Tiffany Beck, Co-Founder and Chair of Trustees at Maritime Academy Trust, and Head of Education at leading communications consultancy PLMR Group Ltd, has been awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the King’s New Year Honours list 2024, for services to education.  

Tiffany, chair of the trust since its launch in 2016, has been a driving force in the development of the trust, supporting its growth to serve more than 4,000 pupils and 700 staff across 13 schools in London, Kent and Medway. 

She is also a founding trustee of Independent Governors Support (IGovS), has been a National Leader of Governance and has acted as a member of former National Schools Commissioner Sir David Carter’s team at Ambition Institute conducting diagnostic reviews of academy trusts, as well as part of a number of other groups within the sector.  

Having previously been in the book publishing industry in New York City, in the UK Tiffany has worked in cross-sector leadership development, trust governance and policy and is now Head of Education at PLMR, where she supports education organisations across the country with reputation management and crisis communications, PR, public affairs and strategic counsel.  

Tiffany Beck, Chair of Trustees, Maritime Academy Trust, said:  

“I am completely blown away by this honour. This is very much thanks to the people both within Maritime Academy Trust and my dear friends and colleagues across the sector and at PLMR who have taught me so much about what makes schools so special, what makes education so powerful and why it is so important that together we are not just trying to do things better, but actually doing better things.” 

Nick Osborne, Chief Executive, Maritime Academy Trust, said:  

“This honour is a well-deserved recognition of Tiffany’s relentless dedication, visionary leadership and significant impact in education. She is a tireless volunteer with an inspirational drive, curiosity and passion for education and the people who work within it.  

“Tiffany is always asking the right questions, looking forward whilst learning from the past and acting as an indomitable advocate for school and trust leaders in both the good times and the tough times, all through the lens of incredibly good humour. We are so proud to celebrate this honour with her and are grateful to have her as our force of nature.”  

Ollie Lane, Managing Director, PLMR Group Ltd, said:  

“We are absolutely thrilled that Tiffany’s exceptional service to education has been honoured with an OBE. It may have started with her role in Maritime but now she brings her insight, expertise and tireless support to the education organisations we work with every single day. She is a guiding force for those organisations and all of us at PLMR could not be more pleased for our colleague, friend and integral part of our team.”