September Chamber Breakfast Briefing - Should Jersey Have a University?

Rob has a science degree from Sussex University and a postgraduate qualification in Science Teaching, plus 25 years of teaching experience. Before becoming a States Member, he was head of department and teacher of Science and Psychology at Le Rocquier school and President of the Jersey Branch of the National Education Union.
As President of the Jersey branch of the National Education Union, he represented the interests, both individual and collective, of education professionals and led the successful campaign to stop cuts to Newly Qualified Teachers salaries and cuts to education funding. Rob is a proud father of two children who were educated in Jersey.

Political Service

Deputy Ward joined the Reform Party and was first elected as Deputy to represent St Helier District 2 in June 2018. He served as Chair of the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel throughout this 4-year term of office.
In June 2022 he topped the poll in the St Helier Central district and was re-elected as a Deputy for a four-year political term. In March 2023 Deputy Ward was successfully elected as the Chair of the Health and Social Security Panel.
In January 2024 following a change of government mid-term, Deputy Ward was elected as Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning.

Tony has over 20 years of senior management experience across a wide range of digital industries, including mobile, online, broadcast, payments, advertising and data analytics, using the latest technological innovations to develop new revenue streams.
Tony began his career at NatWest on the graduate training programme, going on to spend 7 years there and rising to Senior Manager of Commercial Development in their cards business. He went on to work for Visa Europe as Vice President of New Products, where he developed a number of new electronic payment products. He took this interest in innovation to ITV Digital where he was Director of Interactivity, followed by senior positions at the National Grid Wireless and Digital Radio UK, where he increased digital radio sales from 5 million to 11 million in testing market conditions and persuaded the car industry to standardise it in all new models.
Before joining Digital Jersey, he was delivering a number of projects in the digital space for both the UK Government and major private sector companies, and was one of the founders of Weve, a joint venture between EE, O2 & Vodafone in mobile marketing, payments and data analytics.
As CEO of Digital Jersey Tony is responsible for delivering the organisation’s long-term economic, social and reputational objectives together with meeting annual business plan goals, to develop Jersey as a recognised digital jurisdiction.

Jo leads on the strategic development of the College. She enables staff and students to achieve the best outcomes possible. Jo is responsible for driving up standards so that every student whatever their starting point is able to progress and enjoy their learning experience. Under her direction, the College will continue to innovate, whilst offering excellent value for money for the public. Highlands plays a major role in educating and training 1000s of people every year, so it is central to the community’s economic and social well-being.