Meet our Trustees

Alex is a prolific volunteer who is deeply committed to ensuring that all young people have the greatest opportunity to succeed, is passionate about the benefit of parental involvement within that journey and dedicates a large part of her life to furthering this cause. 

She has extensive experience of governance as a Chair and Trustee within large and small charities, including as a Trustee of Youth United Foundation, a Trustee of the Inspire and Achieve Foundation and as Chair of The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust. Prior to becoming Chair of Parentkind, Alex also volunteered as Chief Commissioner of England for The Scouts.

Alex is a successful entrepreneur with extensive experience of implementing and driving forward UK and international business strategies and change management with a hands-on and team-orientated attitude to leadership. She holds a BA (Hons) in Business Information Systems, an MA in Strategic Management and professional marketing qualifications.

Alex has previously been a member of the PTA in her children’s junior school and is currently a school governor in a school for young people with a broad range of special educational needs, from moderate/​severe to profound and multiple.

Alex joined the Board in July 2021.

With over 20 years’ recruitment experience, including 13 years running and growing a small business, Rob is now a freelance Career Coach and Talent professional currently managing search campaigns at Heathrow. He is focussed on supporting people to make positive changes in their careers and lives.

With many years in management and leadership positions in a metric-led sales industry, Rob brings a strong focus on value and impact. He has a long history of trusteeship including six years on the board of the National Childbirth Trust and four years as founding Director of the Ealing Fields Academy Trust which opened a high school in 2016.

A father of two school-aged children, Rob co-chairs the board of Mind in Enfield and Barnet, and a small educational charity, Acts of Hope, which supports children from slum communities in India.

He has brought this demonstrative passion for improving education and supporting parents to Parentkind since joining the board in January 2019.

An inspirational individual working at executive level with a unique set of skills and experience spanning 30 years across the rail industry with a passion for supporting the development of young people. Mark is driven to succeed, is highly motivational, with strong leadership and always looking for new challenges.

Mark is now a freelance consultant focused on the rail industry. His last role was as an executive director working for Network Rail, as the Supply Chain Operations Director responsible for £1b of expenditure annually and for delivery of the materials and logistics nationally.

Mark has worked at executive level for the last 15 years across the rail industry. He started his career under British Rail as a finance graduate, before qualifying as a chartered accountant (fellow) under Railtrack. Mark then embarked on an exciting career path leaving the finance profession behind, moving around the rail industry to acquire experience in leadership across sponsorship, operations and maintenance and customer service. Most recently, Mark is responsible for a large, shared service organisation, along with the delivery of complex technical services and highly complex national programmes to both Network Rail and the wider industry.

Mark has specific areas of expertise including transformational cultural change, sponsoring and delivering the safe service program across the directorate. Using his practical knowledge of safety along with his operational railway knowledge and wider ability to deliver change programmes, Mark has developed strong stakeholder management driving great collaboration and respect across the organisation.

Mark joined the Board in June 2022.

Victoria is a highly experienced executive-level Director and team leader, specialising in communications and corporate affairs. She has extensive experience in communications strategy, issues management and policy and PR campaigns, built throughout her career, alongside notable brand and commercial development experience.

She is currently the Director of PR for Smart Energy GB (SEGB), a major national Government-backed campaign that promotes the benefits of developing a smarter energy system for the UK, with smart meters at its core. As well as leading the organisation’s PR campaigning and communications work, she’s an active member of the Senior Leadership Team.

Before joining SEGB, Victoria spent nine years at ABTA, The Travel Association, first as Director of Communications before taking on wider commercial responsibilities as Director of Brand and Business Development. Alongside heading up the Association’s communications and PR work and acting as a regular spokesperson on behalf of the UK travel industry on a range of high-profile topics, she led the development of the Association’s commercial revenue streams. Earlier in her career she held a number of senior communications roles in Plcs including Future plc and BP plc. She began her career in communications consultancy.

As a mother of a school age child who started school during the pandemic, she’s experienced first-hand just how important the relationship between school, parents and children is and she’s passionate about helping to continue to give parents a voice in their children’s education.

Victoria joined the Board in June 2022.

Consola is an external relations and membership expert. She is experienced in building long-term and high profile corporate and government partnerships for membership organisations as well as creating new commercial opportunities in the private and public sector.

Consola is currently Director of Global Engagement at the English-Speaking Union, an international charitable membership organisation which supports young people to build the speaking and listening skills they need to thrive. Consola is responsible for the organisation’s international partnerships strategy in addition to stewarding a global community that values the power of shared language and global friendship.

Consola has a background in external relations. Before joining the ESU, she was Head of External Relations and Development at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, with responsibility for the end-to-end management of the IISS’s corporate members and sponsors. Prior to this she ran the external relations functions in a global association of universities as well as professional associations of management consultants and Michelin-starred chefs. Consola is also a governor at her local primary school.

Consola joined the Board in June 2022.

Elizabeth is a lawyer from California, a law professor in Paris, France, and an expert on child online protection. She is also the founder of DigitalParentingCoach.com, and an author and international speaker on digital parenting who researches solutions to empower parents to guide their children in the digital age. A mother of two teen boys raised in France, she and her family are thrilled to start a new adventure in the United Kingdom.

Currently, she holds the role of Senior Corporate Counsel at the LEGO Group, where she promotes responsible digital child rights, safety and wellbeing in parallel with responsible digital gaming and metaverse experiences. She is a Trustee at the Diana Award focusing on anti-bullying and child online protection. She is a member of the NSPCC Child Online Safety Taskforce and is regularly engaged in digital empowerment for families.

Prior to joining the LEGO Group, Elizabeth was an independent consultant for the Council of Europe (Children’s Rights and Education departments), Family Online Safety Institute (Digital Parenting), Microsoft (Digital Safety) and e‑Enfance (Child online protection). Elizabeth has a PhD in International Relations, a joint Law and Master’s degree from the University of California, Davis and an undergraduate degree from UCLA.

She is passionate about ensuring that children have safe and responsible online experiences that provide meaningful engagement, and she brings over 20 years’ experience in law, children’s rights and technology, digital citizenship education and outreach to Parentkind.

Elizabeth joined the Board in June 2022.

Jo is an energetic people professional with over 20 years’ experience. She is currently Group People Director at Sanderson Design Group, a UK based luxury interiors and manufacturing company.

She is passionate about building strategies and initiatives focused on maximising people’s potential and solving business challenges. She is a commercial People leader, with a focus on talent management, organisational development and culture change. 

Prior to Sanderson, Jo held People Director roles in FMCG business JDE Peets and aviation start-up Vertical Aerospace having developed her career in the John Lewis Partnership, most recently as People Director for Waitrose.

Outside of work, Jo is married to Brian and a mum of two beautiful boys, James and Isaac. Rufus the cocker spaniel completes the family. She enjoys singing, cooking, travelling and going for long walks in the country with friends. She is known for taking in a country pub on the way round to keep energy levels high!

David Hatchett has been a National Director at Academies Enterprise Trust since 2017, where he has had national responsibility for the secondary schools in the group and, since 2021, standards and quality across all primary, secondary and special schools.

Prior to this he held a number of senior and executive level roles for another national multi-academy trust (MAT). David is a qualified and experienced teacher, school inspector, project and programme manager and holds Masters degrees in Education and Executive Management (MBA).

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 in England each year. David’s experience also includes many years of leading and participating in school inspections, co-authoring a series of textbooks, and teaching and leadership roles in schools.

David is a passionate volunteer and has been involved in volunteering in some form continuously since he was at university. He is currently a trustee at the English-Speaking Union, and has previously been a governor on a number of governing boards including a successful sixth form college, an NHS health trust board and a Chair of trustees of a rapidly improving single school trust in Middlesbrough. David also played a key volunteering role during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

David joined the Board of Parentkind in June 2020.

Pat brings 30 years of experience as a leader in both the commercial and education sector to her role as a trustee. A former primary headteacher, she is passionate about humanising the experience of education for students and teachers including the effective involvement of parents. She is currently working as a pastoral consultant and well-being leadership coach across the education sector. A best-selling author, she is a regular speaker at national conferences. 

Pat spent 16 years specialising in brand strategy and innovation before retraining as a primary teacher, taking her school to outstanding. After losing her son to suicide, she supports education leaders, teams and families to learn vital skills in supporting mental health, well-being and suicide prevention. She is also a member of the North Yorkshire Suicide Prevention Strategy Group and a co-founder of the Yorkshire Speak Their Name CIC.

Pat is a Mental Health First Aid and is ASIST qualified (Applied Suicide Prevention Skills). She believes in maximising the conditions for joy and fulfilment in life and enjoys music, good food, great wine and even better, time with friends and family. 

Pat joined the Board in January 2019.

Steven is the head of external affairs at the Careers & Enterprise Company, a government funded organisation which improves the quality of careers advice and guidance for young people in England.

Steven has worked for more than two decades as a communications and external affairs professional and broadcaster, reporting on major news stories and advising senior leaders on media relations, crisis communications, reputation management and policy change. Steven spent 16 years at the BBC before moving into external relations.

Most recently he was head of media and public affairs at the royal society for arts, manufactures and commerce (RSA), and before that he led the external affairs work at the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), the largest professional body for school leaders in the UK.

Before joining the Parentkind board in June 2022, Steven was chair of governors at a single academy trust primary school in Kent.