Having tutored children from lower socio-economic backgrounds throughout university, Laura joined the board having been inspired by the work and ambition of Tutors United to tackle the attainment gap head on, and her own belief that income should not impact a child’s opportunity to fulfil their potential. As a primary school governor for several years with responsibility for overseeing attainment in maths and Pupil Premium expenditure, she developed an even stronger understanding of the acute links between household income and attainment levels.

A life-long public servant, having spent her career in various roles across central and local government, Laura is currently Head of Local Government Strategy in the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. She also works as a freelance career coach and recruitment consultant.

Laura has a BA Hons in Politics and Modern History from the University of Manchester.

Rob is Head of Finance and Operations at MachineMax, an early-stage technology business providing digital solutions to help construction and mining companies optimise their operations and reduce waste and emissions. Being an SME business, Rob has oversight over all things finance, plus has operational responsibility for compliance, HR and contracting and procurement.

Prior to joining MachineMax, Rob spent 18 years at Shell working across a variety of operational and commercial finance roles at both national, regional and global levels, with a strong emphasis on business partnering, business strategy, project management and compliance, including establishing new control frameworks, processes and reporting.

Rob has a BA Hons in Geography from the University of Nottingham, plus is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Freda is a Strategic Projects & Change Director and PMO lead at AstraZeneca, with broad experience across pharma operations. Inspired by Tutors United’s scaffolded approach to uplifting communities through education, she brings her lived experience as a student from a first-generation, underrepresented background and as a former community-based tutor to contribute.

Joining Tutors United as a trustee in summer 2024, Freda also holds a PhD in organic chemistry and is based in Macclesfield.

Katie joined the board of trustees in July 2024, and became Associate Director in the Education Practice at Public First in September 2024. Before that, Katie spent 10 years working across strategy, policy and delivery roles at the Department for Education, most recently leading work on school and trust strategy, leadership and governance. She also worked on the government’s Covid response in the Cabinet Office. Katie brings a wealth of experience in education policy and government decision-making.

 Katie has a law degree from the London School of Economics and an Executive MBA from Hult International Business School. She was previously a school governor Stepney All Saints School, and is currently taking on a Chair of Governors role at a local secondary school.

In addition to his role at Tutors United, Rob serves as an external Member of Council at the University of Essex and holds the designation of Chartered Director. He is passionate about empowering young people and is eager to contribute to the charity’s goals.

“I’m excited to collaborate with such a talented and passionate team to help empower the next generation!”

Joel is a multi-award-winning social entrepreneur, the Founder of Tutors United and our former Chief Executive. After starting Tutors United in 2013, Joel scaled its operations to hire and train over 650 university students to tutor more than 2,900 primary school pupils across 55 locations in the UK, before stepping down as CEO in January 2023. Joel has also served as a trustee of the multi-national charity School for Social Entrepreneurs and a Non-Executive Director of Youth Futures Foundation, an independent organisation setup to tackle youth unemployment with a £90million endowment from the Reclaim Fund. 

The 2013 Future Leaders Award Winner, 2014 John Lewis Young Person of the Year and the 2019 Rising Chief Executive Award Winner in the Third Sector Awards, Joel has been a key advisor in helping UK wide funders develop their offer to engage and support young people in social entrepreneurship.

Joel is now the CEO of the Quintessentially Foundation, as well as a Grants & Evaluation Committee Member at Youth Futures Foundation and a Trustee of The Rank Foundation.