General Optical Council

Dian Taylor, Chief Executive / Registrar

Dian Taylor was appointed as Registrar and Chief Executive of the General Optical Council in February 2009. Appointed as Deputy Registrar in 1989, she additionally took on responsibility for the Council’s Education portfolio in 1994 as Director for Education.

Before joining the GOC Dian was Head of the Central Secretariat for the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Dian lives in Surrey with her husband and three children. 

Director of Communications and Information

Kate Fielding is the Director of Communications and Information, responsible for communications, registration and information management. Kate joined the GOC in 2005 as Communications Manager and set up the communications department. She was previously Internal Communications Manager at Imperial College London, where she managed an award-winning branding project. Kate has worked in a range of PR and marketing roles in higher education, finance and banking, and hospitality in the UK and Australia. She has a BA (Hons) from the University of York and an MA from the School of Advanced Studies at the University of London. 

Director of Education

Linda Kennaugh is the Director of Education, responsible for setting standards in education and training, policy development, course accreditation, and quality assuring training institutions and examining bodies. She is also responsible for the GOC’s Continuing Education and Training Scheme. Linda joined the GOC in 2007 and was promoted to Head of Education in April 2009. She previously worked for Bedfordshire Police and was involved in a number of high profile local and national projects around public safety and drugs awareness. Prior to that Linda worked in adult further education. Linda has a BA (Hons) degree in History. 
 

Director of Standards and Deputy Registrar

Jon Levett is the Director of Standards and Deputy Registrar. Jon joined the GOC in 2006 as Director of Standards. He was previously Head of Education at the Architects Registration Board, the regulatory body for architects in the UK. Jon has a BA (Hons) from the University of Hull, an MA from the University of York, and an MSc and PhD from the University of London.

Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development

Lesa Oakley is the Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development. Lesa joined the GOC in 2003 and spent five years as Assistant Director of Education, where she was responsible for auditing training programmes in optometry and dispensing optics. In October 2007, she completed an MSc in Human Resource Management at Surrey University, and in early 2008 set up the HR and OD department. Lesa has previously worked as International Agreement Manager for the Export Credit Guarantee Division and Senior Research Administrator for Hitachi (Europe) Research and Development.