BESA’s Executive Council elections – Nominations now open

It’s that time of the year again when we announce BESA’s annual Executive Council elections!

BESA’s Executive Council is a 20-person strong group comprising exclusively of senior leaders from companies with full BESA membership and plays the incredibly important role of setting the strategy for the industry body. Each company can have only one representative on Council at a given time.

Members of the prestigious Executive Council are elected for a three-year period. Council members commit to convene in-person, four times per year, for half-a-day periods and to provide additional ad hoc contributions to support the BESA strategy.

This year, eight places will be available on Council, and all full BESA member companies will be given the opportunity to vote for their preferred candidates at the end of September. The successful candidates will be announced at BESA’s Winter Business Insight Day and AGM, which will take place on Thursday 19 November 2026.

You can now nominate yourself, a colleague or an individual from another full BESA member company – as long as they are a senior employee, director or partner and have agreed to be nominated.

We are keen to hear from candidates of a wide and diverse range of backgrounds, to ensure that our Executive Council provides true representation of the broad balance of companies and individuals in BESA membership.

This year, we are particularly seeking candidates with expertise in one or more of the following areas: Finance, Commercial, or with experience of serving on a Board. If this is you or someone you know, please do consider submitting a nomination.

Please note it is important to confirm a nomination with a potential nominee before submitting this to us.

Any candidate being nominated will need to submit the following:

1. A short overview of why they are standing and would be a good addition to the Executive Council (strictly no more than 300 words)
2. A headshot
3. Distinguish which part of the sector they most closely identify with from the below list:

• Art, Craft & Consumables    
• Assessment/Feedback          
• Classroom Resources            
• Consultants/Recruitment
• Curriculum Content
• Distributors
• EdTech        
• Education Services
• Publishing  
• School Administration & Management          
• Special Educational Needs  
• STEM
• CPD/Training
• Equipment/Furniture

To nominate yourself or someone else, please submit the above information to elections@besa.org.uk. The deadline for nomination is 5pm, Friday 21 August 2026.

We are always looking for fresh faces to join the Council so if you have any hesitation or need further information on the role, please get in touch.