David Patterson
Principal and Chief Executive
I joined the college as Principal/CEO on 29 February 2016 following a career in the college sector south of the border. My previous senior role included leadership of over 1,100 teaching staff, across 11 campuses and with responsibility for a budget of C£80m. Prior to that I was part of the senior team that put together the largest ever college merger in the UK as well as leading the project team that transformed a failing secondary school into a successful academy.
I began my career in education as a lecturer, teaching a variety of business and management subjects to students ranging from those with graduate qualifications to those with none. At this time I also contributed to the design and specification of new vocational qualifications in England.
In the next phase of my career I developed and led a number of international projects: to design, resource and implement new curriculum, first in the Baltic states, then in the Arabian Gulf and in Ghana. I oversaw the establishment of a private HE business school in Latvia and the transformation of a small Hospitality and Tourism college in Bahrain. I also introduced and led on overseas student recruitment.
I put together and re-launched a national distance learning operation that grew to be an £8m business across a variety of sectors and led cross-college on employer engagement, overseeing strategy and work with around 1,900 organisations.
I am married with six children. They know where I live.