Governance

Gary Plummer

Born in Poole, Gary has lived locally all his life. After finishing “A” levels, he started working for a large financial institution locally and then went back to university part time to gain his degree, professional qualifications and finally a post-graduate qualification in Law.

He continues to work for the same company 28 years on and is now responsible for various legal, tax and regulation aspects of the business. He has led a local governing committee within a trust school for many years prior to taking up the role of Trustee in 2021.

Ruth Leach

Qualifying as a teacher in 1995, Ruth taught for 6 years in Yorkshire and Dorset before moving into leadership as Deputy Head of Hayeswood First School.

Prior to retiring Ruth was the Headteacher at Springdale First School for ten years and the Executive Headteacher at Turlin Moor Community School for two years.

Prior to working in education, Ruth worked in medical research. Currently she works as an educational consultant, providing support for school leaders and as a Professional Tutor for trainee teachers and those in their NQT year.

Harriet Kemp

Ros Hancell

Ros has been a teacher and headteacher in a range of schools in the UK, driving school improvement and improvements to learning outcomes and attendance, recognized by the DFE.

She leveraged this experience working as Director of Education for Reach to Teach a UK based education charity, designing and delivering teaching and leadership programmes across three hundred schools supporting vulnerable communities in remote rural regions in Gujarat. These programmes were adopted by regional and district education ministries.

In the last three years she has worked as Lead Advisor at Education Development Trust. Her work in school and system improvement, at scale, has included partnerships with schools and policy makers in the UK, Asia, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone and Qatar. As part of this role she designed, contributed to and published research on improving the quality of teaching, learning and education leadership at scale

Daren Foy

Darren is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor with 30 years’ experience in the real estate and built environment. He is a local resident of Southampton and supportive of the Trust’s ambitions for its academies, the pupils and communities they serve. Darren also enjoys volunteering for local interest groups, in the past having served as Chairman of a running club and also as a Foundation Governor of a local primary school.

Caroline Whittaker

Caroline is a head teacher and has worked as a teacher for 32 years. Predominantly, she has worked in primary schools, but has also taught at secondary level for 5 years. She has a passion for science and P.E., alongside school improvements and staff development.

Caroline has three sons, a cocker spaniel and lives in The New Forest and has a passion for our local communities.

Simon Cowley

Michel Nestour

Michel worked for Carnival Corporation & plc for over 11 years. In his last role he was responsible for a portfolio of cruise ports, infrastructure joint ventures and other investments across Europe and the Arabian Gulf. He was the Managing Director of Santa Cruz and Barcelona Cruise Terminal SLU. He was also a member of Carnival UK DC pension scheme governance committee.

Prior to this, Michel qualified as a UK Chartered Accountant and spent 15 years working in London for EY, Corus Group Plc, Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and PwC where he advised a range of companies on audit, accounting, M&A and fund raising.

Natalie Bowdell

Natalie is currently a Director of Data Protection at NICE Systems. Prior to this, she has over 20 years experience in internal and external audit, working within large accounting firms as well as in house functions. Natalie also has experience in Compliance matters, Risk and Fraud Management. Her education was within the Southampton school setting.