Elections 2020

The e-Assessment Association is a not-for-profit membership organisation governed voluntarily by a Board made up of both Corporate and Ordinary Members.

We currently have TWO positions available for Corporate Members and have received three nominations.

Corporate Members are drawn from the eAA's sponsors who support the work of the association through financial sponsorship.

Those successfully elected, will be committing to a three-year term – with quarterly Board meetings and an opportunity to actively support and promote the association, steer future activity, present at events, support and develop the new Awards programme and more. Our Board meetings are held virtually, as are all of our sub-committee meetings. The results of this election will be announced at our AGM on Friday 18 September 2020.

Details for how to join the Virtual AGM and the voting link will be emailed to all of our members, please do contact us asap if you have not received this information.

Only members of the eAA may vote in these elections.

The Returning Officer for the 2020 elections is Graham Hudson, Association Secretary. Any queries regarding this election, please email [email protected] and mark your correspondence: FAO Association Secretary.

Mini-biographies, in alphabetical order.

Gareth Hopkins

I’m currently an eAssessment Specialist at City & Guilds, having worked in the field for the past 15 years. My current focus is on Remote Invigilation, having helped develop C&G’s ‘Test At Home’ response during the Covid-19 lockdown period, and now the transition into an ongoing RI solution. I’m also very involved in the introduction and development of new on-screen testing solutions, especially in the Functional Skills and Essential Skills areas.

I’m at the end of my first term serving on the eAA’s board and am eager to serve another if elected. I’ve been an active participant on the board over the past three years, in particular as a member of the e-Assessment Question Conference team. I’ve also hosted a recorded session about Remote Invigilation, and participated in both the Association’s round-table discussion on the future of eAssessment and its panel on deploying eAssessment technologies at BETT. On a personal level being a board member has been hugely rewarding, but I also believe I bring a unique perspective to the group and am eager to use this to encourage the sharing of practice and experience within the association’s membership, and help foster a greater sense of community.

Viral Shah

Viral Shah heads International Business and Solution Engineering for the education focused unit of Tata Consultancy Services – TCS iON. With more than 18+ years of experience, he has been the innovator of more than 100+ solutions. Under his leadership, TCS iON has been able to open up 8 new international geographies within a very short span of time, as well as, ventured into hardware design which led to breakthrough innovation of transmitting digital content without any form of network.

With the dream to put India on the world map for building great products for Education, he started the journey by transforming one of India’s largest university/ college entrance online in 2011 and then many more by conducting 210 million+ assessments till date. He believes in the power of AI/ ML and has setup research teams focussed on NLP, auto marking, voice/ video/ text/ image processing.

Viral has filed more than 25 patents on security of assessments, scanning, question authoring, distribution etc which has helped organisations achieve zero question paper leakage. He has been awarded “Serial Innovator” award by TATA group recognising his contribution towards innovation which has been given to only 3 people in entire TATA group till date.

Kerry Williams

Kerry Williams is currently VP of Certification for PSI’s EMEA & APAC regions. Her role relies on her ability to understand the challenges that the market faces including the growing regulatory burden on test publishers around data security in general and GDPR in particular. By clear and careful assessment of the client’s needs, she ensures that the delivery of services is consistent with the scope of the requirements, the regulatory environment and PSI’s visions, values and service culture.

Kerry has worked in the assessment sector as a technology vendor since 2004 in the field of e-assessment, supporting and providing best practise guidance to Awarding Organisations Government Agencies and Corporate certification clients. This has been achieved through building and managing client-facing teams in both UK and international markets, accelerating revenue growth through the development of strategic plans, building high performing sales teams and driving operational efficiency. Previous positions held by Kerry include VP Sales, Europe at Questionmark Computing Ltd and Sales Manager, Certification at BTL Ltd.

She has always maintained close and active content with the broader credentialing sector including: