Tim Sullivan – CEO

Having grown up in Stratford upon Avon and worked in a number of roles at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Tim joined Ashmole School as a teacher of English and Drama in September 1996, having trained in Hackney. He has spent all but one year working at Ashmole since then. In that time Tim has held nearly every role available in a secondary school from Head of Department to Head of Sixth Form. Following a number of years as Associate Head Teacher, Tim became Headteacher of Ashmole in 2020. Reflecting the ambitions of Ashmole Trust, Tim took on the role of CEO in 2023.

Rudi Ramdarshan – Chair of Trust

Rudi Ramdarshan has served as a dedicated Trustee and Governor for Ashmole Trust since 2014. Born and raised in North London, he has strong community ties. As a former Ashmole student, Rudi has been involved since 2012. When Ashmole became a multi-academy trust in 2015, he focused on growth initiatives, new partnerships, and opening new schools. Appointed Chair of the Trust in 2018, Rudi provided strategic leadership in developing a vision for partnership and expansion. He actively promotes diversity, including recruitment partnerships with local stakeholders. He has three children, two attending Ashmole Primary and one in the secondary school.

 Professionally, Rudi is a Partner specialising in litigation at Ronald Fletcher Baker. He is recognized in Legal 500 as a formidable litigator and excellent tactician.  Rudi’s experience in Property, Commercial and Education law is asset that he leverages to further the Trust's strategic objectives.

Anna Vlachochristos BSc, MBA – Vice Chair of Trust

Anna Vlachochristos joined Ashmole Trust as Trustee in April 2022 and was appointed Vice-Chair in September 2022. After a career as an executive and non-executive in development banking and finance, Anna retrained as a coach/ mentor and gained a Senior Practitioner accreditation with EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council) and as a Team Coach with GTCI (Global Team Coaching Institute) and EMCC. Anna has her own private practice and also is a Business Mentor with the Prince’s Trust.  Anna is passionate about instilling the love of learning in young people and helping them navigate the challenges from primary to senior school, sixth form to further education and/ or employment.

Gary Bateman – Trustee

Gary is a qualified finance professional with 30+ years post qualification experience and a proven track record in transformation - leading large teams, project management, mergers & acquisitions, cost rationalisation and financial direction within a successful global media company.

His personality traits include entrepreneurship, leadership, change management, innovation, effective negotiation and the ability to manage complex relationships to bring projects and tasks to completion.

As a parent of two children who were fortunate enough to pass through both the Osidge and Ashmole education systems, Gary personally admires Ashmole’s commitment to pupils and students to achieve in an environment that encourages enjoyment of learning, determination to succeed, high aspirations, courtesy, respect, self-reliance, citizenship and initiative.

Gary currently serves on many Boards at the BBC, a local football club and Osidge Primary school as the Chair of Finance, Staff and Resources.

He is hoping that his commercial input will serve Ashmole Trust well. In turn, looks forward to playing a role in the Trust’s strategic development, and in enabling it to deliver on Ashmole’s wonderful motto of “Excellence, Aspiration and care in partnership’’.

David Everett – Trustee

David has lived in Southgate for over twenty years.  He’s worked in schools in Barnet, Enfield, Islington and Westminster.  He worked at Ashmole for several years, joining in 1998 when David Pibworth was the Headteacher.  Before working in schools David worked as an audit manager for a firm of chartered accountants in Ealing, specialising in schools and other charities.

Androulla Nicou - Trustee

Androulla Nicou is an experienced teacher and school leader with over 33 years in the profession.  Following her work in schools as an educationalist she moved to executive leadership roles in Multi Academy Trusts.  She has held roles from Chief Operations Officer, Chief Finance Officer and is now a CEO of a medium sized Trust. She is a strong believer in the power of excellent education and is passionate about ensuring all pupils maximise their achievements.

Thashan Pillay – Trustee

Thashan is an educational leader with over 14 years’ experience working in urban schools with high levels of deprivation in London.  He has experience of leading schools from failure to success most recently working as a Senior Lead Consultant for a the largest most successful multi-academy trust in London.  Thash has held a wide range of senior leadership roles throughout his teaching career and during a Vice Principal role, he gained his National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH) in 2019.

Before entering education Thash worked as a qualified doctor and worked in a range of hospital settings both in the UK and abroad.  His experiences allow him to take a wider view of education matters and he is driven by a passion to tackle any form of disadvantage and to ensure the Trust strives to fully realise the potential of all pupils in our care.  Thash and his wife are alumni of Ashmole Academy, and his eldest son is following in the family tradition by attending Ashmole Primary School. 

Al Salehian – Trustee

Al has been a senior media executive for over 25 years and is currently Managing Director of a business, brand and marketing strategy company focusing on the SME sector.  He has experience in creating and leading diverse teams around the world and has particular expertise in organisational design and leadership development. He has lived in the Southgate area for nearly 30 years and believes passionately about the importance of education in solving future societal, environmental, and economic challenges.

Lisa Scott – Trustee

Lisa brings governance and risk experience to the board of Ashmole Trust.  Lisa’s background is in financial services regulation and in her day job she advises corporate firms on their governance and risk frameworks.  Having been a student at Ashmole herself, Lisa is keen to use her professional experience to give back to the school community. Lisa lives in north London and is a busy Mum of 3 kids.

Nicola Stapleton- Trustee

Nicola has lived in the Southgate area for 14 years. She has two school-aged children. She is a journalist who writes about education and has been involved with Ashmole Trust, as a governor and then a trustee, since 2014.

Allison Walling – Trustee

Allison Walling is the Chair of the local governing committee and a Trustee.  She has been the Director of a printing business in Mayfair for 38 years.

She has two children both of which were students at Ashmole Academy which is how she started life as a parent governor.

She has seen many changes and enjoyed being involved in the planning and building of the 6^th Form Block – Primary School and the creation of our MAT.

With these ever-moving times, school life for all involved can be a challenging but also extremely rewarding whilst sharing our best practice and providing a teaching hub for the local community which supplies the Excellence, Aspiration and Care for students and staff to feel appreciated and valued.  As a school we have a strong pastoral support system which allows to develop strong home-school relationships which has been invaluable during the testing times we all recently endured. Allison is very proud of what the Trust has achieved and look forward to the next chapter of the journey.