Al Parkes, Semta Group Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of EAL
Al was appointed as Semta’s Chief Operating Officer in December 2014, having worked with Semta as The STEM Alliance Programme Leader since August 2014. Al combines overarching operational responsibility for Semta with a key role in its strategic development and leadership of a large, multi-disciplinary team. She was also appointed as Managing Director of EAL, Semta's sister organisation, in December 2016.
Al brings with her a wealth of experience having spent 25 years working in private education, the majority of which has been at a senior level. Al has headed up almost every function of a modern organisation, from Operations and IT, to Sales & Marketing and Business Transformation at Executive level.
During her previous Executive and COO roles at one of the UK’s largest vocational training providers, Al presided over a number of key achievements including a Grade 2 OFSTED inspection and a Grade 1 mock inspection, as well as Matrix and IIP accreditation.
Al has worked on a substantial number of large scale projects, working her way from project team member to programme director, heading up simultaneous multi-million pound projects, including multiple national rollouts of blue-chip client education programmes, delivering learning to tens of thousands of individuals in organisations such as John Lewis, Argos and BP.