Chief Executive Officer and Senior Executive Headteacher (Ebor Central and Yorkshire Coast hubs): Gail Brown is a National Leader of Education and has over 25 years’ experience in primary education, having taught every age group. She has successfully led two schools, taking one from Good to Outstanding and a school in Special Measures to Good in all areas. Gail spent six years working within a local authority context and as part of the National Strategies Yorkshire and Humber Regional Adviser team, supporting, challenging and improving practice and provision.
Executive Headteacher (Ebor South and East Riding and The Humber hubs): Dave Barber has over 21 years’ experience in the primary sector, 11 of those in senior management positions. Dave, an LLE, has worked effectively across the full primary age range in six schools in a wide range of contexts. He has extensive experience of providing school to school support that has proved instrumental in bringing about positive change. Dave has been chair of his local learning alliance and a member of the North Yorkshire Education Partnership Board. He believes passionately in providing opportunities for young people to flourish and develop independent and collaborative learning skills.
Debbie Simpson joined Ebor in September 2019. Previously she was chair of the Institute of Continuous Improvement in the Public Sector and interim chief operating officer of Greater Birmingham Enterprise Partnership. There she overcame numerous political challenges and identified and successfully tackled complex financial matters that challenged the accepted position. She has previously been head of transformation and change with a shared service company and a senior civil servant.
Andrew Robinson is a CIMA qualified accountant with a BA in Accounting & Management Control. He has over 15 years’ experience of working with fast growing entrepreneurial businesses in senior finance roles. Following his last role as finance & risk director for a financial services company in York, he joined Ebor in April 2017. Andrew is also the trust’s Chief Finance Officer.
Alison Taylor’s career in Human Resources began with Surrey County Council and has since spanned both the public and private sectors. In 1995 Alison returned to her native Yorkshire where she has worked in local authorities, financial services and the further education sector. She has been a HR Director since 2009.
Tim Moat is responsible for communications, press liaison, marketing and reputation management of the trust and its schools. He line manages the IT function and also leads on partnership development with like-minded organisations within and outside of education. Tim is first point of contact for maintained schools wanting to explore the academy programme.
Clare Walters manages GDPR compliance across the trust and is data protection officer. She is an experienced lead auditor and is accountable for risk management, delivering an internal audit programme assuring key risks and their associated controls. Clare previously worked for Centrica, the international energy and services company.
Andy has over 30 years’ senior level managerial experience in project, operations and facilities management within sectors such as energy, the NHS and education. He is now engaged in developing facilities, site management, maintenance and connected operational requirements across the estates in the trust. Andy is also the trust’s health and safety officer.
Neil comes from a farming family. He has grown up with a love of numbers and has a BA in mathematics and statistics. Having worked on the accounts of a small business for over 10 years, Neil moved to Ebor in January 2018.
He is currently working towards his AAT level 3.
Lara has over 20 years’ accountancy experience in various business environments including the educational sector. She worked at Great Yarmouth College in Norfolk and after relocating to Yorkshire she was employed by Askham Bryan College. Lara joined the Ebor Academy Trust in April 2018.
After university, Sam was employed with the Halifax bank at their head office, initially working in administration before joining the training and development team as a training consultant. For the last ten years she has worked in education, first as a teaching assistant in a primary school and then at Selby College, as Student Administrator and HR Officer. Sam joined Ebor in October 2019.