Lord John Nash

Lord John Nash was appointed a non-executive director of the Department for Education in 2010, and he was appointed a schools minister in 2013. As such, he was responsible for free schools, faith schools, academies, independent schools, school capital and more. The number of academies in the country grew from approximately 2,000 to around 7,000 during his tenure, and he took five acts of parliament through the House of Commons, including the Children and Families Act 2014.

Alongside his wife, Caroline, Lord Nash founded the charity Future in 2005 to support less-advantaged children and young people. In 2008, the organisation began sponsoring Pimlico Academy, which it took from being in special measures to an Ofsted Outstanding ranking in less than two and a half years. Today, Future Academy supports 10 schools (with 7,000 students) in London and Hertfordshire and runs a Curriculum Centre, which aims to assist teachers and reduce their workload through the provision of teaching materials.

Through Future, Lord Nash supports charities such as the Social Mobility Foundation and OnSide, which exists to help ensure all young people can unlock their full potential. OnSide is raising funds to build a network of multimillion-pound, state-of-the-art Youth Zones in some of the country's most disadvantaged areas. These youth centres are filled with inspiration and energy and staffed by highly skilled youth workers who passionately believe in young people.

Having a long-standing interest in UK venture capital, Lord John Nash joined Advent in 1983 and was appointed chairman of the British Venture Capital Association in 1988. In the same year he set up Sovereign Capital and retains a strong interest in early-stage venture capital investing to this day.