Our Members & Trustees

Chair

John is a former senior manager in Aviva’s Legal function. He has extensive experience in areas including strategic planning, leading and developing teams of professionals, change management, business improvement and procurement.

He was an early member of the Law Society’s Law Management section and actively engaged in developing the Law Society’s Lexcel quality standard for in-house legal teams. John also has many years of governance and school improvement experience.

Vice Chair
Chair of Governors at Hellesdon High School

Mary has been a manager at Norfolk County Council for over 30 years. She has management experience of finance, managing premises, transport, school/academy governance and child employment. More recently, Mary and her team are working alongside public health colleagues in Norfolk’s response to Covid and in supporting school leaders, in a variety of settings, from early years to higher education. Mary has been volunteering as a governor for over 15 years and in addition to being Vice Chair of The Wensum Trust, is Chair of Governors in a Local Authority maintained Primary school.

Edwin has been a school Governor and Trustee for 16 years in both primary and secondary phases. This includes several years of Chairing various governing bodies. Prior to retirement, Edwin worked for 34 years at Bernard Matthews in a variety of IT and Logistics roles including director level posts.

Edwin also supports Take Our Hand, a local charity which helps young people through bereavement, as a Trustee and two of his local churches as Treasurer.

Daniel Thrower has been the CEO of the Wensum Trust since 2019. Prior to this he was the Primary Strategic Lead for the Trust and Headteacher at Arden Grove Infant and Nursery School for many years. Daniel guided the school to Academy status, one of the first infant schools in the region to do so. He is also a founding member of the Norfolk Schools and Theatre Royal Trust.  

Daniel has extensive experience of managing, resourcing and overseeing a successful school and Academy ensuring sustainability and long term investment.

 Mary Jane’s career in education includes teaching and leadership roles in secondary and primary schools. She worked for Norfolk County Council Children’s Services for 17 years and led the Inspection and Intervention Service before leaving to join the academy sector. Mary Jane became the Chief Executive Officer of the Diocese of Norwich Education and Academies Trust in 2017. 

The Trust had 34 schools across Norfolk and Suffolk covering primary and secondary phases. Since stepping down from this role, Mary Jane now undertakes consultancy work, coaching and projects, most recently to develop an organisational peer review framework for Diocesan Academy Trusts across the country. Mary Jane was an Ofsted inspector for 18 years. Mary Jane holds an MBA in Education Leadership.

Will is an experienced finance professional (ACA) with a background largely centred in financial services, insurance, and fintech. He has worked across finance operations and accounting throughout his career, playing key roles in several transformation projects.

Will is passionate about financial inclusion, particularly breaking down barriers through financial education.

He joins the Wensum Trust Board of Trustees to contribute his experience and professional expertise in support of the Trust’s mission.