The North London college for 16 to 18-year-olds focuses on digital skills with students having to take a BTEC in Computer Science. The tight focus of the curriculum and dedication of the students and staff paid off when 2016 cohort achieved fantastic results in 2018 and the following year did the same.

Hall sees her job as taking the college into its maturity stage. She said: “It’s been in start-up mode and it is now into stabilising and growing and one of my responsibilities is to take it forward. The founders have done the most amazing job of getting it launched and approved and now it is coming of age.”

She is also bringing her experience of working in public sector organisations which will assist her with governance. Hall said: “I understand the machinations of governance and the distinction between the executive decision making and the trustee governance decision making.” At Cancer Research she is ‘on the other side of the leadership fence’ as she has to report to trustees, and be very clear about which decisions are for the executive and which are for the governing board to make.

Another aspect of her role will be to help increase the number of employer partners that the college works with. Currently Deloitte, Google, Bank of America and Salesforce are amongst the companies that take on students for work-based training. But Hall is hoping to use extensive network to bring in new partners.

The chairpersonship is a good fit for Hall because the college is committed to removing the glass ceiling in tech for women and those from low-income backgrounds, an issue that is close to her heart. Over the years she has been involved in a number of initiatives that promote diversity in the tech sector including e-skills UK which later became The Tech Partnership and the Tech Talent Charter. She said: “The Tech Talent Charter started with an emphasis on gender but it has now moved on to other forms of diversity including ethnicity, disability, social mobility and so on which is really important. I have quite a strong interest in that area.”

Currently, just under a third of the student body are female and one half are from low-income backgrounds. Hall has spent the majority of her time at university and in the workplace – prior to CRUK she spent 20 years at the BBC and was at Shell before that - in majority male environments, to the point where being outnumbered gender-wise doesn’t faze her. Her tip for thriving in such environments is to find male allies who will support and step in if they see difficult or inappropriate behaviour.