ATL's officers and officials, and the senior managers from ATL's professional staff who act as key spokespeople for the union, make up a dedicated team striving to support members in their employment and to secure the best future for education in the UK.
Lesley Ward joined ATL in the mid-80s and has been teaching in the same primary school in Doncaster since 1975, where she now works part time as a supply teacher.
Lesley was elected joint branch secretary before becoming the Executive Committee member for South Yorkshire, where she has been chair of the Continuing Professional Development Committee and the chair of the Defence Committee. She was also convenor of the new professionalism specialist task group.
Andy has served on Appeals, Legislation and Parliamentary, Pay and Conditions, Action, Hearings, Policy and Rules and Procedures Committees, has been vice-chair of the Leadership, Conditions of Employment, and Defence Committees, and has chaired the Schools' Conditions of Service Committee and Young Members' Forum from which ATL Future grew.
He is ATL's representative to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, sitting on the ICTU Education Committee. He sits on the Teachers' Negotiating Committee (NI's STRB) and is vice-chair of the Northern Ireland Teachers' Council. Andy is the youngest person to be elected to the position of ATL national president.
Alice Robinson has been a member of ATL since beginning her teaching career in 1974. She joined the Lancashire branch committee in 1989 and became the special educational needs (SEN) behaviour working group representative and conference delegate.
Alice has been branch president on two occasions and a member of the Executive since 1998. She has served on the Policy Council, the President's Council of the Association of Managers in Education (AMiE) and the human resources, finance, SEN, education and conditions of employment committees. She has also chaired two specialist task groups (STGs) on 14-19 curriculum and leadership.
Currently assistant head teacher at a comprehensive school in Lancashire, Alice teaches history at GSCE and AS/2 level.
Shelagh Hirst has been honorary secretary since joining the Executive Committee in 2000.
A regular supply teacher throughout Calderdale and Kirklees primary schools, Shelagh has also attended the TUC annual Conferences and has been active in the Women's TUC.
Angie Rutter has been honorary treasurer since 2005. She joined ATL in 1985 as a student member and has been on the Executive Committee since 1996.
Angie was for many years the lead member for special educational needs and campaigned with the Special Education Consortium on the many issues around inclusion, including lobbying the government for additional funding and training for this area.
Angie was a specialist communication and interaction teacher in Buckinghamshire and ATL branch secretary for the area but she is now subject leader of an area resource base for secondary pupils with severe learning difficulties at Launceston College, Cornwall.
Stephen Buck first became a member of ATL in the 1980s before working his way up through the Humberside branch to take a seat on Executive Committee in 2002, where he has been a member of Policy Council, Finance Committee, Budget Group and Rules and Procedures Committee.
Even with his national ATL commitments, Stephen remains ATL school rep and local secretary for North Lincolnshire. A physics graduate, Stephen has been a full-time teacher for more than 30 years, and will continue to teach two days a week while he fulfills his ATL roles.
Dr Mary Bousted is general secretary of ATL. Mary represents the interests of her members to the government, and to a wide variety of other stakeholders. As the education union, ATL leads the debate on key educational issues with strong policy positions on, for example, assessment and curriculum changes; school accountability and school structures.
Mary contributes regular articles for newspapers and education journals, and appears frequently on national media. She sits on the executive committee of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Mary is also an accomplished public speaker, taking part, last year, in a debate at the Oxford Union.
Mary previously worked in higher education at York University, Edge Hill University and at Kingston University where she was Head of the School of Education. Prior to this Mary was a Head of English, and English teacher in comprehensive schools in North London.
Martin Johnson is ATL's deputy general secretary. Particular areas of expertise include the future of the teaching profession, funding, admissions, schooling in London, school-business links, personalisation, and staffing schools in challenging circumstances.
Before joining ATL in 2005, he worked at the Institute for Public Policy Research and was president of NASUWT from 2000 to 2001. Martin was a secondary teacher for over 30 years in Merseyside, Yorkshire and London, specialising in social studies.
Peter Pendle has been chief executive and general secretary of the Association of College Managers (ACM) since 2001, and seconded as deputy general secretary of ATL since October 2009. Before joining ACM, Peter was director of resources for the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principles (now Universities UK), and vice principal of Greenhill College in Harrow.
Peter has been a governor of Newham College of Further Education since 1982 and is chair of its audit committee. He is also a mentor for the Black Leadership Initiative Mentoring Scheme and a recipient of the Network of Black Managers' Award for leadership in race equality in FE.
Mark Langhammer is director of ATL Northern Ireland. He is responsible for the staff team, strategic direction, education policy, negotiations, recruitment and organisation. Mark was previously employed as director of the University for Industry's learndirect initiative in Northern Ireland, as CEO of the North Belfast (urban regeneration) Partnership and director of the Dunanney Centre.
Dr Philip Dixon is director of ATL Cymru. He is responsible for the work of the union in Wales. He directs policy in Wales and supervises caseworkers and organisers in the field.
Previously he was director of CAFOD Wales, an international aid agency, and before that special advisor to the then Leader of the Opposition at the National Assembly, Ieuan Wyn Jones (currently Deputy First Minister).
Keith Robson became ATL's first national official for Scotland in August 2007. Previously, he worked as director of the National Union of Students Scotland. Keith has worked in education, health and housing. He has also served as a school governor in London and on the Scottish Higher Education Funding council.
Keith's main responsibilities include building organisational capacity, providing support to members, representing ATL with key stakeholders, and developing a distinctive ATL response to educational policy developments in Scotland.
Martin Freedman is head of ATL's pay, conditions and pensions department. He represents ATL on the Rewards and Incentives Group, the social partnership between employers, teacher unions and government on teachers' pay and conditions.
Martin sits on the Workforce Agreement Monitoring Group, which looks at the deployment of teachers and support staff in schools, and leads negotiations for ATL in further education. He has worked in education and employment for more than 30 years.
Martin Pilkington is head of legal and member services at ATL. He manages the provision of support for members who face professional difficulties, which is provided through the legal and member services department at the London office, the network of regional officials working in England, the national casework officials and the senior regional officials.
He qualified as a solicitor in 1988, practising law at Simmons & Simmons, a City law firm, before joining AMMA (ATL as was) in 1990.
Nansi Ellis is ATL's head of education policy and research. She is responsible for the development and implementation of ATL's education policy.
Nansi joined ATL as a primary education advisor, having previously managed the early years team at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Before that, Nansi worked as a primary teacher, first in west Wales and then in London.