The chair of the Skills and Education Group (SEG) board has resigned with immediate effect on health grounds.
Atholl Stott stood down as chair and trustee of the awarding and professional development charity earlier this month, ending 15 years in non-executive roles in further education.
Nottingham College principal and chief executive Janet Smith, already a trustee of the group, has been made interim chair before a permanent chair is recruited later this year.
The group is now led by an interim chair as well as an interim chief executive.
Paul Eeles, its long-standing CEO, resigned and was then suspended pending an investigation in October.
SEG hired law firm Eversheds Sutherland to lead an investigation into Eeles “in response to new information that has emerged since his resignation”.
That investigation remains ongoing.
Stott joined what was then the Emfec trustee board in 2016 and took over as chair in 2017. Emfec became Skills and Education Group in 2018, following the acquisition of ABC Awards and Certa Awards. The group grew further to include a grant-giving foundation, awarding and assessment arms and the British Institute of Innkeeping Awarding Body acquired in 2021.
In a message to SEG staff last week, interim chief Yultan Mellor said: “Atholl Stott has made the difficult decision to stand down from his role as chair of the group board and as a trustee with immediate effect for health reasons.
“I know you will join me in thanking Atholl for all the support he has offered Skills and Education Group over the years he’s been with us.”
Stott was a board member of North Nottinghamshire College from 2009, seeing through its 2016 merger with Rotherham College to form the RNN Group. He chaired the group until 2019 as it was placed in FE commissioner intervention.
Other roles in the sector included serving four years on the board of the Association of Colleges and chairing its governors’ council from 2016 to 2019.
Stott declined to comment.
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