Our consultants and mentors

Providing your trust with expert help

We work with a team of experts with wide-ranging experience in school trusts of all types and sizes

Our trust development services are delivered through a network of highly-skilled consultants, all with specific expertise in leading and running school trusts.

Our roster of consultants gives us the abilty to match your needs with the practical knowledge to advise you quickly and effectively. Their experience is shared through the prism of CST's frameworks and thought-leadership, giving a structured, sustainable approach.

This allows us to provide effective advice and guidance to trusts of all sizes and types, including faith schools and specialist provision.

Adam Marham

Consultant

Adam Marham

Consultant

Adam is the Head of Governance and Compliance and Company Secretary for Rodillian Multi Academy Trust, a growing school trust in West and North Yorkshire. He is the chair of the Wonder Learning Partnership school trust in East Yorkshire and is also chair of his local secondary school governing body. In addition to this he is a member of the East Riding School Improvement Partnership and vice chair of the East Riding’s School’s forum.

Andrew Lagden

Consultant

Andrew Lagden

Consultant

Andrew Lagden is an experienced Independent Education Consultant, supporting many national organisations, Trusts, individual schools and local authorities, with a very successful track record of securing significant improvement. He was a School Inspector, working on behalf of Ofsted Contractors, for over 15 years and has been a School Improvement Partner since 2006. He currently works as a School Improvement Consultant for Trusts and schools in both primary and secondary phases.

Anna Machin

Consultant

Anna Machin

Consultant

Anna is a Chartered Company Secretary and works for number of Academy Trusts including Reach Academy Trust and Kensington Aldridge Academy as lead governance professional and advising on governance and technical compliance matters. Anna is also Co-founder and Co-director of Trust Governance Professionals, an organisation providing training, an online community and one-to-one support and mentoring to a quickly growing group of 190+ governance leads in School Trusts across England.

Anne Casey

Consultant

Anne Casey

Consultant

35 years’ experience in UK Education across school, local, national and commercial fields with a deep personal commitment to improving outcomes for all learners. She is Founding Director of ACE, an Educational Solutions Consultancy that provides innovative approaches and methodologies that address critical educational and social mobility issues. Anne is an expert in Governance, education strategy, digital strategy and school trust development.

Chris Seaton

Consultant

Chris Seaton

Consultant

Chris Seaton has 38 years of leadership experience in the charity sector, including 24 years working in school governance and leadership roles. Chris brings a passion for social transformation delivered through organisations that have a strong values base, are expertly led and put a premium on healthy positive relationships. Chris is a founding consultant with 3A Consulting, a small network of former school trust leaders working nationally to support schools and school trusts at a system level.

Claire Emery

Consultant

Claire Emery

Consultant

Claire is the Managing Director of an education support services company based in Bristol, a CIPD qualified training facilitator and an accredited coach and mentor. She brings abroad range of expertise including school trust governance and compliance; change and project management; Trustee and Chair mentoring; and providing interim support as a Head of Governance/Company Secretary.

Dawn Carman-Jones

Consultant

Dawn Carman-Jones

Consultant

Dawn has wide-ranging experience as a non-executive in the education sector, both as Chair of Trustees for an 11-school primary multi academy trust and through independent hearing panels, governor advisor roles, IEBs and as a Local Authority appointed Chair of Governors in schools of concern. In addition, Dawn has delivered independent external reviews of governance, chair mentoring and facilitated strategy and training sessions.

Diane Heritage

Consultant

Diane Heritage

Consultant

Diane has experience of educational leadership and governance at school, trust, regional and national level. A former teacher and twice headteacher, Diane has developed expertise across all phases, working with schools, trusts and partnerships in the development of a school led system. Formerly Lead Associate for the National College for School Leadership and Senior Associate at the Education Endowment Foundation, Diane specialises in coaching, professional learning.

Ian Clayton MBE

Consultant

Ian Clayton MBE

Consultant

Ian is an Educational Consultant, previously being a Principal for over 21 years. Ian has worked at local, county and national levels, including as a Consultant with the DfE. His last school (a large 11-18 comprehensive) achieving an Outstanding Ofsted and BTEC School of the Year. Ian’s qualifications include an M.A. in Education, B.A. (Hons) and PGCE. He held LLE status and is DfE trained in coaching and mentoring. He was awarded an MBE for Services to Education.

Jackie Eason MBE

Consultant

Jackie Eason MBE

Consultant

Jackie enjoys undertaking external reviews of governance and developing Trustee training as part of the CST professional consultancy team. She is currently the Programme Director for the CST Chairs Development Programme and part of the advisory group for the CST Professional Community supporting Trustees and Governance Leaders.

Jan Renou

Consultant

Jan Renou

Consultant

Jan Renou completed a five year contract as Regional Schools Commissioner for the North of England in 2019, having oversight through the DfE team in Darlington of some five hundred academies across fourteen Local Authority areas. During forty years in secondary education, she has worked in Leicestershire, inner city Nottingham, inner city Derby and North Yorkshire.

Jenny Wingate

Consultant

Jenny Wingate

Consultant

Jenny Wingate has been a governance professional for over ten years and is now Associate Director of Lead To Lead Ltd, a governance and leadership practice which supports boards and executive leaders in school trusts and charities.

Lesley Dolben

Consultant

Lesley Dolben

Consultant

Currently Head of Local Governance for United Learning, with responsibility for local governor training, policy development, governing body reviews, due diligence, and onboarding activities. She provides advisory support to independent and academy schools including compliance and panel advice to governors. Lesley is a qualified teacher, holds a master’s degree in school leadership with Chartered Manager status and is a fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching.

Malcolm Trobe CBE

Consultant

Malcolm Trobe CBE

Consultant

Malcolm Trobe is an independent educational consultant specialising in leadership, governance and strategic planning. Malcolm is the former Deputy General Secretary for the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). He worked full-time for ASCL for 10 years including a fifteen-month period as Interim General Secretary. He was previously the Headteacher of Malmesbury School in Wiltshire for 17 years.

Mark Coppel

Consultant

Mark Coppel

Consultant

Mark is an experienced education governance specialist who works with sector organisations, teaching hubs and local authorities to support and enable good governance. He has worked on various DfE funded programmes including the leading governance development programmes for chairs, clerks and boards and the National Leader of Governance programme.

Rebecca Howell

Consultant

Rebecca Howell

Consultant

Rebecca Howell has developed her expertise in governance, strategic planning, risk, policy, systems, and data protection through a range of roles across a diversity of trust structures, including those undergoing growth and transition. She recently spoke on school trust growth at the NGA’s annual conference for governance professionals. She currently works with three trust boards.

Scott Walker

Consultant

Scott Walker

Consultant

Scott Walker began his career teaching maths and IT. After several leadership roles and a period working for an local authority, he was seconded to the Department for Education to oversee a national programme working with some of the most challenging schools in the country. After this, Scott was appointed as one of the DfE’s five full-time national advisers working on the early academy programme which took him to schools with long-standing issues and he worked with sponsors to set-up new schools

Stewart Harper

Consultant

Stewart Harper

Consultant

Stewart is a governance professional and Chartered Company Secretary who has worked in the education sector for 20 years. With a background in governance, he applies his knowledge to ensure that systems and approaches not only ‘conform’ with requirements, but also so that they add value. He has a range of experiences, both from full-time work and from working freelance, in working on a range of matters such as dispute management and in ensuring an integration of different systems and processes.

Susan Fielden

Consultant

Susan Fielden

Consultant

Susan Fielden CPFA is a recognised expert in school finance. A qualified accountant, she spent many years in strategic management roles, engaging in national policy on school funding and resource management. As well as working in national and local government, she has been the Chief Finance Officer in a ten-school academy trust. Through her business, Susan works with education leaders in all settings, helping to align educational vision with strategic financial planning.

Dr Lizzie Oliver

Director of Policy and Programmes, Trust Governance Professionals

Dr Lizzie Oliver

Director of Policy and Programmes, Trust Governance Professionals

Lizzie has 15 years' research consultancy experience in the education sector. She has chaired an international research organisation and worked with government, employer bodies, and national heritage organisations to deliver complex research and engagement activities. Lizzie is a graduate of the Chartered Governance Institute's Chartered Qualifying scheme and a former National Leader of Governance. She is a member of the Trailblazer Group for the Level 4 Governance Officer apprenticeship.

Nicky Edmondson

Consultant

Nicky Edmondson

Consultant

Nicky works with trust leaders and boards as an independent consultant, specialising in improving leadership and governance. Building on 25 years of school and trust leadership experience, including as CEO of a large and successful trust, she is passionate about supporting leaders and trustees to deliver the highest possible quality of education to the children in their care. Nicky has served in all tiers of governance and provided mentoring and coaching for trust and school leaders.

Adele Haysom MBE

Consultant

Adele Haysom MBE

Consultant

Adele has transferred her experience as a qualified management accountant to working with trustees, governance professionals and executive leaders as an independent consultant focusing on improving governance. Currently, Adele is chairing a trust of 30 schools having strategically led the growth from just five schools in eight years. Adele has been an interim trustee for trusts experiencing challenging situations and is a member of the Southwest Regional Directors Advisory Board.

Jennie Homer

Consultant

Jennie Homer

Consultant

Jennie is an experienced Head of Governance and Corporate Services with a demonstrated history of working for over 25 years’ in varying roles across the public sector. Jennie is skilled in implementing operational and strategic governance systems, policy compliance and guidance, business improvement, and management of a range of educational settings including faith trusts and single and multi academy trusts.

Becky Poynter

Consultant

Becky Poynter

Consultant

Becky Poynter has worked in education since 1990, for a London local authority and then maintained schools and trusts in Suffolk. She’s an experienced chair of governors, currently leading the governing board of an outstanding special school and was a National Leader of Governance. As an NLG, Becky led trust and local governance reviews, worked with governing bodies to improve their effectiveness, mentored individual chairs of governors, and developed training on external reviews.

Fee Stagg

Consultant

Fee Stagg

Consultant

Fee is an independent governance professional and consultant specialising in developing governance systems and structures to streamline governance activity. Fee has worked with single academy and up to medium sized trusts, delivering external reviews of governance, action plans following ERGs, and ongoing support. Fee also provides bespoke mentoring support to governance professionals and delivers governance training. Fee is the chair of a seven school trust in the Midlands.

Laura Williams

Consultant

Laura Williams

Consultant

Laura specialises in governance, operational leadership, and strategic growth. With nearly two decades of experience in the sector, she has worked extensively with trustees, governance professionals, and executive leaders to strengthen leadership, optimise resources, and drive sustainable improvement. A former chief operating officer, chief finance officer, company secretary and school business manager, Laura has deep expertise in governance, compliance and risk management.

Sarah Williams

Consultant

Sarah Williams

Consultant

Sarah has worked within governance since 2012, working with charities, local authority maintained schools, and trusts from preschool to post-16. Her governance experience includes charity trust governance, strategic planning, on-boarding schools into a trust, recruitment, performance management, chairing, board reviews and development, training, panels and Ofsted inspections. Sarah chairs two trusts and is a member of a trust in the south west.

Jon Chaloner

Consultant

Jon Chaloner

Consultant

Jon was the founding CEO of GLF Schools, one of the leading large academy trusts in England, serving contrasting communities. Prior to founding GLF, Jon held two substantive headships in the secondary sector followed by executive headship at three primary schools and two secondary schools. Jon enjoys developing the leadership of others and enabling them to step up within their organisations. As an NPQ facilitator, Jon specialises in preparing middle leaders for senior leadership.

John Murphy

Consultant

John Murphy

Consultant

John is a highly experienced CEO who has grown and developed one of England’s leading academy trusts. As CEO of Oasis Community Learning, John proudly led 52 primary and secondary academies serving some of the most disadvantaged communities, and a workforce of 5,000. During his tenure, he onboarded 41 schools, opened several free schools, and 45 schools within the trust moved from special measures/failing status to good and outstanding.