Members of the College Board
Use the arrows to scroll through the various members of the College Board. The Board is supported by associate members and co-opted committee members with human resources, audit and risk and higher education expertise.
Jane Cowell OBE, Chair
Jane Cowell was formerly a Director 16-19 Funding Allocations and Student Support with the Education and Skills Funding Agency. She was responsible for funding policy implementation and funding allocations to schools, colleges and other providers for 16-19 participation, post-16 High Needs Students and all post-16 Student Financial Support. Jane has spent her career in education and has held a number of leadership and management roles spanning colleges, HE, local authorities and the voluntary sector. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2017 for services to the Department for Education. Jane is also a trustee for the Love Music Trust for the Cheshire East Local Authority area and a governor at Sandbach School.
Jane joined the Board as a member on 1 August 2019 and became Chair on 1 April 2024. Jane is a member of Quality and Standards Committee, Finance and General Purposes Committee, Search and Governance Committee and Remuneration Committee. Jane also takes the lead on linking with our residential services provision.
Mike Gorton, Vice Chair
A farmer, Mike is based in Macclesfield, Cheshire and has been part of the dairy industry since leaving school in 1978 to undertake an HND in Agriculture at Harper Adams. Mike is very involved in the industry and has been on the National Dairy Board for a number of years. He also has extensive educational and multi-academy trust governance experience, including at Chair and Vice Chair level and with specific responsibilities for safeguarding, audit and financial matters. Mike brings his passion for agriculture and education together in his role at Reaseheath. Mike was appointed as a member of the Board in July 2019 and Vice Chair from 1 May 2024.
Mike is lead governor for Safeguarding and is a member of the Quality and Standards Committee and the Audit Committee.
Dr Elizabeth Harrison, Senior Independent Governor
Liz is a marketing professional with expertise in customer insight and strategy. She provides consultancy to help grow businesses via strategic business planning and customer insight. Liz was formerly Head of Customer Strategy and Customer Relationship Marketing with the Co-operative Group and was Aldi Strategy & Insight Director at McCann Manchester. She is a member of both the Institute of Directors and the Market Research Society. Liz lives in Nantwich and has a strong interest in agriculture and the rural economy stemming from her own student days.
Liz joined the Board on 1 August 2013 and is appointed to the role of Senior Independent Governor from 1 May 2024. She is a member of Finance and General Purposes Committee, Remuneration Committee and Search and Governance Committee.
Marcus Clinton, Principal
Marcus is the Principal and Chief Executive of Reaseheath College and University Centre, appointed from 1 August 2018. Marcus previously spent nearly four years as Principal at Northumberland College, with another five years as Vice Principal and Head of the College’s land-based provision at Kirkley Hall. Marcus has a wealth of experience in further education, apprenticeships and higher education partnerships, much of it spent in land-based and rural education. Marcus has represented Land-based Colleges on a number of regional and national groups, and currently sits on the Landex Board and the National Land-based College Board and Chairs the Land Based Learning Ltd Board. Marcus is also author of Horse Business Management
Marcus joined the Board on 1 August 2018. He is Principal of the College, a member of the Finance and General Purposes, Quality and Standards, Higher Education and Search and Governance Committees and a member of the Estates Development and Property Group.
Malcolm Burns, Associate
Malcolm is a chartered surveyor, currently Portfolio Manager with Crown Estate: England West and Wales. He was formerly Land Strategy Manager (Estate Surveyor) with the Co-operative Group and is a Professional Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Malcolm has a strong interest in agriculture and the rural economy, with particular expertise in land and property management, investment and development. He is also a partner in a family farming business.
Malcolm is a member of the Finance and General Purposes Committee and chair of the Estates Development and Property Group.
Professor Gary Crowe
Gary Crowe brings expertise in commercial strategy, finance & risk management and business innovation to the Board. He was most recently a Professor in Innovation Leadership at the University of Keele Management School. A passionate advocate of entrepreneurship and helping people achieve their potential and ambitions, he has experience in education governance as a previous main Board member at Staffordshire University and Chair at primary/secondary schools. Formerly Gary led enterprises as Managing Consultant at PA Consulting Group, an international management consultancy firm and in variety of senior positions in Retail and Commercial financial services. Gary is a fellow of a number of learned organisations and also holds other Board positions as an experienced advisor and Non-Executive director.
Gary joined the Board in March 2019 and is Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Higher Education Committee.
Professor Chris Gaskell (CBE)
Professor Chris Gaskell has wide experience at senior executive level in the university sector, and advisory roles in science and policy in Government, specifically in agriculture and food, land and rural affairs, veterinary science, and governance and management. He was Vice-Chancellor of the Royal Agricultural University (RAU), Cirencester between 2007 and 2016 and previously at the University of Liverpool as Pro-Vice Chancellor.
Chris is a veterinary surgeon, experienced in the governance of a self-regulating profession through previous membership of the Council of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, statutory visitation groups, education and disciplinary committees. He was made Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2012 for services to veterinary medicine and agriculture.
Chris is a member of the Higher Education Committee and the Search and Governance Committee.
Peter Green
Peter Green has spent most of his working life involved in land-based education and training. He started teaching in Sussex and then moved on to Reaseheath, where he has spent thirty-eight years in teaching and management, finishing as a member of the college management team having responsibility for quality and student support. During the last few years Peter has held roles working on behalf of Reaseheath in supporting improvement in two other colleges. Now retired, Peter continues to contribute, this time to the governing body, where he brings his extensive experience of quality improvement in further education and apprenticeships, as well as practical knowledge of the college, to support effective governance and oversight.
Peter joined the Board in March 2019 and is a member of the Quality and Standards Committee and the Audit Committee.
Angela Potter
Angela has twenty years’ experience in corporate banking, with 15 years in the education sector managing a portfolio of further education colleges and local authorities. She has extensive experience of corporate governance, including further education governance, having served previously as a member of governing bodies, including in the land-based sector.
Angela joined the Board in December 2017 and is Chair of the Finance and General Purposes Committee.
Professor Eunice Simmons
Eunice is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Chester. She is an environmentalist by academic background, with a BSc in Biology, an MSc in Conservation of Soil Fertility and a PhD in Forest Ecology. She has combined her interests in education and the environment throughout her career in higher education, which has spanned teaching and learning and education management in diverse institutions including University of London’s Wye and Imperial Colleges, UCLAN, the University of Cumbria and Nottingham Trent University before joining the University of Chester as VC. She brings this passion for education and the environment into her governance role and joined the Board in August 2020.
Paul Weston
Paul is a qualified accountant and an experienced and commercial Chief Finance Officer in the public and private sectors, including social enterprises. He has a broad range of experience including business transactions, transformational change, business partnering, organic growth and people management, in the residential property, health, care and consumer product sectors, as well as non-executive experience in NHS, charity, education, housing and care sectors. He is currently Director of Finance and Transformation at St Monica Trust.
Paul joined the Board in December 2022 and is a member of the Finance and General Purposes Committee and the Estates Development and Property Group.
Alastair Taylor, Associate
Alastair has over thirty years’ experience of the learning and skills sector, originally training as an Agricultural Engineer. His career has included roles at Reaseheath and Hartpury, as well as experience as a full-time inspector.
Alastair has extensive experience of operational and strategic management, quality improvement across agriculture, horticulture, environmental and countryside, animal care, equine, floristry and land-based engineering subjects.
He is an Incorporated Engineer and Chartered Environmentalist and is active in supporting the development of careers in the Agricultural Engineering Sector.
Alastair is an associate member providing his quality expertise as a member of the Quality and Standards Committee as well as linking with college managers on health and safety matters.
Phil Gibbon
Phil joined the Board as a staff member in August 2021. He has extensive teaching and learning experience both on full time and apprenticeship education programmes in the land-based and rural subject areas, particularly agriculture, as well as running his own farm. As well as his teaching, Phil is a member of the college’s work-based co-ordination team and this keeps him very much in touch with employers and commercial businesses within our vocational areas. Phil is a member of the Quality and Standards Committee.
Liz Watts
Liz is a CIM qualified marketing professional with a background in digital marketing and marketing communications. Liz grew up in Nantwich, with the college playing a huge part in her upbringing. She joined the marketing department after completing her Marketing Management degree in 2009.
Recently appointed as Head of Marketing, Liz is responsible for the marketing communications across the Reaseheath College group. She leads on the development and implementation of marketing strategies which engage with the college’s audience across multiple communications channels.
Liz joined the Board in July 2019 as a staff governor and is a member of the Finance and General Purposes Committee and the Higher Education Committee.