Staff Profile
Irene Kirkman
Irene is a dynamic education leader who has enjoyed a circular career starting and ending in central government in the civil service. In her last post as Head of Vocational Strategy in the Department for Education (DfE) she was responsible for establishing and running inter-governmental boards to implement ministerial educational reforms as part of the DfE governance process.
Irene also has significant experience of driving transformation through policy development, risk assessment and management in a wide range of contexts through widening her experience of different business and service models.
Irene is a Director of the Mid Counties Co-operative Society. During her service she has chaired the Audit and Risk Committee which reports to the Board and is currently a pension trustee for the Society's pension scheme, sitting on the Pension Trustee Board. She is also a Local Authority Governor at the Cherwell Secondary School in Oxford, acting as link governor to the sixth form.
Irene was elected Deputy Chair from 1 August 2018 until end of July 2022.