The Members and The Board of Trustees

The Members of Aldridge Education are:

• Sir Rod Aldridge - Patron
• The Aldridge Foundation (Corporate Member) – represented by Shona Nichols, CEO
• Sir David Bell - Vice Chancellor of the University of Sunderland
• Jenny Lavender - Trustee of the Aldridge Foundation
• Graeme Pike - Global Advisory CFO, PwC
• James Sporle - Group General Counsel of Just Eat and Trustee of the Aldridge Foundation

The Board of Trustees is comprised of:

• Up to nine Trustees appointed by the Members
• Three appointed by the Aldridge Foundation
• The Trust Chief Executive (if the Members so decide)

The current Trustees are:

Rupert Nichols - Chair

Rupert is qualified as a solicitor, chartered secretary and notary public. He has a wealth of commercial experience in a range of organisations, including global service companies, private entrepreneurial businesses, professional practices and the public and third sectors, specifically in corporate affairs, M & A, Property portfolio management, governance and compliance and commercial contracts. He has held a number of senior executive and non-executive board positions in the legal, accountancy, logistics, healthcare, manufacturing and services sectors. Rupert is an Honorary Fellow and former trustee of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport, retiring in 2021 after 28 years in that role . From 2012-2018 he was vice-chairman of the Governors of Rainford High School and following its conversion to a Multi-Academy Trust became chairman of the board of trustees retiring in 2021. He is currently chair of a NHS mental health trust.

Rob Wye

Rob read Law at Cambridge and then joined the Civil Service in 1976.

He worked first in the Department of Employment in London; then moved to Sheffield and the Manpower Services Commission, where he was responsible for Skillcentres, Internal Training, Open Learning and Learning Technologies. He then worked on Modern Apprenticeships, Youth Training, those young people not in education, employment or  training and links between schools and business.

By 2000 Rob had become a Director in the new Learning and Skills Council (LSC), first locally in Northamptonshire and then in the head office in Coventry, covering Strategy; Communications and Marketing; and Youth and Adult Learning. He oversaw the ambition to find all 16-19 year olds a place in school, college or an apprenticeship. When the LSC split in 2010 into the Young Peoples Learning Agency (YPLA) and Skills Funding Agency (SFA) he was interim CEO of the YPLA.

In 2011 Rob left the Civil Service to run the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, whose role was to help colleges and training providers better serve their customers and improve their management and staff training. The Service was abolished by the Government in 2015, and after a spell as a consultant (including with the Aldridge Foundation), Rob went back to the Civil Service, heading up the Regional Schools Commissioner’s Office for the West Midlands, where he became knowledgeable about academies and multi-academy trusts. Rob retired in January 2018, and joined the Aldridge Enterprise Board in September 2018. He is the Trust’s Safeguarding Lead at Board Level.

Rob lives in Leamington Spa with his wife. He has two sons and two grandsons.

Frank Hogan

As a manager in Royal Mail for over 37 years, Frank has undertaken various senior roles including General Manager, Major Programmes Manager, and an International Programmes Manager in Russia and Argentina.

For most of his career as a senior HR Manager Frank spent much of his time working with trades unions and managers to develop people-based strategy and innovation.

Alongside his Royal Mail Group experience Frank has spent many years volunteering in various director / trustee roles. He was a member of the CIPD Executive Board for 6 years and served 12 years as a trustee and board chair for Skylight Circus Arts in Rochdale, which offered life-changing circus skills to troubled or disabled young people. From 2009 his work took him to London where he immediately got involved serving s as a Trustee of the SHARE community in Wandsworth, giving skills for independence to severely disabled people.

Frank feels he is a great example of the power of great teachers to transform lives: he credits his teachers with his own transformation from the over-spill estates of North Manchester to graduating top of his MBA class.

When not working Frank enjoys golf, football, juggling, singing in a local choir and learning languages. 

Emma Beatty

Emma is a passionate EdTech professional with a good depth of experience across digital lesson delivery and educational assessment. Emma holds an executive post at Oak National Academy, the government owned curriculum body. Here she is responsible for the organisation's IT, people, finances and legal compliance. Emma has many years experience of working in EdTech having started her career specialising in data and algorithms before setting up one of the UK’s first wifi networks (primarily for students) across the Northwest. Later, having helped build a mission-led, assessment business, Emma led the sale and transition of this business to secure its long-term legacy. 

Caroline Hoare

Currently working as a freelance writer and education consultant, primarily for The Good Schools Guide. She has worked in education for over twenty years, developing a thorough understanding of how schools operate and the vital importance of inspirational school leadership. As a member of the executive team of The Girls’ Day School Trust, Caroline created and led high-performing legal, health and safety, HR and governance teams and was closely involved in the pioneering conversion of two GDST schools into academies. As Chief Executive of the Independent Schools Inspectorate, she led its business operations and associated international consultancy arm.

With extensive experience in strategy development, building successful teams and leading change, Caroline is a great believer in the importance of mentoring and coaching, sharing experience and expertise to help individuals and organisations develop. This philosophy has also shaped her non-executive work. She served for ten years as vice chair of The Anne Frank Trust UK, an education charity working to empower young people to challenge all forms of prejudice and discrimination, and currently chairs the board of trustees of Peer Productions, which uses a peer education model to transform young people’s lives through theatre-making. Caroline is passionate about helping young people find their voice so that they can shape a better future. Caroline has two teenage children and recently completed an MA in Children’s Literature.

Genevieve Field

Genevieve has been a Director at Ambition for over 5 year and led the early roll out of Ambition’s ECF provision, a national school improvement programme contracted with the DfE and a number of teacher development programmes including the Master's in Expert Teaching, Fellowship and Curriculum programmes.

She has over a decade of experience in teacher education, previously leading Ark Teacher Training's SCITT, playing a key role in partnerships and continuous improvement, and led early career provision and piloting School Direct for Harris Federation. She has been a school governor for 6 years and is a trustee for two multi-academy trusts.

Sarah Young

Sarah works with charity leadership teams and Boards to help them develop and scale their work, through a combination of technical advice, coaching and facilitation. 

She spent ten years at the charity Impetus, working with the most promising UK charities looking to close the gap in educational outcomes between disadvantaged young people and their better off peers. These included Dixons Academies Trust, Magic Breakfast, Voice 21 and Tutor Trust.

She acted as a critical friend and advisor to their leadership teams to help them agree a focused mission, strategy and plan, strengthen leadership and governance, and to build impact management capability and financial sustainability. 

Before working at Impetus, Sarah worked in the fund management and venture capital industry as a Fund Manager for 15 years. She has been a MAT trustee since 2019.

Seema Sangar

A Chartered Management Accountant since 2004 with more than 25 years’ experience working across a wide variety of industries. Seema has held several finance leadership roles and senior business roles including Finance Director, Managing Director, and Chief Operating Officer.

Seema has experience of working at a senior level in large, listed and privately owned companies. She has been the Group Commercial Finance Director at Avast Plc, a FTSE 100 company and prior to that was Divisional Finance Director at Equiniti, a FTSE 250 company. Seema has experience of operating at Executive and Board level and with her finance background has a real understanding and experience of managing risk and establishing controls and processes.

Seema places a lot of importance on Diversity and Inclusion and likes to see more and more businesses and organisations embrace D&I and demonstrate a clear D&I strategy.

She has mentored individuals in the workplace and provided guidance, support, and advice to help them progress with their career. Having worked with a lot of encouraging and supportive leaders throughout her career she is passionate about being able to help others succeed.

Edward Marsh-Rowbotham

You can view or download copies of our recent Trust Board Meeting Minutes here.

View our Governance Information And Register Of Interests.