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 member 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 retail.…

Leslie Morrey Start of Service – 1st September 2023 Lesley is a Trustee of the Alpha Academies Trust. With over 30 years of management experience in healthcare and education, Lesley is currently a Director at Newcastle & Stafford Colleges Group with responsibilities relating to student engagement and external partnerships. Lesley is a progressive leader who…

Chair of Excel Academy

Sam Chater Start of Service – 01 November 2022 Sam is the Chair of Governors here at Excel Academy, He is also the Deputy Director of the Cheshire Teaching School Hub, based at St. Joseph’s College, having previously being SCITT Programme Leader there too. Previous roles include working across the city as an English Teacher,…

Trustee

Jayne Lowe Start of Service: 25 April 2022 Jayne is a Trustee of the Alpha Academies Trust and also a member of the Inclusion and Community Engagement Committee. She is both Director and Principal Consultant of Bright Green Learning Ltd, an experienced strategic leader and practitioner, who has successfully developed and implemented strategy and leading…

Chair of Eaton Park Academy

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…

Chair of Maple Court Academy

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…

Chair of Sneyd Academy

David Walley Start of Service – 01 January 2015 David is the Chair of the local governing body at the Sneyd Academy. He worked for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Education Authorities as a primary school teacher, adviser and head teacher for 33 years and has been a school governor for 45 years. David joined the governing…

Chair of Discovery Academy

Pat Jackson Start of Service – 30 September 2015 Pat is Chair of The Discovery Academy local governing body and is the Link Governor for Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare. She has worked with the public, private and voluntary sectors on joint economic and business development projects and investment programmes.  This includes work as a…

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…

PETER WILLANS Start of Service – 1 September 2018 Peter is a Trustee of the Alpha Academies Trust and a member of the Standards Committee. He has been a Chartered Surveyor since 1995 and is currently Property Director for Buzz Group Limited. Peter’s key strengths across many sectors of the property market include management and…

Stephen Packham Start of Service – 1 September 2018 Stephen is a Trustee of the Alpha Academies Trust and 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 KPMG before undertaking financial management roles with Mercedes-Benz,…

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 education…

Chair of Trustees

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…

Chair of Holden Lane Academy

Kate Townsend Start of Service: July 2013 Kate is Chair of the Alpha Academies Trust, a member of the Standards Committee, Trust Audit, Finance and Risk Committee and Trust Inclusion and Community Engagement Committee. She has extensive experience in school improvement and leadership and management and was formerly the Strategic Manager for school improvement 0-19…

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 is chair of the Association of Colleges Charitable Trust. He retired in 2022 as chair of a large college group in Teesside and he retired in…

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…

(Chair) Member

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…

Alpha Academies Trust CEO

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…