Meet the central team
Central Team (ID 1108)
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Dr Craig AviesonChief Executive Officer
Dr Craig Avieson
Craig has a wealth of teaching, leadership and research experiences over many years and across a wide range of contrasting schools within Suffolk, Norfolk and East London. Amongst other roles, he has worked as a university lecturer, teacher and senior leader. Craig became a primary Headteacher in 2014 and worked on the DfE Future Leaders programme. He then moved onto an Executive Headteacher role overseeing two primary schools for a further five years, before joining Evolution Academy Trust in September 2021 as Director of Education, and becoming CEO in January 2023.
Craig has been a mentor and coach to aspirant and serving headteachers nationally, through the Future Leaders/Ambition Institute. Craig's focus is on ensuring primary education improves the life chances of all children, regardless of background. Craig is passionate about educational research and staff professional development across EAT. He also currently serves as an Ofsted Inspector.
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Helen WellsHead of Finance
Helen Wells
Helen brings a wealth of experience in the private sector working in accountancy practices, auditors and industry. She also has ten years of experience within the local authority education and academy trusts. Helen is Head of Finance and is responsible for all financial management in the Trust.
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Katie LawsonHead of Education
Katie Lawson
Katie has 18 years of experience in education, eight of these years as a headteacher. Her most recent role was as an executive headteacher of two large schools and as a school improvement partner, working alongside headteachers to drive up standards. She is committed to CPD and believe that this is the biggest driver to school improvement. She has worked with the Julian Teaching Hub as a lead facilitator for NPQH alongside completing her own NPQEL qualification. She has supported many senior and middle leaders in all aspects of their work, with a particular focus on school improvement planning, curriculum design and providing quality professional development.
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Luke DelderfieldHead of Operations
Luke Delderfield
Luke brings 18 years of experience of working in education and operations. This experience was gained at both universities and Multi-Academy Trusts.
Luke's role covers Estates, IT and Catering and this allows him to ensure that all of our schools are safe and inspiring places to learn and develop.
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Suzanne Lightwing-SmithHead of Human Resources
Suzanne Lightwing-Smith
Suzanne brings over 20 years of experience in HR Leadership roles from a variety of sectors. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Suzanne is responsible for the HR functions across EAT and has a particular passion for employee development and engagement, striving to ensure that all colleagues are enabled to be the best they can be, offering support, guidance and frameworks to ensure everyone can thrive in a supportive and ambitious culture.
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Angie ChusonisSafeguarding and Attendance Lead
Angie Chusonis
Angie brings to the Trust over 15 years of experience in a range of teaching and leadership roles within primary education. She has recently been a Deputy Headteacher and Designated Safeguarding Lead in a large primary school and this is where Angie really developed her passion for safeguarding and attendance. Angie enjoys working closely with our school colleagues to ensure that the culture of safeguarding and attendance provide the foundations for children to be safe, secure and thrive both personally and academically.
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Fiona TaylorCommunications Manager
Fiona Taylor
Fiona leads on communications and marketing activity for the Trust. She has worked in a range of sectors in communications roles, including charities, higher education and local publications. She holds a diploma in internal communications and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).
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Lisa BrockettExecutive Assistant to CEO
Lisa Brockett
Lisa provides administrative support to the CEO and central team. She has over ten years’ experience as an assistant in corporate environments and looks to build upon this within Education sector. Lisa brings a wide range of professional skills and experiences to her role and works closely with schools and central team colleagues.
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Paul TidmanEstates and Facilities Lead
Paul Tidman
Paul brings a wealth of experience to the role of Estates and Facilities Lead, having spent seven years as a site manager of a secondary school in Gorelston. Prior to that, Paul spent over 20 years managing multiple site teams across a number of holiday parks in Norfolk.
Paul supports our schools in raising our standards and accelerating our estate maintenance plans.
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Andrea RyanGovernance Professional
Andrea Ryan
Andrea brings a wealth of experience from her career in governance. Following a change of direction from a career in banking, Andrea joined the Local Authority Governance Support Service in Suffolk in 2008. Since 2014, she has worked across all sectors of school governance including at Trust Board level. Her role is to provide support and advice to ensure strong governance underpins the high expectations of the Trust. Andrea completed the National Clerks’ Development qualification in 2018.
Central finance team
- Finance Manager - Imogen Cheetham (FCCA) is a qualified accountant and has extensive experience working in Multi Academy Trusts.
- Senior Finance Officer - Marcia Hastings has many years of office and finance experience in both the public and private sector.
- Finance Officer - Maria Girdlestone has a wealth of school financial experience and is an integral part of the finance team.
- Finance Officer - Louise Smith brings over 20 years of finance experience to the team.