Dr Meesha Warmington and Bill McHugh join the Board of Astrea Academy Trust

Two new Trustees have been appointed to the Board of Astrea Academy Trust, a thriving family of 26 academies spread throughout South Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire. Like all Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs), Astrea is principally a charity, but also a company limited by guarantee. Trustees are therefore also company directors, and have a responsibility to act in accordance with charity law, company law, and school governance standards. The Trust invests to ensure that members of the Board are well-supported by professional governance expertise and advice.

Society worked with Astrea on succession planning after our successful appointment of the Trust’s Chair two years ago and the end of the tenure for some of their long-serving board members. We began our search for leaders across Cambridgeshire and South Yorkshire that would have capacity to support this network of schools as a non-executive director. We paid particular attention to anyone with a substantial connection to the Doncaster City area. It was additionally important that they had experience of either education leadership, risk management and audit, human resources, technical and/or vocational qualifications and careers, or fundraising and public relations. 

Two Trustees were ultimately appointed

1. Meesha Warmington. Meesha is a senior academic at the University of Sheffield and holds a PhD in Psychology from the University of York.
2. Bill McHugh. Bill has been delivering education services to offenders, community groups and links through literacy/numeracy initiatives and ‘Remake Learning’ events, to schools in Doncaster.