Chartered Institute
of Linguists

CIOL Representation

President & Vice-Presidents

Our President and Vice-Presidents are honorary officers of CIOL, nominated by Council and elected by the membership at the AGM. The President is a voting member of Council. The Vice-Presidents draw on their expertise and experience in various parts of the languages sector to act in an advisory capacity to Council and represent CIOL externally. They are entitled to attend meetings of Council as non-voting observers.

Postnominals Role Bio
Mr Richard HARDIE



HonFCIL

President

Richard Hardie read History and French at Lincoln College, Oxford, and spent a year as a British Council lycée assistant in Dijon. He also has a working knowledge of Italian and some German. Richard qualified as a chartered accountant and, in 1977, joined the UBS Group, a global financial services firm and one of the world's largest financial asset managers. He was Non-Executive Chair of UBS Ltd from 2010–15. He chairs the UBS UK Donor-Advised Foundation and the UBS UK Pension Scheme. Richard gave the CIOL Threlford Lecture in September 2011 on ‘Business, Languages and the State’. He also gave the opening address in February 2011 at the launch of Speak to the Future: The Campaign for Languages, which he now chairs. He chaired the British Academy-funded Born Global project, an in-depth assessment of the appetite for language skills in the modern workplace, and of the implications for young people and for the economy of supply failing to meet demand.
He was named HRH The Prince of Wales' Business in the Community Ambassador for London for 2007. Richard co-led UBS's project to set up The Bridge Academy, Hackney, a school for 1,150 students aged 11–19 which specialises in Maths and Music and opened in 2007. He is Vice-Chair of Governors. He was Chair of The Learning Trust, Hackney's not-for-profit independent LEA, from 2007–12. He is a Trustee of The Fair Education Alliance, a member-led organisation dedicated to exploring how to close the attainment gaps between less and more advantaged learners.
He is a Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and an Honorary Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford.

Baroness Jean COUSSINS



HonFCIL

Vice-President

Baroness Jean Coussins was appointed as a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords in 2007. She co-chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modern Languages. She is also vice chair of the APPG on the United Nations and takes an active interest in Latin America, human rights and corporate responsibility, as well as a range of issues connected with languages. She is a Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Linguists.
After studying modern languages (Spanish and French) at Newnham College, Cambridge, Jean worked for several national and international NGOs, an education authority and the Commission for Racial Equality, before becoming CEO of The Portman Group from 1996-2006. She has worked as an independent non-executive adviser on corporate responsibility to various companies and is an Ambassador for the debt advice charity, the Money Advice Trust.

Prof David CRYSTAL



OBE FCST FRSA HonFCIL

Vice-President

David Crystal is honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. He has written or edited over 100 books and published numerous articles for scholarly, professional, and general readerships, in fields ranging from forensic linguistics and ELT to the liturgy and Shakespeare. His books include the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Words, Words, Words and The Fight for English.

Susanna DENT



HonFCIL

Vice-President

Susie Dent is a writer and broadcaster on language. She recently celebrated 30 years as a co-presenter and the resident word expert on C4's Countdown, and also appears on the show's comedy sister 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown. Susie comments regularly on TV and radio on words in the news. She has contributed to discussions on Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Word of Mouth, Saturday Live, More or Less, Today, and on Radio 5 Live's Breakfast and Drive programmes. She has made guest appearances on many TV programmes including BBC Breakfast, Newsnight, This Morning, Test the Nation, Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, Not Going Out, and The One Show.
Susie answers notes and queries about words and phrases in weekly columns in the Radio Times, The Week Junior, the I newspaper, and Why Now. She has written for the Independent on Sunday, the Telegraph, and the Times, and is the author of several books, including her latest, An Emotional Dictionary: Real Words for How You Feel, from Angst to Zwodder, published in 2022.
She is a spokesperson for Oxford University Press, and has been a judge on the Costa Book Awards and on the Academy Excellence Awards. Susie regularly delivers key-note speeches to both small companies and major corporations on language and communication.
Susie lives in Oxford where she has developed a passion for cycling - Lycra or no, she is never without her little black book for jotting down any new words picked up in the wild.
@susie_dent

Mrs Judith Gabler-Schoessow



HonFCIL FCIL CL

Vice-President

Judith is a business leader, linguist and mentor. She has studied in the UK, France and Germany and holds language qualifications in French and German. Early in her career, Judith relocated from the North of England to Frankfurt and now holds British-German citizenship.
A large part of Judith’s professional life was for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in Continental Europe, where her languages and communication skills were pivotal to forming strategic relationships with governments, universities, firms and professional bodies. Throughout her career she has been a passionate ambassador for ED&I. In 2018 she was recognised by industry as the No.1 female influencer in German real estate.
Judith has previously held office on several CIOL committees, notably as the first non-UK based Chair of Council (2018-23) steering CIOL through the pandemic and a period of transformation, and as Chair of the ED&I committee (2021-23).
As Vice-President Judith will continue to champion international understanding and why it is crucial for linguists to uphold the highest standards of professional conduct.

Bernardette HOLMES



MBE, HonFCIL

Vice-President

Bernardette is an acknowledged expert in languages education, working across the discipline and across sectors in areas including languages pedagogy, assessment and policy development, initial and continuing teacher education and standards setting. She is recognized as an innovative and inspiring linguist who throughout a long career in languages, as teacher, adviser, inspector, teacher trainer, researcher, curriculum and policy developer and author has made a major contribution to languages education in England. Since the inception of the national curriculum, Bernardette has played a central role in the development and implementation of languages policy at national level, and is a strong advocate of languages for all. Bernardette continues to work closely with the DfE on curriculum reform and assessment for modern languages. She was Subject Content Criteria writer for GCSE in modern and ancient languages and in Advanced Level for French, German and Spanish, and small cohort languages. She is currently developing the first GCSE in British Sign Language. Bernardette was a member of the Modern Foreign Languages Pedagogy Review Advisory Group (2016) and a member of the review panel for GCSE Subject Content (2021). She has extensive experience of working internationally, and was a member of the standard setting working group for French in SurveyLang, the first European Survey on Language Competence, (2012) led by the European Commission. She was director of the first bilateral Graduate Teacher Programme working in partnership with the Institut français du Royaume Uni - Ambassade de France, the British Council, CILT and the Teacher Training Agency, and was a member of the expert panel of the Council of Europe (Profil de la politique linguistique éducative de la Vallée d’Aoste (2007) Bernardette was principal investigator for Born Global, a major policy research project for the British Academy, engaging key stakeholders from employment and education in a radical rethinking of languages education (2016). Her current research interests are transparent and reliable assessment of language proficiency, second language acquisition in multilingual instructed settings, interdisciplinary learning, and languages and employability. Bernardette was a member of the IoLET Trust Board from 2013 to 2022, and is proud to have been Chair during a period of transformation, overseeing the development of CIOLQ and the move to online assessment of our flagship qualifications. Bernardette has received a number of honours and awards in recognition of her significant contribution to languages. In 2015, she was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to languages education as a teacher and a modern languages advocate. In 2019, Bernardette was awarded an honorary doctorate of civil law by the University of East Anglia in recognition of her role in the development of national language policy. In 2022, Bernardette was made an Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques, one of the oldest and most prestigious civil honours bestowed by the French Republic, for her services to French Culture. Bernardette continues to work tirelessly to promote the value of languages and intercultural understanding.