinating and being a significant contributor to two EC-funded projects to develop a European standard for work experience, developing quality assurance procedures for CRAC’s programmes, and most recently, establishing a succession plan and competency framework for GRADschool directors and standardising and streamlining the delivery of the national GRADschool programme. Philippa is also experienced in designing and developing experiential learning programmes and materials across CRAC’s product range, including GRADschools.

As Deputy Head of PhD programmes, Philippa is responsible for managing the operational aspects of the UK GRAD contract and CRAC’s Researcher Development activity. This includes developing the strategic direction of UK GRAD’s researcher training provision and learning resource development. In addition she lead’s the Researcher Development team’s responsibility for co-ordinating the network of national Hubs, quality assurance and sharing of practice across the GRADschools programme, and consultancy on and development of bespoke training events and programmes for researchers.

Shaharazad Abuel-Ealeh, Head of Policy Development

Shaharazad (Sherry) has worked across the education field, starting with a 2 year stint in student politics as a sabbatical officer at the University of Warwick. Following this she was recruited by the National Union of Students' marketing arm as an account manager.

Sherry began work at CRAC in 2002. She has worked in various capacities, from development and delivery of undergraduate training programmes to European research on graduate competency. She was also responsible for bidding for public sector funding and, amongst others, gained contracts to manage the HEACF Volunteering Awards and to develop a European pilot project to accredit the learning gained from part-time and voluntary work during academic study.

She was chair of the European Framework for Work Experience steering group 2003-2005, and has represented CRAC at national and European conferences speaking on the subject of graduate employability, as well as to the media.

She is now responsible for CRAC's policy development and public affairs strategy, which includes the management of the events and web teams.

Sherry graduated with a degree in English and European Literature from the University of Warwick in 1998. She is also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, having gained her professional postgraduate diploma in 2005.