Founder
Chris Poole
The education market in the UK and abroad needs fresh and innovative approaches.
That means a new and 'disruptive' entrant. That's lookred®!
Before joining Microsoft 10 years ago Chris was Deputy Headteacher of a comprehensive school in Reading. From 1993 he was the driving force behind the groundbreaking Highdown Information Hub superhighways trial which developed the model of a connected learning community. Knowing exactly the demands of working on the bleeding edge of technology, Chris has appeared in television advertising campaigns for Microsoft and contributed to Bill Gates book, “Business @ the Speed of Thought”.
Within Microsoft, Chris has been responsible for some of the largest market shaping initiatives, such as Anytime, Anywhere Learning, which established the place of mobile technology in education and involved a multi million pound budget responsibility.
Chris joined Microsoft to manage the Anytime Anywhere Learning (AAL) programme in the UK. AAL was a ground breaking laptop programme set within the broader Microsoft vision of Connected Learning Communities (CLC) and focussed on mobility in education with the ultimate vision of 1:1 access. He was the architect of the eLearning foundation funding model attempting to address the issue of equity in a creative way that built bridges with local communities.
Chris has won recognition for the quality of his work. In 2004 Chris won a Circle of Excellence Award which recognises the 200 top performers in Microsoft world wide. In 2008 he followed this with a Circle of Excellence Gold Award as a top performer in Microsoft UK.
For the last 4 years Chris was responsible for Microsoft’s strategy and direction in relation to the BSF programme and more recently responsible for the investments Microsoft made in support of the BSF programme in the form of 3 interlinked BSF Guides and the BSF Showcases and demonstration environments.
Chris was centrally involved in a range of ground breaking relationships with both local authorities in the UK, and abroad with other ministries. Chris’ work involved working closely with local authority leadership teams and their stakeholder groups to help them envision, build robust business plans and organise the capability to deliver significant programmes of change at institutional and area wide levels.
Chris has now founded lookred® solutions ltd to step outside Microsoft and be 'disruptive' by bringing all the ideas and concepts he was responsible for developing while in Microsoft to the market with real software and a different business model for accessing those services.
The education market in the UK and abroad needs fresh and innovative approaches. That means a new and 'disruptive' entrant. That's lookred®!
Director
Matthew Woodruff
Ubiquitous use of enterprise grade technology in other industries and
the advent of cloud computing represent a significant opportunity to
innovate within the education sector
Prior to joining lookred® as a
director Matthew spent five years as a Senior
Project Manager with Microsoft Consulting Services
Notable projects included management of the application development of the Government
Gateway and working with multiple regional Police Authorities – leading programmes of work
delivering infrastructure and application platform projects across
identity and access management, messaging and collaboration and
business intelligence.
Matthew first became involved in education sector work and met Chris managing the Microsoft BSF Showcase, the success of which led to securing further funding and the publication of the Microsoft BSF Technology Guidance and successful technology showcases for both Further Education, and Higher Education sectors.
Matthew was recognised for his growing domain expertise blending an appreciation of leading technology across multiple sectors with an understanding of how to apply it within an education context. He lead and delivered the ICT vision, functional requirements and outline business case for ICT for the New Line Learning new build academies project in Maidstone, Kent, as well as stepping into and completing the delivery of the ICT vision for Education and outline implementation approach for Manchester City Council. His expertise was sought on engagements from different geographies where the combination of technology appreciation, education domain knowledge and consulting delivery experience was an asset.
Prior to Microsoft Matthew ran the operations of a manufacturing operation in Hawaii, where he qualified and established offshore manufactring for the volume accounts with a partner factory in Qindao, China. His mainstay however has been IT Project management, having spent 4 years with Nortel Networks and Clarify managing a variey of projects spanning professional services automation tools to wireless network configuration systems. Prior to Nortel Matthew worked in software development in general consulting and the hospitality industry.
Matthew holds a BSC(Hons) in Management Science and is a certified project management professional.