Foundation Staff
The Aldridge Foundation core team:
Honor Wilson-Fletcher MBE - Chief Executive
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Elizabeth Anderson - Head of Foundation Affairs & Executive Assistant to the Chairman
Alan Brooks - Head of External Affairs
Georgina Butler - Administrator
Christopher Carr - Public Affairs and Research Officer
Liz Dawson - Clerk to the Aldridge Academies
Jane Fooks - Academies Director (Portland)
Sophie Gaston - Entrepreneurship Manager
Marie Getheridge - Director of Education
Sally Lawson-Ritchie - Academies Director
Corrina O'Beirne - Academies Director (South)
Andy West - Director of Construction and Business Development
Sir Rod Aldridge - Chairman
A social entrepreneur with over 40 years experience in the public, private and third sectors, Sir Rod Aldridge established the Aldridge Foundation in 2006 to further the work of his charitable trust. As the entrepreneurial founder of the Capita Group in 1984 until his retirement in 2006, Rod led the company to become the market leader in the provision of support and professional services to the government and private sector in the UK. Today, the Capita Group is a FTSE 100 company. Prior to this he worked in local government for ten years. Rod is also Chair of v, the Lowry and Acorn Care and Education. He is a member of The Lab Board at NESTA, and a Non-Executive Director of Equiniti, and sits as a member of the Prince of Wales' Charities Council. Sir Rod was knighted in the New Year Honours List for 2012 for his services to young people.
For more information on Rod click here.
Honor Wilson-Fletcher MBE - Chief Executive
Honor Wilson-Fletcher joined The Aldridge Foundation as its first Director in January 2010. Previously she was at the National Literacy Trust, where she was appointed on behalf of the Deparment for Children, Schools and Families as Director of the 2008 National Year of Reading. She was awarded an MBE for services to Education in the New Year's Honours List 2009/10 for her work in that role. She stayed on at the Trust as Strategic Development Director until the end of 2009. She is now Chair of the Advisory Group and Trustee of the National Literary Trust.
Wilson-Fletcher has worked in the booktrade in a variety of roles – as Head of PR at Waterstone’s, Associate publisher at Transworld, Sales and Marketing Director at Hodder Children’s Books and in both sales and marketing roles at Penguin. She also worked in editorial with BOL.com, before joining the British Museum as Head of Marketing. She subsequently joined Southbank Centre as Director of Marketing to prepare for the re-launch of Royal Festival Hall and the Southbank Centre site. She has served as a member of the Literature Panel of the Arts Council of England, was an appraisal panel member for the National Theatre, has served as a board member for Booktrust, Poetry Book Society, The Edinburgh International Book Festival and The Reading Agency and is now a Member of the Public Programmes Committee for the Bishopsgate Institute. She has previously acted as a judge for the Guardian Fiction Prize and the Orange Prize.
Elizabeth Anderson - Head of Foundation Affairs and Executive Assistant to Chairman
Elizabeth is responsible for development and delivery of many Foundation projects. This includes the new Opening Eyes programme, which will see students taken on life-changing visits overseas. She works closely with WAWWD, and handles all dance-related projects run by the Foundation. In addition she manages the Foundation's events programme and the Foundation website. She is also Executive Assistant to Sir Rod Aldridge OBE, Chairman of the Foundation, and works closely with him on the project management and delivery for the Dance Champions Group. Elizabeth sits on the Dance Takes the Lead working group. In November 2011, Elizabeth won the first Woman of the Future - Public Service award from Real Business.
Elizabeth began her career at the CBI, where she worked for four years, assisting the President and Director-General. She recently graduated from LSE with BSc (Hons) International Relations completed in her own time, and is now studying MSc Corporate Communications and Public Affairs part time. She has a strong personal interest in climate change, and is the volunteer Government Liaison Officer for UK Youth Climate Coaltion, and sits on the Department of Energy and Climate Change Youth Advisory Panel.
Alan Brooks - Head of External Affairs
Alan manages the Foundation’s communications, public relations and marketing. His career spans marketing roles for Unilever and United Biscuits to being a director of business support organisation Sussex Enterprise, and then UK head of marketing for PwC’s Corporate Recovery / Advisory practices. He founded his own consulting business, specialising in reputation management on- and off-line, and has also been MD of a regional design and digital agency.
Alan is a Chartered Marketer and has served on the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s national marketing group board for business support organisations and as a Vice President of CIM Sussex.
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Georgina Butler - Administrator
Georgina completed her A Levels at Reigate College, studying Art and Design and Psychology. She went on to work in the catering industry whilst studying for a Fashion Btec certificate through evening classes, which is one of her main interests.
After completing a work placement for a major national magazine, she decided she wanted to pursue a career in administration, and Georgina joined the Foundation as the Administrator, providing support to the senior staff and ensuring the smooth running of the office.
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Christopher Carr - Public Affairs and Research Officer
Born and raised in the North East, following completion of his A-Levels Chris went on to read Politics at the University of York, graduating with Honours in 2009. Following graduation Chris would enter Local Government as a Policy Assistant with South West Councils. While exposed to a whole host of policy areas Chris would cultivate a particular interest in education, employment and skills. This would lead to a move to The Aldridge Foundation in August 2010 to take up the position of Public Affairs and Research Officer.
Chris combines his interest in this area with a variety of interests including sports and the outdoors.
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Liz Dawson - Clerk to the Aldridge Academies
Liz began her career in committee administration in the civil service before working for a number of professional membership organisations including the British Dental Association and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Before taking a career break Liz was Assistant Company Secretary at Marie Curie Cancer Care. She has also trained as a volunteer adviser with the Citizen's Advice Bureau and is currently in the final year of a part time LLB. Liz now acts as Clerk to all Aldridge Academies, including Darwen, Brighton and Portslade.
Jane Fooks - Academies Director (Portland)
Jane joined in June as our Academies Director for Portland, Dorset. She worked in the broadcast industry for twenty-three years, including running her own audio production company, before moving to Dorset and becoming involved in education. For the next ten years she operated at the forefront of business-linked education, delivering a wide range of innovative projects that enabled learners to develop their skills in a work-based context and encouraged Business & Industry to work in partnership with education in the local, national and international arena.
In 2008 the then Learning and Skills Council invited her to work with the schools on the isle of Portland, where she has lived since the late nineties, to develop a strategy to improve outcomes and opportunities for the community’s young people.
Sophie Gaston - Entrepreneurship Manager
Sophie manages Entrepreneurship for the Aldridge Foundation, and for 4 days of the weeks she is on the Senior Leadership Team at Brighton Aldridge Community Academy as their Director of Specialisms.
Sophie started her career as a Modern Languages teacher at a school in South London as part of the Teach First graduate scheme. The mission of Teach First is to address educational disadvantage by transforming exceptional graduates into effective, inspirational teachers and leaders in all fields. After 3 years of teaching, she worked for a management consultancy and has spent the last few years working in the charity sector on various projects in education. Sophie initally worked for ARK, helping to set up their School Leaders for India programme in Mumbai, and most recently headed up a national youth service for a charity based in London.
Marie Getheridge - Director of Education
Marie is the former Head of Writhlington School, where she developed a record of improving exam results at the school from 22% 5 plus A* to C grades to 98% 5 plus A* to C grades. Her school appeared in the Top 100 Most Improved Schools (SSAT) and in the DCSF’s Top 100 Schools. Writhlington's specialism is business and enterprise. Marie has completed an MBA (which she describes as the most valuable part of her education), as well as having a distinguished career in schools management and improvement – including working in Canada.
Sally Lawson-Ritchie - Academies Director
Sally began her career in Westminster and Whitehall before going on to work in public affairs consultancy. She joined Sir Rod when he was Chairman of Capita in 2005 to support his work on public service reform, and of his charitable trust, and left Capita to help him establish The Aldridge Foundation in August 2006.
Sally is the Foundation’s Academies Director covering two Academies sponsored by Sir Rod Aldridge. She has worked on the Darwen Aldridge Community Academy from inception to completion, working in partnership though a difficult public inquiry and building programme and supporting transformation of the predecessor school. Since opening in 2008, DACA has established sixth form provision in Darwen, substantially improved attainment and attendance, and established an Entrepreneurship Bridge in the heart of the Academy, which provides business back up and workspace for young entrepreneurs and members of the community.
Kensington Aldridge Academy is due to open in 2014 and will be the Foundation’s only Academy in the capital. KAA will specialise in high attainment, Entrepreneurship and Expressive Arts, working in partnership with elite educational institutions. Sally sits on the Schools Network's Academy Sponsors Advisory Council, and is also a member of the CBI Education and Children Services Panel.
Corrina O'Beirne - Academies Director (South)
Corrina is our second Academies Director, covering the Brighton & Hove area, having joined in August 2011. A masters graduate from Leeds University, Corrina began her career in purchasing, working with blue chip clients to support research and logistics development before moving into consultancy. She has extensive experience of working with a wide range of schools, local authorities and other public service organisation to provide specialist project support and ensure organisation have the leadership capacity they need to succeed. Working as a Senior Consultant at Tribal Resourcing and Navigate, Corrina developed a particular interest and specialism in school leadership consultancy working with clients across the educational landscape to provide HR support and guidance, implement marketing and recruitment strategies and broker improvement support.
Mary Sturley - Intern
Mary read History at the University of Warwick, where she went on to complete a PGCE in secondary History. Following completion of teacher training, Mary decided to broaden her work experience and consider pursuing a career in the charitable sector. She has a strong interest in education and is passionate about raising aspirations in young people. She applied to the Aldridge Foundation’s internship scheme, where her enthusiasm in these areas could be harnessed. She is hoping to learn more about the charitable sector, particularly about educational and community projects.
Beyond this area of interest, Mary also enjoys modern jive dancing and visiting museums.
Andy West - Director of Construction and Business Development
Andy works across all of our Academies and Academy projects.
Before joining The Aldridge Foundation, Andy worked for seven years as an Academies Project Lead at the DfE and he successfully led on over thirty academy projects across the country. Andy has extensive experience of working with a variety of Sponsors, Local Authorities, construction and project teams, on some of the most challenging projects within the Academies Programme.
Previously, Andy worked as a senior leader at Greig City Academy and was responsible for key areas of the transition. Andy specifically led on the coordination and development of new and refurbished buildings to meet the educational priorities of the new Academy.
Andy trained in Industrial Design and started work at the age of 22 as a professional designer for at WH Smiths. Andy is also a trained teacher, and subsequent posts included Head of School, Head of Technology, Head of Department. All his work has been focused in the areas of design, business, technology, ICT and education.
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