Spotlight on Elaine Lilley MBE

Edge is delighted to welcome Elaine Lilley MBE as the new Chair of the Board of Trustees. She brings to the role a clear background of board and leadership expertise and extensive experience connecting education and business. Elaine’s career ideally aligns with Edge’s vision to create a better world through practical and vocational education.

During her early career, Elaine worked at several commercial organisations in sales and marketing roles before joining the team at the newly founded Centre for Industrial Studies (CIS) at The King's School, Grantham. The CIS was established to improve interventions between education and business – at the time, a revolutionary concept – and this role sparked a lifelong passion and dedication to the cause.

Following additional roles and studies in education management, in 2001, Elaine became CEO of the Lincolnshire and Rutland Education Business Partnership (The EBP), a position she held for 18 years. The role provided an opportunity to develop a strategic approach to delivering innovative educational programmes. Her team delivered countless mentoring and work experience initiatives, supporting thousands of young people from all backgrounds into employment and further education.

The EBP’s most high profile achievement under Elaine’s stewardship, however, was its role as East Midlands’ contract manager for the National Citizen Service (NCS), the sole education business partnership in the UK to manage a delivery contract for the NCS. The EBP underwent a huge programme of growth in order to build the necessary capacity and infrastructure to deliver such a large-scale programme. In just a few years, The EBP went from delivering initial NCS contracts of around £100,000 to those of up to £30 million, having a clear impact on thousands of young lives across the region.

Elaine’s dedication and strategic prowess have been widely recognised. Among other accolades, in 2017 and 2018, she was named in the top 100 women in social enterprise by NatWest and Pioneer Post's WISE100. And in 2019, as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours, she was awarded an MBE for services to improving links between education and business.

Alongside her illustrious career with The EBP, Elaine has held numerous board positions, including as Chair of the National EBP Quality Committee, responsible for audit, quality and working with the government to help improve standards. She also spent eight years as a Governor (and is now a Life Fellow) at Bishop Grosseteste University (BGU) – formerly an Anglican teacher training college for women – a role that further expanded her skillset in the higher education sector. During her time on the Board, BGU obtained university status with its own awarding powers.

Throughout her career, Elaine has demonstrated a remarkable capacity for forging partnerships between employers and education stakeholders, encouraging all involved to embrace collaboration for young people’s benefit. As the new Chair of the Board of Trustees, she is poised to continue this high impact work, supporting Chief Executive Alice Barnard in delivering Edge’s strategic plan.

Elaine says: “Since joining Edge’s Board as a Trustee in 2020, I have been consistently impressed by how the team support one another, and especially how they successfully continued to advocate for relevant, high-quality education for all young people throughout the pandemic. I am honoured to be appointed as Chair and delighted at the prospect of supporting the team in delivering our shared vision.”