Essential Academy Governance

Anna Machin

Anna is a chartered secretary and for the past six years worked as Deputy Company Secretary & Governance Manager at Ark Schools, one of the UK's leading academy networks. Anna joined initially to support Ark’s 300+ school governors, before switching to focus on board, committee and company secretarial activities across the trust and parent charity. Anna now delivers advisory support to a range of charities and academy trusts and is governance professional at Reach Academy Feltham and Kensington Aldridge Academy. Anna is Co-Founder of Trust Governance Professionals, a training and development programme for academy governance professionals. Anna has an MSc in Corporate Governance, Certificate in Charity Law and Governance and is an Associate of The Chartered Governance Institute.

Emma Perkin

Founder and Lead Consultant at The Constant Group, an education governance consultancy

Emma Perkin has 20+ years' experience working in school governance, and currently works with multi-academy trusts and school groups to design bespoke governance models that will act as a foundation for future growth as Founder and Lead Consultant at The Constant Group. The Constant Group has worked with a range of clients from single academy trusts and small multi-academy trusts to a federation of eight primaries and Governor Services department at a leading Local Authority.

Prior to becoming a consultant, Emma worked as governance lead in standalone maintained schools and converter academies before becoming Head of Governance at Ark Schools. Emma lead the organisation to become a recognised leader in multi-academy trust governance, working directly with senior team and school leaders to set out a clear model of accountabilities, induction, training, reporting and communications. Emma is motivated by the belief that good governance can transform a school or school group, and provide vital support to school leaders.