The Trust Board

Professor Jane Longmore

Vice-Chancellor, University of Chichester
Member and Trustee, Chair of the Academy Trust Board

Professor Jane Longmore took up post as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Chichester in May 2017. She is a Professor of Urban History, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Historical Association for her 'outstanding' contribution to history.

Professor Longmore is Chair of the Sussex Learning Network, Director of the University Vocational Awards Council and Co-Convenor of the HE Employer Apprenticeship trailblazer, a national consortium of over 100 higher education institutions and related organisations.

Her keen interest in pedagogy is reflected in her active engagement with the Higher Education Academy and her membership of the Expert Group advising on the development of the Teaching Excellence Framework, as well as co-chairmanship of the most recent QAA Subject Benchmarking Group for History. She also serves as a member of the QAA's Advisory Committee on Degree Awarding Powers.

Romy Jones

Member

Romy has extensive experience in education, commercial research and business. An experienced secondary school teacher, she has worked in all phases of education from early years to higher education in teaching, management and governance roles. She has worked with and in schools as part of a local authority school improvement team and led an Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ adult learning service. She joined the University of Chichester as Strategic Development Manager in early 2008 and has been instrumental in securing external funding for multi-million pound strategic projects and the successful delivery of these and other initiatives, including the establishment of the University of Chichester Academy Trust. Romy has an MA in educational leadership and an internationally recognised project management qualification.

Charles Gregson

Member

Charles Gregson has served on a number of boards in the financial services sector, including St James’s Place plc as non-executive chairman, Provident Financial plc as deputy chairman, MAI plc, International Personal Finance plc, Caledonia Investments plc and, since 1998 until November 2018, non-executive Chairman of NEX Group plc previously ICAP plc. Charles is currently chairman of Non-Standard Finance plc. Charles has also spent periods in the USA in the media services sector and has a keen interest in the arts; he is a founder trustee of ART UK previously known as the Public Catalogue Company. Charles holds a degree in Law from the University of Cambridge and qualified as a solicitor.

Jerry Goddard

Member

Jerry has a wide range of experience of over 40 years in education. This includes working with free schools, local authorities, academies, academy trusts and independent schools – primary, secondary and post-16.  Leadership development, quality in teaching and learning and improvement evaluation are his specialisms.  He was closely involved in putting the original and subsequently successful application to the DfE for the University to become an Academy Trust. In the past, Jerry has been an Ofsted Schools Inspector, a School improvement Adviser, a Director of Training and Development, a Director of Standards and Effectiveness and a writer for Nuffield Science.  He is currently the CEO of a company working with a broad range of clients within the UK education sector.  But first and foremost, he is proud to be a teacher.

Jennese Alozie

CEO, University of Chichester Academy Trust
Trustee

Jennese is passionate about the power of education to cause positive ripples across society and empower learners to take an active role in their lives and that of others. She started her career as a secondary school English teacher in the South West and South East of England. She has also worked within a Local Authority with groups of secondary and primary school Headteachers to improve standards and create opportunities for greater cohesion between both phases through national and local government programmes as well as practitioner-led research. Having taken on a range of Senior and Executive leadership roles, Jennese embarked on an MA Inclusive Education to further explore how education affects lives and our society. For several years she has been a Lead Ofsted Inspector and sits on the Board of two Multi Academy Trusts (MAT) and a Teaching School Hub.

Most recently, she has been part of the executive team leading a successful MAT operating across London and East Sussex. She has had the privilege of playing an active role in the Department for Education Trust and School Improvement Review and support programme and has used her extensive sector knowledge to support Trust growth, including leadership development.

David Myers

Trustee

David is a chartered management accountant with 30 years of experience at Managing Director level. David’s early career was as an accountant in the manufacturing sector at Massey Ferguson before he moved into General Management at Schlumberger running a sensor business, doubling revenue and profits in three years. He managed a private equity-backed safety instrumentation company, moved to CAE as Managing Director for their simulation business in the UK, and then became Managing Director for a technology leader in CCTV digital recording. Lately, David has focused locally on running Bognor Regis Ltd, a trade organisation, and is also Advisor to the Bognor Regis Regeneration Board. David’s wife, son and daughter-in-law are all teachers and he has a keen interest in education.

Alan Taylor-Bennett

Trustee

Alan was the headteacher of a secondary school in Hampshire for ten years, and held various senior leadership positions in schools in West Sussex prior to becoming an Ofsted Inspector and running his own school improvement consultancy business.   Working mainly in the South East region, he undertook inspections across England in connection with special projects, such as his work on the national core mathematics team and his national responsibility for school performance data.   Alan has a degree in theoretical physics from the University of Durham and spent a year at Oxford before taking up his first teaching post in a school just north of the city. He has an MA in Education from the University of London.  

Colin James

Trustee

Colin was formerly Director of Strategic Planning and Place for West Sussex County Council, holding responsibility for major capital investment, strategic planning, asset planning and property management. He led for the Council on sustainability and oversaw the launch of Your Energy Sussex, a programme for large-scale investment in energy saving and renewables. Colin began his career as a French and German teacher in a Nottinghamshire community school, before moving into education management and school improvement in Warwickshire and then West Sussex, where he became Deputy Director of Education. Colin was responsible for a number of area-wide school reorganisations as well as the delivery of several million pounds of capital investment in the county’s schools prior to running his own consultancy business.​

Kevin Breen

Trustee

Kevin has held a number of CEO, Managing Director and non-executive roles in UK and international companies, ranging from publicly-quoted groups to small venture-capital-backed technology start-ups.  He is a Chartered Engineer and has an accounting qualification after initially graduating in Physics and subsequently securing an MBA.   He has always had a keen and active interest in education, having been a governor of two schools and having served on the Education Committee of the Scientific Instrument Makers’ livery company in the City.

Elisabeth Whitaker 

Trustee

Lissie has always had an interest in education, having had over 30 years’ experience of working in management and leadership roles both in higher and further education. Lissie’s early career was as an HR Director supporting teams in the delivery of employment, training and development programmes both in the private and public sector. Lissie was formerly Chief Human Resources Officer for the University of Chichester, holding executive leadership responsibility for HR strategic planning, organisational change programmes and professional development. She has previously served as a college governor in West Sussex and is delighted to support the Academy Trust as a Trustee.

Claire Strathern 

Trustee

With over 15 years’ experience in the healthcare industry, both public and private, across the UK and Australia, Claire has a passion for complex digital transformation projects and programmes with a focus on improving systems for staff and, ultimately, a better experience for patients.

Claire has a degree in Science (Psychology) and a Masters in Public Health and has held Director level positions in government institutions as well as private consulting organisations.  She has a young family and a keen interest in giving back to the education system that is nurturing our next generation.