Director of Education, Ashoka
Ross is currently directing Ashoka’s education strategy for triggering a fundamental change in the experience of education so that every young person is becoming a 'changemaker' in a learning ecosystem that is explicitly designed with that central purpose.
He is also a Board Director of Whole Education - a network of schools committed to providing holistic education - and a founding trustee of a new all-through schools chain in the UK.
Before Ashoka, Ross researched and designed a ground-breaking programme that aims to equip and incline young people to be well and to do well. The first implementation of the Better World Programme is with 500,000 children in rural communities across Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
The Better World Programme extends an earlier project that Ross conceived with Pearson (called Effective Education for Employment), which he used with ministries, employers and educators around the world to evaluate the effectiveness of education systems and institutions. Ross led Pearson’s international qualifications business, where he spearheaded the development of a new consultancy service and a suite of 21st Century Skills qualifications.
Before joining Pearson, Ross spent 15 years in corporate venturing and incubation, designing and launching more than 20 businesses on 5 continents and in a wide range of sectors, including education, human resources, logistics, media and healthcare. Ross continues to provide coaching and advice on strategies for maximising impact.
