Rob Parsley
Head of Marketing and Communications
r.parsley@reading.ac.uk
Rob brings valuable practical experience and understanding of marketing content strategy, stakeholder engagement, behavioural insights, and product development.
Having joined as SUMS Group Head of Marketing and Communications in January 2023, Rob combines his background in digital marketing with over 13 years’ experience across the higher education, technology, and not-for-profit sectors, and adds crucial understanding of education marketing and communications, and student recruitment.
Rob joined SUMS Group from Teach First, the UK’s biggest education charity, where he managed its school-facing brand, product development, and B2B marketing for six years. In that time, Rob played a critical role in launching its content and events marketing strategy, supporting an award-winning rebrand, diversifying its support for schools serving disadvantaged communities, and leading successful bids to extend its programme portfolio from initial teacher training through to executive leadership support.
Rob previously worked in EdTech marketing for blended learning provider 3P Learning. As a listed SAAS company partnering with over 5,000 UK schools, Rob enhanced 3P Learning’s global reputation, supporting expansion into international schools throughout the Middle East and being named ‘Multinational Company of the Year’ at the 2016 GESS Education Awards. Rob’s prior experience extends back to higher education, with roles in postgraduate student admissions, undergraduate marketing, widening participation, and external relations at the universities of Bristol and Exeter.
A values-driven leader, his own voluntary experiences as an English teacher within Cambodian young offender institutions inspired Rob to share his expertise as a founding trustee and former non-executive director for The Key Charity Bristol, helping to establish its vision to train and rehabilitate ex-offenders through meaningful employment.
Rob’s recent projects include development of the marketing strategy and ongoing delivery to launch a new initial teacher training service for the best performing academy trust in England.
In his spare time, Rob occasionally dusts off his boots to play vets football, enjoys watching a much higher standard of rugby and cricket in Bristol, and is kept firmly on his toes by his young family.
Connect with Rob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-parsley-5439b987/