Woodard Trustees

Bishop John Inge is the former 113th Bishop of Worcester from 2008 – 2024. He was the chief pastor of the Diocese of Worcester, and provided episcopal oversight to the Diocese, working with his colleagues, both lay and ordained, locally and nationally, to shape the life of the whole Church and Nation through the Good News of Jesus Christ and, in so doing, proclaim God’s Kingdom.

He was introduced to the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual in 2012, and has a particular interest in Culture and Heritage, International Development, and Media and Communications. Bishop John is Chair of the Archbishop’s Examination in Theology and has previously Chaired the College of Evangelists. In September 2014 he was appointed lead bishop for cathedrals and church buildings and in February 2013, he was appointed Lord High Almoner to Her Majesty the Queen.

Bishop John Inge attended Kent College in Canterbury and then studied for a BSc in Chemistry at Durham University. He later studied there for an MA and PhD in Theology. After completing a PGCE at Oxford University, Bishop John taught Chemistry at Lancing College in Sussex before studying at the College of Resurrection, Mirfield and becoming ordained deacon in 1983 and, the following year, ordained priest in the Diocese of Chichester.

Bishop John was appointed as chaplain at Lancing College and then Harrow School, where he also continued to teach. After this, he spent six years as vicar of St. Luke’s Church – an inner-city church on Tyneside – before moving to the Diocese of Ely in 1996 where he became Residentiary Canon of Ely Cathedral, with responsibility for education and mission. He became Vice Dean of the Cathedral in 1999 and Bishop of Huntingdon in 2003.

He has written a number of books and ‘A Christian Theology of Place (Ashgate, 2003)’ was shortlisted for the Michael Ramsey Prize for Theological Writing. And he has also published many articles and reviews.

Bishop John is Trust Protector of Common Purpose, an international organisation that helps people in leadership and decision-making positions in the private, public and voluntary sectors to be more effective in their own organisations, in the community and in society as a whole.

Bishop John has been the President of The Woodard Corporation since 2017.

Dr Eve Poole OBE Chairs the Woodard Corporation. She was Interim CEO of the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland (2023-2024) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2022); Third Church Estates Commissioner (2018-2021); and Chairman of Gordonstoun (2015-2021).

She has degrees from Durham (BA), Edinburgh (MBA), and Cambridge (PhD).

Andrew is a Clerk in Holy Orders, a priest, in the Diocese of Ely, and curate at the University Church. Prior to ministry, he worked in both the independent and state education sectors, with over a decade in school leadership, both as a principal and as the executive director of a multi-site Church academy, serving some of the most deprived and challenging communities in both London and the North East.

He has served as a Director of the Future Leaders Trust, having been in the first cohort of the programme. He served on Heads’ Advisory Groups for Teach First and Teaching Leaders, completed the Future Leaders / Church of England MAT CEO course. He chaired the Association of Anglican Academy and Secondary School Heads. In a break from education, he worked in the airline industry as a market auditor and ran a travel company.

Andrew holds an MBA from Durham and is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Arts and the Institute of Leadership and Management. Andrew is the Link Trustee for St Peter’s Church of England Academy. Andrew is the Vice Chair of our Board of Trustees and the Chair of the WAT Education Committee.

Howard Dellar is head of the Ecclesiastical Education & Charities Department at Lee Bolton Monier-Williams. He was educated at St Edward’s School Cheltenham and the University of Bristol where he studied Theology and Religious Studies, graduating with an MA in theology. He qualified as a solicitor in 1999 following a training contract with a firm in North Cornwall, and was an assistant solicitor in firms in Exeter and Oxford. He joined Lee Bolton & Lee in 2001, becoming an associate on 1 January 2003, a partner on 1 January 2004 and Senior Partner on 2 October 2020.

He is Registrar to the Dioceses of Ely, Guildford and Liverpool and is the Registrar of the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and is Deputy Registrar of the Diocese of Lincoln.

He is the solicitor to many charitable companies, Maintained schools, Academies, Independent schools and a number of Church of England Diocesan Boards of Finance and Education.

He advises the Church of England Education Office, the Whitgift Foundation and a number of Multi-Academy trusts.

He is also a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners and is an executor and trustee of numerous estates / trusts and has particular interest in cross-border succession issues with France.

He is secretary to the Bletchingdon Community Foundation and chair of The Bletchington Charity and of The St Mary Magdalen Oxford Restoration and Development Trust.

He is a member of the Ecclesiastical Law Society and the Charity Law Association and Chair of the Ecclesiastical Law Association.

Joanne Grenfell became the Bishop of Stepney in July 2019. Previously, Joanne was Archdeacon of Portsdown in the Diocese of Portsmouth, and before that Director of Ordinands and Residentiary Canon in Sheffield.  She has experience of outer housing estate and inner city parishes, chaplaincy, and cathedral ministry.

Before ordination, Joanne was Lecturer in English at Oriel College Oxford, where she completed a DPhil in English Literature, specialising in Edmund Spenser and cultural geography.  She also has an MA from the University of British Columbia, and a first degree from Oxford.  She trained for ordination at Westcott House.

Joanne’s interests include mission and strategic development, education, particularly school governance, public life, and poetry.  She is a Trustee of the Trust for London which tackles poverty and inequality in the capital.  In 2023 she was appointed the Church of England’s lead bishop for safeguarding, and her diocesan responsibilities include safeguarding and overseeing the Diocese’s social engagement ministry.

Graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Real Estate Management, Georgia undertook graduate training with Cluttons, the property consultants and Strutt and Parker, the surveyors and property consultants where she worked in their Landlord and Tenant team.  Georgia then moved to Nelson Bakewell, a managing agent in UK property, as a Property Manager working on such client accounts as Sainsbury’s and The Royal London Mutual Insurance Society.

In 2010 Georgia joined British Land, employed firstly as an Assistant Assert Manager working on the asset management of a £1bn, 13 acre, mixed-use campus in Euston including office space, retain space and community assets.  She also worked on the management of around £1bn of stand-alone commercial buildings.  Her role was varied and included oversight of development sites before and after construction and working through the closure of buildings and sites.

During this period, Georgia represented British Land on local Business Improvement Districts in the Baker Street Quarter, where she was the founding member and Vice Chair and the Marble Arch area where she was founding member.

Since 2019, Georgia has been an Asset Manager with responsibility for the financial performance of six buildings, with a combined value circa £2.5bn.  All the buildings are held as part of a Joint Venture and some are ‘securitised’, forming the base for interest-bearing securities.

Margaret was Headteacher of Bishop Stopford School, a Church of England converter academy for 16 years.  During this time, she was a National Leader of Education (and Bishop Stopford was designated a National Support School).

She was a member of the first Fellowship Commission of NLEs reporting to the Secretary of State, and she sat on the Secondary Heads Reference Group at the DfE for over 10 years.

Margaret is currently a director of the Woodard Corporation and sits on its Education committee. She is also a director of the Woodard Academies Trust, chairing the WAT’s Education committee.

Fiona studied for both a degree and performer’s diploma from Trinity College of Music before gaining her PGCE from Reading University. Fiona worked for many years in Shropshire schools, initially teaching primary years with music then becoming a specialist teacher and adviser on special educational needs and inclusion for the school and the county.

She joined Prestfelde in 2009 as director of teaching and learning and was later appointed Deputy Head serving under Mark Groome. After a wide search, and having made contact with 130 heads and deputies throughout the country, Fiona was appointed Head of Prestfelde when Mark decided to step down in 2016.

During her time as Head, Fiona supported local independent school members of the Independent Association of Prep Schools acting as the training officer and organising Continued Professional Development for the group. She used this as a platform to establish networking groups between the schools for different subject leads, including for Deputies and Marketing Registrars. This helped to break down barriers and develop a forum of greater trust and support between the schools in the district. Fiona was latterly also one of the joint Chairs of the Woodard Heads’ Association.

Since retiring, Fiona has been working part-time as an educational consultant.

Having left Oxford with a BA (and MA Oxon) in Literae Humaniores, William started his career with JP Morgan, working in corporate finance and capital markets. He then switched to media and spent 23 years at Haymarket, moving to the USA as Chairman and Chief Executive of Haymarket Media in New York for ten years.  Haymarket Media mainly focussed on business media in compliance, healthcare, information security and various aspects of pr and marketing. 

William then became a Partner at Isis Venture Partners in New York, and director of Manhattan Media, which included New York newspapers, political, luxury and family magazines, events, and digital media.

Returning to London, in 2016 William became non-executive Chairman of Real Response Media, a specialist publishing and information business in the aviation, travel and cruising sector. He also became a trustee of Woodard Academies Trust (WAT) and was Chair of the Finance & General Purposes Committee.  Following the departure of senior executives, William was asked to step down as a trustee to become the Senior Director managing the group in 2019.  During this period WAT developed and implemented a new structure and new financial management, while new senior staff were recruited to take the trust further forward. William is also halfway through his MA in Modern History.

Sally’s background is as a solicitor. Having read Law at Oxford University she worked in private practice for over 16 years (Travers Smith Braithwaite, Stephens Innocent and Eversheds LLP) as well as in-house for the auctioneers Christie’s. She has a broad range of experience in commercial matters, governance, art, charity, and education law.

She then indulged her passion for art by completing an MA in history of Art at York University whilst working for the Public Catalogue Foundation cataloguing all the oil paintings in public ownership in North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, and County Durham. In more recent years she has used her legal skills to support a number of charities in the education and arts sectors.

She was Chair of Governors at Polam Hall School from 2010-2017, a period which saw the school change from being an independent school for girls to a coeducational free school which joined the Woodard Academies Trust in April 2017. Sally was Chair of Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books for many years and her 9-year tenure as an independent Governor and Deputy Chair at Northumbria University has recently come to an end. She is a Trustee at Kiplin Hall, a Jacobean Manor House in North Yorkshire. Sally is the Chair of our Board of Trustees.