Meet the trustees
Perdita Fraser
Perdita Fraser
Chair
Perdita was appointed as Chair of the Board of Trustees in April 2021.
Perdita has been involved with education and social mobility charities for nearly 30 years, including Rugby Portobello Trust, IntoUniversity and Access Aspiration. She is a passionate believer in bringing together business, charities and government to solve the big issues facing society.
She has 20+ years' board experience across private, public and third sectors with specific focus on innovation, sustainability, data science and building partnerships. A former JP Morgan investment banker, she is a board member of the National Lottery Community Fund and the University of Edinburgh. Named as one of the “100 Women to Watch” on the female FTSE Board Report 2015, Perdita is also a Fellow of the RSA.
Andrew Haldane
Andrew Haldane
Patron
Andrew Haldane is the Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). He was formerly Chief Economist at the Bank of England and a member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee. He was the Permanent Secretary for Levelling Up at the Cabinet Office from September 2021 to March 2022. Andrew is Founder and President of the charity Pro Bono Economics, Patron of the charity National Numeracy and Chair of the National Numeracy Leadership Council. Andrew chairs the Government's Levelling Up Advisory Council and the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre's Industrial Board. He is contributing editor at the Financial Times and Chief Economic Advisor at PwC. Among other positions, he is Honorary Professor at the Universities of Nottingham, Manchester and Exeter, Visiting Professor at King's College, London and a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Academy of Social Sciences.
Andrew formerly served as Vice-chair of National Numeracy for five years.
Catherine Paulson-Ellis
Catherine Paulson-Ellis
Catherine Paulson-Ellis teaches maths at The Sheffield College and the Open University, having trained at the University of Huddersfield. She is particularly interested in supporting those who struggle to master basic numeracy. Her background is policy on vocational education and adult skills, and she has advised on projects for a range of organisations in the UK and Europe. As Head of English and Maths at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills she instigated the reform of Functional Skills qualifications and, with the Behaviour Insights Team, set up the Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge to apply behavioural science to the challenge of encouraging adults to improve their numeracy.
Chris Linton
Chris Linton
Chris Linton is Provost & Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Loughborough University, a role he has occupied since 2011. He is a mathematician who has made important contributions to the development of mathematical techniques used in the study of wave scattering. He studied as an undergraduate at Jesus College, Oxford and obtained his PhD from the University of Bristol in 1988.
He moved to Loughborough in 1993 and prior to taking on his current role he served as Head of the School of Mathematics and then Dean of the Faculty of Science. Chris was president of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications between January 2016 and December 2017.
Dipesh Patel
Dipesh Patel
Dipesh Patel is a seasoned digital and business transformation leader with over 20 years of experience spanning marketing, ecommerce, technology, analytics, and operating model redesign. He has held senior roles across both corporate and consulting environments, driving innovation and strategic change at scale.
He is currently leading Marketing and Digital Commerce Transformation for Unilever’s Beauty & Wellbeing business.
Earlier in his career, Dipesh was a management consultant at KPMG, delivering transformation, M&A, and restructuring programmes across consumer goods, retail, travel, construction, and energy sectors. He is a Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in Mathematics from University College London.
Graham Keniston-Cooper
Graham Keniston-Cooper
Graham Keniston-Cooper has had a long and distinguished career in private equity, involving significant investment, CEO and board experience including founding General Partner at Cinven, CEO of Lazard Private Equity Partners and Head of Morgan Stanley Private Equity in Europe. Graham was Head of Business Development at Kingfisher and Senior Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group. He has a degree and a Masters in Mathematics from Trinity College, Cambridge, and was a director of the company which organised the 2019 International Maths Olympiad. He is currently Chair of the United Kingdom Maths Trust, a co-opted member of Kings College London Maths School, and Chair of the Development Board of the Isaac Newton Institute.
John Ball
John Ball
John is a member of the Board of the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates the UK financial services industry. He has a number of other Trustee and Non-Executive roles, including for a Multi-Academy Trust comprising 13 schools, and a semi-professional orchestra where he is the Treasurer. John previously had a 40-year career in the financial services industry, which included being UK chief executive his firm and the global head of one of its largest businesses, as well as being an adviser to a number of large multinational companies and some of the UK's largest financial institutions. John is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and has a degree in Mathematics from Oxford University.
Karolina Joynathsing
Karolina Joynathsing
Karolina Joynathsing brings over two decades of leadership experience in strategy and business strategy, partnerships, product and digital innovation, with a focus on the media and technology sectors. She currently leads global business development and distribution at Amazon Music, having previously held roles at Spotify, the BBC and Skype, as well as working as a strategy consultant.
Karolina is passionate about inclusion, equity and empowering others — values she brings to her role as Trustee at National Numeracy. She also serves as a Trustee of Kids Rights UK and is a mother of three teenagers. Originally from the UK, she has lived and worked internationally, including in France, Ukraine and Mauritius. She holds an MA in Languages and Economics from the University of St Andrews.
Lynne McClure
Lynne McClure
Lynne McClure OBE is Head of Mathematics Solutions at Cambridge Partnership for Education and was previously Director of Cambridge Mathematics, NRICH and Underground Maths. She has had a varied career in mathematics education, ranging from headship of a primary school to Principal Lecturer at two universities. She is the author or editor of many books and articles, and is well known internationally as a conference speaker.
Lynne sits on the Royal Society’s Mathematical Futures Board and Partnership Grants Committee and chairs the Education workstream of the new proto-Academy for the Mathematical Sciences. She is a former president of the Mathematical Association and Executive Chair of ISDDE, a Chartered Maths Teacher and a Fellow of the RSA and IMA.
Mary Gregory
Mary Gregory
Mary Gregory is a government statistician, currently Director of Population Statistics at the Office for National Statistics. Previous roles have included developing data on household energy consumption and efficiency and setting up an evaluation of the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As Deputy Director at the Office for Statistics Regulation, Mary led its work to reduce misuse of statistics. Mary was the 2024-25 Royal Statistical Society William Guy Lecturer for children age 5 to 11, talking to children about how statistics are relevant in their everyday lives. Through her career and voluntary activity Mary is committed to helping people see the value of numbers and their potential to inform decisions and improve lives. She has a degree in mathematics and MPhil in statistics.
Paul Coffey
Paul Coffey
Paul Coffey has over twenty five years of experience in the advertising and marketing sector. He is the Strategy & Operations Director for Google’s Advertising Platform business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa; responsible for sales strategy, commercialisation and incubating new product launches.
Paul has been at Google for eight years. Prior to that he worked for a number of media and creative agencies. Paul has a degree in Modern History from Oxford University.
Sandra Wallace
Sandra Wallace
Sandra Wallace, CBE, is a member of the Executive Board and acts as Deputy Managing Partner/Managing Director - Practice Groups for DLA Piper, and remains an active employment law partner handling many international employment law mandates.
She served as a Social Mobility Commissioner from December 2018 to October 2021, sponsored by the Cabinet Office, also serving as interim Co-Chair. Sandra also works to drive social mobility within the legal sector and worked on the Firm’s bid to become the lead legal services employer for the Social Mobility Pledge.
Sandra is the Birmingham Chair at TheCityUK, lobbying on behalf of the financial and related professional services industry, and was recently appointed as Co-Chair to a Government commissioned taskforce, looking at improving socio-economic diversity at senior levels within UK financial and professional services. She will be leading the industry consultation workstream, which looks at the role of Government, regulators and sector bodies in incentivizing employer action.
Sandra is a mother of three and works flexibly to balance her career and family life.
Remembering Lord Moser
Lord Moser
Lord Moser
Lord Moser, a founding trustee of National Numeracy, passed away in September 2015.
A former head of the Central Statistical Service, Claus Moser was also a leading figure in UK education and culture, and a champion of both sciences and the arts.
A 2010 report, commissioned by Lord Moser as a trustee of the Rayne Foundation, from New Philanthropy Capital recommended the creation of a national numeracy trust. The report, which focused on the low levels of numeracy in the UK, led to the formation of National Numeracy.
Lord Moser's extraordinary career, achievements and cultural influence reached many and he is greatly missed.
