Our Trust Board

Emma is Pathfinder School CEO. She has worked in education for over 20 years, working across every age and stage of education.  She has been a secondary school Headteacher, a Director in two multi-Academy Trusts and a senior leader in Universities.

Emma is passionate about improving teaching and learning and has worked with schools in challenging circumstances to turn around results through developing staff at all levels.  At the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, Emma worked nationally and internationally on teacher development and on initiatives designed to help pupils have a voice in the way that schools work.

At both the University of Nottingham and The University of Northampton Emma held strategic responsibility for Widening Participation and led on all outreach and community engagement work .  Emma believes that schools belong to their communities and that they have a pivotal role to play in preparing children for life after education.    

Joanne Woods was a School Governor at Montsaye Academy from January 2015 and a member of the School Improvement Board at the school from January 2017 until March 2019, successfully supporting the school to come out of special measures.

Joanne has a BA (Hons) in History and Politics, a Postgraduate Diploma in Careers Guidance and is a member of the Career Development Institute.

For 30 years Joanne has worked in the field of careers guidance providing independent and impartial advice and information to students aged 13-19 across a number of secondary schools in Northamptonshire. Whilst working as the Lead for CE/IAG she has been a KS4 and a sixth form mentor. She has also run training courses for schools and both trained and mentored careers advisers. She has used this experience to undertake a child welfare role for a number of local voluntary organisations.         

Joanne is the SEN Trustee and Vice Chair of the Trust Board

Paul is an experienced System Leader and Local Leader of Education. He has held roles in four Multi-Academy Trusts including Director of Performance and Standards, Regional Director (primary and secondary), Head of the Teaching School, Chair of Interim Executive Boards (primary and secondary school), Interim Executive Head and Advisor.  

Paul has supported Headteachers and senior leaders of small rural primaries to large 11-18 urban secondary schools. He has have worked intensively with those in an OFSTED category, have dipped in results or are in financial deficit.  Paul has extensive experience of OFSTED inspections, having supported schools through 25 inspections, including three schools which moved from Inadequate to Good. 

Paul has strong facilitation skills through speaking at national conferences including a TEDx and leading a range of leadership programmes for Middle Leaders to Executive Heads including the NPQH through Ambition School Leadership.  Paul has a wide knowledge of current educational issues; has authored eight books, acted as an ‘expert’ for Optimus Education, written regularly for a number of national publications and am is a Founding Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching.

Julie Edwards was a member of Montsaye Academy School Improvement Board between September 2017 and March 2019, successfully supporting the school to come out of special measures.

After a career in schools spanning 25 years, including posts as head of year, science subject leader and a member of SLT, Julie joined Northamptonshire Inspection and Advisory Service (NIAS) and became County Adviser for Science. In this role, she led the science team, advising on specialist science teaching and learning for 4-19 year olds and worked in whole school improvement, both in a number of Local Authorities.

Julie became an Ofsted inspector for science and ICT.  She later retrained to be able to inspect under the new frameworks and worked as an Additional Inspector for both primary and secondary inspections until the summer of 2015.

Julie went on to join the National Strategies as a Regional Adviser, specialising in science, working with many different schools, settings and Local Authorities, mainly in the South West of England, in different situations and with diverse needs.

Mandy is currently General Counsel and Company Secretary at Methodist Homes, a leading charity in the adult care sector who provide services to over 18,000 older people helping them to live later life well.
Mandy is a qualified solicitor and barrister with significant commercial, property and legal experience at a senior level as both Company Secretary and Director gained at EMIS Group, The Co-operative Group, Trinity Estates and Eversheds.
In her spare time she enjoys walking the family’s two dogs.

Mandy is the Trustee with responsibility for Whistleblowing

Chris Wright is currently the Founding Partner of a small education company which specialises in the logistical setup of new schools or the development of existing facilities.

He has spent his entire working life in education and is a former teacher and for 16 years was a successful Headteacher / Principal in the UK and internationally. As a former UK OFSTED inspector and LEA Development Adviser Chris has participated in over 50 school quality reviews. He has working experience of UK, American and IB curriculums and has been heavily involved throughout his career in teacher and school leader recruitment. Having worked for three large commercial education groups Chris is fully aware of the KPIs that such a group should be judged against.

Chris’s most recent projects have been leading on all aspects of the development of two large international schools in Doha, Qatar, through the detailed design stage to construction and fit out as well as significantly contributing to the formation of operational policy. One for Qatar Airways to serve the children of their workforce. The second, United International School, The Pearl, Doha. This new school is situated in one of the most prestigious locations in the world. Most recently Chris has supported a new school project in Saudi Arabia for local students funded by the country’s Misk Trust.

Wayne Jones has worked in education for over 16 years and currently works as a Head Teacher in a local Church of England primary school. He has previous Executive Headship experience leading two successful primary schools.

Wayne is a member of the Peterborough Diocesan Board of Education and he sits as Vice Chair on the Schools’ Standards and Effectiveness Committee. This role allows him to support other church schools across the diocese.

He is passionate about education and enjoys leading a church school. Wayne has supported new to post headteachers and he has been involved in school improvement across a number of schools.

Wayne is the Safeguarding Trustee.

Shane joined the Trust Board in June 2023 having been both a parent and community Governor at Wilbarston CEVC Primary School for over 12 years.

Having worked in management roles in the Financial Services sector,  for Barclays Bank Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc for many years, Shane currently holds the role of Head of Enterprise Risk at one of the leading residential Chartered Surveying companies in the UK; leading teams responsible for areas including governance, compliance and risk management, controls assurance, data, information and cyber security and health and safety.

As a qualified data practitioner, lead auditor for both quality and information security standards, Shane also acts as the Data Protection Officer in his current role. Shane has gained a wealth of experience in various governance roles over the last 16 years within risk management, assurance frameworks and controls implementation and testing.   

Matthew joined the Trust Board in 2023, and graduated himself from pre-higher education in 2016, going on to study Political Economy at King's College London. 

After graduating, Matthew has been working in the financial sector for a leading financial technology firm in the asset management space, promoting fee disclosure and transparency for pension schemes. Matthew has experience in leading research teams, retail operations, and financial analysis teams through a range of roles, and holds financial qualifications from a number of institutions, as well as pursuing the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. 

Daniel has 15 years ICT experience in education, and has been involved in technical support, service management, implementation, and strategy.    

Daniel is a technical leader, focused on helping Multi Academy Trusts to achieve reliable, secure ICT systems that aid teaching and learning, support business functions, and offer ongoing efficiency and productivity gains.  

He has helped many organisations, at different stages of their digital transformation, to achieve their goals: from building a cost effective and reliable core IT infrastructure, to fully leveraging cloud technologies.

Qualified as a Certified Information Privacy Professional (Europe) Daniel is able to advise and shape data use while remaining complaint with GDPR and data protection laws.