Welcome to our new Chair of Trustees: Catherine McGuinness CBE

With Gaenor Bagley stepping down [https://www.tkat.org/news/news/item/193/thank-you-gaenor], we are all delighted to welcome Catherine McGuinness CBE as our new Chair of Trustees.

Catherine brings a wealth of skills and insight from her twin track career as a financial services lawyer and an elected member of the City of London Corporation, and she was awarded her CBE for services to the financial sector and to education inclusion.

Catherine said: "This is an exciting time for Kemnal schools, with our new CEO, our new strategy, and our drive to shift the dial for our pupils. I was attracted by Kemnal’s commitment to the communities we serve, pastoral care for pupils, and concern for staff, for example with the wish to be the best trust to work for. There is real ambition to ensure that we do what it takes for every one of our pupils to succeed."

Catherine also has broad and significant non-executive experience. She is currently on the board of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and an independent member of Council at City St George’s, University of London. Catherine has chaired City Academy, Hackney; the Guildhall School of Music & Drama; the Barbican Arts Centre; and the City of London Academies Trust, which the Sutton Trust has previously named as the best performing Trust for the achievement of less advantaged pupils.

Catherine said: "One of my priorities as the new Chair is to ensure that all of us involved in the governance of Kemnal, whether centrally or locally, work together to provide the most appropriate support and challenge to help our staff (teaching, central and otherwise) deliver the best for our pupils and communities. There's an ongoing debate across the sector on how to make best use of the different layers, and I would like to see us develop a model which really works."