peeple trustees

Peeple has a board of pro-active trustees with a strong background in education, family work and management at policy, academic and leadership levels.

David Bailey became our chair of trustees in April 2023. He is a self-employed finance consultant with extensive experience in Board development events in financial management, advising on competitive tenders and developing business cases, particularly in the health sector. He is a qualified accountant (Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) and has an Advanced Certificate in Marketing. David was Board Director of South West Environmental Parks Ltd, including Paignton Zoo, Newquay Zoo and Living Coasts and has been a trustee of Peeple since 2012.

Mark Harris is a business consultant with more than thirty years experience of international sales and marketing. He has held a range of senior executive positions, most recently as Global Senior Vice President of Quaker Chemical Corporation. Mark has been a trustee of Peeple since 2013 following completion of a project for the charity which he undertook as a volunteer with the Cranfield Trust, and was our chair of trustees from 2017 - 2023. He is also a trustee of Age UK Coventry & Warwickshire and the charity ZANE (Zimbabwe a National Emergency), and is a National Trust volunteer.

Neil McClelland OBE was the founding director of the National Literacy Trust, which works across the UK to raise literacy standards and promote reading. The Trust worked closely with Peep and he was on the advisory committee for the initial development of Peep. Neil was a secondary school teacher and education officer, before becoming Deputy Director, Schools for the Inner London Education Authority, with responsibility for pre-school and primary education, and then Director of Education for the London Borough of Greenwich. Neil now works as a consultant and personal/organisational development coach, a volunteer mentor and adviser to a variety of charities; he also contributes to international literacy developments via The Frankfurt Book Fair/UNESCO Literacy Campaign.

Teresa Smith has a life time of experience in work and research with families, including the national evaluation of children’s centres (ECCE 2001-2016) commissioned by the Department of Education. She was a specialist advisor to the House of Commons Children Schools and Families Select Committee (2004-2010) during their inquiries into children’s centres and social work training. Teresa worked in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention in the University of Oxford for many years, where she was Head of Department 1997-2005. She contributed to the reviews which led to the development of children’s centres.  Teresa has been involved with Peeple since she was part of the advisory board which helped set up the organisation in 1995, including three years as chair of trustees.

Nancy Stimson joined the Board of Peeple in June 2019, having previously worked as a volunteer consultant through the Cranfield Trust, reviewing and updating Peeple’s employment contracts and employee policies. Having retired from full-time employment as Group HR Director for an IT organisation, Nancy supports various charities from an HR perspective, is a volunteer Adviser for Citizens Advice, and acts as a mentor for women entrepreneurs through the Cherie Blair Foundation. She is also completing a distance learning MA in Communication and Applied Linguistics, and has a particular interest in early years language acquisition. 

Dr Alison Street has spent 30 years in community music education with families. She composed and compiled materials for the Peep Learning Together programme (2000). Her research interests focus on the musicality of adult-infant interactions from diverse social and cultural perspectives. Alison works as a consultant to national projects that support families with young children’s learning and communication through music. She was a tutor on the Masters Programme in Early Childhood Music accredited by Birmingham City University and associate lecturer at Oxford Brookes in Early Childhood Studies.

Professor Mary Wild is Head of the School of Education at Oxford Brookes University. Her career began as a primary school teacher and then a nursery leader. Mary's research interests include early childhood literacy, children’s thinking and the use of ICT to support learning. In 2009-10, she was a co-author on a national review on children’s cognitive and socio-emotional development that provided part of the evidence-base that informed the review of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Curriculum in England. She has subsequently published articles on early years professionalism and on early education outside of the traditional setting and has co-authored a number of texts designed to support students of early years education. Mary is a member of the British Psychological Society and the British Educational Research Association (BERA), the National Strategy Group for the Early Childhood Studies Degree Network in the UK and the Oxfordshire Strategic Schools Partnership.