Speakers

Esi Mensah is a Senior Case Officer within the Freedom of Information & Transparency Directorate at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). She leads investigations into how public authorities manage information requests, ensuring compliance and promoting transparency across
the public sector. Esi previously worked in the Public Advice Data Protection Complaints Directorate, where she handled complex data protection cases and participated in initiatives to strengthen departmental capability by mentoring and managing cohorts of case officers within the department. Before joining the ICO, Esi served as an Accredited Immigration Adviser, providing specialist guidance on immigration matters.

Fiona leads on communications and marketing activity for the trust. She has worked in a range of sectors in communications roles, including charities, higher education and local publications. She holds a diploma in internal communications and is an accredited member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

James is Head of Communications at the Confederation of School Trusts, helping promote understanding of school trusts and CST’s role in helping the education system in England to keep improving. He also leads our Communications Professional Community. James trained as journalist and has wide-ranging experience across print, digital, and broadcast. Previous roles include media and public relations, marketing, strategy, governance, and data in a range of sectors including education, health, local government, and the arts. This includes both in-house and freelance work for school trusts.

James is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Jane is a qualified career adviser with experience of working in a variety of roles across secondary, further and higher education and within adult careers guidance. Her role is to develop provision across academies, embedding an all age careers strategy that supports learners to develop and
realise their aspirations and make successful transitions throughout their educational journey with the trust, and beyond, through the Altus Alumni Network.

As the first in her family to go to university, Jen understands how transformative education can be, a belief deepened by her most important role: being a mum of two. These experiences inspire her commitment to ensure every child, regardless of background, has the opportunity to thrive in their local school and dream big for their future.
She began her career in higher education, gaining expertise in project management, executive support and communications. Jen joined the Ted Wragg Trust in 2023 as Senior Project Manager and now serves as Executive Director, overseeing communications, operations and growth. She loves working across the trust’s shared services to support schools and strengthen community ties and enjoys welcoming new schools into the trust, placing the ambition to make sure children love coming to school and staff love coming to work at the heart of its mission.

Kate Caine is the Marketing and Communications Lead for Yorkshire Causeway Schools Trust and St. Aidan's C of E High School, Harrogate North Yorkshire. She has worked for the school and trust since 2020.
Prior to this role, her experience is in television production. This included being staff at ITV Yorkshire for around 12 years both in the local news department Calendar and then as a first assistant director working on a variety of projects including commercials and drama (mainly Emmerdale). A freelance career followed this along with a career break to raise her family. She also is co-director of her husband's TV camera business.

Mark Leech leads external and internal communications for Ofsted. He joined the inspectorate seven years ago from the Independent Office for Police Conduct where he was Head of Communications. Prior to that he ran the communications team at the London Borough of Havering for eight years.

Michelle Rosemond is the Director of Brand and Marketing Communications at REAch2 Academy Trust, England’s largest primary-only academy trust. Her role spans pupil recruitment, teacher and trainee attraction, and internal and external communications, all underpinned by a trust-wide brand strategy designed to build pride, belonging, and purpose across more than 60 schools. Before moving into a central leadership role,
Michelle spent over 15 years working in education, including 10 years in senior leadership. Before training to become a teacher, Michelle has a background in journalism, PR, and strategic communications. She is an advocate for values-led branding and storytelling, and believes in the
power of authentic, emotionally resonant communications to foster connection, culture, and clarity across complex organisations.

Richard is the CEO of Altus Education Partnership and former Principal of Rochdale Sixth Form College, a beacon of excellent practice in education. As an Ofsted outstanding provider, the college has been ranked as one of the most consistent colleges in terms of A level progress in the country, has an excellent track record for supporting disadvantaged pupils and has been instrumental in improving the life chances of young people in the borough.
As CEO he has a high profile in the local community and works closely with a wide variety of stakeholders to deliver on the trust's commitment to support all children in an Altus academy to lead happy and fulfilling lives, and make a positive difference to their communities and society.

Sophie Turner is a Senior Case Officer in the Freedom of Information & Transparency Directorate at the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) where she investigates how public authorities have handled information requests. Sophie has also worked with the FOI Upstream Team at the ICO, creating tools, case studies and guidance for information governance practitioners. Before joining the ICO in 2016, Sophie worked for many years as a teacher and teaching assistant in primary schools.

As PLMR’s Head of Education, Tiffany provides expert strategic advice and support in reputation management and crisis communications, PR and media relations, public affairs and wider communications disciplines to school trusts and maintained schools; early years, further and higher education institutions; charities; sector bodies; edtech companies and organisations across the education sphere. She is also Chair of Trustees at Maritime Academy Trust, where she has obtained in-depth understanding of issues and challenges facing schools and trusts around the country. She was made an OBE for services to education in the King’s New Year Honours List 2024.