The Board of Directors (also known as Trustees) carry out the all important strategic work of the Trust. They are permitted to exercise all the powers of the academy trust; be responsible for the three core governance functions; hold the CEO to account and must comply with charity law requirements.

 

As company directors, they must also comply with the 7 general statutory duties of a director set out in the Companies Act 2006; must ensure annual returns are submitted to Companies House and be responsible for directing the affairs of the charity so that it delivers its charitable object.

Dr Geoffrey Roberts (Chair - sits on Finance & Resources Committee, People & Governance Committee & Chairs Growth Committee)

Most recently Geoff spent 6 years as a churchwarden at Christ Church, Chorleywood.  He continues to work as a consultant in the field of Health, Safety and Environment, having spent 20 years with Board responsibilities for HSE, first in Burmah Castrol then in BP’s lubricants business. Prior to that he worked as a technology consultant in the UK and in Switzerland as the European lead for commercial development of a US chemical company. He remains active in church affairs with Finance, HR, Safety and Technology roles.

 

Mr Robert Finney (Vice Chair - sits on Finance & Resources Committee, Growth Committee and Chairs People & Governance Committee)

Robert is a semi-retired lawyer.  After 10 years working in-house at several banks and commercial companies, he was a partner in three City law firms, heading the financial services practice.  At one firm he served on the firm’s board and on committees covering risk, audit and compliance.  

 

Robert is a Fellow of the Chartered Governance Institute (FCG) and has advised financial institutions on governance issues.

 

Robert is also a non-executive director of Plane Saver Credit Union, where he serves on its Finance Committee (and, until recently its Risk Committee) and leads a strategy working group.

 

Mr William Hall (Chair of Finance & Resources Committee - including audit & risk)

Bill is a qualified Chartered Accountant (FCA). Since 2001, he has been self-employed working mainly with small businesses helping with their finance and tax issues as well as preparing statutory accounts and tax returns.

 

Bill has also had a number of treasurer roles for local organisations and clubs.

 

Bill worked as a qualified Chartered Accountant (FCA). After qualifying in 1974 with Binder Hamlyn, a well-respected city firm, he spent some years working as an auditor. He also worked in tax and investigation departments. Bill then moved into industry working for a number of companies as a financial controller or similar, finally spending 20 years with a multi-national Chemicals/Pharmaceutical company where he was also involved in General Management.

 

Mr Guy Foxell (sits on Finance & Resources Committee and Growth Committee)

Guy is currently CEO of One YMCA since 2011 (£20m regional charity running homeless hostels, children’s centres, gym, nurseries (Ofsted Outstanding), youthwork & community centres). His role includes: strategic HR skills gained through oversight of 400+ staff and multiple TUPE and change projects; experience of performance management, job evaluation and disciplinaries.

 

He is also Chair of Watford & Three Rivers Trust for over a decade, a £2m local charity delivering county-wide wellbeing contracts volunteering and CVS services. In the voluntary sector, Guy has been Chair of Watford & Three Rivers Local Multi-agency safeguarding forum (part of Hertfordshire Local Safeguarding Board), plus Trustee involvement in several other charities which support local children and young people. 

 

Guy's previous employment has included: Church Youth Worker, Christ Church Chislehurst (C of E), acting as local safeguarding lead; Youth Work Manager, Salmon Youth Centre.

 

Mr Robert Thackery (Chairs Education & Ethos Committee and sits on Growth Committee)

Robert graduated from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University with a degree in English Literature in 1976 and started his working life as a marketing trainee with HJ Heinz. Subsequently he has worked in marketing and marketing communications for more than 45 years.

 

For the past 20 years, he has worked as a strategist and has specialised in brand development, business transformation, behavioural change management and communications planning. He has previously been a director of two international advertising agencies.

 

Robert's experience of industry sectors is very wide-ranging. He has worked with many institutions – from major blue-chip international companies, PLCs, UK professional bodies to SMEs. This has given him extensive working knowledge of healthcare, FMCG, financial services, digital technology, energy, telecommunications, retailing, charities, travel & leisure, media, automotive and, for many interesting years, of the wine and spirits industry.

 

Mr Simon Kearey (sits on Education & Ethos Committee)

Simon is a senior leader in the NHS with a professional background in accountancy (FCCA) and a history of successful systems implementation and business transformation.  He has a history of building and working with highly effective teams in the private, public and voluntary sectors.

 

Simon's career includes organisational leadership and business turnaround driving new income generation and process re-engineering. Experience of delivering challenging targets and forging close partnerships with Health and Social Care organisations. Commercial experience and business expertise at senior levels specialising in developing membership/customer numbers and corporate profile.

 

He also has extensive years of School Governor roles and Education involvement. 

 

Mrs Julie Disdale (sits on Education & Ethos Committee)

Julie is a qualified teacher with ten years’ experience working in education. She has worked as a Visiting Lecturer in both Journalism and Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire and has recently retrained to work in the primary setting, teaching in schools across Herts and Bucks.

 

She has spent eight years in school governance, and has re-joined the Trust Board after three years in post as Chair of Governors at Sarratt CE Primary School. She helped steer Sarratt School through its conversion to academy status and prepare the Local Governing Body for its recent Ofsted inspection.

 

Julie previously worked as a journalist for almost 20 years, specialising in consumer news and features; ten of which were spent in the motoring sector, and many working on local and national news across radio, print and online titles.

 

Mr Duncan Gauld PGCE, NPQH, NPQEL

Duncan is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Trust. He has worked in education for 30 years.

 

Before starting at Christ Church School in Chorleywood, Duncan worked extensively in schools across South Buckinghamshire & the Chilterns. He trained as a secondary school Music & Drama specialist (1994) and worked in a local secondary school as Head of Music (1995) prior to a move into primary education (1999).

 

After 10 years teaching in primary schools (1999 to 2010), including as an Assistant Headteacher, Deputy Headteacher & Acting Headteacher, he moved to work in Hertfordshire.

 

Duncan was Headteacher of Christ Church School in Chorleywood (2010 to 2019). More recently, he was Executive Headteacher of Christ Church and Sarratt schools (2019-2024). Under his leadership, Christ Church School achieved two outstanding judgements in SIAMS inspections (2012 & 2017) and an outstanding grading in all areas from Ofsted in July 2022. The following year, Sarratt School achieved a good rating from Ofsted in June 2023.

 

In January 2024, Duncan's role as Executive Headteacher ended after appointing a substantive Headteacher in each school and became full time CEO for the Trust. This coincided with the growth of the Trust from two to four schools and Duncan successfully led the academisation process from start to finish.