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…
Clair Ruskin-Brown Start of Service: 1 September 2025 Details to be confirmed. WANT TO BE PART OF A FORWARD THINKING TRUST? Become an Alpha AcademyView Current Vacancies
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…
Kate Townshend 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 The Excel Academy on 1 September 2024 and becoming Chair on 1 September 2025. She is also a Governor and…
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…
Jan Dodd Start of Service – 05 April 2019 Jan is the chair of the Excel Academy local governing body. Previously a Deputy Head Teacher at an 11-18 school her areas of responsibility have included: – Director of Science Specialism; SENCO; Second in English; Head of Religious Studies; Head of Careers / Work Based learning;…
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…
Charlotte Bennett Charlotte is currently the Centre Principal at Macclesfield College, having previously held the position of Director of Quality and Higher Education at Stoke on Trent College, where she was dedicated to improving educational standards for over 15 years. Born and raised in Stoke on Trent, she has a deep-rooted connection to our community…
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…
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…