Former UK Home Secretary joins Board of Alexandria Trust

London, 21 November 2012 - The Alexandria Trust today announced the appointment to its board of trustees of a new member, the Rt. Hon. Charles Clarke.

Clarke was a member of the British parliament for Norwich South from 1997 until 2010, where he served as Secretary of State for Education and Skills from 2002 to 2004 and as Home Secretary from 2004 to 2006. He is now Visiting Professor in politics at the University of East Anglia.

Clarke joins a board of respected leaders in education, human rights, civil society, development, and business, under whose guidance the Trust has flourished in its first year, advancing projects to support open, free dialogue, educational reform, and access to high-quality academic content in the region. The board of trustees includes Salah Khalil, the organisation’s founder; Hassan Abdou; Heba Raouf Ezzat; Frances Guy; Greg Parston; and Emma Playfair.

Clarke joins a board of respected leaders in education, human rights, civil society, development, and business, under whose guidance the Trust has flourished in its first year, advancing projects to support open, free dialogue, educational reform, and access to high-quality academic content in the region. The board of trustees includes Salah Khalil, the organisation’s founder; Hassan Abdou; Professor Heba Raouf Ezzat; Frances Guy; Greg Parston; and Emma Playfair.

"I am delighted to be joining the leadership of this vital organisation, whose mission and work are particularly crucial at this moment in the Arab world," said Clarke. "I look forward to working with the Trust’s leadership, staff, and partners to advance projects that make a real difference in preparing Arab young people for active and informed citizenship in their countries."

"We are honoured to welcome Charles Clarke to our board of trustees," said Alexandria Trust Executive Director David French. "His deep knowledge and expertise in educational quality and standards, and the role of education and training in economic and global competitiveness, will be invaluable to our work. Charles’ acceptance is a wonderful endorsement for an ambitious young charity in its first year."

The Alexandria Trust was established in 2011 in response to the unprecedented opportunities that now exist to transform life chances across the Arab world. Its vision, supported by generous core funding from Arab business leaders, is to contribute to restoring world-class standards of education across the region.

The Trust incubates high-impact projects in three key areas: creating reliable, unbiased platforms for sharing knowledge and ideas, fostering debate, and encouraging reform in the region; facilitating policy partnerships which convene global expertise to support Arab-led education-sector reform efforts to improve quality and expand opportunity; and enhancing learning by dramatically improving access for Arabic learners to seminal texts in the social sciences.