John Robinson has been a governor in three different schools for a total of 23 years. He became Chair of Bowland High Academy Trust in 2014 and Chair or AtC Trust on its inception. John trained as a secondary school teacher and has taught Geography and Sociology in schools in Manchester, Glasgow and Salford before joining Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) in1983.

At MMU John became Director of Research in the Centre for Urban Education (CUE), an organisation established in partnership with Manchester City Council with a remit to improve educational standards, teacher recruitment and teacher retention in the City.
At CUE he developed innovative methods of training young people in both Primary and Secondary schools to undertake research into the impact of their own learning.

John holds degrees from Leeds University, Glasgow University and the University of Manchester and has been involved in research and evaluation projects focused on, among others, sustainability education, urban regeneration and social justice. Whilst at CUE he was involved in developing a response to the Learning Together to be Safe agenda as part of the PREVENT Programme in collaboration with a consortium of NW Constabularies.
He has spoken at many national and international conferences and is the editor of four books.

Vicky Ferrier grew up and lives in south Manchester. She started her career in retail, working in various operational management positions across the North West for over a decade, moving into administration and finance roles, before retraining and developing a career in Human Resources.
She has worked across several industries and sectors in HR roles - telecommunications, pharmacy and third sector. Vicky’s current role is Head of HR Business Partners at the National Trust, which involves managing a team with national coverage and also holding a wider leadership role as part of the North Regional Management Team.

Vicky joined AtC as a Trustee in December 2018. She is an experienced coach and is passionate about organisational design and development, and creating a positive climate to enable organisational success. She believes that recruiting and developing the best people enables us to do the best for our students.

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Alana has recently joined the Trust after being Chair of Governors at Roseacre Primary Academy for 16 years and an NLG for 8 years. She has also Chaired 2 Interim Executive Boards and been Chair at a range of schools in Blackpool area. Alana started her business career working in the Financial Sector. She has gained a range of skills throughout her career managing Bank Branches within the Financial sector and HR Departments. She now works part time as a Leadership Development Consultant developing and delivering skills courses, mentoring & coaching across all levels, from Governors, Graduate development schemes up to Executive level, facilitating improvements in structural and behavioural aspects of strategic leadership. She is looking forward to working with the Trust and using her skills gained.

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