David Mallen will retire as county education officer of East Sussex at the end of April after nine years in the post. Mr Mallen, who is the current chairman of the Association of Chief Education Officers, was awarded the CBE in this year’s New Year’s Honours. A former teacher of government, politics and English, he left school at 16 and studied part-time for his A-levels while an apprentice at a Rotherham steelworks before going on to Manchester University. He was the last education officer of the Inner London Education Authority before becoming CEO of East Sussex in 1990.

Mr Mallen is succeeded by Denise Stokoe, who has been director of education at Brighton and Hove since 1996.

The Roehampton Institute, London, has appointed Bernadette Porter as director and chief executive from September this year. She succeeds Professor Stephen Holt, who was appointed in 1988.

Dr Porter, who is currently principal of Digby Stuart College at Roehampton, first joined Roehampton in 1970 to study for a Certificate of Education, then went on to complete a Bachelor of Education before taking a doctorate in science education at King’s College, London. She taught in schools in the UK and abroad for a number of years before returning to Roehampton in 1983, initially to teach the Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

Bruce Smith has been re-appointed chairman of the Economic and Social Research Council until March 31, 2001.

Dr Smith has been chairman of the council of the Smith Institute for Industrial Mathematics and System Engineering since 1993 and chairman of Industrial Technology Securities Ltd since 1995.

Keith Vaz MP, Ffion Jenkins and Gerard Lemos, have been elected to the British Council’s board. Keith Vaz, Labour MP for Leicester East, will be one of two vice-chairs; the other is VirginiaBottomley, Conservative MP forSurrey South West.

Ffion Jenkins is director of operations for the Association for Business sponsorship for the Arts, and Gerard Lemos is a consultant in racial equality.