Debbie Torjussen Start of Service: 25 April 2026 Debbie is a Chartered Accountant since 2004 after joining KPMG (Stoke) as a graduate in 2001 and is currently Chief Financial and Operations Officer at Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group. Debbie has held senior roles in education finance for 20 years including within the school funding team for…
Sarah Milne Start of Service: 1 September 2025 Sarah is an experienced Executive Leader in education with a strong focus on inclusion and safeguarding. She is an Executive Leader for a diocesan Multi-Academy Trust in the West Midlands. She leads strategic initiatives to improve outcomes for children, including policy development, adaptive teaching, attendance improvement, and exclusion…
Andrew Reid Start of Service: 6 November 2023 Andy is a Trustee of the Alpha Academies Trust and a member of the Standards Committee. He served as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools for 16 years, to the end of 2007, becoming Head of School Improvement in Ofsted in 2003 and Head of Institutional…
Matthew Gee Start of Service – 6 November 2023 Matt is a Trustee of the Alpha Academies Trust and Co-chair of the Audit, Finance & Risk Committee. He is an Economics graduate and a chartered accountant. He has held senior international board level roles across a range of sectors including higher education, manufacturing, engineering, and…
Patrick Shelley Start of Service – 19 June 2023 Pat has spent 25 years in Local Government working in Portsmouth, Stoke-on-Trent and London. During this time, he managed a range of services for young people including youth services, Connexions, targeted youth support and teenage pregnancy services. His last position was as Strategic Manager (Assistant Director)…
Michael Finney Start of Service – Michael is a retired design engineer and has served on the Board of Governors since his sons were pupils at Eaton Park Primary School. He has continued on the Board of Governors to the present time, helping to support all of the staff to give the best possible start…
Stephen Bradbury Start of Service – 01 September 2020 Steve started working at Abbey Hill Special School in 1983 where he progress through to the Senior Leadership team until he retired in 2010 very proud of the fact that the three Ofsted inspections at the school, all resulted in “outstanding”. As Head of the upper…
Dave Hughes Start of Service – 08 January 2024 Dave is an Independent Governor on the local governing body of Sneyd Academy. He is a parent of 2 children, 1 of whom attends the Academy. In his professional life, Dave is a Commercial Manager within the Sainsbury’s Group, with over 20 years’ experience in industry.…
Charlotte Bennett Charlotte is Chair of Governors at The Discovery Academy and Assistant Principal for Teaching and Learning at City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College. She was previously Centre Principal at Macclesfield College and Director of Quality and Higher Education at Stoke-on-Trent College. Born and raised in Stoke-on-Trent, Charlotte has a strong connection to the…
Dr Cathryn Hickey Start of Service: October 2021 Cathryn is a member of the Alpha Academies Trust. Cathryn is the Chief Executive of AMRICC, a wholely owned subsidiary of Lucideon, the materials development and commercialisation company based in the City. She works with companies to help them develop new materials for their products to meet…
Jamie Smith Start of Service – 1 September 2020 Jamie is a Trustee of the Alpha Academies Trust and also a member of the Audit, Risk and Finance Committee. He is Co-Owner of C-Learning Ltd, a Google Premier Education Partner and growing cloud specialist. C-Learning Ltd was a DEA finalist for most outstanding contribution to…
Stephen Packham Start of Service – 1 September 2018 Stephen is a Trustee of the Alpha Academies Trust and Vice Chair of the board. he is a member of the Standards Committee and the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee. Following a BSc in mathematics at Imperial College London, Stephen trained as a chartered accountant with…
Diane Thompson Start of Service – 3 April 2020 Diane is a Trustee of the Alpha Academies Trust and Chair of the board. She is a member of the inclusion and Community Engagement Committee. Diane is an authentic leader with an interest in the development and growth of people and businesses. She has spent her…
Kate Townsend Kate originally joined the Alpha Academies Trust over 10 years ago as a Trustee and completed her term of office as Chair at the end of August 2024, before joining the Board of Holden Lane Academy on 1 September 2024. She is also a Governor and Chair of the Excel Academy local governing…
Simon French Start of Service: September 2019 Simon is the Chief Executive Officer/Executive Principal of the Alpha Academies Trust. He is a Trustee of the Board, member of the Standards Committee, the Audit, Finance and Risk Committee and Trust Inclusion and Community Engagement Committee. Since taking on the role in 2019 Simon has implemented a…
Mark White CBE DL Start of Service: March 2017 Mark is a member of the Alpha Academies Trust. Originally from Stoke-on-Trent, and with close links to the area Mark retired in 2022 as chair of a large college group in Teesside. He retired in 2023 as chair of College Sport in England, and in 2026 as…
Paul Richards Start of Service: 7 October 2016 Paul is a member of the Alpha Academies Trust and was previously a member of the Stoke on Trent College Corporation and its Finance and Resources Committee. Before his retirement Paul held the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Staffordshire University and was heavily involved in the partnership…
John Patino Start of Service: 14 December 2016 John is a member of the Alpha Academies Trust. Prior to his move to Spain, where he held the position of Deputy Headteacher at Laude Newton College for several years, he was Executive Principal at the Discovery Academy, as well as Headteacher at Holden Lane High School…
Carol Jones Start of Service: July 2013 Carol is the Chair of Members of the Alpha Academies Trust (AAT), having previously been Chair of Trustees from July 2013 to October 2018. She ran her own business consultancy company for over 12 years, working with education and training providers and charities, to raise quality standards and…