Elections 2020

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 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:

• Member of European Association of Test Publishers (ATP) steering committee
• Judge on eAssessment Association awards panel
• Regular posting of blogs and thought leadership pieces

Teresa found her true passion when she exchanged teaching and management for an internationally focused role with a leading UK awarding body. She found genuine satisfaction achieving the vital but complex task of ensuring every learner received the result they deserved. 

Teresa has held several assessment related roles, with professional and OFQUAL regulated awarding organisations and regulators.  Teresa has achieved transformational change in the construction of assessments and supporting processes through IT enablement. For example, Teresa drove a transformation from paper-based examinations to 100% e-assessment, facilitated by remote invigilation, making that organisation an early adopter of assessment technology, while improving overall take up and quality of assessments.

Teresa is currently Executive Director – Learning with International Skills Development Corporation, a company which promotes access to UK qualifications powered by IT and e-assessment in India. In this capacity Teresa supports and creates partnerships with UK universities, awarding and professional bodies to support the ambitions of the Indian Government to radically transform education.

Teresa remains passionate about e-assessment and technology. Having been a board member of e-Assessment Association for the last 3 years she is keen to keep up the momentum and continue to drive and develop the Association and e-assessment.

I’ve been working in English language teaching and assessment for over 20 years and am currently the Director of Assessment at Oxford University Press. Getting digital assessment right is incredibly important to me and ‘right’ means more than just the content, it means the overall user experience of assessment platforms and the service that is provided to end-users.  I have very frequent contact with end-users of assessment platforms and am very aware of their frustrations and the barriers they face when trying to adopt digital assessment technologies. I want to be a part of making digital assessment better so that it is truly a better alternative to paper and that the power of digital is harnessed in its use to support teaching and learning.

I’d like to be on the board at e-assessment so that I can be a part of determining the future of the association because I think there’s a need for a much more influential e-assessment community that can guide best practice in online assessment and provide learning organisations with support in choosing the right technology for their purposes… I personally know how difficult this is!