Trustees

Chair of LEO Academy Trust

Dean has been Chair of the LEO Academy Trust since September 2018 having been on the board since January 2017.

He has over 40 years investment banking experience at an executive level and has been the Director of a risk management consultancy for over twenty years  His clients have included some of the largest global names in financial services and he has managed many assignments in the UK and overseas locations including New York, Chicago, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Prague and Singapore. Dean specialises in providing control and risk management solutions throughout the business processing cycle.

In addition Dean is currently interim Chair of Governors at West Ashtead Primary Academy and Hurst Park Primary Academy.

He serves on the board of the  LEO Foundation CIO, a charity established in 2023 to improve the lives of children and families by supporting their access to quality education and enriching extracurricular experiences.

Dean is Member for Olive Academes, a Trust comprising of five alternative provision academies in London and East England, providing education to children and young people aged between 7 and 16.

He is Trustee and Treasurer for the Chris Donovan Trust, a Restorative Justice education charity helping people understand the power of Restorative Justice.

Dean is also a governor for The Limes College, an alternative provision school. This school works with children and young people who have found themselves in some way unable to access mainstream education. This may be through unmet needs, sometimes referred to as Special Educational Needs (SEN), or complex life circumstances.

Trustee And Chair Of Finance & Operations Committee

Gregory is a Partner at PwC specialising in providing technology and operational governance, risk and control related solutions to clients within the financial services sector. Gregory started at PwC more than a decade ago, qualified as a chartered accountant, and initially focused on delivering the IT component of external statutory audits. He now spends his time leading external assurance reviews of organisations who seek to identify their risks, manage against them and report on the maturity and effectiveness of their management of those risks. Gregory lives in Surrey with his wife, two children and two dogs.

CEO

Phillip has been the CEO of the LEO Academy Trust since its formation in June 2015, having also held the role of Executive Headteacher at Cheam Common Junior Academy. Prior to that, he was Headteacher at Cheam Park Farm Junior Academy for six years. Having begun his career in education as a teaching assistant at Avenue Primary School in Belmont in 2001, Phillip remained at the school until 2010, covering a variety of roles from class teacher to deputy headteacher. He is a senior partner in the national school improvement network, Challenge Partners, a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Educators in the City of London, a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and a member of the Teaching & Learning Group at LGfL. Phillip specialises in school improvement, PedTech and assistive technology. Outside of education, Phillip is Chair of Trustees for the Sutton United Foundation.

Trustee

Athar was Co-Chair of the Local Governing Board at Cheam Common Infants’ Academy before becoming a Trustee at LEO Academy Trust. He has a strong HR background and has sat on the Trusts exclusion / appeal panels.

Athar is Assistant Director of Performance for the London Ambulance Service where he works closely with government scrutiny committees and reporting at a national level and to the Directors of Performance and Finance. He is responsible for reporting on performance indicators across the organisation and providing expert advice on trajectories and recovery plans. He has managed the introduction of new operating models into the organisation such as location alert and clinical hub.

Athar has also developed a new integrated Trust Board and provided expert guidance in the mitigation and summaries of KPI reports for presentation to the Department of Health or Trust Board. He has also reduced sickness and increased productivity by leading and producing new guidelines while simultaneously representing the service in the press, radio and television.

Imran Sanaullah MBE, is a public leader with over 10 years of experience working with businesses, charities, schools, political parties and the Government. Imran has always been focused on delivering advice, insight and solutions, leading to inclusive, ethical and high-performing organisations. Imran is currently CEO of the Patchwork Foundation, which seeks to help young people from underrepresented and disadvantaged communities to overcome social barriers and become active, politically engaged members of British civil society.

I am an experienced healthcare professional with a passion for education.

Amelie has extensive school leadership experience and is passionate about strong system leadership that challenges and enables all leaders to be leaders of SEND. Amelie is Assistant Director of Education - SEND and Special Provision at Greenshaw Learning Trust. She has worked in several roles, including as SENCO, Head of Inclusion and Headteacher and is passionate about developing school-wide systems that allow inclusive practices for young people with SEND. She is a member of the regional team for Whole School SEND (SESLON) and was a lead author on the Department for Education commissioned Whole School SEND Teacher Handbook: SEND.

Sarah has over 25 years of experience in education. She is currently Director of School Improvement (Primary and Safeguarding) for an academy trust in South London, working across nine primary and secondary schools. Prior to taking on this role Sarah was a primary Headteacher, leading schools in Croydon and Bromley. Sarah is a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and a member of the academic steering group for PTI Education, supporting primary schools nationally to develop curriculum subject leadership.

Dorothy has led organisations in a variety of senior leadership roles in marketing, communication and general management across a wide section of industry in the UK, Asia and Africa.  For the past 10 years, she has focused on the schools’ sector, initially as the founder of School Trunk, which provides a modern professional storage solution for boarding schools.

Dorothy is also the founder and current CEO of the Schools’ Enterprise Association, supporting schools’ commercial and enterprise teams as they develop and grow their co-commercial offer. 

Dorothy is also a Trustee of the LEO multi academy trust in South West London and a Governor of The Hurlingham Academy.

Over 20 years of experience in Investment Banking and Capital Markets covering Europe, North America and Asia. Vivek currently leads the Derivatives Strategy and Trading Risk teams at CitiBank, overseeing and developing both Capital Markets Risk management strategies and Consumer Banking, ESG/Climate risk management and AI/ML initiatives. He is a fellow at the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, which provides a platform for the application of mathematics to Industry. Vivek develops and teaches executive education courses at university level. His mission and passion is to leverage his experience and knowledge in areas such as Startup advisory, Financial and Education sector while ensuring compliance with regulatory standards, governance and best practice.