Kirsty Williams

Chair of Taith Advisory Board

Kirsty Williams served for 22 years in the Senedd. In 2008 she was elected leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, the first woman to lead one of the four main political parties in Wales. Between 2016 -2021 she was Minister for Education, leading a national mission of education reform. She retired from front line politics in May 2021. Alongside her roles at Taith, she is Vice Chair of Powys Teaching Health Board and serves on a number of community and charitable organisation’s boards in the county. She lives on the family farm in the heart of the Brecon Beacons and is an enthusiastic volunteer at Pontfaen Young Farmers Club and Powys Samaritans.

Other Board of Directors

Piet Van Hove

President of the EAIE and Senior Policy Advisor for Internationalisation at the University of Antwerp

Piet Van Hove is the President (2022-24) of the European Association for International Education (www.eaie.org) and Senior Policy Advisor for Internationalisation at the University of Antwerp, where he previously studied Law. He has been active in internationalisation of higher education since 1995, dealing with university-wide policy formulation and execution on different aspects of internationalisation, including student and staff mobility, development cooperation, services for international staff and students, international educational projects and strategic networking. Piet has been active in the leadership of several professional associations and nonprofits at the national and international level for many years, such as Flanders Knowledge Area, the Academic Cooperation Association, the NGO APOPO and the EAIE. He presents frequently on a wide range of topics related to internationalisation of higher education.

Laura Davies

Director of Communications, Marketing and Student Recruitment, Cardiff University

Director of Communications, Marketing and Student Recruitment.

Ben Coates

Joint Head of the Strategy Unit, HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Ben Coates – a keen climber, runner and outdoors enthusiast based on Cardiff – is a Civil Servant who has worked across Whitehall in a range of roles including Chief of Staff at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and, currently, Joint Head of Strategy at HM Courts and Tribunals. But it was as Head of Scholarships at the UK Foreign Office, where he led the Chevening and Marshall programmes, that he became passionate about international education and learning exchange. He is also a criminal law magistrate, a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Plas y Brenin, the National Outdoors Centre in North Wales – and will shortly stand down as a Trustee for Diverse Cymru, a Welsh equalities charity, after 4 years. He is a qualified Executive Coach and a mentor with the Social Mobility Foundation.