Skip to content ↓

Greenwood Academies Trust is an educational charity regulated by the Secretary of State for Education and governed by its company articles and Master Funding Agreement. We do not make profits and are accountable to the pupils, parents and communities served by our academies.

Our Members

Our Members play an important role in overseeing the work of our Trustees and our financial security. You can click on each name below to find out more about our Members.

Nick Ebbs

Nick Ebbs is a Chartered Surveyor and Vice Chairman of igloo Regeneration Ltd, specialists in the development of sustainable places and buildings. Nick is part of the strategic management team and provides leadership in relation to a number of key research areas.

Nick is Chair of the Nottingham Growth Board; a governor of Nottingham Trent University; a member of the Bank of England Regional Consultative Group (East Midlands); a panel member of Opun’s Regional (East Midlands) Design Review Panel; a member of Nottingham City Council’s Heritage Panel; an Ambassador of Framework (a charity that supports the homeless) and a member of the Greenwood Academies Trust.  

Nick is also an Honorary Professor of Sustainable Development at the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Nottingham.

For the year 2018/19, Nick served as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire.

Prior to joining igloo, Nick was a founder member of Innes England Consultant Surveyors, a property consultancy based in the Midlands.

Sir David Greenaway

Sir David Greenaway was appointed the sixth Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham in 2008. This is one of the UK’s largest comprehensive, research intensive Universities, with four Campuses in the East Midlands, and Campuses in China and Malaysia.  Sir David completed his term of office as Vice-Chancellor in September 2017.

Sir David’s public service commitments are extensive. He has been Chairman of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body (2004-10) and a Member of the Senior Salaries Review Body (2004-2010). He has held non-executive positions in the NHS, including Board Member roles with the Nottingham Health Authority and Nottingham University Hospitals Trust. He has served on many Government Task Forces and advised a range of Government Departments.

Sir David’s service to the professional community includes appointments to three Higher Education Funding Councils Research Assessment Panels, including twice as Chair; the Council of ESRC; membership of the Council and Executive of the Royal Economic Society; and Chair of the Russell Group of Universities.

He was Knighted in The Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2014 for services to higher education and public policy.

Jacqui O'Hanlon

Originally an actor and drama practitioner, Jacqui has been Director of Learning at the RSC since 2008.  She is responsible for the strategic development of the company’s work with, for and by children, young people, teachers, adult learners and partner theatres across the UK and around the world. She has an interest in research, particularly finding accessible ways to share and disseminate it to inform real world decision-making. Jacqui is Chair of the Cultural Learning Alliance. She is also a primary school governor. In 2018, she was appointed as a Commissioner for the Durham Commission in Creativity in Education.

Experian PLC

Experian PLC has fulfilled the role of Corporate Member for Greenwood Academies Trust since our inception and we are delighted to have their ongoing support for our work.

Our Trustees 

Our Trustees are the most important people involved in our governance. They are accountable for all aspects of our work, including the performance of every one of our academies. You can click on each name below to find out more about our Trustees.

Mike Hamlin - Chair of Trustees

Mike was a senior member of staff at the Trust for 30 years having joined the Greenwood Dale School as Head of the English department.

Mike has extensive experience in education management. He is an author of a number of education related publications and is well-read in all maters relating to educational developments world-wide.

Prof Chris Hall - Vice Chair of Trustees

Christine is the Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham. She researches and writes about education, with a particular focus on the arts, creativity and literacy. She is an experienced teacher, at school and university levels, and has extensive senior leadership experience, including as Head of the School of Education. She has worked in the field of UK teacher education for many years and has acted as a consultant to teacher professional development initiatives internationally, most recently in China, Malaysia and Cambodia. Throughout her career, she has been an active member of school governing bodies and educational trust boards, including the University of Nottingham Council and Nottingham City’s Education Partnership Board. 

Tina Churcher

Tina is currently Head of Digital at the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency.  Originally from Derby, her career spans both operational and IT roles, working in both the banking and energy sectors before making the move to the Civil Service in 2019.  With over 20 years experience in the change and IT industry, Tina is now accountable for some of the most used public services in the UK.  An advocate for driving equity in IT careers, in 2022 Tina was recognised as a finalist in the category of “role model” at the UK Women in Tech Excellence awards.  Tina is the parent of a child at a Greenwood Academies Trust academy in Nottinghamshire.
In her spare time, Tina is one of a handful of women in the UK who holds a National Clerk of the Course licence for British Motorcycle racing and, at weekends, can regularly be found in the control towers of Mallory Park or Olivers Mount in Scarborough.

Sandra Fletcher

Sandra has been involved in governance for many years, with experience in primary schools, stand-alone and MAT academies, Special schools and Pupil Referral Units. In the majority of these, she has been, or is currently, Chair of Governors.  In addition, she has sat on several Interim Executive Boards following the removal of the previous board tasked with securing strong governance.

Sandra worked at a national level as a National Leader of Governance for over ten years.

She is currently self-employed as an educational consultant and works extensively in governance and school leadership; her background is in secondary education but she also supports the leadership development of a group of primary heads.

Sandra is committed to providing the best educational experience for all pupils, securing the best life opportunities possible, hence her work with school leaders and governors who have an overwhelming remit to secure this for them. 

Tim Guyler

Tim has worked in acute hospital management for over 15 years.

A graduate of the NHS Management Training Scheme in 1999, he worked in Hertfordshire and Hull and East Yorkshire before joining Nottingham City Hospital, then Nottingham University Hospitals Trust.

Tim is currently Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Integration, leading on improvement and integration, the local health and social care system, and the wider East Midlands Network. In particular, he is leading on NUH’s key role in the Greater Nottinghamshire Transformation Programme.

Tim also teaches service improvement courses and is a guest lecturer for Nottingham University’s Masters students.

Jessica Leigh

An award-winning campaigner and educator, Jess is a keynote speaker and facilitator for a collection of social enterprises and charities.

Her work focuses on centering on young people. She works with many different sectors, from mental health to the participation of young people in services to Public Sexual Harassment. As a result of her expertise, she is a Trainer Consultant at Young Minds, facilitates for charities across the UK as well as a lead trainer for Our Streets Now, a campaign aiming to end Public Sexual Harassment through both cultural and legislative change. Jess uses her own experiences as an LGBTQ+ woman to be able to shape policy, lead workshops and has spoken on the likes of BBC News, Sky News, Houses of Parliament and TEDx.

Simon Massarella

Simon has been a Nottinghamshire Magistrate since 2005 and Chair in Adult (criminal law) and also the Family Division.  On 1st April 2018 he was elected as the Bench Chair for Nottinghamshire.  Simon is also Alumni Mentor at the Nottingham Trent University Law School.

Simon has previously been a Director of the Trent Academies Group, from January 2014 to April 2018, and was also chair of the Finance and Audit Committee, the Pay and Policy Committees, and the Risk Management Group.  Simon was also Chair of the Local Governing Body at Farnborough Academy.

Before retiring, earlier in his career Simon was a Chief Flying Instructor for HM Service and, more recently, has had roles as an IT Programme Manager and Board-level Director.

Rob Morgan

Rob joined the University of Nottingham in 2001 having previously primarily worked in the financial services sector. He has held project and operational roles, including three years until 2020 as Chief Financial Officer at the University’s Ningbo campus in China. Rob is a CIMA qualified accountant and currently has responsibility for the University’s UK property portfolio as Property and Space Management Director. 

Mark Rutherford

Mark joined Gateley Plc in 2004 as a Corporate Partner and became head of team in 2013. He is a leading corporate finance partner and heads the firm’s corporate team in Nottingham. Mark specialises in corporate finance, including mergers and acquisitions, private equity, management buyouts and company disposal transactions.

Mark is one of the leading lawyers in his field in the East Midlands and has an extensive client base of owner managed or led businesses and larger companies, including many with an international dimension. He has been nominated for the East Midlands 'Insider Dealmaker of the Year' Award three times in the last four years. 

Kelly Steed

Kelly is an Internal Audit Director at Experian, covering the UKI, EMEA and APAC regions.  Having made the career move to Internal Audit in 2020, Kelly’s background is predominantly in project, programme and portfolio management, having delivered successfully and established PMO functions to enable multi-million pound business strategy and transformation in the financial services, aerospace and FMCG industries. 

Nada Trikic

Nada has gained extensive leadership experience in a range of schools from ex-mining communities to inner city and county settings. She spent ten years as headteacher of an 11-18 Nottinghamshire secondary school. Prior to this, Nada worked with young people with special educational needs. 

In 2006 Nada was recruited by Ofsted as an HMI. For eight years she led inspection teams, and supported schools in challenging circumstances. As a member of Ofsted’s survey team, she visited numerous schools to gather evidence on national priorities. Nada was appointed as national advisor for Equalities and Human Rights to provide guidance and support to inspectors. 

Since 2014, Nada has used her valuable experience and expertise working as an Education Consultant. She has provided tailored input, working with middle and senior leaders, and governors, to secure measurable improvement.  

Andy Walker

After graduating from the University of Leeds, Andy qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC. Since qualification, he worked in finance and commercial roles for a number of companies, including Experian and Rolls-Royce, where he spent ten years of his career. He is currently Finance Director of an engineering company based near Birmingham.

Andy is from Derby and, having graduated and qualified in Leeds, he returned to Derby where he now lives with his two young sons.

Edmond Burrows

Edmond is a Senior International Tax Specialist with over ten years of experience within the tax profession. He has experience of interpreting and applying both the UK’s tax legislation and the tax laws of other countries, including any applicable tax treaties.

Edmond has first class degrees in Accounting & Finance and Professional Taxation Studies, as well as an Advanced Diploma in International Taxation (ADIT).

Outside of work, Edmond lives with his wife and young daughter, who attends a Greenwood Academies Trust school in Peterborough.

Paul Ford

Paul is a Senior Technology Strategist at Microsoft, working with Multi Academy Trusts to drive digital transformation and innovation in the education sector. He has spent over 20 years in the education and IT sector, working in the classroom as an educator for over 8 of those years. 

Paul is also an EMBRACE mentor, working with mentees from the BAME community to support early in career mentees looking to build a career in the technology sector.

Our Trustees meet as a full Board at least four times a year, and they have established Committees to monitor specific aspects of our work as follows:

  • The Standards and Curriculum Committee oversees educational performance
  • The Finance Committee oversees how we are spending our money
  • The People Committee oversees our work as an employer
  • The Audit and Risk Committee oversees our approach to managing risk

Trustees also oversee the work of Our Learning Cloud, our wholly owned subsidiary ICT delivery company.

As well as monitoring our performance, the main job of Trustees is to set our vision and mission and to ensure that we are following these in everything we do.

In practice our Trustees, who are volunteers, delegate almost all aspects of the day-to-day operation of the Trust to the Chief Executive Officer and the Executive Leadership Team and the day-to-day leadership of each academy is delegated, of course, to the Principal.

Our Trustees are supported in their work by two very important groups of people:

  • Those involved in our local governance, either as part of a Regional Governance Committee (RGC) or an Academy Advisory Council (AAC).
  • Our internal scrutiny team and our external auditors, whose job it is to independently review how well the Trust is doing in many important financial and other areas and to present reports to the Trustees on a regular basis.

The Corporate Affairs Director fulfils the function of Company Secretary and Clerk to the Board and is responsible for overseeing the quality of all our governance activities.

Interested in becoming a Trustee? Contact Andy Gannon at andy.gannon@greenwoodacademies.org

Further documents can be viewed and downloaded below. Please click here to review our statutory information, including our annual accounts for the last three years.