Executive team

Chief Executive - Mark Dawe

Mark Dawe was appointed Chief Executive in November 2010.

Previously Mark was Principal and Chief Executive of Oaklands College in Hertfordshire. He has a wealth of experience across a broad spectrum in the education field and, in his previous role, was a board member of the Association of Learning Providers, Chair of the Association of Colleges for the Eastern Region, a Trustee of awarding body VTCT and board member of the Principals' Professional Council. He also recently headed the Capital Task Group on behalf of the Association of Colleges and is now Chair of the National Capital Reference Group.

Prior to his role at Oaklands College, Mark was Deputy Director, FE Strategy at the Department of Education and Skills having joined as Deputy Director, Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit in 2003. After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, Mark joined Canterbury College, becoming Head of Corporate Services in 1994. In 2000, he set up eGS, an e-procurement provider to public sector customers.

Director of Customers, Curriculum and Qualifications - Clara Kenyon

Clara Kenyon has been with OCR for seven years and during her time, has been highly prominent in her achievements. Working initially as Director of General Assessment she was responsible for all GCSE and GCE type qualifications.

In October 2006, NVQ, VRQ and work-related qualifications combined with GCSEs, bringing together the subject teams in both Coventry and Cambridge. Clara managed the integration and has since overseen the redevelopment of GCEs, GCSEs and Nationals in addition to moving skills-based qualifications onto the QCF.

Prior to OCR, Clara worked for CfBT delivering the Primary and Key Stage 3 Strategies for the DfES. This involved producing guidance materials and instructing over 4000 coordinators to deliver training to every primary and secondary school in a range of subjects including maths and English.

Clara worked for BTEC for five years and subsequently Edexcel - initially designing qualifications but then leading the project team that engineered the integration of BTEC and London Examinations. Her teaching experience was in FE and HE where she taught Economics, Management and Business Studies and became Head of Faculty for Business and Computing. Her early career was in Sales and Marketing working with well known brands – Fisher Price Toys, Avon Cosmetics and Carnation Foods.

Director of Operations - Colin Banks

Colin joined OCR as Director of Operations at its formation in 1998, with an initial remit to create the front and back office services needed to support the successful delivery of OCR’s academic and vocational assessment portfolio.

With over 25 years' experience in financial and operational roles within the UK assessment sector, Colin has played a pivotal role in the delivery of a range of cross-industry initiatives over the last ten years, and is currently leading a three-year, multi-million pound technology development programme to put in place a new operating platform that will transform the way OCR will deliver its products and services to customers in the future.

Director of Partnerships - Paul Steer

Paul became Director of Partnerships (formerly Stakeholder Relations) at OCR in 2005.

The area was created to further develop OCR's relationships with all organisations that have an interest in education and assessment and to work with them to influence the development of policy and regulation around qualifications.

Paul has a long track record of working with qualifications, having joined RSA Examinations Board in 1993.

He is a founder and currently Deputy Chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB).

Director of Standards - Sara Coldicott

Sara became OCR's Director of Standards in October 2009. Since joining RSA Examinations Board in 1978, Sara has accumulated a wealth of experience in assessment and qualifications.

Over the years she has been responsible for the development and growth of many market-leading qualifications, in particular CLAiT – the best-selling IT qualification in the UK. Sara has also led on several major projects including the practical implementation of criterion referencing in UK vocational qualifications and the delivery of major contracts with the Teacher Training Agency and Department of Transport.

Sara also acts as OCR's Accountable Officer with overall responsibility for regulatory compliance.

She has a BA in Economics from Sheffield University, an MA in Education through the Open University, and is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators.

Director of Strategy - Liam Sammon

Liam Sammon joined OCR in December 2010 to head up the newly formed Strategy Team and is responsible for driving forward OCR’s corporate strategy. He joined OCR from the Skills Funding Agency where he was the Senior Account Director responsible for the East of England portfolio of accounts, including 25 Further Education colleges. Prior to this he was the Regional Funding, Planning and Performance Director for the LSC East of England region, where he was responsible for the allocation of c. £800 million of post-16 funding across the region. Before this he was Area Director for Hertfordshire, responsible for post-16 provision in the Hertfordshire area where he was Chair of the Hertfordshire 14-19 partnership.

As OCR Director of Strategy, he is responsible for assessing new initiatives and opportunities, commercial partnerships, business planning and fees, and the strategic direction of the organisation.

Liam, who has a degree and M.Phil. in Economics and has lectured in HE, has also worked in private sector consultancy with clients including the World Bank, the European Commission, and various UK national and regional government bodies.