Education Secretary appoints new social mobility commissioners

The Education Secretary Damian Hinds has appointed 12 Social Mobility Commissioners to support the new Chair of the Social Mobility Commission, Dame Martina Milburn.

The new commissioners include leaders from the fields of business, education and technology and include the editor of a women’s magazine Cosmopolitan, a university professor, a headteacher and two youth ambassadors.

Dame Martina Milburn, Chair of the Social Mobility Commission said: "I am delighted to welcome a record number of Social Mobility Commissioners who will work to make England a fairer society.

"This is a group of people with real-life experiences of social mobility to help challenge government, business, and society as a whole, to create a fair system where people can thrive.

"Many of our new Commissioners had modest starts in life and know the barriers that young people must overcome to become successful. They are also individuals with the skills, resources, and energy to drive real change around the country, united by a passion for fairness and an ability to make a real difference to people’s lives."

The Social Mobility Commissioners will take up their new roles next month with an event planned to mark the Commission’s relaunch on 11 December.

Their appointments build on Dame Martina’s vision to bring greater ethnic, gender and age diversity to Commission by tapping into a diverse range of backgrounds.

The commissioners are:

Alastair da Costa, Chair of Capital City College Group
Liz Williams, Group Director of Digital Society at BT
Farrah Storr, Editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan
Harvey Matthewson, Volunteer, and part-time Sales Assistant at Marks & Spencer
Jessica Oghenegweke, Project co-ordinator at the Diana Award
Jody Walker, Senior Vice President at TJX Europe (TK Maxx and Home Sense in the UK)
Pippa Dunn, Founder of Broody, helping entrepreneurs and start ups
Saeed Atcha, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xplode magazine
Sam Friedman, Associate Professor in Sociology at London School of Economics
Sammy Wright, Vice Principal of Southmoor Academy, Sunderland
Sandra Wallace, Managing Partner UK and Joint Managing Director Europe at DLA Piper
Steven Cooper, Outgoing Chief Executive Officer of Barclaycard Business