Peter Lauener has stepped away from his position as chair of college giant NCG three years earlier than planned for “personal reasons”.
The ex-chief executive of the government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency has led the group’s board since 2018 and was supposed to end his term in 2026. However, he took a leave of absence from the role in March following a family bereavement and officially stood down in July.
He’s been replaced by John Widdowson following a “competitive process”, NCG said. Widdowson is a former college principal and president of the Association of Colleges. He joined the NCG board in 2020 and was its vice chair prior to this new role. His term as chair will be for an initial four-year period.
Lauener is also chair of the Student Loans Company and the Construction Industry Training Board – both of which are non-departmental public bodies of the Department for Education. Lauener said he will see out his term of office at both organisations, which runs until 2026.
