Driving an Efficient and Sustainable Trust - Manchester - Speakers

Nick MacKenzie, Partner, Browne Jacobson LLP (Chair)

Nick is an education lawyer, executive coach and a member of the firm’s board. Recognised as a leading expert in education by The Legal 500 and Chambers for over ten years, Nick specialises in corporate and governance advice in the education sector.

Owen Carter, Co-Founder and Managing Director, ImpactEd

Owen is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of ImpactEd, a social enterprise partnering with schools and trusts to support them in evaluating the impact of their programmes and interventions. Prior to running ImpactEd, he led a number of research and evaluation projects at education charity The Brilliant Club. Owen is a winner of the Teach First Innovation Award, the Fair Education Alliance's Scaling Award and has been named one of PwC’s ‘Tomorrow’s Business Leaders’.

Paul Edmond, Chief Finance Officer, HEART Academies Trust

Paul is the CFO at HEART Academies Trust, Bedford and a trustee for the Diamond Learning Partnership Trust. At HEART, he is also the climate and sustainability lead, a role that developed during 2021/22 in tandem with a fundamental review of the trust’s core priorities. In 2022 he accepted the role of co-chair of the new UK School Sustainability Network Operations group, a growing national network of schools and trusts working to help support staff navigate a way to a more sustainable future.

Lisa Fathers, Director of Development, Partnerships and Teaching School Hubs, Bright Futures Educational Trust

Lisa has over 25 years’ experience in education, as a teacher, leader and now executive MAT leader and NLE.  Aside from her school improvement work and professional development work, Lisa has a passion for helping people to improve their health and emotional wellbeing. Lisa has a wealth of experience delivering training to a wide range of clients from a diverse range of sectors. Lisa is a mental health first aid instructor and led the first ever Greater Manchester Mentally Healthy School programme which won a national award, Lisa puts this knowledge and expertise to good use across Bright Futures.

Robert Gould FRICS, Partner, Barker

Robert is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and a partner heading up Barker’s education sector. He works with schools, trusts, universities and colleges to deliver capital projects and surveying services including condition surveying and estate planning. He also assists education clients in applying for capital funding and advises on energy efficiency strategies.

Ryan Green, CEO and Founder, Eduprise

In 2005 Ryan launched one of the pioneering systems and training programs for school income generation. In 2016 the Department for Education commissioned Ryan to research and propose innovative ways to support school business leaders. Ever the entrepreneur, in 2018 Ryan launched his next successful venture, Eduprise, a digital marketing and communications agency for schools and multi-academy trusts. Through Eduprise Ryan’s gone on to advise some of England’s leading CEO’s and COO’s with their strategic communications and public relations. ISBL recently recognised Ryan’s expertise and honoured with the role of Subject Matter Expert in marketing and communications..

Dr Sladana Krstic, Head of Research, ACER UK

Sladana leads the psychometrics and research team, providing leadership on research design, methodology, implementation activities, coordinating data analysis, and robust reporting. She has 20 years’ experience in the UK education sector, including undertaking assessment and curriculum research at Ofqual and the Qualifications and Curriculum Agency (QCA) prior to joining ACER. Sladana has worked on a variety of projects, such as for the GPE’s Education Out Loud project; the Scottish National Standardised Assessments; the British Council’s English Impact project; the International Baccalaureate programmes; the Royal Society of Chemistry evaluation programme; and many others.

Gill Martindale, Senior HR Consultant, Browne Jacobson LLP

Gill is a senior HR consultant based in the Manchester office and has been supporting schools, academies and MATs for over 15 years. Gill specialises in supporting senior leaders with the full range of employee relations issues and is committed to building highly effective relationships with clients. Gill has a particular interest in developing HR knowledge and skills for those working in the education sector and has developed a suite of training programmes to achieve this, including the highly successful HR Pathways CPD programme. She regularly speaks at regional and national conferences as well as co-presenting webinars on key HR and employment law matters. Gill is a Director of a growing North-West based MAT.

Garry Ratcliffe, CEO, The Golden Thread Alliance

Garry is the Chief Executive of The Golden Thread Alliance, consisting of nine primary academies clustered in North Kent serving just under 5000 young people. Believing that every single person who works in education must be child centred, his philosophy about education is underpinned by the values that he holds at his core, which are - respect, responsibility and equality. These are the foundation stones that are actively promoted and practiced across the whole trust, an invitation to a way of life. 

Shonagh Reid, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Consultant

Shonagh is a diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant working primarily in the fields of education at the arts. Shonagh has an extensive background in leadership in education, specialising in performing arts and pastoral senior leadership and has worked as a DEI leader in the East Midlands, UK for six years. She is currently working with The National Theatre, London and many education organisations across the UK, supporting with strategic inclusion planning, creation of and embedding of robust and effective DEI networks, mentoring, and training.

More speakers to be announced soon!