Dr Simpson is the British Council’s Senior Adviser in English for sub-Saharan Africa. He has over 40 years’ experience in language and education, including almost 20 years in Africa and 15 years in UK higher education. He provides academic and technical support to country teams designing and implementing donor-funded education projects that involve English language. He has provided long-term consultancy on language reform to the Governments of Rwanda (2009 – 2011) and Ethiopia (2007 – 2008). Dr Simpson designed and directed the award-winning ‘Supporting Teachers’ English via Mentoring’ project in 2012-14 and currently provides technical advice on a dual language approach to foundational skills in English for the DFID-funded Kano Literacy and Maths Accelerator (KaLMA) project in Nigeria. He supplies thought leadership to the British Council on English medium and mother-tongue based multilingual education, writing the organisation’s recent position paper on English medium in basic education in low- and middle-income countries.