A former teacher, Graham Donaldson headed Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) from 2002-10. As chief professional advisor to successive Scottish Ministers on education, he took a leading role in Scotland’s major reform of its curriculum. Following retirement from HMIE, his reports ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’ (2011) and ‘Successful Futures’ (2015) led to major reform programmes in Scotland and Wales respectively. He has recently completed an independent review of the education inspectorate in Wales (A Learning Inspectorate).

In addition to extensive consultancy work, including serving as an international expert to various OECD projects, Graham is an honorary professor at the University of Glasgow, past President of IPDA, advisor on educational reform to the Minister for Education and Skills in Wales and to the First Minister of Scotland. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath by the Queen in 2009 for services to education and received the Robert Owen Award as an inspirational educator from the Scottish Government in 2015.