About Zenna Hopson

Zenna Hopson currently works through her consultancy practice ZA partners assisting organisation directly, through The-Learning-Crowd working in education and runs Hopson Mediation a dispute resolution service. Zenna is an experienced chairman and board member, with extensive expertise in implementing good governance leading to effective strategic delivery. She is an acclaimed entrepreneur, with a prominent voice and a recognised expert in driving profitable social change, through high-profile public and private organisations.

Zenna was the Chairman of Ofsted, the children and learners’ inspection and regulation body. In this role she spearheaded a new inspection regime, significant costs savings and the shift to put young people at the heart of inspection and education. She was also the Group Chairman of Places for People, a British property development and management company, turning over £280 million with a £3 billion asset base.

She served as a non-executive director on the board of the Royal Navy for 10 years and chaired their audit committee. Zenna was a member of HM Treasury audit committee and has served on a number of other British government boards.

She is a regular speaker on education, innovation, CSR, leadership and governance and is an advisor on British governmental panels and committees; Zenna also established herself as a regular broadsheet columnist for The Guardian and has extensive publications in the education, health and housing press, she was a guest presenter for a television series on Channel 5 and still regularly appears as a commentator on Sky news.

Having won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year award in 2000 and been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Portsmouth University, Zenna has increasingly been invited by governments and corporate blue chip businesses to help drive their political or commercial strategies delivering impactful social outcomes.