Our people

Laura oversees our careers portfolio in the UK and supports regional directors with opportunities within the careers/employability sectors across our global operation. Self-motivated and enthusiastic about our work in the careers field, she inputs to government policy and translates that policy to our operational contracts, providing innovative solutions to our clients issues while not losing sight of the customer experience. Laura is also the President of the Careers Development Institute, the membership organisation for career professionals in the UK and a board member for Careers England, the trade association for career employers.

Natasha leads the Marketing and Communications team who support Education Services in the UK. With a background in Education and Technology, both inhouse and as a consultant, she is focused on reaching new audiences to enable EDT to deliver on our vision of ‘Transforming Lives through Education’. Collaborating with our partners to demonstrate our joint capabilities and engaging with participants to share their learning experiences, widening reach, is central to our marketing and communications strategy. A Chartered Marketer, Natasha is passionate about embedding professional practice in our external relations and within the team.

Dr Nicky Platt is proud to lead our UK Education team – a team of exceptionally dedicated experts in a wide range of subjects, phases and specialisms.  

Nicky’s primary responsibilities are the strategic leadership of EDT’s education solutions and methods, ensuring quality-assured delivery across the portfolio, senior stakeholder management, profile-development, thought leadership, monitoring and evaluation of impact, driving long-term growth through income generation, and technical oversight of EDT’s at-scale UK contracts.  

Across her career, Nicky has worked as an English teacher, an academic (at Birkbeck College and the Universities of Oxford and Reading) and in educational publishing, leading materials development and teacher-training programmes across the Middle East and North Africa. Prior to joining EDT in 2018, Nicky worked as Publishing Director at the UCL Institute of Education, where she also led curriculum, pedagogy and assessment projects for overseas governments and co-directed the IOE’s Subject Specialism Research Group.  

Nicky has publications in the areas of literary studies and (more latterly) the curriculum and teacher-education. While retaining a keen interest in research, Nicky’s current focus is on supporting the Department for Education’s ambitions to provide the best possible professional development for educators at all stages of their careers.

Deborah Leek-Bailey is Head of UK Independent Schools at Education Development Trust. She oversees the independent schools which Education Development Trust owns and manages within the UK. Deborah is a former headteacher and government advisor, with experience of advising ministers on multi-stakeholder partnership engagement, focusing on raising aspirations, attainment and social mobility across sectors. She also holds an OBE for services to education.