GREATER MANCHESTER ACADEMIES TRUST
Our Trustees
Sarah Walker
(Chair of The Trust Board and Safeguarding Lead)
Sarah is employed by Cisco UK as the Managing Director for the Enterprise Business. Sarah is also a Non-Executive Director at Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust where she Chairs their Quality Committee, and is a member of The Institute of Sales Management with a specific focus on their Mental Health and Wellbeing Thought Leadership initiative.
Sarah is an experienced Executive Leader with a track record for creating and executing strategic change and transformation programmes to improve operational performance of business units; focused on improving customer advocacy and employee engagement within the major business, public sector and corporate environments.
Sarah joined the Trust in 2018 as a Trustee and was appointed as the Chair of the Board of Trustees in September 2021. Sarah is the Lead Trustee for Safeguarding.
Danielle Barrow
(Vice-Chair and HR Lead)
Sarah Green
Sarah was the Education Endowment Foundation’s Content Specialist for Literacy in 2021-22 and continues to work closely with them in an alumni capacity. Alongside this, Sarah is both a Trust Director of Literacy for The Prospere Learning Trust in South
Manchester and a consultant literacy specialist delivering training and support to schools and trusts. She is also a Voice21 National Oracy Leader, a Teacher Development Trust (TDT) Associate, and is an Evidence Lead in Education (ELE) with Manchester Communication Research School.
During her nineteen years in education, Sarah has taught English across schools in Tameside, Stockport and Manchester, and has extensive experience in both middle and senior leadership. In her trust-based role, she provides school-to-school leadership support specialising in evidence-informed CPDL, curriculum development
in English and whole-school teaching & learning, with a focus on improving literacy, oracy and SEND provision. She has also worked with One Education in Manchester over the last two years to co-develop their new Secondary Reading Award framework.
Tasneem Said
Tasneem is employed as a Senior Commercial Lead at Serco and is a member of the Law Society.
Tasneem is an experienced Solicitor with a demonstrated history of working in the outsourcing / offshoring industry. Tasneem is skilled in legal writing, management, corporate governance, transactions, outsourcing and government contracting. Tasneem is a strong legal professional who qualified as a solicitor over 16 years ago.
Tasneem joined the Trust as a Trustee in 2021 and has worked closely with the Trust on their Equalities, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan.
Candice Brett
(Chair of Finance and Audit Committee)
Candice is an experienced financial professional who is employed as the Finance Director at Faith in Nature Limited. Candice is also a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
During her career, Candice has been involved in the opening of new branches of business in Eastern Europe; implementation of CRM and ERP systems at various sites; development of financial control frameworks and arrangements of strategic and budgetary planning processes.
Candice has extensive experience of working with a wide range of consultants and third parties – IT partners; audit and accountancy; legal; HMRC; shareholders, etc.
Candice is a keen mentor having developed finance teams and wider colleagues throughout her career and continues to do so.
Candice joined the Trust in 2021 as a Trustee and was appointed as the Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee in September 2022.
David Lea
David began his career as a Management Trainee with NatWest International Division. Following this, David spent 15 years in the print industry ultimately managing the design and print for brands which included Marks and Spencer and Pepsico. In addition, David was employed at British Airways where he was responsible for developing partnerships with some of the UK's leading brands and he was also employed at Libra Europe, where he supported some of the UK's major retailers transform their business.
Most recently, David was employed as the Commercial Director at Manchester City Council working across the organisation to develop a commercial culture that would allow the council to continue to deliver all of its essential services against a backdrop of very significant funding cuts.
David is currently a non-Executive Director for MediaCo Group.
For many years, David volunteered as a Regulation 33 Visitor for Manchester City Council's Looked after Children's homes.
David is the Chair of the Board of Directors at his local golf club.
Our Members
John Falder
Robin Lawler
Kristin Kerr
Sub Committees
Finance and Audit
Candice Brett (Chair)
Danielle Barrow
Guy Johnson
Adrian Jubb
Domain Olufowobi
Additional Information
