Speakers

Carrie McMillan works as the SCITT Director for the Ted Wragg Teacher Training Partnership, which facilitates ITT, ECT and NPQ pathways in the South West of England. She has been a senior leader, a head of English and was a consultant for the National Strategies in Somerset. Additionally, she is a trained yoga and mindfulness teacher.

Lawrence Foley is the Chief Executive of Future Academies, a multi-academy trust with schools across London and Hertfordshire. He leads the trust’s strategic vision, which blends academic excellence with character education and civic responsibility. Lawrence is also a trustee of GAIN (Girls Are Investors), a charity working to improve gender diversity in investment management by inspiring and supporting young women to pursue careers in the field. Prior to his current role, he held senior leadership positions in both schools and central trust teams, with particular focus on curriculum design, educational improvement, and system leadership. He is a passionate advocate for high expectations, inclusive practice, and the transformative power of education.

Elliot Costas-Walker is the Director of Learning and Partnerships with Forward As One CE Multi Academy Trust. He joined the trust in 2018, when the trust had three schools and has seen the growth in the trust over the five years to 13 schools. Elliot previously worked in a Yorkshire based school trust for two years as a Teaching and Learning Lead. Elliot's responsibilities are for school improvement, learning and teaching, professional development and partnerships. He has a proven-track record of supporting schools in various contexts, including special measures and outstanding schools. His passion is driving school improvement work alongside quality first pedagogy within the classroom. Elliot prides himself on being an evidence-informed leader and works as an Evidence Lead in Education (ELE) - he enjoys mobilising the research from the EEF. Elliot is passionate about expertise through high quality professional development and leads the trusts work with Ambition Institute. He is a Visiting Fellow with Ambition Institute and facilitates on a range of programmes. Elliot leads a Challenge Partners Hub, ‘Aspire Hub' across the North West and sits on Challenge Partners, Education Advisory Group.

Heather has dedicated her 15 year career to advising schools and academies. She leads the education team's employment practice. Her pragmatic style and experience as an academy Governor herself means she works in partnership with boards and leadership teams to manage strategically and sensitively the most high stakes of cases.

Her areas of expertise include high profile employment matters, large scale restructures, managing industrial action, claims of sexual harassment against senior staff, complex race discrimination tribunal claims and advising on complex TUPE outsourcings (including the pensions implications).

Iona runs the insights team at Edurio, responsible for the creation of new surveys and analysis of the national datasets on staff, pupil and parent experience. Since joining Edurio in 2021, Iona has worked on national reports focused on topics such as equality, diversity and inclusion and staff retention. Iona brings over 10 years of research experience, previously working in fields from technology, to food waste, to finance.

Jean is Head of the Employment, HR, Immigration teams and Joint Head of the Education sector at Stone King LLP. With nearly 20 years post qualification experience, Jean is an accomplished employment lawyer who specialises in acting for those in the education sector.

Johan Jensen is a diversity and inclusion expert. Johan has worked with major financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, charity sector and public sector organisations. In 2017 he founded All-in Education and is now working with a range of education institutions. Johan was previously a director at Teaching Leaders (now Ambition Institute). Johan led stakeholder management at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) between 2009-2012. He is a first-class honours graduate in International Relations and Political Science from the University of Birmingham, with an MA in Research Methods. Johan is a Founding Trustee of Create Foundation, a charity that supports young entrepreneurs in Brixton, Peckham and Hackney.

Julie has over 25 years experience of teaching psychology, along with an enthusiasm for sharing simple, effective ways to improve wellbeing. Having worked in the post-16 sector both as a teacher and a senior manager, Julie has a genuine understanding of the current challenges facing education. Julie founded Still Human as she believes that when staff health and wellbeing is nurtured, it positively impacts both the individual and the whole school community.

Karen Bramwell the founding CEO of Forward As One CE multi academy trust, working with the central team and school leaders to provide the very best for children and communities. Karen is passionate about the rights of our children to a fantastic education, developing strong leadership and system leadership – making more of a difference to more children. She became a National Leader of Education in 2011 and has supported significant improvements in a large number of schools across the northwest and beyond. Karen regularly provides training to other headteachers and school leaders across the country and currently facilitates on the NPQEL. In 2019, Karen was awarded the Women in Leadership Award by She Inspires. Most recently, Karen served on the Lancashire and West Yorkshire Advisory Board for six years for the DfE. She currently sits on the Greater Manchester Priority Area Partnership Board. In June 2024, Karen was awarded an OBE for services to education in the King’s Birthday Honours list.

Leora Cruddas is the founding Chief Executive of the Confederation of School Trusts – the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England. She has advised successive governments and sits on several Department for Education advisory bodies. She was recently the vice chair of the Head Teacher Standards Review Group, a member of the external advisory group for the Schools White Paper, SEND National Implementation Board and the Regulatory and Commissioning Review.

Prior to founding CST, she was Director of Policy and Public Relations for the Association of School and College Leaders. Leora has six years of experience as a director of education in two London local authorities. She is a visiting professor at UCL Institute of Education. Leora was made a CBE in the 2022 New Year’s Honours.

A founding director of Trust Inclusion, Linbert Spencer OBE has been helping organisations and individuals to transform themselves for more than 30 years. An author, skilled and experienced learning and development facilitator, consultant and keynote speaker specialising in inclusion, leadership, performance management, personal development and coaching, he has facilitated learning and development seminars and workshops in more than twenty countries and across the UK.

Linbert is active in Bedford where he lives and is Trustee of the HEART Academies Trust and the Harpur Trust – a grant making trust with responsibility for four independent schools.

A former professional actor, international athlete, television presenter and CEO of a national not-for-profit organisation, Linbert has appeared in many documentary television and radio programmes including two appearances on BBC’s Question Time. He authored Inclusive Leadership and Why it Matters; The Diversity Pocketbook; How to Build a Multi-Ethnic Church and has co-authored several other publications.

Louise is CEO of the newly formed Spark Education Trust, a merger of The 1590 Trust and Vision Academy Learning Trust.
Louise was CEO of The 1590 Trust from its formation in July 2018 and also Headteacher of Conyers School. A successful leader with 20 years senior leadership experience, Louise was awarded the Lord Glenamara Most Inspiring Headteacher Award for her work at Conyers School.
She believes that excellence is achieved through collaboration and partnership and as such has chaired the Stockton Secondary Heads Group, is a member of the Stockton Strategic Education Board, Redcar and Cleveland Education Board and the Campus Tees Schools Alliance Board. An English teacher by background, Louise knows that improving literacy and communication skills will significantly improve the lives of all children and young people.

Maggie has over 20 years’ experience leading HR teams in complex, multi-site organisations across the public and education sectors. She provides strategic support in policy and organisational development, talent management, employee relations, change management and special projects. Working alongside senior leaders, she helps shape, develop and implement bespoke HR strategies that align with organisational vision and culture. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CFCIPD).

Having worked as a solicitor in private legal practice for over 20 years, Natalie now manages a business providing HR and legal support for the education sector across northern England. In this role, Natalie works closely and collaboratively with trade unions in the sector, chairing a consultation group for academies. She sits as a director on the board of a multi academy trust and as the vice chair of a primary school interim executive board. Most recently she has been appointed to the Confederation of School Trusts as Director of Employer Policy, working to represent the interests of trusts as employers.

Neil Blundell is the CEO of Cathedral Schools Trust, a multi academy trust serving 12 schools (primary and secondary) and over 6,000 students in the wider Bristol area. Neil was headteacher at Bristol Cathedral Choir School (BCCS) from 2008 and worked through the growth of the organisation from 300 students to over 1,200. In 2013, he founded Cathedral Primary School, a free school sharing a campus with BCCS, and in 2019 successfully opened Trinity Academy, a secondary free school with a music specialism. Cathedral Schools Trust was formed in 2016 and BCCS became a teaching school in the same year. Neil has worked in a number of settings across the region as an NLE, EE, CTI coach and NPQEL facilitator.

Pam McIlroy is Chief Operating Officer of the Pinnacle Learning Trust, based in Oldham in the North West. She joined Oldham Sixth Form College in its opening year, 1992, working in the student services team and in 2013 became vice principal. When the college established the Pinnacle Learning Trust, together with a local secondary school in 2017, Pam took on trust responsibilities for HR, IT/MIS and data protection. As trust grew to also include one junior and two primary schools, Pam was appointed COO. Together with the CFO, Pam leads the central services for the trust. Pam is passionate about creating a culture of support and belonging, to enable the trust to achieve its mission of 'transforming the lives of all our young people'.

Rowan joined REAch2 in 2017 and has since progressed through several senior roles, including HR business partner, and head of people, before being appointed as People Director in 2025.

With over 25 years of leadership experience across the hospitality, charity and not for profit, and education sectors, Rowan brings a wealth of knowledge and a people-centric approach to her role. Prior to her tenure at REAch2, she held senior roles in both operational and people functions. These experiences have shaped her inclusive, pragmatic approach and her belief in the importance of values-led cultures that enable people to thrive.

As People Director, Rowan leads REAch2’s people function, with a focus on staff wellbeing, leadership development, and effective, partnership-driven practice. She is a committed CIPD member and passionate about creating environments where staff feel supported, empowered and inspired to make a meaningful difference to the lives of children.

Sue started her career in the hospitality industry working in hotels and event management moving to specialise in people management and HR. She then took an opportunity to move into public service which led to a career in human resources in the NHS until taking a long career break to raise her family. She then returned to HR establishing her own consulting company which eventually specialised in services to the education sector. This led to a deep commitment to improving the education system, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children. She joined Trust in Learning Academies in 2016 as Director of HR and Communications and in 2023 was appointed CEO of the trust which is committed to serving vulnerable and disadvantaged children and their communities. She remains passionate about education and the staff that enables high quality and caring education to be delivered.

Tamsin has combined the skills and experience from a career in primary leadership and then in business and operations in secondary schools to now lead on operations and innovations at the Ted Wragg Trust. She loves working with leaders in education to create organisational cultures where staff feel valued, included and empowered to transform lives and strengthen communities to make the world a better place. Growing up in Torbay and having lived most of her life across the region of Devon and Cornwall she is passionate about making the South West the best place in the country to go to school and to go on to have a life of opportunity.

Tanya Kerensky is Deputy HR Director for United Learning, a large trust with 95 academies and 15 independent schools around the country. Tanya has responsibility for the HR business partner team, HR policies, and sits on JNC. Before joining United Learning 10 years ago, she worked for the education consultancy Judicium and qualified as a solicitor in employment law.