Patrick Hayes is the Director of the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), the trade association representing over 300 educational suppliers in the UK, including manufacturers and distributors of equipment, materials, books, consumables, furniture, EdTech, ICT hardware and digital-content related services to the education market.

Hayes was previously on the executive team at TES Global, publishers of TES and THE and host to the largest network of teachers in the world. He had overall responsibility for M&A activity, investor relations and the TES Global advisory board.

He is a columnist for Education Today and Huffington Post and writes widely for education publications. He is Chair of Judges for the prestigious Bett Awards and Education Resources Awards.

In a voluntary capacity, he is a trustee of the non-profit Young Journalists’ Academy and an active supporter of youth-education charity WORLDwrite. He also sits on the Innovate My School advisory board.