The Office Team

Prior to joining the Network, Rhona had a long career in the Civil Service where she worked as Personal Secretary to various Directors with responsibility for European Funding, Communities & Regeneration and Local Government Practice. During her career she had the opportunity to be seconded to the then Birmingham Training & Enterprise Council, and the newly created Business Link Birmingham.

Lesley Badger: PA to BLI Executive Director

Everton Burke: BLI Programme Manager

Everton joined the Further Education sector in 1983 with his first role as a fulltime lecturer in Hospitality and Catering. He has held teaching and management posts up to Vice Principal level as a senior postholder.

Everton has worked on several national steering committees advising government on qualifications for the Hospitality sector, including chairmanship of a review group looking into alternative ways of recording assessment evidence for Scottish and National Vocational Qualifications in hospitality and catering. 

Everton achieved his Certificate in Education studying at Wolverhampton Polytechnic. He has also studied education management at the University of Birmingham and also at Sheffield Hallam University.

Whilst a head of department at Handsworth College, he launched and concluded a project for setting up a European Afro Hair qualification, in partnership with several  European colleges through a Leonardo Da Vinci Project.

Everton is now an Education Consultant and is still a great supporter of the FE sector. He continues to make a direct contribution to it through his Governership work at Burton and South Derbyshire College. 

Everton is keen to work with the Network and BLI because he wanted to give something back for the years that he benefitted from the professional development programmes he attended, delivered by the BLI.  He is currently covering the role of BLI Programme Manager as well as other projects within the NBP.

Michelle Dainty joined the Network at the end of July 2007 to work in Accounts. She brings experience in finance and book keeping, office administration, customer relationship management, problem solving, and of course, her knowledge of various IT packages.

Michelle has a strong service orientation and customer focus, as, in previous roles she has dealt with internal and external customers at all levels. She has gained experience in a range of companies including private enterprises, and a daily newspaper. She has a track record of meeting and exceeding targets, and winning awards for her performance. In one of her workplaces Michelle was four-time winner of the local office award for Sales Executive of the month and twice-winner of the divisional office award across 5 regional offices - all in the same year!

She has acted up as a Finance Manager, and has worked in a security firm as an Office/Administration Manager, where she reported on finance to the Directors. She also carried out an operational and supervisory role for the company's Security guards.

During her working life to date, Michelle has taken time out to travel the East Coast of America, which allowed her to mix with a variety of people from different backgrounds, thus furthering her ability to communicate with all types of people.

Robin was a founder member of the Network for Black Professionals. He was a member of the Commission for Black Staff in FE. He is a past member of the Association for College Management's National Council, and is Past Chair of the National Coalition of Black-led Organisations (NCBLO) and has been an occasional columnist in the TES FE Focus & FE Now. He was appointed a OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list 2010 for his services to Black and Minority Ethnic Further Education.

Rajinder Mann OBE: Director, Black Leadership Initiative

Rajinder has twenty years experience in FE, adult, youth and community education. She was Director of Community Education at Bilston Community College then Principal Officer for Lifelong Learning at the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. She has other Local Government experience in policy development at Birmingham City Council and Wolverhampton Borough Council. She has also worked as a Race Equality Officer at NIACE developing strategies and policies aimed at community cohesion.

Rajinder holds a Bachelor of Education Degree and a Master of Social Science Degree from Birmingham University. She is passionately committed to the equalities agenda and her voluntary roles include being a founder member of the Network for Black Managers, as well as former Chair. She was Vice Chair of the Commission for Black Staff in FE, and other national committee roles included the Equality and Diversity Committee of the UfI, DfES Race Advisory Group, LSC Equality and Diversity Committee. She is an ACM council member and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has also been involved in local and international woman's groups including the Soroptomists. Rajinder was awarded an OBE in 2011 for her services to Black and Minority Ethnic people.

Sian Smith: Marketing, PR & Communications Coordinator

Sian joined the Network in May 2009 working as a Project Support Officer on the LLUK Pass on Your Skills Project before moving into her current position as Marketing, PR & Communications Coordinator in September 2009.

Originally from Liverpool, Sian began her career working in data analysis for Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive. She then spent 5 years working in office & operations management in the retail and construction sectors before moving to Wolverhampton and joining the Network.

Outside of work her interests include music, netball and travelling.

Baljinder (Bobby) Singh Upple : Director of Business Strategy & Operations

Bobby began a teaching career in the Computing department of Leicester College in 1996 having joined the organisation as an Information & Admissions Assistant a year earlier. Within a year he assumed course management responsibilities for a number of programmes and also became an Associate Lecturer for DeMontfort University.

Following merger and management restructuring in July 2002, he was promoted to Programme Area Manager for Computing with responsibility for operational management of the department. A year later he was appointed Programme Area Manager for External Provision in Computing, a new role to lead on the development of external provision both commercial and community based, and to manage educational partnerships with schools, universities, training providers, etc.

 In July 2005, he left to take up a 1-year BLI Secondment with the National Office of the Learning & Skills Council where as a Senior Policy Manager in the Skills Group, he led on the development of a national standard for employer responsiveness (Training Quality Standard), and also worked on a number of other LSC programmes including Train to Gain, National Skills Academies, and Framework for Excellence. Bobby left the LSC in March 2007 following two extensions to his secondment, the last 3 months in the role of Equality & Diversity Projects Manager.

He joined the NBP to manage their professional training & development service, the Black Leadership Initiative (BLI). He was responsible for delivering a range of programmes and services funded through organisations including LSIS, LSC, DCLG, and bespoke programmes across England with themes including social mobility, community cohesion, positive leadership models for young people, and intercultural working.

In November 2009, Bobby was appointed the Regional Development Manager for the Midlands & East of England, where he is responsible for supporting NBP members in the region, and to develop the Network’s membership further. He is also Project Director for the Network’s Future Jobs Fund contract with DWP.

He is a Governor at South Leicestershire College, associate member of IfL, member and approved trainer for ILM, a BLI mentor, committee member (Sports and Education) for a Sikh Gurdwara in Leicester, player/coach for community football club, plays league cricket, and is married with three young children.