About us

David qualified as an accountant with Ernst and Young before moving into lead advisory in corporate finance at Deloitte. He co-founded Boardworks with his business partner Julie in 2000 and grew the business internationally before selling it to GL Assessment. David and Julie then became joint CEOs of Karta, an educational charity working in India, the UK and Canada with disadvantaged rural students in India. He went on to co-found Stylus, a technology business using AI to help schools improve students’ writing, where he is still involved.

Julie started her career as a geography teacher before co-founding Boardworks, an educational technology business set up in answer to the lack of digital content for interactive whiteboards. Boardworks came to be used in more than 85 per cent of UK secondary schools, and across the US, the Middle East and Australia. She has spent more than 25 years in educational technology, working closely with schools, teachers and senior leadership teams alongside her business partner David. The two of them went on to lead the educational charity Karta as joint CEOs, before co-founding Stylus, an AI-based schools writing company where they are both now Non-Executive Directors.

Ben Parnell has worked in schools since 1997, as a geography teacher, a head of year, a vice principal, a principal, an executive principal, a director of education and a chief executive. He has been inspected in every one of those roles, and in most of them he was supporting other schools through it too.

He took a residential special school out of special measures in two terms, after four headteachers in five years had not. At United Learning he was executive principal of up to four schools at a time, among them Winton and Glenmoor, both now rated Outstanding. As Director of Education at Greenshaw Learning Trust he was responsible for ten secondary schools, three of which went from Inadequate to the top four per cent in England inside four years. As chief executive of Athena Learning Trust he ran nine schools across Devon and Cornwall, where the Ilfracombe Academy became the most improved school in England for the progress of disadvantaged pupils.

He is on the end of the phone for the schools that use InspectReady, which is the job he wishes somebody had done for him.