Our
Story
We started in 1973 as a pioneer of education technology. From humble beginnings, we have become the partner of choice for thousands of schools across the UK and beyond. But our core vision is still to enrich the lives of learners worldwide.
Enabling the improvement of educational outcomes around the world
We achieve this through the innovative use of existing and emerging technologies – designing and supplying the essential technology ‘building blocks’ involved in running a school, with all the support and expertise to go with it. We strive every day to make school life easier and more rewarding through technology solutions that make the best possible impact on educational opportunities.
View our products and servicesHelping make technology work for you – save time, save money and improve outcomes.
We aim to keep things simple with all of our products and services.
Take our fully scalable IT support service. We work with thousands of schools across the UK each year to deliver a rich array of IT support services, cloud technologies and software solutions to help look after the school’s infrastructure, so teaching staff don't have to spend time on this.
We are also the UK’s only dedicated educational ISP and number one supplier of super-fast, robust and safe internet connections to schools.
An increasing number of schools are also opting to join our growing community of happy MIS adopters. RM Integris saves hours and hours for the school office, making light work of high volumes of school data and reporting. A user-friendly and low-cost alternative to SIMS.
Our team includes practitioners from education, and all of our customers are invited to our CPD and thought-leadership events to share the latest best practice and access to a wealth of support, inspiration and ideas.
Our
People
RM’s purpose is to enrich the lives of learners worldwide. Within the Technology Business Unit we enable the improvement of education outcomes around the world through the innovative use of existing and emerging technologies.
With a heritage dating back 48 years, supporting schools, teachers and pupils across the globe – from pre-school to higher education – including examination boards, central governments and other professional institutions, we employ over 1,000 people within our Technology business unit. Meet the senior leadership team guiding the strategy to deliver this success.
Senior Leadership team
John Baskerville
Managing Director, Technology
John is responsible for the financial performance of this £100m business unit of RM plc, meeting the needs of its 7,000 customers, and developing the 1,000+ employees who work for the Technology business across the globe.
With over 18 years of board-level experience providing leadership within a range of software and solution companies, built upon an early career in software engineering across a range of sectors in the IT industry including Finance, Defence, Central and Local Government and the Police Service.
In his own words... "I've grown up surrounded by technology, remain constantly excited by how it has evolved throughout my life and passionate about its potential to help people. For the last few years, I have been able to bring that passion into the education landscape working at RM. In a world facing challenges such as Covid-19 and climate change, we cannot underestimate how vital education around the world is to our future. It is my belief that technology has a huge role to play in supporting and enabling our global education systems, and that as an industry we have a role to play in passing that passion for the development and application of technology on to the next generation".
Craig Lewendon
Finance Director, Technology
Reporting jointly to the CFO and MD, Technology, Craig is responsible for all commercial and business partnering aspects of the Technology business, as well as running the Group’s offshore Finance function.
Craig is a Chartered Accountant, joining RM Group in 2016 as Group Financial Controller, becoming Finance Director for RM’s UK Schools business in May 2018, and the wider Technology unit on its creation at the end of 2020. Prior to this he undertook a secondment as Finance Director for sister company RM Resources, successfully integrating and driving the synergy benefits from the acquisition of The Consortium in 2017.
With significant experience in senior finance positions in a number of sectors, ranging from Man-Guarding Security, and BMS Systems, through to technology and software in the Banking and Retail/Entertainment spaces.
In his own words... "RM is a resilient business that is well positioned to capitalise on the longer-term market trends we are seeing in our markets – from increasing digitisation changing the way teachers and learning takes place, to a modernisation of the assessment landscape with increasing use of technology as different types of assessment are considered by our customers”.
Rosie Reed
Senior HR Business Partner, Technology
Rosie is responsible for supporting RM’s operational and commercial teams in achieving their strategic objectives, by identifying, managing, and developing talent across the 1,000-person Technology business unit – from Graduates through to experienced professionals.
Prior to joining RM in 2019, Rosie spent 8 years in Australia, in a number of HR roles across the public healthcare system, culminating in managing the medical workforce of a 900-bed teaching hospital in Brisbane. She returned to the UK in 2016 as Head of People Operations for a leading international summer school provider.
In her words... "As a service business, RM relies more than most on its people. It is no surprise that the reason that we win new business – and retain existing customers – some for many, many years – is down to the outstanding service that our people deliver. We are an organisation that is based on core principles based on being curious, brave, making things simple for others, winning together and simply getting on with things so that customers can always consider it done”.
Simon Carter
Marketing Director, Technology
Simon is responsible for the RM brand in the Technology space, devising true insight about the market, building RM’s brand awareness, enhancing its reputation, and undertaking campaigns across a range of media to meet the needs of existing customers and attract new ones.
He has held senior marketing and commercial roles for brands as disparate as Fujitsu, Thomas Cook, the Post Office, Virgin, EdF Energy and NatWest Bank; as well as currently being a Non-Executive Director for Coventry University, a Liveryman for the Worshipful Company of Marketors, a Freeman of the City of London, and was a columnist for the magazine, Marketing Week, for 4 years.
In his words... "RM is an amazing brand – with a very simple purpose to enrich the lives of learners worldwide. With a pedigree as rich as ours, a team as committed as we have, and a customer base as loyal as you can get, we have the basis to deliver that vision the world over. With the changes that our market is now seeing, customers are looking for the support that RM has been offering for many years. It is our time”.
Barbara Parn
Business Transformation Director, Technology
Barbara is responsible for ensuring that RM’s processes, systems and procedures are aligned and effective. In a business as complex as RM, this is a critical role – especially at a time of great change – ensuring all transformation is handled well at the same time as our current business continues to deliver smoothly for our customers.
Barbara joined RM in 2018 following a career in the Criminal Justice Sector. She has over 15 years’ experience of working in the IT industry both as a customer and provider of high stakes/high risk services to Central and Local Government Departments. Her career has included Strategic and Business Unit Director roles in large government, information technology and business services organisations.
In her own words... “RM is a very complex business, serving schools, assessment bodies and government organisations, in all four corners of the world. This requires real skills as well as hugely efficient processes and systems. I am proud to work for RM, playing my role in ensuring that we deliver effective and efficient change programmes that support our customers no matter who they are, what they do, or where they are operating”.
Helen Walker
Global Operations Director, Technology
Helen is responsible for leading software development, technology service delivery and business operations across RM’s international assessment and UK schools’ market.
Helen joined RM in January 2020, from the Department for Education, where as Chief Technology Officer, she was responsible for all internal and sector-facing technology services. She led an ambitious 2-year modernisation programme to upgrade the Department’s systems and services, migrating the full estate to cloud and providing users with seamless connectivity and mobile devices. She then went on to deliver digital transformation at scale – exploiting and optimising cloud environments to design better user services, building specialist capability and driving down costs.
In her own words... “As a former teacher and governor, I am passionate about the potential of education and technology to transform people’s lives and improve social equality. I strongly believe that RM has the best people in the industry working for us and we really can make a difference for learners worldwide”.
Richard Little
Propositions Director, Technology
Richard is responsible for managing RM’s existing customer propositions and developing new ones in the fields of e-assessment, school MIS, safeguarding and managed IT services. Working closely with schools, government ministries, examination boards and professional awarding bodies, Richard is seeking to stay one step ahead of what they may need.
With over 20 years’ experience in delivering large scale hardware and software programmes, Richard started his career as a software developer, and then built on this technical background in a range of management roles spanning telecoms, business systems software development, and information security. For the last 7 years, Richard has led the eAssessment proposition strategy for RM.
In his words... “I have one of the best jobs in the company in that my team and I are tasked with developing propositions to help teachers teach, learners learn, and assessment take place more effectively than it has ever done before. What’s not to love about that?"
Dawn Pollard
Strategic Sales and Accounts Director, Technology
Dawn is responsible for RM’s larger, strategic accounts – both in providing e-marking software and services for the global examiner community (particularly in ‘high stakes’ examinations), and as a full technology provider for larger Multi Academy Trusts or Local Authority-backed school groups.
In her role, Dawn and her team work closely with government ministries, examination boards and professional awarding bodies who have seen first-hand how e-marking is revolutionising efficiency, accuracy and clarity in the assessment cycle; as well as with large School Trusts and Local Authorities in helping them modernise the technology within their schools.
Dawn has spent 20 years delivering services and large scale managed services into the education sector. She started her career at RM as a customer services engineer before moving onto delivering large scale complex IT Managed Services into Local Authorities and schools.
In her words... "Technology really can make a difference to how learners learn in the world. Whether that is in supporting a school deliver education remotely during a pandemic or in helping an awarding body introduce formative assessment to help direct a student’s development. At RM we are at the forefront of both, and our reputation sets us up well to be successful now and in the future”.
Tony Byers
Sales and Portfolio Accounts Director, Technology
Tony is responsible for taking RM’s value proposition to schools globally via new customer acquisition, existing customer retention and the renewal (and extension) of all revenue streams.
Tony joined RM in January 2020 and has significant experience leading commercial and client facing functions, in organisation design, deal governance and remuneration, and has built and managed high performing sales teams, winning and retaining clients with transactional values as great as £300m in a single contract. He has held a number of senior roles in multiple service sectors – as Sales Director for Iron Mountain Europe, building their sales and account management functions at a time of steep growth and acquisition of competitors; as Managing Director of Balfour Beatty’s Business Services division, running a £60m P&L of Central Government clients in the early years of austerity; and more recently in interim commercial leadership positions in Private Equity-backed Tech businesses.
In her own words… “It simply astounds me every time I meet with one of our customers, and how positive they feel about what we do, and the difference we have made to their delivery for their students and learners. I just wish we could ‘bottle’ those experiences to share with other schools and assessment bodies who are yet to appreciate what we could be doing for them”.