The Trust Executive Leadership Team is made up of the CEO, Executive Directors of School Improvement and Governance, the Chief Financial Officer, Director of Estates, Director of Operations, Director of Curriculum & Professional Development and Director of Privacy & Data Protection. This team carries out the executive management functions of the Trust. The team operates under the leadership and direction of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who also acts as the Accounting Officer.
Executive Leadership Team

Robert Bowater
CEO and Accounting Officer
Robert’s role entails being ultimately responsible for all day-to-day management decisions and for implementing the Trust’s long and short-term plans. Robert acts as the direct liaison between the Board, Executive Team, and schools.
Robert also has the role of Accounting Officer for the Trust. This role includes a personal responsibility to Parliament for school standards and to the ESFA’s accounting officer for the financial resources under the Trust’s control.

Chris Finnerty
Chief Finance Officer
Chris is responsible for the Trust’s accounting and financial management processes in line with the Academies Financial Handbook and associated ESFA requirements. He plays both a technical and leadership role, which incorporates:
- sound and safe financial governance
- sound and safe risk management
- preparing and monitoring of budgets
- delivery of annual accounts.

James Hill
Executive Director of School Improvement
James is responsible for school performance and pupil progress across the Trust’s schools. He helps schools to identify how they can improve and brings enormous energy to school leaders encouraging them to share and learn from each other and beyond. He works with the External School Improvement Adviser to provide structured and timely support, challenge and quality assurance.

Sue Egersdorff
Executive Director of Governance
Sue is responsible for overseeing the governance of the Trust and providing support to the Trust Board.

Alvin Walters
Director of Privacy & Data Protection | DPO
Alvin performs the function of Data Protection Officer for the Trust ensuring that all schools are compliant with GDPR. He also supports schools to implement the latest strategies and initiatives to protect the Trust from cybercrime.

Geoff Bagley
Director of Estates
Geoff is responsible for the strategic overview of the Trust Estates Management. He works to ensure Trust schools are kept in good order both inside and out. He is committed to providing safe and secure environments conducive to learning for both staff and pupils.

Dominic Davis
Director of Curriculum & Professional Development
Dominic supports the Executive Director of School Improvement to develop and implement the Trust school improvement model and associated curriculum framework.

Julie Gouldbourn
Director of Operations
Julie is responsible for the day to day operations of the Trust.

Rebecca Hawkings
Trust Office Manager
Rebecca is responsible for the management of administration and support systems that enable the effective running of the Trust as well as directly supporting the CEO, Robert Bowater. The majority of her work is to support the delivery of the Trust’s Strategic Business Plan.

Sally Noble
External School Improvement Adviser
Sally is the Trust’s External School Improvement Adviser. She conducts regular School Improvement Reviews at all the Trust schools and supports the creation of rapid action plans to address improvement priorities. She also leads the Trust’s collaborative work with the Severn Teaching School Partnership and oversees the commissioning and deployment of additional National Leader of Education (NLE) and Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) support.

Catherine Ludwig
Clerk to the Trust
Catherine is clerk to the Trust. In this role she provides high quality administrative support to the Trust Board and its sub committees. This includes advising on the annual calendar of Trust Board meetings and producing clear and comprehensive minutes for all meetings.