Meet our People

BA (Hons), MBA, FCIArb

Darragh O’Sullivan is the Chair of CET. He is the founder of DOS & Co., a family office consultancy. He acts as private counsel to family offices, entrepreneurs and the young wealthy in their legal, operational and reputation-management affairs.

MA (Glasgow), PGCE (Secondary)

Anne is Chair of the Grants and Development Committee at CET. Born and educated in Scotland. She graduated with an MA in Modern Languages from the University of Glasgow and completed her PGCE (Secondary) at Jordanhill College of Education.

Originally an accountant, Diane has almost 30 years’ leadership experience in not-for-profit organisations that provide specialised social support, often to those who are disadvantaged, vulnerable, or who live with additional needs.

Nick is passionate about commercial education and supporting people in their careers and the workplace. He has been involved with CET as both Trustee and Advisor for four years, following twelve years of active engagement with the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Jonathan is Managing Partner at Fingerhut Consulting and Strategic Marketing for Schools and has a has a well-rounded business/marketing track record spanning 30 years on both the client and consultancy sides.

Sacha is recognised as one of the UK’s leading lawyers for advertising and digital media. He is a Partner at Harbottle & Lewis (one of the UK’s best known media & entertainment law firms) and head of the firm’s Advertising & Marketing group.

Nigel Standing, a Trustee at CET since 2024, leverages his extensive experience in industry, corporate learning, and governance to drive impactful support and growth.

Dann joined in 2024 and has previously worked in senior finance roles across HSBC, Schroders, Clifford Chance, and News UK and is a School Governor at two schools, a Primary and a Secondary school.

Larissa Howells has over 20 years’ experience in the charity sector. Starting as a volunteer community artist working with children and young people in Lambeth, she has gone on to oversee the implementation of many large-scale public engagement programmes within disadvantaged communities around the UK.

Susanna is a senior policy, public affairs and research leader with two decades of experience of working in partnership to achieve meaningful change at a variety of organisations. For the past eight years her focus has been on delivering policy impact for membership organisations in the education sector.

John Hillier is a former trustee of the CET and serves as Senior Advisor and Member of the CET Trust’s Grants and Development Committee. As Chief Executive of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications from 1990 to 1997, he was responsible for the development and introduction of NVQs and GNVQs.

Darren is a Director and founder of Nice Chaps Ltd. Nice Chaps is a brand and communications agency that has specialised in providing strategic marketing, creative, branding, advertising and communications services to clients across the B2C and B2B sectors since 2015.

BA (Hons), MIoD, MIWFM

David is Director and a co-founder of Arolite Ltd. Arolite provides comprehensive, end to end support and management of commercial catering equipment for multi-site organisations across the UK.

Mahad is a Governor at Derby University and was the Director of Programmes at Career Ready, a national social mobility charity, where he managed a team of twenty regional managers overseeing the delivery of 11-19 programmes to 69,000 young people every year.

Sadia's professional journey is diverse. Originally trained as a qualified engineer, she ventured into roles within manufacturing, investment management, and sports businesses before dedicating her skills to the noble cause of charitable work.

After her studies, Grace had a brief career in recruitment before going on to spend 11 years working within the derivatives space for various investment banks, most notably for Lehman Brothers and the subsequent unwind of the company.