The NAA has a highly experienced management team, drawn from across the public and private sectors.

Dr Ken Boston AO, Chief Executive, QCA

Dr Ken Boston became Chief Executive of the QCA in September 2002, and is also the Chief Executive of the NAA.

He was previously Managing Director of Technical and Further Education, and Director-General of Education and Training, in New South Wales, Australia. His previous positions include Director-General of Education in South Australia, and General Manager of Educational Planning and Policy in Victoria.

In 2001 Dr Boston was made an Officer in the Order of Australia for services to education and training. He is a Fellow and former President of the Australian College of Education, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Management.

David Gee, NAA Managing Director

David has been with the NAA since its formation and was promoted to Managing Director in 2005. He brings a track record of working with companies and organisations to share knowledge and improve their performance.

On joining the NAA, David was assigned the task of creating and delivering measures to improve and modernise the examination system. The resulting modernisation programme is well underway and continues to make the exam system more robust and easier to administer. Support has been delivered through a training programme and a team of local centre support officers, and improvements have been made to both the security of scripts and the recruitment of examiners and markers.

David joined the NAA from Agilent, a global technology leader in communications and electronics, where he worked to establish a new company infrastructure and ensure the effective delivery of internal services. He has also held a number of senior management roles with Hewlett Packard. His last position was European Director of Quality and in this role he delivered service improvements to customers, which led Hewlett Packard to win the British Quality Award in 1997.

David is a Chartered Engineer.

Mick Walker, Director, Quality Assurance

Mick began his career as a teacher before becoming a local authority advisor.

Throughout his time as an examiner, senior examiner and external university examiner, he gained valuable knowledge about the workings of the examinations system.

Mick has worked at the QCA since 1998. He most recently used his knowledge of the exams system to ensure the smooth delivery of exams as the QCA's Head of Risk Management Programme.

Phil Simpson, Director, Centre Support and Communications

Phil has an extensive background in sales and marketing. He brings direct experience of building large teams and developing training resources and networks. He is an experienced project manager, having built up 20 years' experience in the healthcare sector.

Phil joined QCA in 2003 with a brief to put in place activities to support the modernisation of the system delivering general qualifications to schools, colleges and examination centres. In the following two years with the NAA he has successfully managed the introduction of a 40-strong national field support office team, as well as delivering training and support materials to over 7,000 examinations officers.

The role of the Centre Support and Communications team is to ensure all aspects supporting the delivery of general examinations and tests are effectively communicated to around 30,000 schools, colleges and examination centres.

Phil holds an MBA.