Chair of the Academy Trust Board
Mrs S Roberts, BSc, FCA, FCG
Sharon Roberts was educated at King Edward VI Handsworth School and the University of Liverpool. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales having trained with Ernst & Young before joining an international chemicals group where she held several senior finance roles. She is also a Chartered Company Secretary.
She has worked in the health and social care sector since 2008 and her current role is Chief Financial Officer for Grosvenor Health and Social Care, a national provider of homecare to vulnerable elderly people.
Members
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Gill Ball is a qualified accountant with the majority of her career spent within Higher Education. She was Director of Finance at the University of Birmingham for 20 years until retiring from that role in December 2014. The University of Birmingham is a significant global, national and local organisation with a turnover of £680m, 35000 students and 7200 staff.
Within the King Edward Foundation, a trustee of the Staff Pension Fund, at King Edward’s Handsworth Girl’s School- a governor, Chair of the Finance Committee and a member of the Site Committee.
Gill is an advisor to Accelerus Education Limited, director of Professional Higher Education Services Ltd and an Associate of AdvanceHE. She was formerly President of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) – the largest global accountancy body with 170,000 members and 340,000 students. Gill was also in a Non-Executive Director role as Deputy Chairman of an insurance mutual and Council member of one of the UK Research Councils.
Gill was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honors in 2012 for services to Higher Education.
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Hywel Thomas is Emeritus Professor of the Economics of Education, University of Birmingham and was the Director of the Centre for Research in Medical and Dental Education at the University.
He was Head of the School of Education for 10 years, from 1993-2003. His research and writing included studies on resource management in schools (DFE/OECD), the school workforce (DfES), smoking prevention strategies (EU), the career paths of graduates (HEFCE), designing a curriculum for training medical general practitioners (RCGP) and evaluating selection processes for medical specialty training (DH).
Hywel has undertaken work for The World Bank, UNESCO, the British Council and the Department for International Development (DfID). He has been Education Adviser to the British Council and specialist adviser to the OECD.
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Erica Conway has been a volunteer, board member, audit committee member and chair of a number of education related and mental health charities since she was a teenager. She has been involved with the Foundation since 2011, initially as a governor of Camp Hill Girls, becoming Chair of the local governing body soon after. She supported the creation of the multi-academy trust and was part of its initial board.
In her day job Erica is the Chief Financial Officer of the University of Birmingham, a member of its executive board and a director of a number of the group’s subsidiary companies.
Prior to 2010 she worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers across the UK providing audit and advisory services to a variety of client types.
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Alison is a Chartered Architect (retired) after 34 years in private practice.
Her career ranged from hotel, residential commercial and health and for the last 23 years of her professional career, when she joined ADP Architecture Ltd she focussed primarily on education projects, schools, colleges, universities and research projects.
Alison was an equity partner at ADP for over 15 years and closely involved in its transition from an LLP to an Employee Owned organisation at the beginning of 2017; she then sat on the Executive Board and performed the Company Secretary role as well as being responsible for HR, Training & Development and Staff Welfare across the multicentred (9 studios)practice with its ongoing commitment to Investors in People (Gold) until her retirement in 2021.
Alison is also a Trustee Board Member of Smart Works Birmingham, a charity that supports women in need into work by providing a suitable interview outfit and personal interview coaching.
Alison was on the original Board of the KE Academy Trust from 2016 until 2022. She is currently VC of the Board of Governors of KE VI Handsworth School for Girls, serving since 2015.
Alison strongly believes in advancing and developing opportunities for girls from all backgrounds; and that education should be broad, wide ranging and inclusive.
Trustees
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David Wheeldon was born and brought up in rural North Staffordshire and attended Alleynes Grammar School Uttoxeter. He has first degrees from Birmingham and Birmingham City Universities and a Masters Degree from Coventry University. He completed teacher training at Worcester University and has an Advanced Diploma in Educational Management from the Open University.
He taught in selective schools in Shropshire, Cheshire and Birmingham over a period of forty years. The last sixteen years of which he was Head Master of Altrincham Grammar School for Boys and Headmaster of King Edward VI Five Ways School. David retired in 2012.
David has been a Governor of a middle school and a first school in Worcestershire and was a Governor of Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School until 2015.
David was Interim Executive Director of the King Edward Foundation for six months in 2016. He is currently Chair of Governors at King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls, a Governor of King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys, a Trustee of King Edward VI Academy Trust and a Governor of The King Edward Foundation. He has also completed two terms as Bailiff and Deputy Bailiff of the Foundation.
In his retirement, as well as significant governance activity, he is an educational consultant and an Associate Director/Consultant of a capital fund raising company.
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A Foundation Governor since 2012, and Vice-Chair of the Finance & Investment Committee, and is this year’s Bailiff. He has also been Chair of Camp Hill Grammar School for Boys since 2012, and a Governor since 1994. He also serves as Chairman of Finance of the Academy Trust.
Barry has worked as a Chartered Accountant in public practice all his working life, specialising in Charities, and Not-for Profit organisations, especially in the professional arts and media.
He was President of the Birmingham & West Midlands Society of Chartered Accountants in 2003-2004, and served on the National Council of Chartered Accountants between 2007 and 2015. He has been Chair of the ICAEW WM Regional Strategy Board since 2006, and through that connection served on various business associations such as WM Business Group.
He is a director of SAMPAD ( South Asian Music Performance and Dance ). He is Chair of Midland Opera and has sung in the tenor chorus for approx. 30 years!
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Brought up in Newcastle upon Tyne, following completion of a Post Graduate Diploma in Careers Guidance at Swanley, Fazle Kinkhabwala moved to Birmingham in 1989 to work in the Careers Service . He joined as a governor of KEVI Camp Hill School for Girls in 2000 and was elected as a Foundation governor in 2004. He has served as Vice Chair of the School since 2006, chairs the Curriculum and Pupil Discipline committee and is a member of the Finance sub-committee and the Foundation Audit committee. He is also the Special Needs lead governor together with Safeguarding lead.
Passionate about equality, diversity and inclusion, he has a Diploma & MA in Equal Opportunities from the City of Birmingham University and encouraged collection of diversity statistics before it became a requirement for organisations.
He helped put in place vacancies for civil servants across the West Midlands on Civil Service Jobs (CSJ), later rolled out nationally when he was working for Job Centre Plus. Within Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs he recently led the trials in Knowledge Analysis & Intelligence and Assets prior to rolling out a revised Performance Management System for 65000 staff. He is also the Professionalism, Case Governance and Business Expansion lead for South West Wales and West Midlands and national lead for Post Quality Reviews.
He has previously served 10 years as President of the Dawoodi Bohra Welfare Society GB and helped host an international conference for 400 members, debating issues such as FGM. He is also an active supporter of the Who is Hussain charity and can be seen serving food at the food drive on most Tuesday evenings.
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Lynda was born and brought up in South Wales. She is a qualified teacher and has a certificate of education from Birmingham University and an Open University Degree. She taught in Birmingham schools throughout her career and was Headteacher at Hillcrest School and Sixth Form Centre. Lynda was also a National Leader of Education until her retirement in December 2011.
Lynda has been a trustee of the King Edward VI Academy Trust since 2019 and sits on the Education Committee and Audit Committee. She is also the Trust Safeguarding governor. She is Chair of Governors at King Edward VI Balaam Wood Academy and King Edward VI Sheldon Heath Academy.
She is passionate about education and working to improve the life chances of young people. Lynda is a governor at Selly Oak Special school, Vice Chair of the Stonehouse Gang and treasurer of the Friends of Hillcrest School and Chair and Treasurer of Weoley Trefoil Guild.
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Olivera Raraty is an enthusiastic educationalist who has enjoyed a full-time career in education, spanning 37 years. Olivera is a former Headmistress at Malvern St James Girls’ School, a leading girls’ day and boarding school (3-18) in Worcestershire. She is currently GSA Representative on the IDPE Steering Group and is a passionate advocate for the transformative effects of quality education on a pupil’s future life chances.
Very recently, Olivera was a Member of GSA Council, Chair and Secretary for the GSA Midlands Region of Heads, and a member of the GSA Membership and Accreditation Committee and the Future of Assessment Working Party.
Prior to that she was Senior Deputy Head at Notting Hill and Ealing High School, GDST, (4-18) and whilst there served on the ISC SEND Committee for several years. She is a History and Politics specialist and started her teaching career in London and went on to be Head of History and Politics at Wycombe Abbey School where she joined the Senior Academic Leadership Team. She has a keen interest in the expressive arts.
Olivera now enjoys a ‘portfolio career’ working as an education consultant supporting schools’ development work, mentoring senior leaders, as an ISI Inspector, and as governor and trustee of two educational charities.
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James was born and raised in Solihull and now lives in Walsall with his wife and two children.
James has worked in the education sector since 1994, in a variety of Audio Visual and IT technical and leadership roles. He is the Director of ICT and part of the Executive Leadership Team at Academy Transformation Trust, a large national multi-academy trust of 22 academies, across 10 local authority areas. He has recently completed a Level 5 Operations Manager apprenticeship and is passionate about using technology to improve operational efficiencies and teaching and learning.
James is a member of the Edtech expert group, which is part of the Queen Street Group. This collaborative group of 45 multi-academy trust leaders regularly meet to work together, share best practices and improve effectiveness.
In July 2022, James joined the King Edward VI Aston School Governing Body and is a member of the Estates Committee. He is a Trustee of King Edward VI Academy Trust and also part of the Digital, Data and Transformation Steering Group and the Joint Advisory People & Systems group.
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Richard was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School Nuneaton, and St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants. He started his career in the insurance market in the City, following which he spent 12 years in the oil and gas industry. He then moved into telecommunications, and over the next 27 years was CEO of businesses in Thailand, Denmark, Romania, the UK, and Ireland, where he headed up Eircom/Eir, the Irish equivalent of BT. Most recently, he was CEO of Technicolor plc, the French media and manufacturing conglomerate, and then Chair of Vantiva plc, a French telecom equipment manufacturing business.
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Nicola has worked in education for thirty years, beginning as an early years and primary teacher in Worcestershire and Birmingham. She is now Head of Department of Teacher Education at the University of Birmingham. Nicola is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and in 2011, she was awarded a PhD in Early Years Education from the Centre for Research in Early Childhood, Birmingham with University of Wolverhampton. Within the KEVI Foundation, Nicola is Chair of Governors at KEVI Northfield School for Girls.
Served in the last 12 months
Accounting Officer
Financial Officers
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Director of Aston University Mathematics School (Company No 14638078)
Member Southend High School for Boys Academy Trust (Company No 07485584)
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Governor at Harborne Academy
