Our Trustees

Joe brings Parentkind invaluable expertise in fundraising, research, communications and governance. He founded charity research consultancy nfpSynergy in 2003 after a spell chairing the Institute of Fundraising and holding senior roles at RNID, Brann and Oxfam. He was also co-founder and chair of CharityComms for eight years. A Father of three, Joe has also chaired a PTA in the past.

Joe joined the board in June 2015.

Joni is currently the interim director for NUS Wales. She is a leader and manager in the charity and education sectors with roots in journalism. A mother of two young children, Joni has recently returned from a career break during which she served on boards both as a charity trustee and chair for UNA Exchange - a Welsh charity that builds youth global citizenship through international volunteering. Joni has also been a council-appointed governor for one of the largest primary schools in Cardiff.

Steve brings a wealth of knowledge from a wide range of roles across the private, public and not for profit sectors. His extensive experience embraces a people centric approach to strategy development, organisational development, change management and operational and services delivery. His focus throughout his senior management career has been one of aligning an organisation and its people to deliver its strategy in a way that achieves the best outcomes for its beneficiaries, customers and stakeholders. People and their development is one of Steve’s passions and the reason for his wanting to be a trustee for Parentkind.

Ellen is the Director of Children and Families at NatCen, the UK’s leading social research organisation. Before joining NatCen in 2019, Ellen was Chief Executive at Coram Family and Childcare, having initially served there as Director of Programmes and External Affairs. She brings over 15 years of experience in service delivery, policy, communications and public affairs, including positions at The Children’s Society, The National Autistic Society, Hill & Knowlton and in Parliament. Ellen has also served as a School Governor and a Trustee.

Since 2017, David Hatchett has been the National Director of Secondary Schools for Academies Enterprise Trust, one of the country's largest school groups, where he has responsibility for 21 schools in England. Prior to this he held a number of senior and executive level roles for another national multi-academy trust (MAT) which included responsibility and accountability for a number of primary and secondary schools in London. David is a qualified and experienced teacher, school inspector, project and programme manager and holds a Masters degree in Education.

During his career he has been a Deputy Director of Education, National Director for Quality Assurance, Interim Principal and a Regional Director of Education. Prior to working in the MAT sector, David led a number of high-profile national and international assessment programmes at Pearson, including tests taken by 1.3m pupils each year. David's experience also includes many years of leading and participating in Ofsted inspections, co-authoring a series of textbooks and leadership roles in schools and as an English examiner.

David is a passionate volunteer and has been involved in volunteering in some form continuously since he was at university. He has been a governor, including Vice Chair, on a number of school governing boards in north and east London, an NHS health trust board and is a trustee of a rapidly improving academy in Middlesbrough. Until recently, he spent 12 years sitting on the Board of a successful sixth form college in east London and played a key voluntary role during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Rob is currently a director of TPP Recruitment, an NfP sector consultancy where he has over 20 years' experience running Executive and Non-executive searches. He has a long history of volunteering including six years’ trustee/Chair with the national parenting charity NCT, and four years as Director of an Academy Trust that opened Ealing Fields High School in 2016. A father of two school aged children, Rob is on the board of Mind in Barnet and a small educational charity supporting a school for slum children in India.

Rob says "Parentkind is hugely ambitious and plays to my desire for parents to be the best they can be, providing children with the best possible support through their early years."

Amanda is a charity professional with over 20 years' experience of successfully delivering high impact and profile programmes, partnerships and income for charities nationally and in London. Currently an independent advisor, Amanda supports a range of organisations with strategy, planning, fundraising, collaborations, and membership. She is passionate about helping charities thrive, and specifically brings fundraising, membership and external affairs expertise to Parentkind.

Amanda joined the board in June 2016.

Pat is currently the managing director of Starfish Mental Wellbeing. Pat brings a wealth of expertise to the board with over thirty years’ experience across the commercial and education sectors. As a former primary head teacher she provides a valuable perspective to Parentkind and is passionate about parents and carers having an influencing voice in education both locally and at policy level. Pat is a big picture thinker with a background in strategic brand consultancy before retraining to teach. In 2017 Pat tragically lost her son by suicide. This led her to set up Starfish, working with the education sector to improve mental wellbeing and create suicide-safer schools. She works tirelessly as an advocate; training, speaking and writing from her experience both as a mother and an educator.

Mos is a KPMG qualified chartered accountant. He has professional and commercial experience from large blue chip companies to medium sized and smaller entrepreneurial business. In recent years, he has taken on shorter-term strategic change assignments in schools in East Africa as well as in commercial and charitable businesses in the UK. Married with three grown-up children, Mos has been a PTA member as well as a Trustee at his childrens’ schools and brings with him a passion for education as well as strong financial and operational experience.

Partner for 22 years, recently appointed as Director of People & Organisation Capability & Knowledge of the employee-owned John Lewis Partnership. In addition, Jo leads the Organisation Change team and the Senior Business Partners responsible for organisation talent and capability planning as well as the successful delivery of people change into the business.

Jo works closely with the Partnership’s Executive Director, People and is part of the Partnership People Leadership Team. As part of this team, Jo supports the development of the Partnership’s People strategy and assures the effectiveness of the business operating model in order to deliver Principle 1.

In 1997 Jo joined the John Lewis Partnership as a Waitrose Retail Graduate Trainee having read Politics and Sociology at Warwick University. During her time in the Partnership she has held a variety of roles beginning in Waitrose branches before moving into Personnel. Jo has worked in roles in Learning & Development, Business Partnering, Organisation Effectiveness and as Personnel Director for Waitrose before moving into her current role.

Karen is Director of Operations at the Driver Youth Trust. Karen’s background is as a social researcher and she led research in the education sector for over ten years. Most recently, she was Head of Impact at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and Director of the Centre for Education Economics (CfEE). She is skilled in qualitative and quantitative research and has a passion for increasing and communicating the use of evidence in education with an aim of impacting on the lives and outcomes of young people. She is the founder of #UKEdResChat, a regular Twitter chat for those interested in all aspects of educational research. Karen is also a school governor and a mum of two.