Trustee Biographies (ID 1007)

• Diane Ault
  Chair of Finance & Resources Committee
  Diane Ault

  Diane is a Trustee of Olympus Academy Trust, Chair of Olympus Finance and Resources Committee and a Member of Winterbourne Academy School Improvement Committee. She is a Senior Finance Manager at Lloyds Banking Group specialising in External Financial Statutory Reporting and Commercial management information (MI) & Analysis and has worked in Financial Services for 20 years, prior to this Diane worked in Accounting and Audit practice. She has been a qualified Chartered Accountant for over 24 years and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

  Diane's specialist areas are:

  • External financial reporting of both statutory and regulatory returns
  • Delivering commercial MI and analysis to senior management supporting key business strategies
  • Financial Management and Reporting with extensive experience in Cost management and contract support

  Diane lives in Winterbourne with her husband and 2 sons.

• Dave Baker
  CEO
  Dave Baker

  Dave Baker is Chief Executive Officer, Accounting Officer and a Trustee of The Olympus Academy Trust. Dave was the first Headteacher of Bradley Stoke Community School which opened in September 2005 and grew a year group at a time until the oldest students completed year 13 in 2012. Dave was asked by the local authority and both schools' governing bodies to take on interim responsibility for Abbeywood Community School in October 2011. Abbeywood became an academy on 1st January 2013, sponsored by The Olympus Academy Trust. This was the starting point for the Trust's partnership work which has continued to grow and has since developed a strong reputation locally with responsibility for 6400 learners and 750 staff. 4 of the 9 schools in the Trust have been re-brokered from other Trusts and 3 were judged inadequate by Ofsted and were in need of special measures when they joined Olympus.

  Dave has taught in and around Bristol since 1987. He is passionate about improving the life chances of young people and broadening their horizons. He believes strongly in collaborative approaches to teaching, learning and leadership and wants to help nurture the leaders of tomorrow. He wants the schools he works with to support and work with their local communities. Dave contributes to local, regional and national leadership training programmes for various organisations and is a National Leader of Education. He was an elected member of the Headteacher Board for the South-West of England from 2014-17 and currently coordinates a Trust leaders' network for the South West region. Most recently, he has provided support for two multi-academy trusts in challenging circumstances in Cornwall by becoming a trustee.

  Dave swims and runs several times a week, surfs the Severn Bore, plays and coaches basketball and is a Bristol City FC season ticket holder and trustee for Bristol City Robins Foundation.

• Paul Davies
  Chair of Audit & Risk Committee
  Paul Davies

  Paul has been a Trustee to the Board since January 2017, and is also Chair of Audit & Risk Committee.

  Paul has 7 years' experience of local governance within Olympus at both Primary and Secondary Levels. His time as a Community Governor at Winterbourne Academy between 2018 and August 2022 included three and a half years as Chair of the School Improvement Committee. He was also  a Community Governor at Charborough Road Primary School between December 2014 and August 2019, which included time as both Vice Chair and Chair of the Local Governing Committee.

  Paul is a Chartered Internal Auditor, and currently manages the risk & governance framework and control environment for the internal audit and whistleblowing function of a large UK financial services organisation. He also has previous experience of project and change management, and recruitment, and is a past member of a local Youth Centre management committee.

  Paul lives in Stoke Gifford with his wife (who works for Olympus), daughter (who studies with Olympus), step-daughter and dog!

• Michael Fry
  Audit & Risk Committee & Lead Trustee for SEND & Disadvantaged Students
  Michael Fry

  Michael has been a Trustee since 2016 and is Vice Chair Audit and Risk Committee, the nominated Trustee for SEND, and was a Governor/Chair of Governors at Filton Hill Primary School between 1995 and 2022

  Retired since 2018, Michael was formerly a healthcare operational estates professional with a building services background with over 30 years' experience of working in the NHS for a large local Acute Trust. He moved into consultancy with Capita Healthcare in 2008 taking on several roles as Interim Director of Estates and Facilities for several Acute Trusts in the South West and Wales, leading multi-disciplinary teams maintaining and enhancing the Trusts' estate portfolio.

  As a governor at Filton Hill Primary School, Michael developed a close working relationship with all of the staff from teachers, TA's to support staff. This allowed him to gain an in depth understanding of methods of teaching and how progress is monitored and supporting data produced.

• Mark Glinwood
  Chair of Remunerations & Nominations Committee
  Mark Glinwood

  Mark joined the Board as a Trustee in January 2024. An experienced HR executive holding a Master's degree in Human Resource Management, Mark is a founding partner of Distinctive People HR & OD Consultancy.

  Mark brings specialist expertise in the areas of reward and change management combining a powerful mix of commercial, technical and people skills that have enabled him to deliver outcomes adding true value to the organisations with whom he has worked. Mark has held senior positions within the Metropolitan Police, NHS and a leading national based housing association. He brings 15 years Trustee/NED experience serving on a diverse range of Boards focused on delivering social housing & care in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

• Isabel Marsden
  Vice Chair of the Board, Chair of Trust Improvement Committee and Whistle Blowing Trustee
  Isabel Marsden

  Isabel is currently in her third term of office as an Olympus Trustee, having joined the Board in December 2014. Isabel is Vice Chair of Trustees and is Chair of the Trust Improvement Committee. She is also the Lead Trustee for the Olympus Secondary phase.

  Isabel has more than 15 years' experience of local governance of schools both inside and outside Olympus and at both Primary and Secondary Levels. Isabel was a Community Governor at Barrs Court Primary in the late nineties, a Parent Governor at St Michael's Primary in Stoke Gifford from February 2008 – December 2013 and was a Parent Governor at Abbeywood Community School from November 2012 to November 2020. Isabel chaired the Local Governing Body at St Michael's from October 2009 – October 2013 and the Local Governing Committee at Abbeywood from October 2014 – October 2019.

  Isabel's professional background is within maths education, and she now has over 30 years' experience in this sector. She has taught at schools in South Gloucestershire, Bristol and North Somerset and was Head of Maths at Nailsea Secondary School from September 1999 – July 2003. Isabel then worked as a Numeracy Consultant for North Somerset from September 2003 until August 2008, before setting up her own company in January 2009 working as an education consultant. Isabel closed her company in July 2015 but has continued to work on a self- employed basis, teaching mathematics in a variety of contexts.

• Ross Newman
  Safeguarding Trustee
  Ross Newman

  Ross has been in primary education for the past 20 years. Upon qualifying he was recruited to the Fast Track programme which aimed to train new leaders ready for a senior position within their first five years of teaching.

  As a result of the programme and the experiences he was lucky enough to have  first became have been a headteacher in 2009 and since 2016 has served as an Executive Headteacher.  Ross has been Headteacher of three schools and Executive Head of a further two. He holds the NPQH, NPQEL, a Level 7 coaching qualification and is in the final stages of his Master's Degree in Educational Leadership. He is currently the Executive Headteacher of the Forest Hill Partnership of Kings' forest Primary School, Little Forest Nursery and Staple Hill Primary School.

  As a designated Local Leader of Education he has worked to support many other primary schools in the South West and is currently working as Consultant Headteacher for one day per week for the Hanham Primary Federation as part of this work.

  Since 2014 he has worked as an additional inspector for OFSTED conducting around six inspections each year. He worked for South Gloucestershire as a School Improvement Advisor and as a mentor for new Headteachers and Executive Headteachers. He also chairs the South Gloucestershire Primary Executive Heads Network and training programme.

  For a few years he acted as Safeguarding link governor for BSCS building a strong relationship with Susie Beresford-Wylie and extending his knowledge of safeguarding beyond the primary and early years settings he was used to.

  Ross has always worked in settings with higher than the national average of disadvantaged pupils and high levels of safeguarding needs. He has a strong knowledge of both the strategic and operational aspects of the leadership of safeguarding and is passionate about supporting children to be safe so that they can access the best education.

• Sarah Phillips
  Finance & Resources Committee
  Sarah Phillips

  Sarah has been a Trustee on the Board of Olympus Academy Trust since September 2019 and is Vice Chair of Finance and Resources Committee. She currently works as a Procurement and contracts Senior Officer for the Office for Students and has over 20 years experience of public sector procurement.

  Sarah was a Parent Governor of Bradley Stoke Community School for 10 years, holding many positions such as Chair of Wellbeing Committee and Vice Chair of the local governing body.

• Steve Riley,
  Remuneration & Nominations Committee,
  Steve Riley,

  Steve Riley

  Steve joins the Trustees for 2024 and brings his extensive Global HR expertise and commercial experiences to the Academy Trust. He is currently a Talent Transformation Consultant at IBM where he is engaged on large complex Digital HR Transformation programs, including the latest developments in Generative AI.

  Steve is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development and has over 35 years' experience across all disciplines of Strategic and Operational HR, working on local and international engagements. Prior to his HR career, he held management roles within Retail and Commercial Banking.

  Outside of work, Steve is Married with 2 adults and 2 Grandchildren and he enjoys multiple sports including mountain biking and board water sports.

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• Sarah Williams
  Chair of Trust Board
  Sarah Williams

  Sarah Williams is the Chair of Trustees, Primary Lead Trustee and has been a Trustee since 1st January 2015.

  Sarah has worked within governance since 2012, firstly at a local pre-school, then a local primary school and now within a Multi Academy Trust. Previously, her career was predominately within the Financial Services sector, working for global companies such as AXA, Zurich and The Royal Bank of Scotland. During this time, she obtained several industry recognised qualifications and a vast range of experience in leadership, management and HR practices.

  Since beginning a family, Sarah left full time employment to raise her children, but has used her skills gained in the workplace to help her local community. She is passionate about ensuring that all children receive the highest standard of education and are given the opportunities to thrive and reach their full potential.