Meet the Trustees

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  John Dadge

  Trustee

  John Dadge is a chartered town planner specialising in commercial development. He is a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute and a former founding partner of East Anglian chartered surveyors practice at Barker Storey Matthews.

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  Gary Dawkins

  Trustee and Member

  Gary was raised and educated in Leicester and has a background in telecommunications engineering, ending his career as a Lead Consultant with BT, working in the design and maintenance of its advanced intelligent networks as well as the legacy systems. His journey in school governance began as a primary school governor in the 1980s. Later, as a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Ambassador, he ran sessions in a secondary school for a few years and improved their students' awareness and ambitions in STEM. As a result he subsequently became a school governor at Arthur Mellows Village College (AMVC) in the early 1990s. As Chair of AMVC's Finance and Administration committee, he helped AMVC gain Grant Maintained status and then became involved again when it was reverted back to Foundation Status, as the Government policy changed. This provided a good background for his skill set when AMVC went on to become a Single Academy and later a Multi-Academy Trust. Gary has been Chair of the CEO's Objective setters on more than one occasion and is currently Chair of Remuneration once more. He is passionate about ensuring all students have the opportunity to exceed their potential and, where appropriate, achieve excellent examination results, in whichever school they attend within the Trust. As well as his engineering and technical qualifications, Gary holds a Diploma in Management Studies and is a Fellow of The Institution of Engineering and Technology. Gary has also been involved with the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) scheme within AMVC since its inception and still assists as a leader on occasions each year, to encourage young people to use the extra-curricular skills and knowledge they learn, in this scheme, throughout their life.

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  Paulina Ford

  Trustee

  Paulina worked for Peterborough City Council from 2004 to September 2022 facilitating strong and effective democratic and governance functions within the Council to achieve statutory and constitutional compliance which included supporting councillors to scrutinise the services of the council.

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  David Gilmour McLaren

  Trustee and Member

  Now retired, Gilmour McLaren, was previously Director of financial services and an Insurance Broker. Gilmour was a former Governor of Arthur Mellows Village College and Northborough Primary School, including 20 years as Chair. He was also the founding Chair of the Four Cs MAT as well as contributing to education in Peterborough for a period, leading the Local Authority Governor Development Group.

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  Sarah Humble

  Trustee

  Sarah has advised as a commercial property solicitor on a broad range of non-contentious real estate matters for a full range of clients from institutional investors to private individuals.

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  Nigel Jennings

  Trustee

  After 30 years of service with Cambridgeshire Constabulary, where he specialised in the areas of roads policing and major investigations, Nigel now teaches Tai Chi. He became a secondary school governor in 2006 and is currently the Chair of Governors at Arthur Mellows Village College.

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  Pamela Kilbey

  Trustee

  Pamela is currently an Education Consultant, having spent her entire career in education as a teacher, including many years working in both Zambia and South Africa. She provides educational support to individual schools and, through her work with the Association of School and College Leaders, assists Trustees and Governors in leadership appointments. In addition, Pamela is a Personal Tutor on the University of Buckingham BA in Primary Education course and serves as Chair of the Curriculum and Quality Committee for a Further and Higher Education group.

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  Jonathan Theobalds

  Vice Chair of Trustees

  Jonathan holds previous experience of Chair of Governors at both primary and secondary level and in the past, has also been a Trustee of another Multi-Academy Trust. Jonathan is currently Chair of Governors at Manor Drive Secondary Academy.

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  David Whiles

  Chair of Trustees

  David is a Chartered Civil Engineer and Chartered Water and Environmental Manager. He has extensive international experience in construction, the development of public health infrastructure and organisational change.