Governor Biographies

Bob Findlay was born in Canada but has lived in the UK since 1965. He joined Morgan-Grampian in 1969 and later became Managing Director of its main operating subsidiary and a Director of the public holding company. In 1974, he left Morgan-Grampian to start Findlay Publications.

A strong desire to help address manufacturing’s greatest constraint – its skills shortage – through persuading young people to pursue careers in engineering, led him in 1989 to donate £400,000 and lead a £1.6million project developing new curriculum programmes for the fledgling City Technology Colleges Trust. Concurrently he helped found and build the Kent TEC into a £30 million success delivering government training programmes. In 2006, he became Chair of Governors at The Leigh City Technology College in Dartford. In 2008, that became Leigh Academies Trust

Jeremy Kite has been Leader of Dartford Borough Council since 2006 and a Member of Kent County Council since June 2009, where he is a Deputy Cabinet Member.

Jeremy is a Director of Dartford Football Club and is involved with several local charities and groups. He has a particular interest in civic design and has worked with designer Wayne Hemingway on a housing development at The Bridge, as well as architect Ken Shuttleworth on the creation of the Dartford Dojo, and his Council was responsible for commissioning the ecological award-winning football stadium at Princes Park.

In 2015 he was appointed to the Board of Ebbsfleet Development Corporation by the Secretary of State. He was awarded an MBE in 2013.

Professor Martin Snowden has a background as a physical chemist with an international research profile in the area of colloid and polymer science as it relates to pre-formulation and formulation science. He has published over 120 original works, including a number of invited papers and reviews, and has a h-index of 38. Professor Snowden is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Professor Snowden also has very strong links with companies including Pfizer, Glaxo Smith Kline and BP, which have led to research sponsorship of in excess of £4 million supporting 25 post-doctoral researchers and 15 PhDs during his time at the University of Greenwich. Professor Snowden has served two terms as an editorial board member of the ACS journal, Langmuir, and is a past member of the EPSRC peer-review college.

After gaining his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Salford, he became a BP post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Bristol. Here he undertook a project with Professor Vincent on the preparation and properties of colloidal microgels, successfully translating technology from the university into BP Sunbury which, in turn, led to the filing of several patents and a number of publications in the area of tertiary oil recovery.

In 1993 Professor Snowden joined the University of Greenwich as a lecturer in physical chemistry, progressing to senior lecturer, Head of Department, appointed reader, and appointed professor in colloid and polymer science by 2003. He took up the post of Dean of the School of Science in September 2008 after a three-year position as director of research and enterprise and became Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Engineering and Science in 2012. Professor Snowden took on the additional responsibility of PVC International as a cross-University role in 2014.

Professor Snowden was the chair of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Science of the United Kingdom (2010-2012) and is a past member of the board of governors of the University of Greenwich.

Professional development: Professor Snowden has attended the Leadership Foundation Programmes in Preparing for Senior Strategic Leadership and Senior Strategic Leadership as well as attending a Leadership Foundation Programme for members of University Court.

Paul has been an elected County Councillor for Kent County Council for 20 years, representing the Maidstone Rural North ward. He was first elected in 1997 and appointed Leader of the Council in 2005. Paul also represents the County Council Network (CCN) for England as their Chairman. Prior to his election as Leader of KCC, Paul held the education portfolio and oversaw a massive school building modernisation programme as well as delivering substantial improvement in school standards. It is enormously pleasing now to see school attainment at all key stages above national averages in Kent.

Currently, as Leader of KCC, Paul has overseen massive change and transformation in the delivery of front-line services to residents of all ages and stages in Kent – having successfully delivered to the government’s austerity programme some £400,000,000 of efficiency savings within KCC’s budget. Currently Paul is spending a considerable amount of time in his busy schedule working on health and social-care integration and transformation; hoping to see the development of dramatically-expanding primary and community health and social services that support patients 24/7 and help reduce avoidable admittance into hospital, particularly among the elderly – “the team around the surgery supporting their patient in the community”.

Outside of his political career Paul has been a successful entrepreneur, with a business career spanning over 35 years, having established and run a number of highly-profitable businesses, primarily in construction, property and retail in Central London. Paul is married with three grown-up sons. His hobbies include competing in various aspects of motorsport.

Frank has a considerable reputation as one of the country’s leading educational thinkers, innovators and successful leaders.

Most recently he was National Schools Commissioner, 2013-2016, with oversight of all Academies and Free Schools. He established the Regional School Commissioners structure as part of the mechanism to co-ordinate and oversee the development of the academies programme. Prior to that he had been Chief Executive of Leigh Academies Trust from 2008, one of the first MATs, having created it from the original Leigh City Technology College, of which he was Principal from 1997.

From 1992 to 1997 he was the founding Head of The Lincoln School of Science and Technology, which was the very first specialist school and the model for that programme.

In 2013 he was appointed Commander of the British Empire for his services to education.

He is chairman of Challenger Multi Academy Trust (from 1 June), and also Vice chairman of Leigh Academies Trust, Chairman of King Richard School, Director of Shoreline Enterprises, and a Director of Challenger Trust.

Helen joined the Milestone Academy Board as a parent governor in March 2018, after her son started at the academy in September 2016. Before having children, she worked for eleven years in central government on a number of national education policies including the National Curriculum, school improvement and children’s rights. She has previously served as a governor of a large mainstream primary school for twelve years, the last four of which were as the chair of governors. Alongside family life, she also volunteers regularly for a small local charity that provides Makaton sign language support to families. She is delighted to be a member of the Milestone Academy Board.

Keith is the co-owner and Managing Director of the Kenard Group, a thriving and diverse organisation that specialises in subcontract precision engineering and manufacturing software technology.

He is incredibly proud of the Group’s success as a privately-owned business, supplying some of the world’s largest companies in aerospace, defence, and oil and gas, in what is a highly competitive market. Kenard continues to be actively involved with providing young engineers with the opportunity to gain the skills, qualifications and experience that they need to start their careers. The Group has been running apprenticeship programmes since the early 1980s and continues to support individuals through their studies, from NVQ, HNC and on to university.

As Theresa’s own children entered the world of education she became a governor of a local primary school, and subsequently Milestone Academy, over 25 years ago. As a result of her involvement with the two schools, she developed a passion for education and retrained as a School Business Manager, gaining employment in a local secondary school. The role immersed her in all aspects of school life, from new student applications and student welfare, through finance and HR, to managing significant building projects.

Having now retired, Theresa is able to support LAT in the drive to achieve its aims and objectives in a broader capacity that she finds both challenging and rewarding.

I became a parent Governor in 2015 because I was really keen to learn how a school is run from behind the scenes.

I also have a child with special needs who attends the school which made me even more curious to learn more.

Having a child with special needs means you automatically become their voice so I am therefore very passionate in ensuring the school maintains its high standards.

I am a semi-retired qualified accountant with a background in business and finance within the pharmaceutical industry. I have held a variety of operational and leadership roles across the business over many years. I have expertise in leading and managing cross functional teams and projects and in implementing business wide Risk Management and Governance processes. I have experience in Business Continuity Planning, Cultural Change and Lean Sigma. I have been involved with Leigh Academies Trust, in various capacities, for 9 years and have been a governor at Milestone Academy for 4 years.

I became a governor a year ago as I am committed to ensuring that children of every ability get the right support and care in school. I am currently a Registered Nurse (Adult) and have been qualified for 25 years; currently working as a Practice Placement Facilitator / Clinical Skills coach in a Clinical Education Team within an Acute Trust. Although I predominantly work with nursing students I am also involved with other students who have placements within the Trust offering support during their time within the organisation.

My experience in nursing has been varied both in the NHS and the private sector; in the UK and abroad. My specialism in Nursing is neurology and I have undertaken a variety of roles including management, specialist nursing and educational in both hospital and community settings. I have a BA and MSc in non-nursing subjects; archaeology and osteoarchaeology and have completed my PG Cert in Education and NMC Teacher award.

At home I am married and we have one son who is 7; who we adopted at age 3, and I have 3 step children all of whom keep us very busy.