Members and Trustees
Members
Mr I Brisco
Ms A Delyth
Ms J Mee
Mr P Lee
Ms S Williams
Trustees
Ms S L Williams Chair of Trustees, Trust Improvement Committee
Mr D Baker Finance and Resources Committee
Mr P Davies Audit and Risk Committee
Mr M J Fry Audit and Risk Committee & the Lead Trustee for SEND & Disadvantaged Students
Ms I P Marsden Vice Chair of Trustees, Trust Improvement Committee
Ms S J Phillips Finance and Resources Committee
Mr P R Roberts Remunerations and Nominations Committee
Mr T J Williams Remunerations and Nominations Committee
Ms D Ault Chair of Finance and Resources Committee
Mr R Newman Safeguarding Trustee
Trustee biographies
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.
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.
Diane Ault
Diane is a Trustee of Olympus Academy Trust, Chair of Olympus Finance and Resources 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.
Paul Davies
Paul has been a Trustee to the Board since January 2017. He is also Chair of Audit & Risk Committee.
Paul is a qualified internal auditor, and currently manages the risk and governance framework and control environment for the internal audit and whistleblowing function of a large 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.
Michael Fry
Michael has been a Trustee since 2016 and is Vice Chair Audit and Risk Committee and has been Governor/Chair of Governors at Filton Hill Primary School since 1995
Retired since 2018, Michael was formerly a healthcare operational estate 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, leading a multi-disciplinary team maintaining and enhancing the Trusts’ estate portfolio.
As a governor at Filton Hill Primary School, Michael has developed a close working relationship with all of the staff from teachers, TA’s to support staff. Since retirement he has gone into school on a weekly basis as a volunteer which has allowed him to gain an in depth understanding of methods of teaching and how progress is monitored and supporting data produced.
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 has been a Parent Governor at Abbeywood Community School since November 2012. 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 Jan 2009 working as an education consultant. Isabel closed her company in July 2015 but continues to work on a self employed basis, teaching mathematics within a variety of different organisations.
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.
Paul Roberts
Paul is Chair of Remuneration & Nominations Committee and has been a Trustee for 4 years. He is currently an HR Marketing & Recruiting Specialist for RWE Supply & Trading, a global energy commodity trading company.
Paul has over 20 years of experience within HR, with a particular focus on early talent strategies where he has developed award-winning programmes to support graduates, students and apprentices to achieve their potential. As well as working for major global organisations, Paul has run his own consultancy business supporting a wide range of organisations. He is an active member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), and the Institute of Student Employers (ISE).
Paul became a community school governor at North Road Primary School in Yate in 2006 where he served a four-year term. In 2012, he became a parent governor at Stoke Lodge Primary and became part of the Board when it converted to an academy that then grew into the Cosmos Academy Trust. When the Cosmos Academy moved into the Olympus Trust, Paul took up a position on the new Board.
Paul has have two daughters who are studying at schools within the Trust.
Tim Williams
Tim is a trustee and a member of the Remuneration & Nominations Committee. Tim has been involved in local school governance for a number of years and has previously served as chair of governors at both Meadowbrook Primary and Bradley Stoke Community Schools.
Tim is a chartered engineer, working in the aerospace industry. After 33 years at Rolls-Royce, he has recently joined a start up company as Chief Engineer for a novel flying vertical take off aircraft.
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.
