Ben Brown
Chair of Trustees
Ben Brown Is currently Head of UK and Ireland for Optoma Ltd, having previously been head of market development for Promethean and the education businesses lead for Hewlett-Packard, Samsung and XMA in the UK. He has worked in the education technology sector for over 15 years and has developed a real passion for advancing the use of technology to support teaching and learning. He had previously sat on the Board of Trustees at the David Ross Education Trust and still sits as Vice Chair of Governors at one of the schools there. His real focus was to support the development of technology and innovation strategy at the trust, he was also heavily involved with the Risk and Audit committee throughout his time as a trustee, a committee he still sits on. More recently he has been a trustee at the Tackley Education Trust. Ben has, throughout his career, looked at the challenges in education and how technology is best placed to resolve them. This has led to him working closely with the DfE as well as Academy Trusts such as ARK, Reach2 and United Learning on driving forward the use of the right technology for them and their schools. Ben lives in Northamptonshire with his young family and enjoys his chance to visit Sheffield at the weekends to support his beloved Sheffield Wednesday.
Dr Tesca Bennett
Vice Chair of Trustees, Chair of the Education and Safeguarding Committee, Safeguarding Link Trustee
Dr Tesca Bennett is a member of the Federation Executive of the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation Trust and the Executive Principal of Haberdashers’ Aske’s Knights Academy in London.
She sits on a number of groups including the strategic project board of the Lewisham Secondary Challenge, a Strategic School Improvement Fund (SSIF) project, the Children and Young Peoples Strategic Partnership Board and chairs Lewisham secondary headteachers’ forum.
Dr Bennett is a facilitator for various leadership development and educational improvement programmes including the BAME Inclusive Leadership Programme and was a member of the review team for the Challenge Partners’ pilot MAT reviews.
Formerly a Director of a recruitment consultancy and a R&D scientist, Dr Bennett joined the profession through the NCSL Fast Track Teaching programme and has taught the sciences in inner London schools. Dr Bennett has a strong interest in organisational culture, research based leadership development and is committed to social regeneration through education, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
Chris Rossiter
Trustee, Chair of the People, Remuneration and Operations Committee
An experienced leader and organisational psychologist, Chris has worked across the public, private and not-for-profit sector and is currently Director of Governance and Compliance at Liberty Academy Trust.
A leading consultant in organisation transformation, change, and leadership, prior to joining the education sector, Chris was the Chief Executive of a not-for-profit start-up leading on national policy and advocacy. He has experience of driving organisational strategy and improvement, including compliance, risk and assurance. Chris is familiar with both practical and strategic roles deploying his evidence led and values driven skills.
Chris is committed to strengthening the organisations he works with to ensure they can work effectively, deliver public benefit and enhance their role in civic society. Chris is a former army reservist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Married to Geoff, he lives in Berkshire and has interests which include cycling, wine and twentieth century art. Chris’ real passion is his Labrador, Dolly.
Peter Burrows
Trustee, Chair of the Finance and Budget Committee
Peter is Chief Executive of The Cambridge Building Society, a position he has held since 2019. He is a chartered accountant with over 20 years’ experience in financial services, gained in a combination of executive management and consulting roles in the UK and overseas. His vision is for The Cambridge to be a thriving, independent, mutual business, dedicated to helping people have a home and being a trusted place for people to save. He is deeply committed to the further development of the Society’s ‘Making The Difference’ programme aimed at supporting its members and their local communities, and in 2020 launched the Cambridge Building Society Community Fund, supporting charitable groups committed to helping vulnerable people with their housing needs. Prior to joining The Cambridge, Peter was Chief Executive of Engage Mutual, a mutual insurance business. His earlier career was spent with Aviva plc and Ernst & Young. Peter has also served as a director of the Association of Financial Mutuals, and for ten years was a governor of York College, a leading further and higher education college.
Peter is married with two daughters. He is a mathematics graduate of Oxford University, a keen road cyclist and rugby union watcher.
Faye Craster
Trustee
Faye graduated from Northumbria university with a degree in Biology before teaching Science in London. Faye is currently Executive Director at Steplab, having previously been a director at Teach First, leading their approach to developing teachers and mentors across their ITT programmes and ECF Programmes. Having worked in education and charity leadership for 14 years, Faye has professional skills and expertise relating to programme design, strategic planning, teacher development, organisational leadership and contract bidding and management. Faye is particularly passionate about raising outcomes for children in the most disadvantaged of circumstances to ensure a fair education for all.
Faye has worked closely with schools and the Department for Education on numerous strategies, including membership of the expert advisory group for teacher wellbeing, advising on the new Ofsted education inspection framework for Initial Teacher Training and supporting the development of the reformed NPQ in leading teacher development.
Bill McHugh
Trustee
Bill is a professional with extensive experience as Chief Probation Officer, Regional Offender Manager and Senior Civil Servant within the Ministry of Justice. He is currently Culture and Transformation Lead with Doncaster Council. Throughout his career he has promoted learning and education as a means of positively impacting on the lives of everyone in society; particularly those in hard-to-reach communities. His experience leading numerous transformation programmes and initiatives, will assist Astrea Academy Trust to successfully respond to future challenges, for the benefit of students, staff and wider groups affected by our work.
As a Trustee Bill wishes to provide high support and high challenge, enabling Astea to excel in all it does and celebrate its achievements. Working on the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, as well as being a Link Trustee for Doncaster, he hopes he can help raise our profile and reputation as an organisation that enables everyone to be the best they can be – in all aspects of their lives.
Having previously studied at the University of Cambridge he is now working on his doctoral thesis, in the Faculty of Education, researching the efficacy of mandated education on offenders under probation supervision. He looks forward to meeting students, colleagues, and others to learn more about our organisation as well as offering his knowledge, skills, and experience to support our aims and ambitions.
Meesha Warmington
Trustee
Dr Meesha Warmington is a Cognitive Developmental Psychologist and is a senior academic in the School of Education, University of Sheffield. As an academic, her research focuses on the intersection between cognition (and memory), language and literacy in multilingual individuals across the lifespan. Dr Warmington’s work also focuses on intersectional inequalities in healthy ageing and multimorbidity and she is the Co-lead of the Inequality and Intersectionality workstream in the Healthy Lifespan Institute at the University of Sheffield.
She is a Co-Director for The Centre for Equity & Inclusion at the University of Sheffield where she leads on strategy for the Centre’s mentorship scheme and project evaluation; and is the Faculty of Social Sciences Deputy Director of Education: Inclusive Learning Environments at Sheffield. Dr Warmington is also involved in institutional research which is focused on understanding cultural awareness in institutional leadership through the lived experiences of BAME staff and students.
She is the independent Chair of the of the Health and Safety Executive Research Ethics Panel.
Marina Muirhead
Trustee, Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee
Marina grew up in South Yorkshire and, since graduating with a BA (Hons) in English in 2005, has spent her career working with, for and around the NHS. With over 19 years senior leadership experience, Marina has worked at Director-level in both operations and strategy within the NHS at a local, regional and national level. She currently leads a complex system programme in a joint role across NHS England London Region and the 5 London Integrated Care Boards.
Her passion for systems leadership approaches to resolving complex societal problem centred on the wider determinants people face in relation to life chances drove her to undertake post-graduate study in Public Health, looking particularly at the ways in which employment, housing and health can help reduce neighbourhood inequalities. Having led the development and introduction of new care models via the integration of general practice into a large NHS Trust, Marina’s is keen to put her experience to use within the multi-academy trust system to ensure all children are given the best possible start in life.
Penny Alford
Trustee
Penny has worked in state education in inner London and Surrey since 2003 and is passionate about levelling the playing field for all students and ensuring all children get the best possible educational experience. As Deputy CEO for the Bourne Education Trust, she is committed to ensuring schools serve their local communities and have high aspirations for all. An English teacher by trade, Penny believes that literacy and oracy are the key to improving the life chances for all children. Penny is a trained Designated Safeguarding Lead and has the National Qualification for Headship (NPQH) and Executive Leaders (NPQEL).
Prior to joining the Bourne Education Trust, Penny was the Headteacher for Hoe Valley School, a new secondary free school which went from temporary portakabins to a new build. The school is continually oversubscribed and received a grading of outstanding from Ofsted under her leadership. Before this, Penny worked in several inner London schools where she has been a SENCo and led on various strategic areas including curriculum, teaching and learning, attendance, behaviour and safeguarding.
Penny has presented at a range of conferences on subjects including digital opportunities in education, literacy across the curriculum, women in leadership and equality, diversity and inclusion. All of these areas are close to her heart. In addition to her role with BET, Penny sits as a Director on the Surrey Alliance for Education (SAFE) and is delighted to join the Astrea Board. Penny has three young children at different stages in their education and believes that leadership and a fulfilling job can be compatible with a busy family life.
Claudia Bickford-Smith
Trustee
Claudia Bickford-Smith began her career as a teacher and has extensive Board-level experience in education: learning design, edtech, qualification and assessment development, and school operational management, working with Headteachers and their leadership teams, Ministries of Education, Regulators and Awarding Bodies.
Claudia has led large-scale curriculum and assessment innovations, teacher professional de-velopment programs, and accessible online assessments, impacting schools worldwide. She is passionate about inclusive pedagogy, wellbeing-driven education, and sustainable school growth strategies to enhance the quality of education.
As CEO of Aldates Global Education, focuses on developing sustainable growth strategies for schools. She is also actively involved in AI in Education research at the Department of Educa-tion, University of Oxford, alongside her role as a Governor at a primary school in Cambridge-shire. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Education Professional Community.
Duncan Cooper
Trustee
Duncan studied Biology at the University of Leeds which led to his first teaching position in a large comprehensive school in London, eventually becoming Lead Teacher for Science across the London Borough of Hillingdon.
Alongside his role of Deputy CEO of Anglian Learning Trust, Duncan was the previous Principal of Bassingbourn Village College, appointed in 2013 until August 2019. Duncan is proud of the strong positive ethos that has developed at Bassingbourn, where all students are known as individuals and where each student enjoys an education that focuses on their own individual skills, strengths and aptitudes. He believes that education is most successful when the College, the students and their parents and carers form a strong partnership.
Prior to this, Duncan was Deputy Principal of a small multi-academy trust where he was responsible for the leadership of the Curriculum, Outcomes and Quality Assurance across Primary, Secondary and Post 16 learning phases. Both of these roles have been clearly focused upon improving standards. Additionally, Duncan has been a practicing Ofsted Inspector, a member of the DFE’s Headteachers Reference Group, Parent Governor, Chair of an IEB and has led on school-to-school support work for schools across the eastern region.