The Trust’s Executive Team is the executive management arm of our School Trust, focusing on operations and the educational performance of the Mead schools.

Sarah Ridley – Chief Executive Officer

Sarah became TMET’s second Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in August 2022, having served as Deputy CEO for several years. She has been involved in TMET since its formation in 2014 and helped to develop its vision and mission, including its values: the 7Cs. She has been an integral part of TMET’s growth and success.

Promoting social justice and levelling up for disadvantaged communities have motivated Sarah throughout her career, and she has been a Headteacher or Executive Head at five inner city schools in Leicester. She has a strong track record of supporting schools as a National Leader of Education, as well as through her various roles at TMET.

Her areas of expertise and interest are in achieving social justice in terms of enrichment, progress and attainment for economically disadvantaged families. She is also passionate about high quality Early Years’ provision, the promotion of high expectations across all phases, behaviour management and developing a book rich, inspirational and memorable curriculum.

She brings energy, a spirit of professional generosity and commitment to her roles, always looking to build on collaborative practice. She takes her civic responsibility as a trust leader seriously and is keen to engage with others to make decisions for the wider good.

Lisa Cochrane – Chief People Officer

Lisa joined TMET in April 2021. Prior to joining Lisa provided HR consultancy support to the Education sector, not-for profit and small businesses.  Lisa is CIPD qualified and has worked as part of executive leadership teams in a variety of sectors, supporting them to develop and deliver their people ambitions. Lisa brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the Trust to support us in the development and implementation of our people strategy.

Hetal Parmar – Chief Operating Officer

Hetal graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Banking, Finance and Management in 2001 and subsequently with a Professional Postgraduate Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.  He has 22 years’ experience of working in financial services, having held many senior leadership roles including the Head of Banking and Savings for Santander UK.

Hetal is known for creating inclusive and respectful team cultures, promoting social justice, and coaching and mentoring people to help develop their leadership skills.  He has a long history of volunteer work and extensive experience as a Non Executive Director across different sectors such as housing, education and the NHS.

Gulbanu Kader – Director of Education

Gulbanu is Director of Education and has had a range of experiences in her various teaching posts in her 20 year teaching career. She uses her secondary experience to evaluate and improve practice across the Trust.

Her particular areas of expertise are in whole school improvement, particularly through the effective use of performance information.

Gulbanu believes that a successful school is underpinned by the creation of a dynamic and enjoyable learning environment, driven by high aspirations where children are inspired to embrace challenges, not to give up, make failure the beginning of success and aim for the very top, but at the same time, become responsible, caring and kind citizens.  She is an energetic and committed individual, passionate about supporting students to fulfil their potential, regardless of their starting points.

Sara McAdam – Director of The Mead Institute of Professional Learning

Sara McAdam has a wealth of experience in education and in developing people and effective teams in order to impact on outcomes for children.

She has worked during her career in four different schools, including as Deputy Headteacher at Willowbrook Mead for ten years, and most recently as Headteacher at Dovelands Primary School, a large primary school in Leicester City for nine years. Sara worked closely with the Leicester and Leicestershire SCITT, based at Dovelands.

She also was a delivery lead for teachers and mentors in the first year of the Early Career Framework delivered by the Leicester and Leicestershire Teaching School Hub. This work led Sara to her role at the Mead Institute for Professional Learning. She is excited to lead the Institute in order to impact on the children in schools across Leicester City, and to provide the highest quality professional learning opportunities for all staff across the Mead schools.

Mark Oldman – Director of Education

Mark has been a head teacher since 2012 and an Executive Head since 2015. He has chaired the City of Leicester Association of Special Schools for 4 years and worked with the Department for Education on the whole school SEND programme board since 2017.

Mark has led two schools to multiple outstanding Ofsted grades and has a passion for school improvement and curriculum design across all phases . In 2019 he was awarded Leicestershire headteacher of the year. Mark is truly passionate that all children should have a school experience that inspires them and gives them memories that they can draw upon for the rest of their lives. Mark joined The Mead Educational Trust in January 2020, as Director of Education – SEND and Inclusion, with Executive Principal responsibilities.

Tom Hague – Schools Director for Growth and Innovation

Tom has been a headteacher since 2019, having been the founding principal of a brand-new secondary free school in Leicester. He led the school to be oversubscribed and judged Outstanding by Ofsted at its first inspection. Tom has previously been a senior leader in Leicester schools since 2014, leading on raising achievement and outcomes. His success in this area saw him oversee his previous school winning the national Pupil Premium Award. Tom brings an attentive and innovative angle to our school improvement work, with a commitment to supporting and growing other leaders.

Tom joined the teaching profession through the Teach First programme, and continues to have a passion for supporting all pupils in our schools to have the very best opportunities and to be able to realise and showcase their talents.

Cathy Brown – Director of Governance

Cathy graduated from the University of Bristol with a BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering and spent the first 10 years of her career as a Chartered Engineer working in the engineering industry. She went on to work for Leicestershire Education Business Company and then in a regional role at STEMNET to increase opportunities for young people to engage with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) activities and role models.

Cathy has been the Director of Governance since June 2016 and has responsibility for the strategic leadership of governance across the Trust. Cathy is also a trained Challenge Partners Trust Peer Reviewer. Cathy has additional roles as the Trust Data Protection Lead and to manage the process for schools joining the Trust. In June 2024, Cathy won Governance Professional of the Year in the MAT Excellence Awards.

Phillipa Hunt – Finance Director

Phillipa is The Mead Educational Trust’s Finance Director. In her role, Phillipa leads the Trust’s finance team and is responsible for overseeing financial operations, strategic budgeting, and financial planning for the Trust’s schools and centralised services.

Before joining TMET, Phillipa served as the Chief Financial Officer at Lionheart Educational Trust, where she progressed through senior finance posts over a span of three years. Phillipa’s career began at KPMG in 2010, working in the public sector audit department for 11 years.

Phillipa holds a BA (Hons) in American and English Literature and is an ACA qualified chartered accountant. Phillipa is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), bringing a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the Trust.

Milan Premdjy –  Deputy Chief Operating Officer

Milan has a wide breadth of experience gained from 15 years in the Education Sector. He has been part of leadership teams at  different primary schools within the Local Authority and subsequently at both primary and secondary academies within the Trust.  This working experience covers all aspects of IT strategy and delivery, financial management, premises management and HR. Milan successfully guided his school through the academy conversion process and joined TMET in 2016.

Initially, when joining TMET, Milan has worked as a Strategic Business Manager across 2 large primaries and subsequently supported the needs of the Trust by working for nine-months as an interim Secondary School Business Manager. In September 2018, Milan became the Trust Operations Manager and has led in the centralisation of an effective IT System for the whole Trust and now leads on all operational matters from Estates, Health and Safety, Payroll, Finance and Capital projects.