trustees and members

Ron Packard is the CEO and Founder of Pansophic Learning, a global technology-based education company. Packard is a well known educator, entrepreneur and visionary as well as the author of the highly regarded and reviewed book, Education Transformation. Packard was previously the long-time CEO and Founder of K12 Inc. He oversaw the growth of K12 from just an idea to almost one billion dollars in revenue, making it one of the largest education companies in the world. During his tenure, revenue compounded at near 80%. Before K12, Packard was the Vice President of Knowledge Universe and CEO of Knowledge Schools, one of USA’s largest early childhood education companies. He was also instrumental in the successful investments in Learn Now, Children's School USA, Leapfrog, TEC, and Children's Discovery Center.

Packard also worked for McKinsey & Company and for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions. Packard has received the Education Industry Association's James P. Boyle Entrepreneurial Leadership Award, as well as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the IT Services & Solutions category in Greater Washington. The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business named him a Distinguished Alumni, and he also received an Outstanding Leadership Award from the United States Distance Learning Association. He sits on the Digital Learning Council. Packard previously served on the Department of Defense's Education Advisory Committee. Packard has been featured on nationwide radio and television shows and magazines, including Bloomberg TV, Forbes, and the Washington Post to name a few. He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, both with honours.

Geoff held a number of senior management positions during the course of his 35 year business career, working with both the private and public sector. His involvement with Aurora began in 2013 when he was appointed as a Trustee and then chair of the Crawley Free School Trust (CFST) which established The Gatwick School and oversaw its opening in September 2014. Following the merger of CFST with Aurora Academies Trust (AAT) in 2016, Geoff was appointed as a Member of AAT where he is jointly responsible for assessing if the Board of Trustees is performing well and ensuring that the charitable object of the trust is being fulfilled. In addition to his role with Aurora, Geoff's voluntary work in the community includes being a trustee of a local Citizens Advice organization, being a school governor, and tutoring pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds in GCSE Maths.

Julie is Acting Principal and Chief Executive at North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot). Prior to this she was Deputy CEO at Chichester College Group. Julie is also Chair of Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership and Catalyst South (a grouping of the six South East LEPs). Julie has a background in marketing and economic development and is passionate about skills and employability. She is pleased to be a Member at Aurora Academies Trust and is particularly interested in ensuring progression opportunities for young people to develop their skills and future career pathways.

Tony has worked for over 33 years in policing, working in Sussex Police and then retiring from Kent police in 2021 as the Deputy Chief Constable and being awarded the Queen’s Policing Medal for distinguished service in 2020. He currently works for the National Police Chiefs Council as the Chief of Staff for the Digital, Data and Technology Coordinating Committee. He has been involved in school governance for the last 15 years, starting out at Sidley Community Primary School as a community governor, becoming the Chair and leading the transition into the Aurora Academy Trust and move to become Glenleigh Park Primary Academy. He served as an Aurora trustee for 11 years and as the Local Academy Board Chair for Glenleigh Park. He stood down as the Chair of the Aurora Trustee Board in 2023 and continues as a Member in support of the schools in the Trust.

Martha has over fifteen years’ experience of providing legal advice to schools and education institutions. After seven years as a solicitor in London with two leading education law firms, Stone King and Veale Wasbrough Vizards, she moved to an in-house role as company solicitor for a large education and training group with a turnover of over £80m. She is currently Executive Vice President of Pansophic Learning responsible for its international schools including the International School of Berne in Switzerland, where she serves on the board. Martha is a Fellow of the RSA and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Educators.

Ron Packard is the CEO and Founder of Pansophic Learning, a global technology-based education company. Packard is a well known educator, entrepreneur and visionary as well as the author of the highly regarded and reviewed book, Education Transformation. Packard was previously the long-time CEO and Founder of K12 Inc. He oversaw the growth of K12 from just an idea to almost one billion dollars in revenue, making it one of the largest education companies in the world. During his tenure, revenue compounded at near 80%. Before K12, Packard was the Vice President of Knowledge Universe and CEO of Knowledge Schools, one of USA’s largest early childhood education companies. He was also instrumental in the successful investments in Learn Now, Children's School USA, Leapfrog, TEC, and Children's Discovery Center.

Packard also worked for McKinsey & Company and for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions. Packard has received the Education Industry Association's James P. Boyle Entrepreneurial Leadership Award, as well as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the IT Services & Solutions category in Greater Washington. The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business named him a Distinguished Alumni, and he also received an Outstanding Leadership Award from the United States Distance Learning Association. He sits on the Digital Learning Council. Packard previously served on the Department of Defense's Education Advisory Committee. Packard has been featured on nationwide radio and television shows and magazines, including Bloomberg TV, Forbes, and the Washington Post to name a few. He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, both with honours.

Mark has had several disparate careers in different industries including the performing arts, marine engineering, the construction industry and economic development. Persuaded to apply his financial skills as a governor when schools were first given control of budgets in 1988, Mark has seen increasing professionalism in School Business Management since then. After working in that field himself, he now supports SBM’s across Sussex and Surrey for the RC Diocese in a part-time capacity. As a Trustee for City Academy Whitehawk, he agreed their becoming part of AAT where he is now a Trustee and chairs the Finance, Audit and HR Committee.

Brett is an international business management and marketing professional with a complementary career as an experienced non-executive and consultant director. Accustomed to operating at board and senior management roles for a range of businesses, professional membership groups, multi-nationals and charities. A member of the Finance Audit, HR and Risk Committee and active supporter of the wider Aurora Academies team since joining the Board of Trustees in 2019. Brett has a long held passion around education and its role is supporting and developing young people to reach their full potential.

Maria Szalay, Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer, brings over 20 years of strategy, operations and development capability to Pansophic Learning. Ms. Szalay joined K¹² in 2000 and was instrumental in growing K1 2 from a pre-revenue start-up to a $900 million public company. In this time, she served in a variety of roles including product management, product development, operations, strategy, and corporate development.

Prior to joining K¹², Ms. Szalay served as practice director at Operon Partners, an e-business consulting firm. At Operon Partners, Ms. Szalay led consulting teams assisting clients with turnkey eBusiness strategy, product management and business transformation consulting services. She worked directly in client organisations developing business plans to obtain funding, and also assisted with the implementation of online initiatives, with specialized expertise in integrating these solutions with their brick-and-mortar business.

Prior to joining Operon Partners, she worked at Telecom New Zealand rolling out the company's Online Solutions business, where she was instrumental not only in developing the online strategy and implementation plan for Telecom Broadband, but also in executing to the implementation plan. Prior to that, Ms. Szalay worked for eight years as a management consultant at KPMG, assisting clients with systems implementations, product marketing and placement initiatives, including new product and service launches.

Ms. Szalay started her career at Shearson Lehman. She holds a BS/BA from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and an MBA from American University.

Adam has over 25 years of experience in the education sector. He founded Schole, a chain of low cost private schools in East Africa, in 2012. Previously, he spent eight years as CEO of youth leadership charity Changemakers, where he helped over 10,000 young people to reach their leadership potential, and advised Prime Ministers Brown and Cameron on education and youth policy. Adam has held non-executive roles for a wide range of educational organisations, including the General Teaching Council of England, the Teaching Regulation Agency and Chair of Governors of a secondary school in Hertfordshire. He was named in the Social Index, which celebrates entrepreneurs running businesses with a social purpose, in 2019, 2021 and 2022. Alongside his work in the education sector, Adam is Artistic Director of award winning theatre company OVO.

Stuart has been in education for over 30 years and has extensive leadership experience. Over his career, he has been the headteacher of three large secondary schools and one all-through school, and he has been executive director of education across a large secondary and 4 primaries in a large multi academy trust. Stuart is a champion of comprehensive education and inclusion and he believes in ethical leadership. He has performed many governor roles, including the chair of governors at his local primary and he currently chairs AAT’s Education Standards and School Performance Committee. Stuart is the Chief Executive Officer of a small multi academy trust in Kent.

Claire has more than 29 years of leadership experience in the Financial Services sector working for Scottish Widows, Retirement Advantage, Canada Life and Aviva. She specialises in Operations, Strategic Change and Outsourcing. Throughout her career she has been accountable for a variety of areas including Customer Services, IT, Human Resources, Outsourcing, Procurement and Facilities. Her role as Outsourcing Director at Aviva includes leading teams across the breadth of the UK and India as well as accountability for a suite of global strategic partners delivering for over 6 million Aviva customers. She’s CEO of three Aviva entities, sits on the Board of several others and works as a coach and mentor within the business as well as for Women in Banking and Finance.

Charis Evans is an executive leader in the membership sector with over 30 years' experience of working with organisations that deliver and support education. In her current role as Managing Director of CST Professional Development, she oversees conferences, training and support services for school trusts. Prior to this, she was Business Development Director at the Chartered Governance Institute of UK and Ireland, with executive responsibility for its membership, commercial and outreach activities. She began her career lecturing in English and Communications in Further Education and has developed a life-long interest in teaching and learning across creative and leadership roles with education publishers, heritage organisations and start-ups. She has also served as chair of a school board, and co-founded a business to build children's confidence through art.