By profession Ian is a Solicitor having practised locally for over 30 years including managing the largest regional firm for 10 years. He is a proud founder pupil at Excalibur’s Ivy Lane site and now a regular visitor to support music, assemblies and other work. For over 24 years he was governor at the local High School with over ten years as Chair.

Ray was a former director of Trust House Forte and Sodexho until 1999 when he formed RPJ3 Group. He has over 25 years’ experience in contracts and facilities management – from chef to main board director.

In business he works alongside many schools, housing associations and care homes that operate their own in-house services or use a private contractor and assist these clients to get the very best from their non-core contracts.

Ray’s passion and respect for the difference schools can make to the lives of children and indeed the community, lies at the heart of his approach to business and also his governance commitments.

As Chair of Governors in a Christian school in a large Trust, he understands the crucial part good support services play in helping schools concentrate on their core activities of developing and nurturing the talents of children and regards himself as extremely lucky to be working in and supporting a sector that he loves so much.

Ros has extensive experience of classroom teaching and senior leadership roles in five schools of contrasting catchments and size across the country. During her twelve years as headteacher she successfully raised the standards of a good school to outstanding in every category in two consecutive Ofsted inspections.  Ros has worked alongside schools in the Shrewsbury Diocese sharing good practice and supporting new Headteachers. Through these roles she has assisted many schools on their journey to Good and Outstanding.

Raymond is a semi – retired commercial and residential lawyer of over 40 years standing.  Raymond is an independent consultant to a firm of solicitors in Lancashire on compliance issues but not involved in legal work as such these days.  Ray has been a Chair of Trustees with a Single Academy Trust for 3 years.  His educational and Governor skills have improved substantially over the years and next year he will be taking the National Leader of Governance course to try and improve his status in education.

B.Ed NPQH. Liz has worked in education for over thirty five years. More than twenty five of these were spent in primary education. Liz was a classroom teacher for many years with responsibility for a broad range of curriculum areas and leadership roles. For the last five years of her time in primary education, Liz was the head teacher of a local junior school, taking the school through a successful Ofsted. Liz subsequently moved to higher education, working as a Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at Manchester Metropolitan University. Through her role of working with the teachers of tomorrow, she continued to develop partnerships between the University and clusters of schools. It was through this leading partnership role that she became a school governor in November 2013. Liz took on the role of Chair of Governors in February 2016, but relinquished this role in September 2019 in order to fulfill her Director’s role. Liz’s varied roles have given her a clear insight into the challenges of leadership and management in primary education and of the implications of the changing face of education. She remains passionate about providing children with the best primary education experience and this drives her commitment to Chancery MAT and its future development.

Joanna Longman is a director of a family business, Longman Tax Recruitment which specialises in the recruitment of tax professionals across the north of England. Joanna previously worked as a senior VAT specialist at Deloitte.

Joanna has been a school governor for over 10 years with experience of governing at both secondary and primary schools. Joanna was an NLG from 2014 and worked with many governing boards to ensure governance is effective in helping to drive strategic school development. Joanna is currently also a director at the Fallibroome Trust.

B Ed (Hons), NPQH, Level 7 Executive Coaching Certificate. Louise has been a teacher for nineteen years, Deputy Headteacher for two years and Headteacher for ten years. During her career, she has worked for the Local Authority as a Primary Strategy Literacy Consultant supporting and developing teaching and learning. She has worked as an STA moderator for the last four years. Louise is currently working with the Local Authority on a number of initiatives related to improving the quality of education for young people.

Steven is a solicitor and Senior partner at Hall Smith Whittingham Solicitors. His work in the legal sector over the last 20 years lends itself well to the strategic and regulatory aspects of being a director of a MAT. Steven has also been a governor at local primary and secondary schools for the past 5 years and therefore has a broad level of experience in school governance. He truly believes in the importance of a good education for every child and that the early years serve as a benchmark for a child’s future academic success. Steven has seen first-hand the warm and encouraging environment provided by the staff within the Chancery MAT and is proud to support them in striving for the best for the children.

A qualified chartered accountant with over 30​ years’ experience in senior Finance and Commercial Director roles in private and public sectors. With international experience in organisational turnaround, digital transformation, and growing businesses from blue chip corporations to SME’s. Functional skill set straddles finance, commercial procurement and IT strategy.

James has acted as trusted adviser and business partner, in many sectors including Financial Services, I.T., Telco., Utility, NHS, Retail, Public and Central Government. He provides expertise in all aspects of finance , commercial and contract lifecycle management from both a customer and supplier perspective. He is quick and adept to grasp detailed, technological or complex areas, simplifying them for others in order to achieve optimal outcomes. He hopes this professional experience will be of value and deliver positive benefits to Chancery Multi Academy Trust.

Anna is Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Director for Bupa Global & UK and Director of the Bupa Foundation. Anna leads the Bupa Foundation’s Wellbeing for Educators programme which works with hundreds of schools and thousands of educators to help improve school staff wellbeing. She also leads the Bupa Foundation’s partnership with the mental health charity, Mind, to help 2.5m young people to take care of their mental wellbeing.

Before joining Bupa in 2014, Anna worked in telecoms at Vodafone for ten years, holding roles as Global Head of Internal Communications and Global Head of Brand and at O2. Prior to that Anna co-founded the IT news and recruitment service, silicon.com, where she was Content & Marketing Director.