Trustee and member profiles
Dr Peter Simpson
Chair of Trust
I am delighted to have been invited to become a Trustee in Cirrus Trust. I have recently retired after over forty years in education in a variety of roles. I was a teacher, starting my career in Surrey before becoming a Deputy Head in Berkshire for three years. I then returned to Surrey as the Headteacher of a middle/junior school where I spent ten very enjoyable years growing the school until it was one of the largest in Guildford diocese. I then joined Surrey’s advisory service as County Consultant for Primary Education before becoming Senior Consultant for Schools which encompassed schools for children of all ages. In 2004 I was appointed to Sutton Local Authority as Chief Inspector and Head of School Improvement; later becoming the Chief Officer for Education in the borough and had a spell as Interim Strategic Director of Children’s Services. Taking early retirement in 2012 I started my retirement mission and joined Guildford Diocese Education as Director of School Effectiveness for all schools and Chief Executive of The Good Shepherd Trust (the diocesan multi-academy trust). As founding Chief Executive I had the great privilege of seeing the growth of the trust from one school in 2013 to 10 schools on my retirement in March 2017. I was an Ofsted inspector and registered inspector for Anglican schools.
Date of appointment: 31/03/2020 appointed by trustees
Term of Office ends: 30/03/2024
Kapil Lodha
Trustee
Kapil Lodha is Vice President and Head of Function at a global enterprise with nearly two decades of experience aligned to Banking Financial Services (BFS) industry. His expertise include strategic business growth, digital transformation, GRC (governance, risk/regulatory and control), finance operations, sustainable performance, technology road-map and change management. As a senior leader, Kapil has strong focus on ethos, governance, accountability, stakeholder relationships, financial management and problem solving. Settled in the UK with family, he is an industry speaker, thought leader, guest lecturer at university & college, poetry writer, badminton player and NHS UK fundraiser during Covid-19.
Date of Appointment: 06/10/2020 appointed by Trustees
Term of Office ends: 05/10/2024
Andrew Ivison
Trustee
Andrew has recently stepped down to a part-time consultancy after 33 years as a partner with CMS a major City law firm, where at various stages during his career he led the global banking and finance group and the infrastructure and project finance team. He was also a board member and chair of the audit and risk committee until last year and has subsequently been appointed as the audit and risk committee’s external member. In addition Andrew has held posts with the Amateur Swimming Association’s Water Polo Committee and been a member of one of the committees of the Major Projects Association.
Date of Appointment: 06/10/2020 appointed by Trustees
Term of Office ends: 05/10/2024
Daniel Celino
Trustee
Daniel has spent 20 years supporting organisations in attracting the right talent and upskilling them to ensure they are supporting those companies’ visions having covered all areas from delivery of training to commercial success.
Daniel has spent over a decade working within membership organisations and education providers to take their unique benefits and embed those attributes into interventions which add value to individuals, organisations and the broader ecosystem. The largest impact has come from new collaborations within the UK, Hong Kong, Egypt, New Zealand and South Africa. These include setting up partnerships with the National Government for example the Hong Kong Development Bureau, the South African Government and the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority to improve employability and retention of staff. Daniel is passionate about diversifying the engineering community which is why he was part of the partnership between the Institution of Civil Engineers and Women in Science and Engineering developing a Toolkit to help organisations attract more women into the construction industry.
Daniel Is currently working for The Institution of Engineering & Technology as Head of Corporate Sales leading the Advertising, Recruitment, Training, Events and Standards team to advise organisations on new solutions for Knowledge transfer.
Date of Appointment: 05/05/2021 appointed by Trustees
Term of Office ends: 04/05/2025
Dylan Burns
Trustee
Dylan has been an external auditor with Deloitte since 2019 after graduating with a Master's in Chemistry at Durham University. He has experience working on audits of large multi-nationals as well as small private companies and charities. He has experience in internal controls, technology and data. He will qualify as a Chartered Accountant at the end of summer 2022.
Date of Appointment: 21st June 2022 appointed by the Trustees
Term of Office Ends: 31st August 2026
Claire Rodin
Trustee
Claire Rodin is an Assistant Headteacher and Head of Sixth Form at a comprehensive school in South East London. She has held various curriculum and pastoral roles in comprehensive schools for over 10 years. In addition to this, she is School Improvement Lead at Causeway Education where she works with schools and colleges to provide high quality provision to support young people accessing Higher Education and apprenticeships.
Date of Appointment: 6th January 2023 appointed by the Trustees
Term of Office Ends: 5th January 2027
Raymond Koh
Trustee
Date of Appointment: 21st March 2023 appointed by the Trustees
Term of Office Ends: 31st January 2027
Samantha Collins-Hill
Trustee
Sam is a senior civil servant, and currently a Deputy Director at the Department for Transport. Sam has extensive policy and strategy experience from her roles across several Government departments, including an overseas diplomatic posting for the Foreign, Common and Development Office. As a senior leader, Sam’s passion lies in building multi-skilled teams who can deliver excellent results. She has extensive experience of governance and risk management in public policy delivery, as well as experience of problem-solving in complex settings and turning strategies into outcomes. Sam is also a mum and her daughter will attend Stanley Park infants from September 2023.
Date of Appointment: 05/07/2023 appointed by Trustees
Term of Office Ends: 04/07/2027
Wendy Mathys
Member
Wendy was a Sutton Councillor from 2010-18 where roles included Lead Councillor for Children, Families & Education. Wendy, now retired, practised as a solicitor for 12 years handling litigation, family & child protection, and education law, before taking on several voluntary sector roles to fit around family caring prior to election to the council. These included 8 years as a governor at Avenue Primary School 2000-2008; advising parents on a national special needs charity help-line; non- executive board membership of Sutton Housing Partnership, and of the former local Health Authority. Wendy has lived in Sutton since 1996.
Date of appointment: 16/12/2019
Ian Lewis
Member
Ian is the Global Head of Intellectual Property Underwriting at Aon, a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions, with over 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries. He has been involved with the trust from its creation as a Member since June 2015. He was the Chair of Trustees from June 2015 to June 2019 before stepping down due to work commitments.
Date of appointment: 16/05/2015
Andrew Theobald
Member
Andrew has worked in the finance industry for over 45 years and specialises in the fields of compliance and claims.
He has been a school governor since 1984 and has experience across both primary and secondary phases in several Local Authorities and a MAT. He is a former Chair of the London Borough of Sutton’s Education Committee and currently serves thereon as a Diocesan Representative.
He is Chair of Sutton’s Governors Forum and also serves on all types of educational appeals tribunals for schools across South London and Kent.
Andrew also chairs the Boards of several charities including his local Community Transport Association and Citizens’ Advice Bureau.
Date of Appointment: 01/08/2020
Audrey McFarlane
Member
Audrey has been a qualified solicitor for over 25 years, working primarily on property, finance, governance and housing matters in both the private and public sectors. She is also an adjudicator and has worked with a range of organisations resolving disputes, including the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, the Housing Ombudsman Service and the Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution.
For over 30 years Audrey has been a board member of various not-for-profit organisations, including most recently Sutton Housing Society. She is also a former Chair of Governors of Stanley Park Infants’ School. Audrey is currently a Fitness to Practice panel member for the General Optical Council and the General Dental Council, and is an associate senior recruitment assessor for the College of Policing. She has extensive experience of strategic planning, governance, legal advice, adjudication, dispute resolution, complaints handling and performance management.
Date of Appointment: 01/09/2020
Former trustees and members
Madeleine Kuevi
Former Trustee
Date of Appointment: 09/12/2021 appointed by Trustees
Term of Office Ends: 28/02/2022
Helen Howard
Former Trustee
Date of appointment: 06/10/2020 appointed by trustees
Date of Resignation: 14/09/2022
Rumu Sen-Gupta
Former Member
Date of appointment: 16/05/2015
Term of Office Ends: 31st December 2022
Arber Cala
Former Trustee
Date of Appointment: 28th April 2022
Term of Office Ends: 24th January 2023
Alexandra Gillespie
Former Trustee
Date of Resignation of 02/05/2023