Member and Trustees Biographies
Members / Trustees Biographies
Members
Jane Owens MBE FRSA - Member & Trustee (Chair)
Jane chairs the Oak Trees Multi-Academy Board. Jane also chairs the Peninsular MAT Board. Jane is chair at a Wirral Special School and also chair at a Faith School in Liverpool.
Jane was appointed as one of the first cohort of governors designated as National Leaders of Governance in 2012 and she was re-designated in 2014 by the National College for Teaching and Leadership. Jane also freely supports and mentors local and national Chairs of Governors (referred to as 'deployments'). Jane works locally and nationally completing External Reviews of Governance, Health Checks and Performance and Impact Reviews across all sectors and formed her own company Purple Governance in 2014 to cover her wider role as a governance consultant. She is a telephone consultant for The Key for School Governors and also Chairs Edsential.
Jane was awarded an MBE in 2016 for services to education and also holds several personal memberships: Fellow of the RSA, member of the National Governance Association, member of nasen, member of ICSA - the governance institute and a proprietor at The Athenaeum in Liverpool. She is also a Guiding Ambassador for Wirral and a trustee at a local charity.
Pip Joyce
Pip was born in Wolverhampton and was a former International Ski Racer and British Champion before training to be a teacher at Chester College.
She moved to Wirral and had 29 years experience in primary education. She taught in every age group at Irby Primary School before becoming Advisory Teacher for Humanities, supporting both primary and secondary schools in the Local Authority. After this she became Deputy Headteacher at Great Meols Primary School and subsequently Headteacher for over 15 years. During this time she enabled the school to move from being judged Good to Outstanding by Ofsted. As a successful leader, she was then invited by the Local Authority to be part of the Wirral Locality Board to provide school to school support for struggling schools.
As Headteacher, she worked closely for a number of years with a group of local Headteachers as part of a collaborative network to share and develop good practice. This resulted in the formation of Oak Trees MAT, with Pip being one of the founding Headteachers. Since retiring, she has been working with Liverpool John Moores University to support trainee teachers. Personal interests include skiing, cycling, motor biking, walking and narrow boating along with enjoying her dogs and grandchildren.
Emma Neal
Emma Neal was both Deputy Headteacher and Headteacher at Stanton Road Primary spanning a period of 17 years at the helm of one of our academies. She was one of the original members of the Network group of Headteachers’ whose schools worked together for over 10 years and through which Oak Trees Multi-Academy Trust was formed.
Emma now works as a school and early years setting improvement consultant both within her own business as well as for Chester Diocese Academies Trust. In these roles Emma works both locally, across the Northwest and in London supporting a wide variety of types of school and settings, from very small schools to very large, some independently owned, LA maintained or part of other academy chains. This has resulted in gaining in experience across the full range of deprivation indices and with schools in a variety of Ofsted categories from Inadequate to Outstanding.
Emma’s passions of SEND and EYFS have led her to undertake some specialist work in those sectors. In EYFS Emma leads experts in Wirral and Waltham Forest in the Department for Education Recovery Programme supporting day nurseries, PVI’s and maintained nursery school classes in their recovery work with children post COVID. She acts as a consultant for Early Excellence, a well-known National EYFS Company. Her SEND work has taken her into the special school sector delivering INSET and working with Senior Leaders on aspects of school improvement.
Emma is a co-opted governor of a primary school on Wirral and a parent governor of a school in Cheshire West and Cheshire attended by her two children.
Beverley Greathead
Beverley was born and raised on the Wirral before leaving to study at university. She moved to London and taught in Inner London for 10 years. Whilst there she was invited to support the development of the new role of SEN leader and was also an advisor for BBC Schools’ programmes.
On returning to Wirral she taught in two primary schools before becoming Advisory teacher for English and Literacy for Wirral schools. After this she was appointed deputy head at The Priory CE Primary School and then headteacher at Poulton Lancelyn Primary School. It was here she worked with a group of headteachers to develop a network of schools. After many years working together sharing good practice, she became one of the founding headteachers of Oak Trees MAT.
Her career in education also included Quality Assurance for trainee teachers at Chester University and mentoring newly appointed headteachers.
On retirement she became a trustee at a national literacy charity where she is now Vice Chair of the trust and so continues her passion for encouraging children to become confident, enthusiast readers.
Trustees
Zoe Wakelam
As a former pupil, Zoe spent seven happy years at Stanton Road and is proud to have been part of the School community since December 2013 as a Parent Governor. Zoe is now a Co-opted Governor at Stanton Road. Zoe has recently been co-opted onto the board of Trustees.
Following secondary education at Wirral Grammar School for Girls, she studied English Literature and Sociology at Liverpool Hope University. After graduation, she joined her current employer, a large accountancy firm in Liverpool. Zoe now works part time advising a portfolio of small and medium sized enterprises and owner managed businesses, both in corporate tax compliance matters and advisory work. She is also responsible for delivering the organisations contribution to local charitable and social enterprise projects. Outside of her work interests, Zoe enjoys spending time with her family and friends, being a School Governor and a member of the Girl Guiding where she is also Bebington Division Secretary.
Carole Molyneux
Carole is an extremely experienced school Governor, both in the Primary and Secondary sector across 6 schools over 35 years. Carole was Chair of Governors at Church Drive Primary for 27 years, overseeing significant changes to the school building and workings. She is a former police officer in Cheshire, worked for Wirral Council as a school escort for 27 years and is now closely involved with the Federation of Small Businesses.
Murray Freeman
Murray has worked for the NHS since 1977. He was a GP in Birkenhead until March 2019. His main interests are mental health and wellbeing. Murray has held a wide range of management posts over the last 30 years to improve patient care. He was involved in undergraduate and post graduate medical education for over 20 years. Murray is currently a non-executive director of Mersey Care NHS Trust - a mental health and community services trust based in Liverpool. He is also a specialist adviser to the Care Quality Commission and a trustee of Autism Together. Murray is very pleased to be working with the Oak Trees MAT and contributing to its continuing success.
Paul Aitchison
Paul is an experienced secondary school teacher having taught History at Wirral Grammar School for Girls since 2014. He is currently Head of History, Politics and Law there having also previously been the school’s Head of Careers.
Paul was born and raised on the Wirral, himself attending Stanton Road Primary School. Whilst at Lancaster University, Paul served as a city councillor chairing a number of council committees and was appointed the Council’s first Champion for Young People. He has experience as a trustee for a variety of organisations, including educational institutions. This shows, along with previously being a governor at Lancaster University, that Paul is highly interested and committed to providing excellent education and opportunities to young people.
Gail Webb
Gail was born in Wallasey and has lived on the Wirral all of her life. Gail attended Gorsey Lane Infants, Somerville Junior School and the Wallasey Technical High School for Girls. She completed her teacher training at St. Katherines College in Liverpool. Gail has been a teacher in schools on the Wirral and Knowsley in both primary and secondary schools. She became deputy headteacher at Sandbrook Primary School then Headteacher at Cole Street Primary School.
After 20 years in schools Gail moved into local authority work for Halton and Wirral as an inspector for school improvement. Gail has also been Head of School Improvement for both Oldham and Leeds local authorities. In the last seven years Gail has worked as Head of School for a multi academy trust in the South West of England. After a long and satisfying career Gail was awarded an MBE for her services to education.
Gail is a governor of a primary school and chair of governors of a special school both located on the Wirral. The roles were taken to give something back to the education system and to provide an interesting and stimulating career. In her spare time Gail enjoys reading, walking and swimming.
Sean Hennelly
Sean has a background in technology companies and is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Intoware, a company specialising in software tools that enable companies to carry out inspections, health and safety checks, maintenance procedures and more. Sean grew up in Nottingham, attending state schools and then going on to study Law at the University of Sunderland and on to study for a Masters degree in Law (with a specialism in Human Rights) at the University of Nottingham. Sean also spent some time working as a legal academic at the University of Leicester prior to moving into the technology sector.
Sean is passionate about education and has a young family. When he is not working, Sean enjoys playing golf at Upton-by-Chester Golf Club where he is a member and a director of the golf club's board, and spending time with family and friends.
Gary Turner
Gary is a retired Chartered Surveyor. He was a partner in a Liverpool based surveying practice and has 40 years experience dealing with commercial property throughout the UK.
He was a governor at Heswall Primary School for over 20 years, including 10 years as Chair
Alyssa Rhymes
Alyssa has 35 years’ experience as a Senior Executive Board member within blue chip FTSE 100, 250 corporations, SME and not for profit organisations. She brings a strong track record of building corporate strategy, leading major transformational change, and cultural ethos, running large operational businesses in the UK & Internationally and working within customer and people focused organisations.
Alyssa lives in the North West and is delighted to be working alongside the Oak Trees team and Board to support delivery of the Trust’s strategic objectives and aspirations for the future.
Craig Hebden
Craig is a Chartered accountant by profession who has spent the last 20 years working in business turnaround projects. Leading on cultural change and restructuring while focused on growth and profitability.
Currently he is the Managing Director of a Management Consultancy business that provides interim FD services and Organisational structural improvement plans.
Craig is a keen golfer and runner and moved to Wirral area in March 2019 with his wife, Lorraine and his Dalmatian, Ollie and Retriever Darwin.
Neil Millar
Neil is an experienced IT Professional who is currently working within the Higher Education sector for a University, responsible for driving and developing IT operational performance, strategy and governance, for a number for functions across the University.
Neil is passionate about providing young people with every opportunity available to realise and maximise their own potential, whist building confidence and skillsets to equip them to excel.
He has been a member of the Air Training Corps for many years with a vast amount of experience collaborating with multiple teams, functions and governing bodies to provide a fantastic range of activities, leaning and opportunities for ages 12-18.