Professor David Hopkins boasts a wealth of experience from a career in which he has held some of the highest positions within the UK's education system.

He was Chief Advisor on School Standards in the UK under three Secretaries of State from 2002 to 2005, and a long-time consultant to the Department for Education.

Prof. Hopkins was known as a leading trouble-shooter in struggling education authorities across England.

One of his main achievements was to put together a radical rescue package to improve schools in Leicester, England, at the beginning of this decade.

Before his appointment, the Leicester education authority had faced the threat of privatisation after it failed a Government inspection. However, months after he took up the role, the department was given a clean bill of health following a comprehensive shake-up of the way schools, the education authority and the local council worked with each other.

He was also Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, England, and is a currently a Fellow at the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne.

He has also published a number of books including The Empowered School, A Teacher's Guide to Classroom Research and School Improvement in an Era of Change.

When he was appointed to the task in Bermuda, he was described by Education Minister Randy Horton as "a scholar and researcher of considerable renown".