SNE Event

INVITED: Bridget Phillipson MP

Secretary of State for Education

Bridget is the Labour Member of Parliament for Houghton and Sunderland South; one of three constituencies in the City of Sunderland. She was first elected to the seat on 6 May 2010, and was most recently re-elected at the 2024 General Election. She is also the Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and Equalities.

Dr Vanessa Ogden CBE

Chief Executive Officer, Mulberry Schools Trust (MST)

Dr Vanessa Ogden is CEO of the Mulberry Schools Trust (MST), a family of 8 schools and a Teaching
School Hub in the East End of London. Vanessa is an NLE and has undertaken a range of successful
school turnaround work in urban and rural settings. She has built and opened three new schools,
including a University Technical College to champion technical learning.

Vanessa has a doctorate specialising in education policy and school improvement. She continues to
lead initiatives to address disadvantage. Vanessa is the Chair of the Fair Education Alliance and of the
Unicorn Theatre for children. She is on the panel for the National Curriculum and Assessment Review.

Vanessa featuresin the ‘Female Lead’. In 2015, she welcomed Michelle Obama to Mulberry School for
Girls and was invited to take students to the White House to visit the First Lady. Vanessa has
established a number of Mulberry Changemaker programmes, including Global Girl Leading, a global
platform for girls’ leadership and voice, and the Mulberry STEM Academy in partnership with
Mercedes Grand Prix. Vanessa was awarded a CBE in the King’s 2024 New Year Honours List.

Andy Jordan

Inspection & Accountability Specialist, ASCL

Andy Jordan worked in a secondary school as a deputy headteacher for over 15 years before joining the ASCL policy team as Inspection and Accountability Specialist. He originally trained as a history teacher before becoming Head of Post-16 in a large inner city 11-18 academy. He particularly loved teaching A level politics and intends to use this knowledge and experience to influence those in power to make education better for everyone involved. 

Andy held various responsibilities over the years including raising achievement, teaching and learning, monitoring and evaluation, literacy and data protection. Most recently he led on personal development and is passionate about giving children from all backgrounds a rich and varied educational experience. He also led on improving attendance and was the attendance champion for his school. Andy has been a governor in two different primary schools and was elected to be the North East representative on ASCL Council before joining the team in 2025.  

Sam Freedman

Senior Fellow, Institute for Government

Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and writes regularly on politics and policy for the Observer the FT and others. Sam’s substack newsletter ‘Comment is Freed’ is the most popular in the UK and has over 75,000 subscribers.

His first book “Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How to Fix It” was released in July, made the Sunday Times bestseller list and was named an Economist, FT and Daily Telegraph book of the year. Sam is also a senior adviser to the education charity Ark; Vice-Chair of Ambition Institute; and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Chris Zarraga

Director, Schools North East

Chris is the Director of School North East.  He has been part of the Schools North East team since its operational inception in 2008 and in 2019 he was appointed Director.  Chris works with senior leaders across the North East and nationally in the education and charity sectors, to represent the voice of North East schools.  A central part of his work is to lobby politicians,  policy makers, and the media to put a strong ‘regional accent’ on the education debate, so that North East schools are not left behind when it comes to education policy.

Under Chris, Schools North East launched the ‘Manifesto for North East Education’.  The manifesto sets out the perennial challenges that impact educational opportunities in the North East and the principles needed to inform any educational policy wanting to address them.

Chris works with hundreds of schools across the North East and various organisations including Ofsted, the DfE, the North East’s universities, Local Authorities and various regional/ national businesses. Prior to joining Schools North East, he led a £1.4 million culture change project in education across the North East for the Treasury and DfE and was responsible for setting up a multi-million pound Enterprise Education Network. 

Chris sits on various advisory boards including the NHS Integrated Care Boards, various Combined Authority advisory boards, and was a member of the DfE’s Opportunity North East strategic board. He has also sat on various boards for North East Universities. As well as being a Director of two North East multi academy trusts, Chris has been Chair of a 3 school Trust, Vice Chair of a large maintained secondary school and Vice Chair of a primary foundation school. 

In a variety of roles from Regional Manager to Chief Executive to Board member, Chris has led large scale change management projects in education and has over 20 years’ experience of strategic management, consultancy, and client development experience at a ‘Big Four’ firm and various financial institutions.

Chris holds an MBA with distinction from Durham University Business School.