David Withey

David joined South Gloucestershire and Stroud College as CEO and Principal in March 2025. He previously spent 20+ years as a civil servant, most recently as the Chief Executive of the Education and Skills Funding Agency, the Government body responsible for funding schools, colleges and training providers in England.

David started his career working on the Northern Ireland political process, and subsequently led teams working on public spending at HM Treasury. He spent 8 years in Australia, including as Chief Operating Officer at the New South Wales Department of Education. He also led the COVID Economic Taskforce in NSW. He has a BA(Hons) in History from the University of Nottingham and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

David grew up in Dorset and now lives in Somerset with his wife Carey and three children where he can usually be found watching football and cricket, running (slowly), walking the dog and trying to find more time to read.

https://www.sgscol.ac.uk/news/sgs-college-appoints-new-ceo-and-principal

Previous Principals/CEOs

Kevin Hamblin

Kevin Hamblin was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Principal in September 2015, having been appointed Principal and Chief Executive of South Gloucestershire and Stroud College in February 2012. Prior to this, Kevin was the Principal and Chief Executive of Filton College since December 2001.

On completion of his degree, Kevin worked as Commercial Manager and then Commercial Director of a private training company, before becoming Head of Open Learning at Swindon College in 1997. This led to a role as Head of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Systems Engineering at Swindon, before becoming Vice Principal at Hartpury College, Gloucestershire in 1999.