Trustees

Trustees are the directors of the Trust and are responsible for conducting the affairs of the Trust to achieve its objectives.

Mr Robert Leggett – Chair of the Board

Robert Leggett brings over two decades of transformational leadership experience to his role as Chair of Trustees at Bright Futures Educational Trust. As Chairman and Co-founder of Omni Resource Management Solutions, Robert has built one of the UK’s most successful recruitment consultancies from startup to Sunday Times Fast Track 100 recognition, demonstrating the strategic vision and operational excellence essential for leading educational organisations in an evolving landscape.

Since joining as a Trustee in 2023, Robert has overseen the development of Bright Futures’ ambitious 2025-2030 strategy, bringing expertise in organisational development and performance management to support the Trust’s mission of delivering exceptional education. His broader educational leadership includes his role as Honorary Teaching Fellow and Entrepreneur in Residence at Lancaster University Management School and previous service as Chair of Governors at Connell College, enabling him to bridge commercial rigour with educational vision to unlock potential in every young person across Bright Futures’ communities.

Mr Iain Ashworth  – Chair of Audit Committee

Iain is the Corporate Finance Director for Manchester Airports Group (MAG) and a Chartered Accountant.  Prior to MAG he was a Director in the corporate finance team at Deloitte and also worked at Lloyds Bank within its acquisition finance team.

As well as being a Trustee at Bright Futures Educational Trust he was previously the Chair of Altius Trust until its merger with Prospere Trust, where he remains as a Trustee.

Mr Michael Tonge – Appointed Trustee

Mike has taught in every year group across the primary range and has held a wide variety of management and leadership positions across the primary phase.  He became head of Prestolee Primary School in 2005. He moved Prestolee from satisfactory to Outstanding by 2011.  It is now the lead school in the Prestolee Multi Academy Trust.  The trust is built around the core value that every child deserves a first-class education.

As the Chief Executive of the Prestolee Multi Academy Trust he oversees all activity in the trust but is very well supported by a highly effective leadership team and school improvement team. Alongside his role as CEO Mike is part of the executive steering group for the Greater Manchester Learning Partnership. This works to provide system leadership coherence and school improvement across all of Greater Manchester.

He works across a number of local authorities to support school improvement and regularly leads a range of school improvement work.

Shaheen Myers – Appointed Trustee

Shaheen Myers took up post as Deputy Director of Learning for Leeds City Council in August 2021.

Prior to this she was employed by Co-op Academies Trust, first as a head in one of the Trust’s academies and then as a member of the Central Team in the role of Executive Leader supporting school improvement across the trust as well as leading on national and local professional development for newly qualified teachers, middle and senior leaders.

Shaheen has also an inspected for Ofsted and sat on the board as Trustee for 2 MATs. She has over 20 years of experience in the education sector.

Lindsay Batchford – Appointed Trustee

Lindsay Batchford works as an independent senior HR consultant and has many years’ experience working as a HR leader in the education sector.  Before starting her own business in 2020 she was the HR Director at United Learning Trust and managed a team of HR professionals providing HR advice and guidance to over 80 schools in the Trust. Whilst at United Learning she won the prestigious HR Practitioner of the Year national award and her team won the CIPD Team of the Year (public sector) award the year after.

Lindsay advocates that all schools should be great places to work and that the People Agenda has a huge role to play in school improvement and outcomes.

She is also a Trustee at the Keys Academies Trust in Peterborough and chairs the People Committee.

Sandeep Ranote – Appointed Trustee

Professor Sandeep Ranote is Clinical Director for Mental Health at NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care and a practising Consultant Paediatric Psychiatrist, leading Young People’s community eating disorder services in Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Her published research includes perinatal neuroimaging, eating disorders and medical skin camouflage for self-harm and most recently the impact of Covid 19 on young people. She has been clinical advisor to The National Children’s museum ‘Eureka’ and currently sits on the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Eating Disorder executive committee and is a regular expert media contributor.

She was part of the ministerial taskforce, Future in Mind, 2015 developing the national CAMHS transformation blueprint, and clinical expert for NHS England’s eating disorder commissioning guidance and workforce curriculum 2015-2016. She is a contributing author to the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ book ‘The Female Mind’ and was awarded a fellowship to The Royal College in 2014.

As NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care’s Clinical Director for Mental Health, Sandeep leads the award winning Mentally Healthy Schools Programme and the trailblazing pilot University Mental Health service across all of Greater Manchester’s universities. She is a clinical sponsor for the pioneering Greater Manchester Creative Health strategy which launched in November 2022 and sees Greater Manchester as the first creative health city region in the world. She gave evidence as an expert panel member in Parliament for the Body Image inquiry report in 2022 and in 2024 spoke as a panel member on the global youth mental health crisis at The United Nations General Assembly Global Science Summit.

Sandeep is a Visiting Professor in Mental Health at The University of Salford, and clinical advisor to Edge Hill Univeristy’s Arts in Health Research Centre , working with WHO. She has been clinical advisor for Kooth, a leading digital mental health provider, media spokesperson for national eating disorder charity BEAT, advisor for Mental health Charity , The Prudence Trust and trustee at Castlefield art gallery. Appointed to The British Beauty Council Advisory Board in 2024 she supports their work on wellness and was appointed as Chair of Higher Health UK in 2025 extending her work internationally to support mental health and well-being in the voluntary and community sector.

Lisa Fathers OBE – Trustee – Chief Executive Officer

Lisa is the Interim CEO of Bright Futures Educational Trust, a multi-academy trust of 11 schools, leading two Teaching School Hubs, an Early Years Stronger Practice Hub, a Maths Hub, and a large multi-site SCITT delivering extensive teacher training and CPD. The trust is recognised for its strong values, child-centred approach, and significant contribution to the education sector. An accomplished executive leader, Lisa previously served as Deputy CEO, where she led sustained growth and transformed school improvement. She currently serves on the Teaching School Hub Council and is a member of the Greater Manchester Mayoral Reform Board and the Greater Manchester Learning Partnership Executive Group.

With 30 years’ experience in education, Lisa’s contribution has been recognised nationally. She became a Fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching in 2022 and was awarded an OBE in the King’s Birthday Honours List in 2025 for services to education.

Members

The Members of the Trust ensure that its activities are properly directed to achieving its objectives and are responsible for its constitution and for appointing the Board of Trustees.

Mr Yakub Patel

Yakub is the Managing Director of the Cohens Group, one of the largest independent retail pharmacy chains in the country founded 35 years ago.  A qualified Accountant, he has been instrumental in managing and promoting significant growth of the business.

Yakub is a founding member and trustee of the British Muslim Heritage Centre, Founder of the Association of independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp) and Member and Trustee of the Prosper Multi Academy Trust. He has been instrumental in setting up the ESSA academy in Bolton and is a member of the academy.  Yakub was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bolton in 2009 and also an Honorary Fellowship by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN).

Mr Justin Kelly

Justin is a senior executive at Siemens plc and non-executive board member with a passion for responsible business, a wealth of experience and insight supporting a well-balanced strategic, digital and sustainable outlook.

He has a background in operations, strategy, business development, marketing and communications roles and is now working for one of the country’s most successful industrial technology and service companies, translating innovation into tangible business performance.

Justin was appointed Director of Communications and Business Development for Siemens plc and to the Siemens UK Executive Management Board on 1 October 2017.

A Chartered Engineer with a BEng (Hons) from the University of Salford in Computers, Management and Electronics, Justin joined Siemens in 1994. He worked in engineering, product and project management roles before taking on senior marketing, strategy and business development positions within the organisation.

Justin now leads on all aspects of communications and business development at Siemens in the UK and Ireland including public affairs, research and development, the company’s roadmap to carbon net zero committed for 2030, growth of the Smart Infrastructure business and Siemens’ digital transformation (Internet of Things) consulting and solutions business.

Dame Dana Ross-Wawrzynski DBE

Dana taught at Manchester Metropolitan University and then at three different schools before she was appointed Deputy Head, first at Abraham Moss High School and then at All Hallows, Macclesfield. She was appointed as Headmistress of Altrincham Grammar School for Girls in 1999. She retired as CEO to Bright Futures Educational Trust on 31st December 2016.