Commercial Education Trust

Commercial Education Trust

The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry established the Commercial Education Trust in 1989 to advance commercial learning across the United Kingdom. Executive Director Mahad Ali, who also serves as a Governor at the University of Derby, runs the day-to-day operation alongside a board that includes Chairman Emeritus Robin Booth, the Trust's former Secretary from 1990 to 2012. The board expanded in 2024 with the appointment of five new trustees — Dann Cleveland, Susanna Kalitowski, Nigel Standing, Larissa Howells, and Diane Betts — bringing in expertise spanning non-profit finance, corporate governance, and education policy. The Trust deploys capital through a listed investment portfolio, with grants focused exclusively on commercial education from primary school through higher education. Unlike generalist foundations, CET's mandate is tightly scoped to building work readiness and economic participation skills. The Trust maintains a formal link to its founder through Ali's seat on the LCCI Skills Committee and a shared registered office in London. Its peer network includes membership in the Association of Charitable Foundations. Ali was appointed Executive Director in March 2022, shaping the Trust's current trajectory. The expanded 2024 board signals a governance refresh after Robin Booth's decades-long tenure. The Trust runs through a lean operating structure — a small professional team supporting the grant-making committee chaired by Anne O'Hagan — rather than a large in-house program staff. CET's architecture is structurally distinct: an independent charity with its own invested endowment, governed by a refreshed board, but permanently tethered to the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry's policy network. This keeps grant-making aligned with employer demand signals that a standalone education foundation would need to source externally.