Our Trustees
Trustees oversee the performance of our academies and report to the Members. They hold overall responsibility for governance across all academies. This includes:
- Holding executive leaders to account for the educational performance of the school
- Overseeing the financial performance and making sure money is well spent
- Setting the strategic direction of the Trust
Our trustees are:
Kevin Crompton - Chair
Kevin is a former teacher in London, having worked in various roles in local authorities, been adviser to the Teacher Training Agency on Teacher Standards, held senior roles in Birmingham Education Department, was Director of Children’s Services in Solihull and Bedford, and Chief Executive for Luton and Haringey local authorities.
Martin Conlon
Martin, until his recent retirement, was Vice President, Internal Audit Services at Delphi Technologies PLC. During a 42-year career in the automotive/auto components manufacturing sector, he held other Finance leadership positions at Delphi Automotive Systems, General Motors, and Vauxhall Motors. This included expatriate assignments in Germany, United States, Thailand, Japan & Singapore. He has previously served on the Board and Audit Committee of West Herts College in Watford. Martin has no direct link with the East Midlands Academy Trust schools, as his own children are now starting out on their own careers, but he is motivated by the knowledge that access to excellent quality education is critical to every child fulfilling their potential.
Chris Hallmark
Chris has over 30 years’ experience in management and consulting across sectors as varied as manufacturing, financial services, utilities, healthcare, education and entertainment.
Chris is a specialist in operations and service across both the public and private sector, having worked with a wide range of leading brands and public bodies from board level to front line operations. He has led multi-million pound programmes of up to 50 consultants, designing and delivering operations and customer experience transformations. He semi-retired in 2023 and now devotes his time largely to support for the charity and education sectors. He has been a supporter of the charity Pilotlight for 3 years and joined the board of East Midlands Academy Trust in January 2024.
He is married, lives in Bedfordshire and plays bass guitar in a rock covers band to keep himself sane.
Stephen Morales - Vice Chair
Stephen’s career experience spans 30 years leading operations and change management in the public and private sector, including international roles. Currently, Stephen holds the position of CEO at the Institute of School Business Leadership. His responsibilities include advocating on behalf of the profession, creating the conditions for continuous improvement, providing confidence in the SBP workforce and contributing to discussions related to system-wide education policy reforms and implementation. In 2009, Stephen was awarded National School Business Manager of the Year. In 2015 and 2017 respectively, Stephen was invited to the Queen’s Garden Party and then the Queen’s 90th Birthday celebrations in recognition of services to education.
Kate Whittlesey
Kate is an Independent Education Consultant specialising in SEND and Whole School Improvement and Director at The SEND Advisory Team.
Kate has experience of working across all age ranges of education – from birth through to post 16. She has vast experience including SEND leadership working with MATs across the UK and directing regional SEND provision, large SEND strategic roles, local authority SEND advisory roles, regulatory board, SENCo and MAT trustee.
Throughout her experience Kate has developed a positive reputation in driving sustainable positive change, having successfully worked with schools from those in need of rapid improvement through to Outstanding. Kate carries out whole MAT/ school SEND reviews, coaching and mentoring, SEND training, and strategic SEND lead consultation work across the UK.
Gemma Everatt
Gemma has spent nearly 20 years working in retail across the UK. Leading large eCommerce teams in cross-functional complex businesses across all areas of digital inc trading, digital marketing, content and product.
Most recently joined Huel as Digital Director, leading their D2C business internationally. Previously having held leadership roles at M&S, Next and Holland & Barrett.
Roheel Ahmad
Roheel is the co-founder and managing partner of a global talent firm established in 2016. Under his leadership, the company has become one of the world's fastest-growing, bootstrapped talent firms, challenging the status quo in the recruitment industry.
With a background in law, holding an LLB degree from Kingston University, Roheel has extensive experience in recruitment and talent acquisition. His career includes co-founding Forsyth Barnes and FB Consultancy, both focused on providing tailored talent solutions to businesses. He has also held roles such as Divisional Lead at Maclean Moore Consulting and Principal Consultant at Lawrence Harvey Search & Selection.
Roheel brings his expertise in strategic direction and client relationship management to the EMAT board in support of our continual focus on educational excellence.
Nick Bell
Biography to follow
Trustees appointments, attendance and interests
