2025 highlights

Samira Sadeghi is Director of Trust Governance for CST. Prior to that, she was Head of Governance and Company Secretary at Academies Enterprise Trust, a multi-academy trust with 57 schools, and served as Regional Governance Officer at Ark Schools for four years. Before moving to the UK with her family in 2010, she was a criminal defence attorney and spent 12 years representing clients on California's death row in their post-conviction proceedings.

Katie has spent the last 10 years working across strategy, policy and delivery roles at the Department for Education, most recently leading work on school and trust strategy, leadership and governance. She spent three years as the Schools Minister’s chief of staff, worked on the 2019 teacher recruitment and retention strategy, and led a large delivery team as part of the Education and Skills Funding Agency. She also worked on the government’s Covid-19 response in the Cabinet Office. Katie brings a wealth of experience in education policy and government decision-making. Katie has a law degree from the London School of Economics and an Executive MBA from Hult International Business School. She has experience as a school governor and is a trustee of Tutors United.