Tony has been involved in school governance for over ten years, formerly as Chair at Sidley County Primary School, Bexhill, before it became Glenleigh Park Primary Academy. He chaired the LAB and joined the Aurora Academy Trust Board from its start and now chairs the Board for the second time. He retires from his role as Deputy Chief Constable of Kent Police in 2021 (after previously working for Sussex Police for 26 years) and will continue to support the Trust with expertise in strategic management and governance. Tony passionately believes that all children should have a high quality education to enable them to achieve their potential.

Ron Packard is the CEO and Founder of Pansophic Learning, a global technology-based education company. Packard is a well known educator, entrepreneur and visionary as well as the author of the highly regarded and reviewed book, Education Transformation. Packard was previously the long-time CEO and Founder of K12 Inc. He oversaw the growth of K12 from just an idea to almost one billion dollars in revenue, making it one of the largest education companies in the world. During his tenure, revenue compounded at near 80%. Before K12, Packard was the Vice President of Knowledge Universe and CEO of Knowledge Schools, one of USA’s largest early childhood education companies. He was also instrumental in the successful investments in Learn Now, Children's School USA, Leapfrog, TEC, and Children's Discovery Center.

Packard also worked for McKinsey & Company and for Goldman Sachs in mergers and acquisitions. Packard has received the Education Industry Association's James P. Boyle Entrepreneurial Leadership Award, as well as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the IT Services & Solutions category in Greater Washington. The University of Chicago's Booth School of Business named him a Distinguished Alumni, and he also received an Outstanding Leadership Award from the United States Distance Learning Association. He sits on the Digital Learning Council. Packard previously served on the Department of Defense's Education Advisory Committee. Packard has been featured on nationwide radio and television shows and magazines, including Bloomberg TV, Forbes, and the Washington Post to name a few. He holds a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago, both with honours.

Christine Bayliss joined the Board of Aurora Academies Trust in 2016. She has had a long career as a civil servant working mainly on education policy for the Department for Education in London. Christine has worked on several central government programmes to raise education standards and was the lead official on the London Challenge programme ‘Keys to Success’. This programme was responsible for developing innovative ideas around peer-to-peer school improvement support which went on to be one of the founding principles around the Multi Academy Trust model of delivery. During her time as a civil servant Christine spent time working for Manchester City Council as head of Strategy and Performance in the Education Department.

She left working for central government in 2015 to set up her own education consultancy which specialises in bidding for new schools, academy conversations and advising on effective school and academy governance. She is currently working as an interim CEO of a Single Academy Trust based in Brixton London. Christine lives in Bexhill-on-Sea with her family and is a member of Rother District Council.

Mark has had several disparate careers in different industries including the performing arts, marine engineering, the construction industry and economic development. Persuaded to apply his financial skills as a governor when schools were first given control of budgets in 1988, Mark has seen increasing professionalism in School Business Management since then. After working in that field himself, he now supports SBM’s across Sussex and Surrey for the RC Diocese in a part-time capacity. As a Trustee for City Academy Whitehawk, he agreed their becoming part of AAT where he is now a Trustee and chairs the Finance, Audit and HR Committee.

Stephen has been involved in school governance since 2009. Originally joining as a parent governor of a local board, he has since then been chair of governors, chair of an academy trust and now enjoys serving the Aurora group of schools as a Trustee with particular responsibility for Safeguarding. Three of Stephen’s children are currently attending City Academy Whitehawk.

Stephen has a background in community development mainly outworked through his role as a church pastor. He is passionate about education and the central role that schools play in the community.

Maria Szalay, Cofounder and Chief Operating Officer, brings over 20 years of strategy, operations and development capability to Pansophic Learning. Ms. Szalay joined K¹² in 2000 and was instrumental in growing K1 2 from a pre-revenue start-up to a $900 million public company. In this time, she served in a variety of roles including product management, product development, operations, strategy, and corporate development.

Prior to joining K¹², Ms. Szalay served as practice director at Operon Partners, an e-business consulting firm. At Operon Partners, Ms. Szalay led consulting teams assisting clients with turnkey eBusiness strategy, product management and business transformation consulting services. She worked directly in client organisations developing business plans to obtain funding, and also assisted with the implementation of online initiatives, with specialized expertise in integrating these solutions with their brick-and-mortar business.

Prior to joining Operon Partners, she worked at Telecom New Zealand rolling out the company's Online Solutions business, where she was instrumental not only in developing the online strategy and implementation plan for Telecom Broadband, but also in executing to the implementation plan. Prior to that, Ms. Szalay worked for eight years as a management consultant at KPMG, assisting clients with systems implementations, product marketing and placement initiatives, including new product and service launches.

Ms. Szalay started her career at Shearson Lehman. She holds a BS/BA from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and an MBA from American University.

A forward thinking and strategically aware executive director with 13 years of senior leadership experience in an outstanding secondary school. Leading south-east regional NQT provision through a network of teaching school alliances, coordinating an area-wide Education Improvement Partnership (EIP) in conjunction with more than 40 schools (across three academy chains, four federations and in conjunction with the local authority), building effective partnerships to develop professionals and improve student outcomes. Previously a senior lecturer in education at the University of Brighton with responsibilities in graduate and post-graduate supervision, ITT and PGCE, and now an associate with the Institute of Education (UCL), leading ECF provision nationally and NPQ delivery. Twenty five year pedigree as an outstanding teacher in the primary and secondary sectors.

Consultation and evaluation activities based in education, the arts and wellbeing. Research role and research supervision for Rother Education Improvement Partnership and Rother TSA. Research papers written for National College, University of Brighton, HRAEN and the Laurel Trust. Leader and supervisor of practitioner research in EY and secondary education. Currently a research reviewer for BERA.

Served as a governor in secondary and primary sectors, most recently as chair of governors in a thriving primary school and now governor overseeing headteacher performance management and curriculum at a Catholic primary school which has moved successfully from RI to Good.