Introducing William Jackson New Chair of Governors

Introducing Wellington College’s new Vice-President and Chairman

William Jackson

A BRIEF PROFILE William Jackson is the Executive Chairman of Bridgepoint Group plc, a FTSE listed private markets company.

William, a graduate of Oxford, has had a 30 year business career focusing on sport, property and healthcare and has served on numerous boards. He is currently President of the Board of Dorna Sports, the international sports management company which runs the MotoGP World Championship. He is also a Non-executive Director of the Berkeley Group Plc, a FTSE 100 property company and a Director of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Europe’s largest comprehensive cancer hospital and one of the world’s top five centres for cancer research.

Let’s start by finding out about your association with Wellington and why you’ve taken on this role. I’m passionate about education and the power it has to change people’s lives. In recent years I’ve been involved with a range of access to education projects at the university and secondary school level and seen the impact of this in action. Wellington has the capacity to pioneer in it its field and that’s hugely exciting to be involved with.

I’m also a former parent having had two daughters through the College between 2010 – 2017 both in The Anglesey. This has given me a useful perspective of the student experience as well as being Wellington a parent during a very exciting phase of its history. I’ve been a Governor since 2018 serving as the chair of the E&F Committee. And since my appointment I have been working closely with our outgoing Chair of Governors, Peter Mallinson, which has given me tremendous preparation for the role. Peter has served Wellington brilliantly over many years and hands over the Chair with the College in excellent shape.

What do you think are the key attributes for being a good ViceChair? I think this breaks down into two areas; people skills and strategic planning. The first requires facilitation skills – the Governing Body at Wellington is a collection of seriously bright, knowledgeable, demanding and highly experienced individuals. The job of Chair is to find a way of harnessing all this talent by creating a well-structured forum where every board member has the opportunity to share their insights and observations.

This aspect is made easier by the second essential ingredient; that of having a co-constructed strategic plan. By having a clear 5-10 year strategy in place you provide an essential framework that galvanises and harnesses the talents and expertise of the Governors, which enables them do their job as effectively as possible.

What do you want to see achieved during your time as Vice-Chair? I want to see the trajectory that the College has been on over the last 15 years not just continue but accelerate – which feels only natural after what we have seen during the global pandemic.

We will have not only provided a clear answer to the question as to what the role of the independent sector is in a post pandemic UK, but will be leading the sector in terms of our partnership work – working collaboratively with our colleagues and students in the State Sector.

Wellington will be able to show clearly how it delivers on its promise to provide an outstanding all-round education for its students and genuinely equip them for the life ahead.

We will do this by holding ourselves to account over the short, medium and long-term by having clear metrics in place way beyond one exam results and we will track our alumni over a 10–20 year period asking ourselves and them; ‘how did we do?’

What I’ve learnt in my career is that most successful organisations share the following characteristics: they remain restless and curious operating with a constructive anxiety to improve what they do; they don’t shy away from the difficult decisions, they seek feedback from their customers, they say what they mean and do what they say and they have the courage of their convictions; most importantly they have a clear vision and strategy, a north star, that all key stakeholders understand and buy into. Wellington’s is pioneering education to serve and help shape a better world.

Wellington in 2021 has so many of these attributes in place but still has a lot of runway ahead. We are a thought leader providing an inspiring education that goes way beyond just exam results, important as they are. Under James Dahl’s leadership, I’ve no doubt that the next 10 years will be as, or even more exciting than, the last.