Our Members & Trustees

Chair

John is a former senior manager in Aviva’s Legal function. He has extensive experience in areas including strategic planning, leading and developing teams of professionals, change management, business improvement and procurement.

He was an early member of the Law Society’s Law Management section and actively engaged in developing the Law Society’s Lexcel quality standard for in-house legal teams. John also has many years of governance and school improvement experience.

Vice Chair
Chair of Governors at Hellesdon High School

Mary has been a manager at Norfolk County Council for over 30 years. She has management experience of finance, managing premises, transport, school/academy governance and child employment. More recently, Mary and her team are working alongside public health colleagues in Norfolk’s response to Covid and in supporting school leaders, in a variety of settings, from early years to higher education. Mary has been volunteering as a governor for over 15 years and in addition to being Vice Chair of The Wensum Trust, is Chair of Governors in a Local Authority maintained Primary school.

Patrick is a mining engineer with forty years of managerial, technical and project experience in a wide range of business, cultural and climatic environments and commodities.  Patrick has worked on over 100 projects in 60 countries, acquiring hands-on experience in the formation, management and legal representation of a range of exploration, mining, consulting and construction companies and has served as either a non-executive director or executive director of public and private companies in the UK, Canada and Australia.

Patrick served his community as a Magistrate in Norwich for 10 years and was a volunteer Generalist Advisor for 3 years at Citizens Advice Great Yarmouth. He was also a trustee of the Citizens Advice Diss, Thetford & District trust for 5 years.

Edwin has been a school Governor and Trustee for 16 years in both primary and secondary phases. This includes several years of Chairing various governing bodies. Prior to retirement, Edwin worked for 34 years at Bernard Matthews in a variety of IT and Logistics roles including director level posts.

Edwin also supports Take Our Hand, a local charity which helps young people through bereavement, as a Trustee and two of his local churches as Treasurer.

Daniel Thrower has been Headteacher at Arden Grove Infant and Nursery School for many years. Daniel guided the school to Academy status [the school converted to a ‘stand-alone’ academy on 1 June 2013], one of the first infant schools in the region to do so and he is a founding member of the Norfolk Schools and Theatre Royal Trust.  In March 2015, the school achieved ‘Outstanding’ grades in all five areas.

David is a former local authority Chief Executive, and a solicitor. His leadership experience includes strategic reviews of services, large scale organisational change, cost-reduction programmes, and performance management. His legal specialisms include public law, governance, human rights, professional regulatory law and police misconduct. David has extensive non-executive governance experience as chair of the governance board of the Ministry of Defence Police, and chair of a NHS Primary Care Trust. David was a governor and then Chair of Governors of Alderman Peel High School from September 2016 to September 2024.

Following a short career in the food industry, Jason entered financial services in 1992 and had a variety of roles including mortgage and business finance underwriting, ending up in the online business of Moneyfacts, the financial research company. After a big lifestyle change in 2003, he started a microbrewery which continues to trade successfully, recently adding a micro distillery to the business and also running 2 pubs.

Jason became a community governor at Garrick Green Infant School in Spring 2012 joining, and ultimately chairing, the Finance and Premises Committee, ensuring the school maintained a surplus budget. He was elected Chair of Governors in September 2015 and during his time as Chair, has seen the school receive a very positive Ofsted inspection and helped guide and support the school through the decision to apply for academy status and ultimately, joining The Wensum Trust.

 Mary Jane’s career in education includes teaching and leadership roles in secondary and primary schools. She worked for Norfolk County Council Children’s Services for 17 years and led the Inspection and Intervention Service before leaving to join the academy sector. Mary Jane became the Chief Executive Officer of the Diocese of Norwich Education and Academies Trust in 2017. 

The Trust had 34 schools across Norfolk and Suffolk covering primary and secondary phases. Since stepping down from this role, Mary Jane now undertakes consultancy work, coaching and projects, most recently to develop an organisational peer review framework for Diocesan Academy Trusts across the country. Mary Jane was an Ofsted inspector for 18 years. Mary Jane holds an MBA in Education Leadership.

Karen worked at Wymondham High School for 35 years, starting as a Religious Studies teacher before progressing to Assistant Headteacher with a focus on student well-being. 

Since leaving Wymondham High School in 2010, Karen has volunteered for a number of organisations, including the Princes Trust, National Trust, Norwich Crown Court and the Coroners Court. She is also a marriage registrar.

As well as sitting as a panel member on Norfolk County Council’s School Admission, Karen has also had a number of school governor roles.