Sarah was appointed CEO of St. Chad’s Academies Trust in September 2022. She has over 25 years working experience in education, 19 years as a senior leader at all levels. For the past 12 years this work has been in Church of England schools. Prior to training as a teacher, Sarah worked in finance where she had responsibility for contracts, sales, purchase and nominal ledgers. Sarah has been a successful Executive Principal for St. Chad’s Academies Trust, working across several local authorities.
Sarah has been a school/ academy improvement advisor and has supported many schools/ academies over her time working in education. More recently, Sarah has enjoyed being a teacher fellow delivering the NPQ programmes to aspiring leaders, something she is passionate about.

Stuart has over 20 years in finance and is nearing completion of ACCA, already being Part Qualified. For the last 2 years Stuart has worked exclusively in the education setting, mainly supporting and advising academies. This has included onsite support and training to school business managers, principals and governors.

Joining St Chad’s Academies Trust in 2015; I bring several years extensive experience in the multi-dimensional discipline of Human Resource both transactional and strategic (payroll, pensions, safeguarding, recruitment, consultancy, job evaluation and Single Status) as well as traded services and academisation through project management principles whilst employed in the public sector at local authority level, incorporating practice to support the organisation both corporately and more latterly within the education sector.

Since joining the Trust I have progressed into management of the Human Resource team through natural growth as the team has expanded before promotion to the Director of Operations post in 2019. Working strategically and operationally during this time to successfully convert 15 academies (having worked collaboratively with the original 4 academy conversions), to develop operational systems to support senior leaders in all academies through policy and procedure writing in line with employment law practice and report writing, develop working relationships with external partners at local Authority, DfE and through MAT leadership programme, project management from scope to implementation of a new Trust wide HRMS and been instrumental in developing Union relations through JNC.

Zoe is an Associate Member of the CIPD in Human Resource Management and has successfully completed the Optimus MAT Leadership programme, encompassing all elements of Trust sustainability (efficiencies, effectiveness and economies of scale), growth and stabilisation, financial management and cultural change.

Zoe has gained extensive experience in governance through representation as both a Trust representative and Chair since joining the Trust; striving to achieve the best for the pupils and communities we serve through accountability frameworks and challenging conversations to ensure we offer quality first teaching and affective governance scrutiny and assurances.

Lydia is St Chad’s Academies Trust Governance Professional. She has a professional background in the pharmacy sector as a pharmacist, gaining experience in leadership and management, in community healthcare services, as a professional standards advisor and in a mental health hospital dispensary working in partnership with NHS clinical specialist pharmacists.
In 2019, Lydia moved into the education sector by joining the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) where she developed her knowledge of governance, safeguarding and finance in academy trusts. During this time, she had lead roles in risk management, people, learning and development, continuous improvement and governance. In 2022, a Department of Education re-structure enabled a move into the newly formed Regions Group within the West Midlands team. This role supported her to embed key legislation and departmental guidance within the education sector.
Outside of her working hours she volunteers to support her sub-regional netball league, Coventry and Warwickshire Netball Association on the umpires sub-committee. Previously she has been a chair of a local club with nine teams and a junior’s section. Her involvement also spanned playing, coaching and umpiring as well as participation and organisation of fundraising events.

Michael joined the trust in July 2022 as HR officer. He is an CIPD associate member, level 5 CIPD qualified and has 6 years’ experience within HR, particularly in Talent & Learning and Development in the retail sector. He has experience of education through being a Local Academy Committee member and Chair for over 4 years within St. Chads Trust. In this role Michael will be working closely with academies to provide HR support ensuring the ethos of children first.

Becky joined the Trust in March 2022 as a Payroll & Pensions Officer.
She has over 20 years Payroll Experience in both the Public and Private Sector.
Becky has worked for both Wolverhampton Council Education Payroll and another Education Payroll Provider for the past 15 years.
She has knowledge of all aspects of Payroll and will be working closely with the schools to offer Payroll and Pension support.
She also has good knowledge of the LGPS and Teachers Pension Scheme and will administer this monthly. In this role Becky will act as a support and trainer for payroll and pension matters with the academies, developing close relations with the academy leaders and business managers.