Academy Trust Board

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 a number of senior finance roles. She is also a Chartered Company Secretary.

Her current role is Chief Financial Officer for Horizon Care and Education Group which provides residential homes and day schools for children and young people with extreme behavioural difficulties resulting from trauma in their early lives.

Sharon was a governor of King Edward VI Handsworth School from 2007 and was Chair of Governors there from 2013 to 2016. She has been a Foundation Board Governor since 2011 and sits on its Audit Committee and Finance and Investment Committee. She is also Vice Chairman of the Academy Trust Board, and a Governor of Camp Hill Girls

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Lynda was born and brought up in the South Wales and attended Abertillery Grammar School. She came to the Midlands to train as a teacher in 1970 and has a Certificate in Education from Birmingham University and an Open University Degree. She taught in Birmingham schools, firstly as a Geography and Mathematics teacher at Bartley Green Girls’ Grammar School. Later she became Deputy Headteacher at Hillcrest School and Sixth Form Centre and in 2001 was appointed Headteacher. The school went from strength to strength and became on Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ School. During her career Lynda was a mentor for newly qualified teachers, a professional partner mentoring and coaching newly qualified Headteachers, Chair of the Oaks Collegiate of Schools in South West Birmingham and a National Leader of Education. Lynda retired in December 2011.

Having spent nearly 40 years as a teacher she is passionate about education and working to improve the life chances of young people.  Since retirement she has been actively involved with two Governing Bodies and holds the National College for School Leadership ‘Chair of Governors’ Leadership Development’ Qualification.

Lynda is passionate about the Girl Guide movement and served as a Guider for over 40 years.

Lucy Williams is the Group Head of Conduct, Policy and Whistleblowing at HSBC plc. Prior to this role, Lucy was the Executive Committee member and Head of Regulatory Compliance for HSBC UK Bank, responsible for overseeing the commercial, retail, wealth and private banking operations of HSBC in the UK.  She held this role from 2013. She was the first senior executive to relocate from London to Birmingham in 2015, ahead of the opening of the Bank’s new UK head office there.  She still lives locally with her family and is a strong advocate for the region.  She says of this move that it taught her much about the place that banking has in a community and the role that teams play in reflecting the values of HSBC on those around them.  She’s proud to lead a global team from a regional base and thinks the connectivity it gives them to our customers and colleagues improves their performance.

Lucy joined HSBC in June 2013 from Prudential plc where she was the Director of Group Compliance.  Prior to that, she was Head of Compliance at Aviva Life UK.  Her earlier career included a range of roles over some years at the Financial Services Authority, in the Markets Division and Retail Supervision, and managing ABN AMRO’s Government Affairs team in Brussels.

Outside of work Lucy supports a range of globally-renowned arts organisations with a regional base – she is a Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.   Lucy is proud to Chair the Independent Schools Governing Body of the King Edward VI Foundation Birmingham and be a Board member of the wider Foundation.  Together, the 10 schools reflect the multicultural and diverse population of the city, and are committed to excellence and accessibility.

Lucy is married with three children, all of school age.

Sam is an experienced Chair of Governors, who is also a business professional, with over twenty years’ proven track record as a company director and owner of a commercial insurance brokerage in Birmingham, within the financial services sector. Whilst continuing to work full time, Sam has led the Governing Board at KEVI Northfield School for Girls (formerly Turves Green Girls’ School), during what has probably been the greatest period of transformation in the school’s history.

Sam is in her fifth and final year as Chair of the Governing Board at KEVI Northfield School for Girls, starting as a new Chair at the same time as the current Head Teacher. She will have served eight years on the board in total, and very much feels that now is the time to move on, seeing change and a fresh pair of eyes as a positive for the school.

Sam herself was born in Northfield, and was lucky enough to gain a bursary to King Edward VI High School for Girls in the 1970’s. She and her sister were the first in their family to stay in education beyond 16, and are still the only “branch” of their family to attend university. Sam has seen how improvements in education pass down the generations, with her two children gaining a Masters in Chem Engineering, and a Doctorate in Philosophy (General Relativity), both at Cambridge University.  It was the pleasure of seeing her children flourish, combined with a feeling of injustice for children less fortunate, which led her to apply to join the GB at Turves Green, to put back into the local community.

Julie was born and brought up in Birmingham, completing her secondary education at Lordswood Girls’ School.  She later studied at Birmingham University and University College Birmingham, gaining a foundation degree in Educational Administration and Post Graduate Diploma in Audit Management and Consultancy.

She is a member of the Institute of Internal Auditors, holding Chartered Internal Auditor Status as well as an Accredited Counter Fraud Specialist.

Julie has held a number of roles within Birmingham City Council’s School Improvement and Special Educational Needs departments, starting off her audit career in 2008 as a School Auditor for Birmingham maintained schools.  She later moved onto a number a professional practice firms (Deloitte, RSM, Moore Stephens), undertaking internal audit and fraud reviews within the NHS, charity and not for profit sectors.  Her current role is Internal Audit Manager at Correla – the data processor for the UK’s Gas Distribution Networks.

Julie has held a governance position at two Secondary schools, Perryfield’s High School in Sandwell and Lordswood Girls’ school in Harborne, Birmingham.  She was previously Chair of Governing body at Lordswood Girls’ School before moving onto the Trust Board Chair role in 2021.

Trustee of the Schools Partnership Alliance (Charity No 1196215)

Director of Aston University Mathematics School (Company No 14638078)

Member Southend High School for Boys Academy Trust (Company No 07485584)

Governor at Harborne Academy