Justin Cooke joins Learning with Experts at ‘uniquely exciting time’ for education technology

15 February 2022

Justin Cooke joins Learning with Experts at ‘uniquely exciting time’ for education technology

“Learning has now entered the consumer mainstream: it’s how we spend our time alongside traditional leisure activities.”

Justin Cooke, non-executive director, Learning with Experts

Tuesday 15th February 2022: Online education platform Learning with Experts is delighted to welcome digital expert Justin Cooke to our board as an advisor and investor.

Cooke, who has been listed in Wired Top 100 and named the UK’s second most influential person in digital by Econsultancy, has been working in marketing, technology and education for the past 25 years. He was previously on the board of Future Learn, the digital learning company from Open University. He is former Vice Chair of Unicef UK, Chair of The Drum, CEO and Founder of POSSIBLE, WPP’s largest global digital agency and the former Chair of the BIMA, the industry body for everyone working in digital Britain. He is a Venture Partner at Northzone and an advisor and investor in fast-growing technology businesses including Attest, Blippar, ClubSpark, Digital Theatre, ScreenCloud and a member of the British Museum's digital advisory board.

He believes now is a uniquely exciting time in education technology with growing access regardless of demographics, geography and economic status. “Education is the most powerful tool to change the world,” he says. “Learning has now entered the consumer mainstream: it’s how we spend our time alongside traditional leisure activities and for the first time, technology is enabling us to learn with the best. People understand that learning is an enabler to develop new skills, gain pay rises and start businesses. At Learning with Experts we’re democratising access to experts, frequently working with people who haven’t previously considered themselves to be educators. Businesses are recognising that learning is an effective way of building meaningful relationships with their customers and brands that are informers and entertainers are becoming educators.”

CEO and founder of Learning with Experts Elspeth Briscoe, who worked for eBay, Skype and The Guardian before launching the online education disruptor, which offers courses with an 80 per cent completion rate compared with the 20 per cent that most online courses achieve, said:

I’m delighted to welcome Justin to the team. His expertise in edtech and all things digital will help us continue to grow Learning with Experts and build on our expertise in providing meaningful, successful learning experiences for leading brands, from River Cottage and the Royal Horticultural Society to the NHS and Boots.”

CEO and founder of Learning with Experts Elspeth Briscoe

Cooke joins an impressive family of board investors and advisors which includes:

Alison Forrestal - formerly Amazon, Diagieo, and Group MD of Immediate Media Magazines (now Time Products CEO)

David Armfield, founding Partner of Kinetix Critchleys Corporate Finance. Investment Banking Industry

Rupert Pennant-Rea - Former Deputy Governor of The Bank of England and Editor of The Economist

Guy Baring, River Cottage

David Soskin, former CEO of Cheapflights.com, Partner, HOWZAT

Professor Sir Muir Gray, Formerly Chief Knowledge Officer NHS

Professor Alastair Nicholson Said Business School, Oxford University

Learning with Experts, which originated in Oxford and has students from across the world, provides the chance to learn at the hands of experts within their field. Intimately sized classes of 20 ensure that learners receive individual attention and support, as well as offering a community focus, so that peers interact with one other, leading to our excellent student completion rates that triple the online average.

ENDS

About Learning with Experts:

Learning with Experts is a unique interactive community education platform.

We have worked with experts from the Royal Horticultural Society, River Cottage, Designers Guild, the National Health Service, Goldsmiths and University of Buckinghamshire, to create branded online course content, in many cases developing white-label platforms for their students.

Courses include broadcast quality video lessons taught by experts, downloadable course notes and unique interactive classrooms which allow students to connect with each other and the expert tutor.

Learning with Experts also offers consumer courses which bring together the “experts’ experts” with the best in their field showcasing, interacting and leading intimate classrooms to success in fields covering Art and design, Gardening, Food & Drink, Wellbeing, Photography, Business and Finance.