Eaquals 30th Anniversary Conference October 2021, Belfast, United Kingdom

Aidan O Shea

Aidan O’Shea is a teacher, trainer and Director of Operations at The Linguaviva Centre. He is a Board Member of MEI with responsibility for QA of the International Education Mark in Ireland.

Alan Maley

Alan Maley’s career in English Language Teaching began with The British Council in 1962.  He worked for the Council in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, PR China and India over a period of 26 years.  In 1988, he became Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust in Cambridge (1988-93).  He then took up the post of Senior Fellow in the Department of English, National University of Singapore. His last full-time post was as Dean and Professor of the Institute for English Language Education, Assumption University, Bangkok, where he set up new MA programmes.  Since retiring in 2004, he has occupied a number of visiting professorial posts at Leeds Metropolitan, Nottingham, Durham, Malaysia (UKM), Vietnam (OU-HCMC) and Germany (Universitat Augsburg).

He has published extensively and was series editor for the Oxford Resource Books for Teachers for over 20 years. He remains active as a speaker at national and international conferences. While at Bell, he was involved in the infancy of EAQUALS. He was a co-founder of The Extensive Reading Foundation, and of The C group: Creativity for Change in Language Education.  He is a past-President of IATEFL, and was given the ELTons Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

Alan Pulverness

A Director of TransformELT and Senior Consultant for NILE. Co-author of course books including the award-winning Macmillan Short Course Programme and The TKT Course. Has worked extensively on curriculum renewal, materials development, reader development and trainer training. Editor of IATEFL Conference Selections (2000-2004) and co-chair of the British Council Literature Conference (2002-2006).

Alan Mackenzie

A founding director of TransformELT, Alan Mackenzie has also designed and taught master’s level courses in Autonomy for Teachers College Columbia University and NILE. Alan was a project manager for British Council across East and South Asia for ten years, and has recently developed curricula for Georgia, Egypt, and Colombia.

Alex Cann

Alex has over 15 years’ experience and a wealth of academic and management experience within ELT. During his time at a large school in Edinburgh, he introduced several innovative courses for young learners, including a ground-breaking coding and robotics course.  He is currently Director of Young Learner Programmes at IH London and has also held Operations Director and Director of Customer Experience roles within the industry.  Alex is passionate about staff development and organisational culture and strives to enhance the student experience at every stage of the journey.  He was awarded Young Leader of the Year at the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Awards in 2019.

Alex Thorp

Alex Thorp is the Lead Academic, Language (Europe) at Trinity College London. He previously gained over 15 years’ experience heading a teacher training department in the UK. With special interests in English Language assessment, CLIL, neurolinguistics and educational psychology, he publishes and presents the world over with the aim of supporting best practices in language teaching and testing.

Alex Warren

Alex is a DELTA trained teacher trainer with over 18 years’ experience of working in ELT as a teacher, teacher trainer and academic director. He has presented in over 50 countries throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Based in the UK, Alex is currently the Senior ELT Academic Consultant for National Geographic Learning.

Andy Hockley

Andy Hockley is a freelance educational management consultant and trainer based in deepest Transylvania. He has been involved in ELT for over 30 years, living in 11 countries and training and working in many more.  He has been training managers for 20 years and has been coordinating and training on the IDLTM (International Diploma in Language Teaching Management) since its inception in 2001, and is the global lead trainer for the course, as well as being a tutor on NILE’s MA in Professional Development for Language Education

He is co-author of ‘From Teacher to Manager’ (CUP, 2008), ‘Managing Education in the Digital Age’ (The Round, 2014) and author of ‘Educational Management’ (Polirom, 2007), as well as co-author of the soon to be published “Managing Technological Change” (CUP 2022). 

Archie Pollock

Archie Pollock has been working in the international education sector since 2009. He brings his sector experience to digital marketing through HEM’s services in providing everything a school needs to recruit more students online. Google, Facebook, and HubSpot certified, Archie is a frequent presenter at conferences worldwide, helping industry stakeholders to make sense of the sometimes-complicated world of digital marketing. He is always open to discussing strategy and tactics with those interested in developing their digital presence.

Ben Beaumont

Ben Beaumont is Head of Teacher Strategy at Trinity College London and keen to share emergent good practice withcolleagues globally to support a localised and contextual approach to educator development.

Conrad Heyns

Conrad Heyns is the Director of the Language Centre at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is an Eaquals inspector, an IHWO inspector and the current Chair of the BALEAP Accreditation Scheme.
He is also a judge for the British Council ELTons and the English Speaking Union Duke of Edinburgh Awards.
He has particular interests in intercultural communication and the student experience in HE.

David Coarsey

David Coarsey is the founder and CEO of Guided e-Learning (GEL), industry leader in the provision of digital EFL education and quality management systems.  GEL has a content partnership with Oxford University Press and supports organisations across the world including the British Council, ELS, and EC English.  Because GEL works with a wide range of quality English language institutes, David has a unique and privileged view of digital trends in schools.  david@gelnet.com

Dr. Cristina Perez Guillot

Dr. Cristina Pérez-Guillot, received her PhD from the Universitat Politècnica de València in 2003, she is currently Senior Lecturer of Business English at Universitat Politècnica de València, Department of Applied Linguistic, Head of Language Centre of The Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain). President of ACLES (Asociación Española de Centros de Lenguas de Enseñanza Superior).

George Pickering

George is an educational coach, trainer and consultant, who has worked in over 65 different countries. He is the academicdirector of the English UK Diploma in English Language Teaching Management and is a senior inspector for Accreditation UK. He was the founding director of the Bell Teacher Campus in Cambridge, was a director of IATEFL for 12 years and is currentlyan ambassador for them.

Gillian Davidson & David Byrne

Gillian Davidson is Academic Director of EC English, she has worked in Slovakia, Indonesia, Russia and the UK as a teacher, a trainer, a manager and in product development.

David Byrne is the Curriculum Manager at EC. He’s worked in EFL as both teacher and manager, in Spain, Korea and the UK. In his spare time he writes materials and a blog called Textploitation.

They are both members of the Product Development team for EC English.

Ian Brangan

Ian Brangan is a teacher, trainer, and Director of Education at The Linguaviva Centre in Dublin. He is a Schools Inspector with ACELS/ Eaquals and a materials writer.

Joanne Murphy

Dr Murphy is the Interim Director of the William J. Clinton Leadership Institute and a Senior Lecturer in Queen’s Management School. Her research explores leadership, change and organisational development in politically volatile environments. She has written extensively on policing, organisational change and conflict diplomacy.

Joanne holds a PhD from the School of Business, Trinity College, Dublin and is a frequent contributor to national and international media outlets in the areas of leadership, change and resilience. She is a Fellow of the Senator George Mitchell Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation and Social Justice (QUB) and Chair of the British Academy of Management’s Organisational Transformation Change and Development Special Interest Group. Joanne’s research has been published in world leading management and political science journals. She is the author of two books: Public Management and Complexity Theory (2011); Policing for Peace in Northern Ireland: Change, Conflict and Community Confidence (2013). Her new book Managing at the Extremes: Leadership and Change in Conflict and Transition is forthcoming in 2020.

Jon Hird

Jon is based in Oxford, UK, where he divides his time between teaching English at the University of Oxford, teacher training and writing ELT materials. Jon has a particular interest in Grammar and EAP and has written and contributed to a number of grammar, resource and course books, recently co-authoring one level of the brand new course book series ‘Language Hub’.

Jonathan Dykes

Jonathan is involved in the management of four language schools based in three different countries. He is also the Founder Director of Net Languages, a Web-based language school. Jonathan is also heavily involved in several Erasmus+ projects, including one that is developing VR materials for language schools. He is also the co-founder of Green Standard Schools, an association that aims to help language schools everywhere achieve a more sustainable future.

Julie Wallis

Julie is Director of The London School, AISLi President, an Eaquals Trustee and sits on the board of International House London.

She has worked as a teacher trainer for organisations including Eaquals, AISLi, LEND, NILE, Transform ELT, Pilgrims, The British Council and Bell.

She holds a degree, is DELTA and CertIBET qualified, and is a trained inspector for AISLi and Eaquals.

Klaudia Bednarova

In 2009, Klaudia founded The Bridge – English Language Centre, an EAQUALS-accredited language school in Slovakia. She was a founding member of both the Slovak Chamber of English Teachers and the Slovak Association of Language Schools, serving as Chairwoman of the latter from 2011 to 2016, and of the Slovak Chamber of English Teachers from 2019 to 2023. Currently, Klaudia serves as Vice-President of the Association of Institutions of Adult Education.

Klaudia has also established and manages various CPD projects, including the Bridge Re-Boot Camp for teachers—a unique summer school that takes a holistic approach to learning and teacher well-being. She was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2022, and The Bridge’s CPD programme was awarded Best In-Company Training Programme in Slovakia in 2023. Her passion and professional interests lie in effective learning strategies and the impact of language training on work performance.

Liam Brown

Liam is a teacher, manager, trainer, writer, course developer and consultant focusing on business and management skills inELT.
Liam was Learning and Development Manager for the British Council’s worldwide English and Exams Strategic Business Unit.
He now works independently with ELT and education institutions around the world for training design and delivery and consultancy interventions.

Ludka Kotarska

Ludka Kotarska was the Director of Eaquals Accreditation and Consultancy between 2016 – 2022. She was responsible for the management of Eaquals accreditation services, the development of the Inspection Scheme and for advising and supporting language centres that apply to become accredited members of Eaquals.      

Nick Gossett

I have 24 years’ experience working in a range of settings and countries, as a teacher, teacher trainer and manager. Having accidentally become a manager 18 years ago, I have often reflected on my own style and approach and worried that I may be wanting. I have met many interesting characters along the way… I currently work for CES Leeds in the UK as an Academic Manager and Teacher Trainer.

Patrick Creed

Patrick Creed is the owner of an EAQUALS member school, QQI Inspector of Schools, Cambridge & TIE examiner, and CELT Trainer. He runs Teacher Training & Development Courses through ActualiseELT

Peter Lahiff

Peter is an experienced course designer, teacher trainer and academic manager who has
worked in the English language teaching for 20 years. He is the founding Academic Director of
Future Learning Language School and works on the development and management of
technology enhanced summer language courses for young learners from all around the world
which take place in Ireland and internationally.

Rhona Sharpe, Professor

Professor Rhona Sharpe was appointed Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning in December 2019.

Rhona brings to Oxford a strong track record in online teaching, with over 20 years’ experience underpinned by an academic approach and a body of research and development projects. She was previously Head of the Department of Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of Surrey, where she led the team in focusing on the development of technologically enabled approaches supporting the university’s research-led teaching ethos. She has written, contributed to and co-edited a number of publications and journal articles in the field of digital education and educational leadership.

She is also an experienced transformation manager, having steered many projects throughout her career and has developed approaches which foreground student experiences and academic practices in order to lead to sustainable organisational change.

Rhona has maintained her teaching interests throughout her career and currently teaches on the MA in Open and Distance Education at the Open University. As well as chairing several working groups and involvement in professional bodies, she is often asked to speak at conferences and events exploring the themes of digital education, digital literacy and education.

Rhona is responsible for leading the development of a vision and long-term plan for the new Centre for Teaching and Learning which supports the collegiate University’s commitments to provide an excellent, personal education for every student.

You can follow Rhona at:

Twitter: @rjsharpe

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rhona_Sharpe

Rod Bolitho & Richard Rossner

Rod Bolitho is a freelance ELT consultant and former Academic Director at NILE. He has co-authored books, including Continuing Professional Development 2018, (with Amol Padwad), and Language Education in a Changing World (with Richard Rossner, forthcoming).

Richard Rossner was a cofounder and a former Director and Chair of Eaquals. He is an author and a member of an ECML project team.

Sarah Aitken

Sarah Aitken is an experienced inspector and a member of the Accreditation Panel, moderating Eaquals reports and overseeing the Inspection Scheme’s standards. She has been involved in the recent review and update of the Scheme. Previously Sarah served for four years as Eaquals Executive Director and was responsible for advising and supporting language centres that apply to become Accredited Members of our Association.

Susanna Dammann

Susanna has  been in Language Education as a teacher, trainer and manager for nearly 40 years. She has worked in the UK,  France and China, mostly in Business Language training, which allowed her to learn an enormous amount about business practice and management from her clients.

She has been a member of the Eaquals ‘family’ since 2002, first as a member of the Inspection team. She managed the Eaquals Inspection Scheme for two years and more recently has been a member of the Eaquals Board.

She has always been concerned about the quality of the training in assessment literacy available to language teachers and as an Inspector, she has seen how central assessment is, in permitting really effective teaching and learning. The LAPP project between Eaquals and ALTE has allowed her to make a contribution to the development of assessment literacy among language teachers all over the world.

Thom Kiddle

Thom is Director of Eaquals member Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE) and Chair of Eaquals.