Martin McLeman

Martin is the Chair of the Corinium Education Trust. Martin is a retired Headteacher, now working as an educational consultant with a number of organisations focused on school improvement. His last substantive post was as Headteacher of Queen Elizabeth’s School, Wimborne Minster. He has extensive experience of school improvement working as an Associate with Partners in Excellence and a Lead Headteacher Ambassador with the Youth Sport Trust. Martin has worked and governed in a range of schools and academy trusts, as well as gaining trustee experience with Salisbury Diocesan Board of Education. Martin has always been involved in charitable work and is currently Chair of the Oxfordshire Branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association. Martin stays active by walking in the Cotswolds almost every day, swims regularly and is a keen golfer.

Vanella Jackson

Vanella has built a successful career in brands and communications. She has always been passionate about what brands can achieve with great communication. Vanella spent 20 years as a strategic planner in some of the UK’s best advertising agencies, including BBH, AMV/BBDO and JWT. She joined Hall & Partners in 2004 as European CEO, and was later promoted to Global CEO. Vanella successfully grew the company, expanding into new markets internationally and working with some of the world’s most famous brands and companies. Vanella has chaired of the British Market Research Society and founded the MRS Diversity Group, focused on making the industry more inclusive. She is a coach and mentor to young entrepreneurs and has won a UK ‘Woman of the Year’ award for her work helping young people achieve their ambitions.

Martin Doidge

Martin had a career as a Finance Director for a number of public and private bodies and joined Cirencester Deer Park School as Director of Support in 2003. He then gained extensive experience of the state education sector through leadership of all the support functions within the school for many years. Together with Chiquita Henson, Martin led the process of gaining Foundation status, then Academisation of the school and finally the formation of the Corinium Education Trust. Martin is a Chartered Management Accountant and holds a Diploma in School Business Management. Martin chaired the Gloucestershire Association of School Business Managers for a number of years and developed a benchmarking process for secondary schools in the county which was acknowledged by the Department for Education. Martin has provided training to many schools and school business managers on finance, governance and assessment data. Martin retired from the post of Director of Finance at the Corinium Education Trust in 2021 after 18 years with Cirencester Deer Park School and the Trust.

Sarah Lower

Sarah is a senior HR professional with a passion for people management. Her career has spanned the Further Education and Higher Education sectors and she has a background in the NHS. She has achieved success by driving excellence, compliance and managing risk and she has a demonstrable record of developing and implementing people strategies and organisational development. Sarah is the Director of Human Resources at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester and works at a strategic level whilst leading a team to ensure the needs of stakeholders are met to achieve operational efficiency and that staff are recruited and developed to achieve success. She is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Personnel and Development and a qualified workplace mediator. For twelve years, she was a listening volunteer with the Samaritans and also undertook a number of management roles at a local and regional level with the Samaritans during this time.

Chiquita Henson

See Our Leadership in Who Are We?

Claire Minett

A qualified chartered accountant, Claire has extensive experience in financial risk management, gained during 25 years working in investment banking and insurance, including senior management roles. She also holds a PGCE in secondary teaching and taught mathematics at a local secondary school before assuming the role of School Business Manager, which she held for 5 years, and in which she was a member of the senior leadership team responsible for all non-teaching aspects. Now retired, Claire’s active participation in education continues with her role as a governor of Farmor’s School, Fairford. She has also been a trustee of an educational charity in Cirencester.

Mark Horwood-James

Mark has nearly two decades of experience across marketing, technology and operations within industries such as financial services, property and healthcare. Mark is the Managing Director of Personal Finance Technology at Moneyhub. Mark has held previous roles as the Global Senior VP of Marketing & Product at AML RightSource and Global CTPO for for Appellon. Mark and his husband moved back to the UK in 2017 after spending the previous three years working and living in Sydney, Australia. Mark’s career has seen him engage with, support and advise private and public sector organisations including brands such as the NHS, Meta, ING Direct, Red Rooster, TikTok and Sydney Olympic Park. Mark and his husband are the proud dad of two boys.

Dominic Britten

Dominic is a chartered accountant, with 15 years’ experience working across both practice and industry. Initially training within the Audit & Assurance practice at PwC in London, he later transitioned to a team specialising in operational restructuring, working predominantly with NHS Trusts across the county to implement operational change and efficiencies. Following the birth of his first child in 2018 he moved out of practice and joined Corin Group, a medical device manufacturer based in Cirencester. Here he leads financial planning and analysis for global operations. As a member of the operations leadership team, he works closely with the Chief Operating Officer and heads of function including manufacturing, supply chain and IT, to develop and implement the company’s strategy going forward. Outside of work Dominic enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children, exploring the Cotswolds and surrounding areas.

Martin Kingston 

Martin is a Kings Counsel who until retirement worked as a barrister in the field of town and country planning and environmental law. He was involved in a large number of strategic scale projects running teams of consultants and providing advocacy in public inquiry hearings. He was involved in the presentation of cases in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. Since retirement he has been actively involved as a member of the Church of England’s General Synod, a member of the Gloucester Diocese Bishops Council and Diocesan Mission and Pastoral Group. He is a trustee of Sportily, a Gloucester Diocese sport and mission initiative, and a trustee of the Cotswolds Lakes Trust. He is involved with his local community having organised and promoted through to its final stages the Kemble and Ewen Neighbourhood Development Plan and has been a member of the Kemble School LGB. He is an active member of the church in the village. 

Shirley Alexander

Shirley has lived in Cirencester for since 1978 and been active in local education for a great deal of that time, firstly at Kingshill Secondary School and then at Cirencester Infant School, which subsequently became Cirencester Primary School, she retired as a governor last year. She has also been a local Councillor, served on Cotswold District Council for 8 years and on the Town Council for 16 years, during which time she has been mayor of Cirencester twice, 2001-2003 and 2007-2009. She continues to be involved with a number of trusts and grant giving bodies in the town and is currently chair of the Cirencester Community Development Trust. Shirley is a Soroptimist, and has served as club president and president of the South West and Channel Island region over the last 20 year.

Richard Mullings

Richard is the third generation of his family which has worked as a solicitor in the town. His connections with Cirencester are extensive and deep, both as a result of having lived in the town all his life, but also as a result of his thirty year career, working mainly on local trust and charity matters. He has involvement with (and responsibility for) many of the local charities and trusts, not least the Powell’s Education Foundation, which is the most significant education charity in the town. He is also active in promoting collaboration between charities in the town, with a recent notable success being the organisation in 2014 of a local charity-conference.

Robert Springett

Robert Springett,  the Bishop of Tewkesbury, represents the Diocese of Gloucester Education Trust (DGET). Robert studied business, then theology at Lincoln Theological College and Kings College London. Ordained in 1989 he served curacies in Colchester, then in Basildon, before being appointed Priest in Charge of South Ockendon and Belhus Park, then Rector of Wanstead. In 2010 he moved to Gloucestershire to be Archdeacon of Cheltenham. Throughout his ministry Robert has remained committed to the Church’s engagement with wider society, particularly through its work with schools: He is Chair of the Diocesan Board of Education and a trustee of All Saints Academy in Cheltenham. He is committed to deepening understanding with the wider Anglican communion, developing a partnership between Wanstead and the Church in Northern Uganda and playing a leading role in Gloucester’s three way partnership with the Diocese of Western Tanganyika in Tanzania and the Diocese of El Camino Real in California.

Martin McLeman
See Our Trustees above.