Nikki King (CBE) - Chair of the Trust Board
Previous Experience
Nikki is Interim Chair of the Board of Falcon Education Academies Trust, having previously worked in the motor industry where she received numerous awards, including an OBE for services to the road transport industry.
In 1996 Nikki set up Isuzu Truck UK and grew it into a multimillion pound business and after facilitating a buyout in 2013, Nikki stepped down as MD and became its Honorary Chairman.
Nikki turned her focus to education after retiring from ITUK and she became Chair of the Skills for Life Trust (formerly Greenacre Academy Trust) in 2014 and was also the only business leader in the UK to be appointed to one of the eight Head Teacher Boards, a Dept of Education Initiative.
Nikki is also a Member of the STEP Academy Trust.
Sarah Brown - Vice Chair
Previous Experience
Sarah is a former Board Director of Vaultex UK Limited, a cash management company jointly owned by Barclays and HSBC. At Vaultex, Sarah had executive responsibility for strategy, transformation, sourcing, governance and risk.
Prior to joining Vaultex, Sarah worked in a number of management and executive roles within Barclays, culminating in her leadership of Cash and Self Service within the UK.
In 2017, Sarah chose to retire early so that she could spend more time pursuing hobbies and interests as well as volunteering to support young people. In addition to becoming a respite foster carer, she has become a Trustee in four Multi Academy Trusts. Sarah has subsequently resigned from two of these Trusts, Bright Tribe and Evendons following the successful rebrokerage of the Bright Tribe schools and the identification of a MAT sponsor for Evendons however she remains a Trustee/Vice Chair of Falcon Education Academies Trust and a Trustee of Challenger Multi Academy Trust.
In addition, Sarah became a member of the NWLSC Headteacher Board in October 2019.
Stephen Gough
Previous Experience
Steve is a qualified chartered accountant with 20 years’ experience of working across a range of sectors, including the public sector, where he has worked with DfE, ESFA and a large number of academy trusts and schools over a range of issues including financial management, accounting, systems and governance related activities.
Rupert Gather
Previous Experience
Rupert graduated in Law and, following operational service in the British Army, has built a distinguished career in venture capital managing investments into innovative and scalable early-stage companies.
He is Executive Chairman of InvestUK Group, a Foreign Direct Investment platform he founded in 2013, helping international entrepreneurs and innovators establish successful companies into Britain. To date InvestUK has facilitated 350 investments values at £250m across multiple sectors and creating 4,000 jobs in the process.
He is Chairman of his regiment’s veteran’s association and acts pro bono for the Department for Education as an independent trustee focused on improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children.
Geoffrey Davies
Geoffrey has been a corporate lawyer for over 40 years and has during that time provided corporate finance and M&A advice to a wide variety of clients, from multi-nationals to entrepreneur-owned private companies, across a variety of sectors. His work has included advice on bank and other funding’s, share buybacks and commercial contracting.
In addition to his main practice, Geoffrey has been deeply involved in acting for charities which operate academies, establishing the first Multi Academy Trusts, United Learning Trust, Harris Federation, ARK Schools, Oasis and Future. He spent eight years as a trustee of United Learning Trust, which was then the largest operator of academies in England. He is also a trustee of New Schools Network, a charity which supports the establishment of new state funded-schools in England.
Geoffrey is the author of a series of online courses published by specialist educational publishers, Anspear, which are the only available comprehensive guides to governance of academy trusts.
Geoffrey was a director of Bonhams for many years and chairman of its holding company, Bonhams Brooks PS&N Limited.