Chris Poole has led Microsoft’s involvement with the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme for the last three years.

Before joining Microsoft Chris was Deputy Headteacher of a comprehensive school in Reading. From 1993 he was the driving force behind the ground-breaking Highdown Information Hub superhighways trial. The trial set out to make the vision of a Connected Learning Community a reality, and became the subject of great interest not only in the UK but also internationally. At this time Chris contributed to the Microsoft Corporation vision for education and to Bill Gates’s book Business @ The Speed of Thought.
 
Chris joined Microsoft nine years ago to manage the Anytime Anywhere Learning (AAL) programme in the UK. AAL was a 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. Microsoft and the DfES were founder donors of the national eLearning foundation. Chris is currently a trustee of the Essex eLearning foundation.

For the last few years Chris has been involved with a number of LEAs interested in creating a step change in education and learning which has led into the BSF-related work Microsoft are involved in. He has been responsible for Microsoft white papers, ‘Realising the Potential - Creating a step change for education in Kent’ and most recently the work ‘Building Schools for the Future - An opportunity to personalise learning and fundamentally re-think the business of education’.

For the last two years Chris has been responsible for the investments Microsoft have made in support of the BSF programme in the form of three interlinked BSF Guides and the recently launched BSF Showcase. The BSF Guides cover area-wide technology architecture, educational scenarios and business value arguments in the context of a transformed education service. The BSF Showcase is a demonstration environment of a vision of learning in a connected community in the future developed in partnership with Knowsley, Sheffield, Kent and Sandwell.