Our Board of Trustees has overarching legal responsibility and accountability for Lift’s schools. Their role is to set and monitor strategic objectives, plus compliance with charity and company law and the Trust’s funding agreement.
Register of business interests
We hold register of business interests for all trustees & members and we are obliged to declare the interests of trustees & members on our website. The document can be viewed here: Register of interest
Board Attendance
For information on Trustee attendance of board meetings, click here.
Appointed Chair of Trustees on 1 September 2025, Alastair has extensive leadership experience in the professional services and education sectors.
Alastair is a qualified solicitor and he has been a partner and shareholder in a number of professional services organisations, including a 20 year long career with international law firm DLA Piper where he was Managing Director for Asia Pacific and Middle East, Global Board and Executive member.
Alastair is currently Chair of Council and Pro-Chancellor at the University of Leeds and he was a board member and Chair of Capital City College Group for 13 years, which grew to become one of the largest further education providers in the UK. He has also served on the Councils of the London School of Economics and the University of Sussex. Between 2018 and 2021, Alastair served as a Commissioner to the UK Government’s Social Mobility Commission and was lead commissioner for further education and adult skills.
Alastair was awarded a CBE in the 2025 New Year Honours list for services to further education.
Becks is the Chief Executive Officer of Lift Schools.
An experienced school leader, Becks was Director of Secondary at Ark Schools from 2017 to 2021. Prior to that, she worked for the Department for Education as Regional Schools Commissioner for south-west England. Becks also worked at Oasis Community Learning for eight years, initially as a Vice Principal and Principal in Bristol, before becoming a Regional Director and then National Education Director. Becks is a council member at the University of Exeter, and a trustee at Jamie's Farm.
Ann was editor of Tes (formerly the Times Educational Supplement) for seven years and editor of Times Higher Education for four years. She is on the advisory board of the Children’s Commissioner for England and the education advisory group of the Sutton Trust, and the European advisory board of Princeton University Press. She is a Trustee of the Reach Foundation, the Institute for Research in Schools and Project Earth. She is also a non-executive director of AD Education. She received an MBE for services to education in the New Year Honours 2021.
Natalie is Chief External and Communications Officer at AQA, the country's largest exam board.
Before joining AQA, Natalie was Chief Executive of the Education Policy Institute, the research charity she co‑founded in 2015. She previously spent over a decade as a civil servant in the Department for Education, leading work across early years, children’s services, school funding and the Pupil Premium. Natalie also worked in the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office during the Coalition government, advising on education and wider public policy including health and welfare reform.
She sits on the boards of two multi‑academy trusts, including Lift Schools, and is a Director of the Queen’s Street Group.
Deepak is a senior finance executive with 20 years of experience in the Financial Services industry, having held multiple finance roles prior to that across different industries. He is currently acting CFO for LCH which is part of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) where he has been working since 2019. Prior to that he spent 11 years at Barclays as a finance professional across the Retail and Investment Banking divisions. He has in-depth experience of M&A, Product and Customer Profitability, Financial Planning & Analysis and Capital / Balance Sheet management and partnering with businesses to drive responsible growth.
Originally from Delhi, he moved to London in 2007 and is a qualified accountant (CGMA).
Karen is a senior leader in children's services with extensive experience across safeguarding, service delivery, organisational change and strategic leadership. As Local Services Director at the NSPCC, she is responsible for leading services across the UK, ensuring that children, young people and families receive high-quality support that delivers meaningful and lasting impact.
Throughout her career, Karen has worked across a range of statutory and voluntary sector settings, leading large, geographically dispersed teams through periods of transformation while maintaining a strong focus on quality, safeguarding and outcomes. She is passionate about creating inclusive, psychologically safe cultures where colleagues can thrive and where innovation is encouraged in the pursuit of better services for children.
Karen brings expertise in governance, risk management, strategy development and organisational improvement. She has a particular interest in equity, diversity and inclusion and is an active supporter of initiatives that promote belonging, allyship and opportunity for underrepresented groups.
As a trustee, Karen is committed to using her experience to support organisations to achieve their strategic ambitions, strengthen governance and deliver positive social impact. She is driven by a belief that every child and young person deserves the opportunity to feel safe, heard and able to fulfil their potential.
Daniel has been an NHS Manager for over 30 years, joining the management training scheme in 1995 and has worked in acute, community, regional and commissioning roles. He has been an accountable officer since 2012, first for 5 Clinical Commissioning Groups in NW London and then CEO for Epsom and St Helier Hospitals NHS Trust. Between 2021 and 2025 Daniel was the CEO at London Ambulance Service NHS Trust before moving in April 2025 to the role of CEO of NHS Providers where he led their eventual merger to create NHS Alliance. Since April 2026 Daniel has been a Special Advisor to PPL, a social enterprise management consultancy specialising in working with the NHS, local government and civil society.
Pippa has spent 40 years focussing on large scale transformations and turnarounds across a wide range of industries and with a particular focus on retail and consumer goods businesses. She was a founding partner of AlixPartners in Europe in 2003. Pippa has led significant transformations and turnarounds including Courtaulds Textiles plc as chief financial officer, MFI plc as chief restructuring officer, Co-op Group as deputy CEO and most recently a executive director of John Lewis, part of the John Lewis Partnership. Pippa is also currently a non-executive director of Pinsent Masons, where she is chair of the audit, risk and assurance committee. Pippa is a trustee for The HALO Trust, sitting on their audit and finance committee. The HALO Trust’s key focus is helping communities recover after conflict, with the clearance of landmines, as well as dealing with unexploded ordnance, at the heart of the trust’s community work.
Sarah is a Partner at Perrett Laver, a leading global executive search firm where she has spent 15 years specialising in senior leadership appointments across purpose-driven sectors including higher education, science and research, healthcare, arts and culture, and government. Through advising on some of the most senior and complex appointments in these sectors - including vice-chancellors, board chairs, and chief executives of major research institutions and cultural organisations - she has developed a deep understanding of how mission-driven organisations function at the highest levels, their governance, culture, and the people dynamics that drive success.
Sarah has also previously held strategic and operational leadership responsibility as Regional Managing Partner, with P&L responsibility for the UK, Africa and Middle East region.
After leaving university, Nigel spent 7 years in industry and then returned to academia. As a mathematician he taught and researched in engineering, with close links into the aerospace industry, specifically aerodynamics and electromagnetics. He contributed over 300 research journal and conference papers and was editor of the International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids for 14 years. He then took on senior management and leadership roles in the universities of Swansea and Birmingham, including director of the National Higher Education STEM project. He was subsequently Vice-Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2011 to 2018 where he promoted the concept of a modern civic university. He has held honorary positions at universities around the world, including the United States National Science Foundation Engineering Research Centre in Mississippi and as scientist-in-residence to the Singapore Government Science, Technology and Research Agency, A*STAR.
Dr Indra Joshi has a unique portfolio with experience stretching across data/AI strategy and implementation. A world-leading expert in digital health and AI technologies, she worked across the global health and AI portfolio of Palantir Technologies to enable better use of data to impact health and care. In 2020 she created the NHS AI Lab, a £250m investment leading to the development and deployment of over 100 AI technologies into UK health and care, whilst determining the right ethical guidance and regulations to protect patients. She is a founding member of One HealthTech – a network which campaigns for the need and importance of better inclusion of all backgrounds, skillsets and disciplines in health technology. Alongside she is an associate editor for BMJ Leader, a trustee for the Wellbeing of Women, a former member of the WHO digital health expert group, and most importantly a mum to two children.
John is Chief Executive of Oak National Academy, the Department for Education's arm's length body which provides a free, openly licensed and fully resourced curriculum for ages 5 to 16 to schools in England.
John trained through Teach First and taught science before moving into senior school leadership in the North West. He co-founded Oak in April 2020 as a Covid-19 response and was its Director of Product and Engineering before becoming Chief Executive in 2025. At Oak, John led the development of the UK public sector's first generative AI tool to be released for general use, which supports teacher lesson planning with a focus on quality and safety. He sits on the oversight board for the government's cross-departmental AI in education programme, and Oak represents the UK in the UNESCO/UNICEF Gateways to Public Digital Learning initiative.
John co-founded Edapt, which provides casework and employment support to school staff, serving as its Chief Executive and later as Chair. He is a non-executive director at Teacher Tapp, and a former Vice President of the British Mountaineering Council, the representative body for climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers in England and Wales.
