Members and Trustees
Our Members and Trustees act collectively to govern our Trust and take strategic decisions.
Jacqueline Bull
CELT Member
Jackie worked for English China Clays, then Imerys for many years encompassing a welfare and event organising role. Close links with the company’s pensioners led to her forming and being key player in a charitable clay pensioners’ annual holiday providing an event for hundreds of pensioners every year, paused only by the pandemic. Jackie went on to become a Training and Management Development Officer and being seconded onto the company’s performance improvement and cost saving team. For the last twenty years Jackie was a Borough then Cornwall Councillor and still is a member of a Parish and a Town Council. Jackie believes strongly that aspiration should be nurtured and encouraged in our Cornish children.
Steve Dunn
CELT Member
Steve has 35 years of teaching experience. He was a Deputy Headteacher for 17 of those years. He is a Trustee of Trenance Cottages. He is a Member of Newquay Rotary Club, Cricket Club and Newquay Hornets RFC. His areas of expertise are Quality Assurance, Finance, School buildings, sites and facilities.
Dave Folland
CELT Member
Dave was a police officer for 34 years concluding his career as the Inspector for Newquay and its satellite towns and villages. On retirement he worked at the Eden Project for 8 years where he was the Operations Manager. At the end of 2019 Dave moved back to Newquay as the Operations Manager for Newquay Zoo and a unique relationship with Newquay Junior Academy from whom they lease land which is home to the zoo’s African Savannah enclosure.
Dave’s interests are in linking communities and also in how schools are embracing nature as a learning tool through the concept of the outdoor classroom.
Askel Veur
CELT Member
Askel Veur is the standards and academies arm of the Truro Diocesan Board of Education and a significant partner in school improvement across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Askel Veur is an Academies Umbrella Trust governed by a small non-executive Board. It is committed to a child-centred and holistic vision of education, informed by but not driven only by data.
Geoff Brown
Chair of Board
A former Cornish headteacher, Geoff has served as the Liberal Democrat member for Newquay Central since 2007. Geoff is Cornwall Council’s Cabinet Member for Transport. Geoff has been with the Newquay Lifeboat for over 20 years. He led the local Cliff Rescue team for 25 years and has twice been awarded the Chief Coastguard’s Commendation.
Jo Connelly
CELT Trustee and Chair of Audit & Risk Committee
Jo has had a long and successful career within financial services. She has run her own company for the last 16 years providing compliance support and business coaching to financial advisers across the UK. Jo has two children and enjoys being involved in the parent teacher association. She also volunteers in schools, nationwide, providing money education workshops to school leavers. Jo is passionate about empowering our next generation to really understand what financial security is all about.
Sean Dixon
Vice Chair of Board and Chair of Quality Assurance
Sean has been a doctor in the NHS since 1998, since 2009 as a consultant trauma and orthopaedics surgeon. Good governance, education and relentless objective scrutiny of performance are fundamental to his work. Sean hopes to use these skills to help our academies continue to set and achieve aspirational targets for performance and development.
Mr Mark Lees
CELT Trustee and Chair of Ethos Committee
Mark Lees has spent 44 years as a teacher and leader in a wide variety of primary schools. He has experience as a MAT CEO and an educational consultant/inspector. Mark is passionate about the development of an exciting curriculum for all children set within a stimulating and creative learning environment. He is an experienced school governor and is currently chair of governors in two primary schools. He enjoys providing support and challenge for school leaders and enjoys visiting schools as a governor.
Ashley Mann
CELT Trustee
Ashley is Deputy County Commander and Paramedic for the NHS South Western Ambulance Service. He is responsible for operations across 17 ambulance stations. He is also a retained fire-fighter based at Newquay. Ashley joined Newquay RNLI in 1992 and is a long-standing helmsman and crew member of the Newquay lifeboat.
Sebastian Parker
Vice Chair of Board and Chair of Estates, IT & Climate Change
After finishing school in Newquay, Sebastian travelled through Africa before studying Agriculture at Seale-Hayne College in Devon. He returned to Cornwall to join the family business of farming and manufacturing ice cream. The Callestick Farm brand has since established a reputation that has seen continual growth in its market share.
Jane Nicholls
CELT Trustee
Before spending 20 years as a school business leader Jane had a varied career including local government and working in different countries overseas. She recently retired as the Chief Financial Officer of a multi academy trust. Jane was an active member of the Association of School & College Leaders; she also sat on a Department of Education working group, reviewing academy financial reporting. She is keen to maintain her involvement in education supporting students and the local community.
John Simeons
CELT Trustee and Chair of Finance, Staffing & Remuneration
John’s varied career has included engineering, logistics, and product, project, and process management. He worked for a number of telecoms companies including BT. John changed career direction with a move to Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd as Management Accountant. He now volunteers with Citizens Advice and is a director of a property management company.