September Chamber Breakfast Briefing - Should Jersey Have a University?

Sean Dettman was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois and studied History at the University of Wisconsin before undertaking his PhD at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London. In 2018, Dr Dettman was appointed Director of the newly created Jersey International Centre of Advanced Studies (JICAS), where he undertakes a number of roles and responsibilities including head of research and programme development. Sean lives in Jersey with his wife, Natasha and their two Children Frankie & Cal

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.

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.