Governance

Peter has led a very successful education advisory consultancy since 2011. The client list includes school improvement commissions for several national multi academy . trusts, inspection contracts with Ofsted and education advisory contracts with the Department of Education, including working directly to Sir David Carter in his National Sponsors Unit. 

Peter has considerable experience as a senior leader in secondary schools. He was a serving practitioner working for Ofsted as an additional inspector and was later seconded to Ofsted full time. He then joined CfBT, Ofsted’s inspection service provider in the north as Senior Managing Inspector, with special responsibility for schools causing concern in the primary and secondary phases. His particular expertise is in school improvement, quality of education and leadership and management. 

Peter has been an Associate Vice Principal of an outstanding multi academy trust in the North East of England working across their two secondary three primaries and a academies, three primaries and a studio school as well as Interim Executive Principal and CEO of an 11-18 academy in the West Midlands. Peter currently holds a number of Trustee positions on multi academy trust boards. 

Commenting on the new role Peter said “I am delighted to be taking up this exciting opportunity and to be working with committed professionals who have at the heart of everything they do, the very best interests of their students.” 

Karen has been involved with The TRUE Learning Partnership from its inception and is firmly committed to building strong, inclusive, and sustainable communities. As Chair to the Board of Trustees she brings 14 years of experience in school and trust governance and 19 years of experience working within the education sector in roles to fit around family commitments. Karen and her husband owned a successful retail business for 14 years before moving to the UK from the USA in 1992, she was a practice manager in the private health sector across multiple sites. Karen and her husband have 3 sons, now in their 20’s, she is also a firm believer in lifelong learning and is currently a student at the Open University pursuing an interest in Sociology.

Thomas is an Independent Financial Advisor. He became a Financial Services Authority authorised and regulated Financial Advisor in 2002, and created his own Financial Services company in 2005. Thomas's company, One & All Financial Services, now has advisors based in 4 offices across the UK.  The bulk of his work falls under the remit of "Financial Planning" on a personal and business basis, including mortgage advice, pensions, retirement planning, cashflow reviews and insurance.   

Alan has many years’ experience in economic development, including the management of regional strategy development agencies in London and Greater Manchester. Throughout his career, he had responsibility for strategy and project development in 3 major industrial sectors and worked in over 40 countries. Alan has also been involved in local race relations and other community organisations as a volunteer, and local politics. He has been appointed to a series of School Governing bodies over 20 years, including a Special Needs school, Infant/Junior schools, a State Comprehensive and a Grant aided Grammar school. He has also been a Chair of a Governing Body and more recently, been a member of the Governing Body for Poynton High School. Alan retired in 2013, and now his activities include Tai Chi practice, Pilates and painting with local art groups and classes. 

Shiona is a director of a business providing consultancy services to the life science industry, including start-up companies. Having qualified as a Solicitor, Shiona worked as an in-house lawyer for AstraZeneca - a FTSE 100 company -  for over 25 years, gaining extensive experience in the biopharmaceutical industry.  Working as a senior member of global cross-functional teams, Shiona was required to provide pragmatic and constructive advice to facilitate the achievement of strategic goals. She is experienced in the identification, assessment and mitigation of legal risks across a spectrum of activities and is closely acquainted with the requirements of corporate governance.
 

My professional background is primarily in HR. I spent 20  years working for Xerox, starting as a trainer then moving into HR, but ending my career there as a Customer Satisfaction and Quality Manager. I then moved to AstraZeneca, initially as an HR Business Partner and eventually as a Communications Manager. I feel that the opportunities I had with both these leading employers significantly improved my communication and interpersonal skills and my understanding of people and of business. 

Grenville joined TTLP as he was looking for an opportunity as a Trustee in a Multi-Academy Trust that has ambitions for growth and committed to excellence and where he would be able to use his skills and experience to add real value to the Board.

His non-executive and trustee experience from across sectors contributes to the much wider strategic agenda well beyond his professional background in finance, governance and risk management. Following a career across the public sector (local government, NHS and civil service) and with a passion for cross sector collaboration and innovation, Grenville moved out of full-time employment almost 10 years ago to manage a dynamic portfolio career - non-executive/trustee roles, interim work and consultancy assignments. During this time he has accumulated over 50 years of non-executive/trustee experience including chairing Finance, Business Performance, Audit & Risk, Governance and Remuneration Committees across sectors. 

Grenville has experience leading the on-going development of an independent Audit and Risk Committee within the education sector, steered its risk-based work programme across the spectrum of the overall framework of governance and control, exercised scrutiny of financial plans and in-year monitoring reports, overseen financial accounts closure to agreed deadlines, recruited other independent members, appointed both external and internal auditors and overseen their performance.
 

Within his consultancy work he has been engaged by a few academies and undertaken due diligence work for prospective mergers; governance and financial control review and driving forward improvements including setting up and chairing Audit Committee and developing a comprehensive scheme of delegation; board development and training, and development of risk register.
 

Grenville currently has other non-executive roles in health, social care and housing and is an independent member of the Audit Committee for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.