Dr Sam Parrett CBE
Group Principal and CEO
Dr Sam Parrett CBE is an experienced CEO and Principal, whose drive and determination to improve education across London and the south east has resulted in the expansion of high-quality pathways and outcomes for learners.
Sam established a successful Multi Academy Trust in 2013 – London South East Academies Trust - which now includes eight alternative provision and special schools and two mainstream school across Bromley, Bexley, Surrey and most recently Lambeth. The network of schools has grown and developed under Sam’s leadership of the FE college-led Trust. The unique Group structure is ensuring that children and young people, many with a range of special educational needs, have access to high quality provision and care from birth right through to 25 and beyond.
Sam was awarded a CBE for Services to Education in 2020, building on the OBE she was presented with in 2016 for Services to Further Education. These honours reflect the work Sam is doing across the sector, positively impacting many people’s lives throughout the region and beyond.
Sam achieved a PhD in FE Policy in 2019 and currently sits on the Boards of Education and Training Foundation and University of Kent. She is a Chair of Mixed Economy Group, a fellow of the CIPD, RSA and the Chartered Institution of Further Education. Sam is also a designated National Leader of Further Education and undertakes improvement work across the sector, including the mentoring and coaching of new and aspiring principals.
John Hunt
Deputy Group CEO and Group Chief Financial Officer
John has been involved with the Academy Trust since inception, having worked with Dr Parrett to set the trust up in 2013. John is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accounts and started his accountancy career in manufacturing before spending ten years working in forensics. He moved into senior finance roles within the education sector in 2007 and has also spent five years working as a part-time lecturer in a Further Education College. Having helped set up London & South East Academies Trust in 2013, he has worked tirelessly to enable and support its growth and success since then, with the Trust now consisting of 9 Schools Bromley, Bexley, Surrey, and Lambeth.Through this work, John has developed considerable knowledge and experience as a senior leader in the Further Education and Academies sector.John has an excellent track record and wealth of experience, which includes leading through periods of change, implementing significant business and financial improvements, strong financial stewardship, governance, and Academy transfers.In 2022, John was appointed by the FE Commissioner as one of two National Leaders of Further Education – Finance Specialist. Through this appointment, John works with the FE Commissioner Team to support a range of further education providers nationally.In addition to being responsible for all matters relating to financial strategy, financial performance and risk management, John is also responsible for the deputy CEO directorate, which includes overseeing a range of business support services together with capital projects and the Estates, IT and Sustainability Strategies for the Academy Trust and College.
Neil Miller
Deputy CEO of London South East Academies Trust
Neil Miller is the Deputy CEO Academies with operational accountability for the growing number of schools within the Trust.
He was previously a senior leader in secondary mainstream education for many years including Headship before joining the Trust as Executive Headteacher in 2015.
Over the last two years, in the role of DCEO, Neil has successfully led our schools on an operational basis and developed a ‘one Trust culture’ that has shown significant Trust dividend in that period.
Neil has a real passion for working with our children and young people with his expectations for each and every one being extremely high. This is achieved with a forensic focus on a quality first teaching and learning experience so the pupils are able to grow both academically and emotionally, becoming purposeful young adults in the future.
Neil has a real expertise in leadership and strong relationships with the staff teams are key for him to ensure the Trust get the very best from everyone and the organisation is seen as an ‘employer of choice’. Once again high expectations are expected from all staff members to ensure the very best for every pupil within our schools on a daily basis.
Ruth Dollner
Director of School Improvement
Ruth has worked in education for over 30 years and has taught in three London local authorities.
Ruth was a senior leader and a SENCO before moving into advisory teaching. Ruth was a literacy consultant in Greenwich and in Liverpool. She was a school improvement officer and an accredited school improvement partner (SIP). As regional director for the London region for the National Strategies she helped to implement a national phonics programme across the region. Ruth qualified as an Ofsted inspector in 2012 and then went on to be the Director of her own school improvement company, before joining Ofsted as one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors in 2016. Ruth’s most recent post before joining the Trust was as a specialist adviser for Ofsted’s central policy, quality and training team.
Janet Curtis- Broni
Group Chief People Officer
Janet joined us in January 2020 as the Group Director for HR and Organisational Development. In July 2020, she became the Group Chief People Officer. Janet has 18 years’ experience in the Further Education Sector, including 13 years’ experience in Senior Leadership roles.
Her role in the Group, includes implementing the People Strategy to ensure the Group develops the capability and culture to deliver its ambition to have a positive impact on lives and communities across the region.
Her role also entails providing high quality, expert services across the Group, ensuring a positive and constructive people focused environment, where staff are engaged and people are at the heart of decision making. She also leads on Equality Diversity and Inclusion across the Group to ensure that EDI is embedded within the Group’s culture and working practices.
Janet is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), a trained mediator and Coach.
Louise Wolsey
Group Chief Strategy Officer (London South East Colleges)
Since joining the organisation in 2015, Louise has worked on mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, sponsorship, and a programme of capital investment. Her portfolio over this time has reached across the Group and has encompassed Strategy, Growth, Transformation Projects, Policy and Research, External Affairs, Communications, PR and Marketing, Human Resources, Student Services, Safeguarding and Governance.
Prior to this, having worked in both Secondary Education and in a Local Authority Advisory and Inspection Service where she completed her Masters in School Improvement, Louise worked in the charity sector for 12 years. This experience has given her direct experience and insight to education provision as well as a holistic perspective on wider social issues. From 2001, in the charity sector, she covered a range of policy agendas working with government departments and non-departmental bodies to implement national strategies and programmes at regional and local levels. Through this journey Louise has developed an agile, adaptive mentality needed to thrive with organisational change in the current environment.
In her current role, Louise provides the strategic joined up thinking and action required to promote and protect the position of the Group externally. She balances this whilst designing and implementing change and transformation programmes internally to improve effectiveness, creating an environment which enables organizational development and promotes growth.
Louise is the Executive lead for Group Marketing and Communications, Recruitment, Policy and Research, Strategic Development and Growth, National Campaigns and External Affairs. Over the past five years, Louise has brought together expert teams across the business to secure over £40M of inward investment. This includes leading collaboration networks of FE, HE and AEB providers across the Local London region on the development of Green and Digital Skills.
Externally Louise is a member of the London Local Skills Improvement Advisory Panel with Business LDN, a Director of the South East London Chamber of Commerce and a member of the GLA’s Green New Deal Anchor Working Group. Within education, Louise Chair of the Woodland Academy Trust, a Trustee of the national school improvement charity Challenge Partners and a Member of the Strategic Education Partnership for Bexley.
A key element of this work is stakeholder engagement and partnerships, aligned to the current and future strategies of the wider Group. In this external space, she leads on public relations, external communications, reputation, and branding, ensuring reputational risk is mitigated and managed. During Louise’s leadership of this area national recognition has been achieved, resulting in the College and Group winning five national awards: The Queen’s Anniversary Prize, a national Public Sector Leadership Award for Social Value and three TES Awards including FE College of the year.
Louise has led the design and implementation of the current Group Strategy, embedding the principles of social value within this to be able to articulate and maximize social impact. Drawing on her experience of working in the charity sector, including her instrumental role in the establishment of the Dame Kelly Holmes’ Trust in 2008, Louise leads on the social and charitable enterprise work, monitoring and reporting on the Group’s social value and volunteering initiatives. From this work Louise and her team have developed award winning national campaigns.
Jennifer Pharo
Group Executive Director of Governance, Company Secretary and Clerk to the Boards
Jenny is Group Executive Director of Governance, Company Secretary and Clerk to the Boards of London South East Colleges and London South East Academies Trust, a role she commenced in April 2019. Prior to this she was Group Executive Director of Corporate Services with strategic and operational management of key Group Corporate Services areas of IT, HR, MIS, Funding, Planning and Performance, Exams and administration services.
She has strong and proven governance, legal, project strategic planning and change management skills, leading and delivering on a number of governance, educational, curriculum, customer and information systems projects, including college mergers, business acquisitions and business process re-engineering.
She has significant management experience in both the public and private sectors with a career portfolio providing insight and knowledge of operational and strategic business and resource planning in most business services areas. Her career began in legal and company secretarial, transferring to the investment banking and financial services sectors where she worked for c20 years.
Jenny retrained as a Business and IT Teacher in 2001 and started her career in the FE Sector, progressing into a senior management role in Further Education. She has developed significant experience in charity, company and education governance and regulatory matters, including more recently working on charities and funding raising initiatives.
Since her move into the Governance Professional role for the Group, Jenny has achieved qualification status in the ICSA Diploma in Academies Governance, the NGA Clerking Certificate and the IoD Governance Professional Leadership Programme. She is a member of the Governance Institute, IoD and NGA. She is currently undertaking an ILM Coaching qualification.
She is the Group Data Protection Officer for London & South East Education Group.