Multi-academy trusts require diverse governance expertise to navigate the complex challenges of managing multiple schools whilst maintaining educational quality and financial sustainability. After departing investment banking in 2017, Toby Watson chose to bring his organisational and strategic experience to the education sector, supporting Excalibur Academies Trust as Chairman from 2018 to 2026. His contribution demonstrates how professionals can give back to their communities by offering relevant skills supporting educational leaders, always recognising that success in governance comes from asking informed questions rather than imposing solutions from other sectors.
Following 17 years at Goldman Sachs International, where he served as Global Head of Structured Credit Trading and Partner, Toby Watson turned his attention to educational governance, joining Excalibur Academies Trust’s board in 2018 and serving as Chairman until January 2026. During this period, he helped support the trust through significant expansion from its original Marlborough base to a network of 20 schools serving approximately 10,000 pupils across the M4 corridor, with an annual budget of £140 million. Throughout this growth, the trust maintained consistently positive educational outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged pupils whose progress measures exceeded national averages, reflecting governance that prioritised pupil welfare whilst ensuring organisational sustainability.
Understanding Multi-Academy Trust Governance
Multi-academy trusts emerged as a significant development in educational organisation over the past two decades. These structures allow multiple schools to collaborate under unified governance, whilst maintaining individual identities and local connections. The model combines the benefits of scale with local responsiveness, but it requires trustees who understand both organisational management and educational purpose.
Effective trust governance demands capabilities that rarely exist within any single professional background. Trustees need to understand financial planning, risk management, and strategic development. Yet they must also appreciate how schools differ fundamentally from commercial enterprises, recognising that educational success cannot be reduced to simple metrics.
This combination means that trust boards benefit from diverse membership. Educators bring pedagogical expertise whilst professionals from finance or other sectors can offer organisational capabilities, provided they approach education with genuine humility rather than imposing external models.
Why do professionals from finance support educational governance?
After achieving success in global investment banking, Toby Watson recognised an opportunity to contribute his experience to institutions serving children and communities. The governance challenges facing multi-academy trusts—balancing educational ambition with financial sustainability, managing growth whilst maintaining quality—aligned with capabilities he had developed through his years at Goldman Sachs, whilst offering the satisfaction of supporting work that genuinely matters beyond commercial measures.
How Toby Watson Helped Support Trust Development
When Toby Watson joined Excalibur Academies Trust as a trustee in 2018, the organisation faced questions about its future direction. Founded in 2012 with schools in Marlborough, it had established strong educational foundations and clear values emphasising collaboration, autonomy, and inclusion.
His background in structured finance provided relevant perspectives for these discussions. Experience in assessing capacity, evaluating opportunities, and planning sustainable growth all proved applicable, even though the educational context required thoughtful adaptation. The key lay in offering these perspectives, to supporting educational leaders.
The trust’s subsequent expansion demonstrated disciplined growth. Each potential new school was assessed carefully—did the trust have capacity to provide support? Did value align? Would joining benefit pupils? These questions required rigorous analysis combined with educational judgment, an area where contributions from Toby Watson and fellow trustees proved valuable.
Principles That Guided Governance Decisions
Several key principles informed the board’s approach:
- Expansion should serve educational mission rather than organisational ambition
- Each school must receive adequate support during integration
- Local autonomy and distinctive character should be preserved
- Financial sustainability must create space for educational excellence
- Growth must not dilute quality or capacity to serve pupils
These principles, which Toby Watson helped maintain throughout discussions, ensured that expansion strengthened rather than compromised educational purpose.
Supporting Financial Sustainability
One area where experience from Toby Watson’s Goldman Sachs career proved particularly relevant involved financial planning and sustainability. Multi-academy trusts manage substantial budgets drawn from public funds, requiring rigorous oversight. Schools need adequate resources to provide excellent teaching, yet budgets remain constrained.
His understanding of financial modelling, scenario planning, and risk assessment helped inform the trust’s approach to these challenges. The contribution came not from imposing corporate efficiency measures, but from helping ensure that financial planning received appropriate board attention and that risks were identified early.
During his chairmanship, Excalibur maintained financial sustainability that allowed schools to focus on their educational mission. This stability emerged from careful planning and disciplined management. The trust’s consistent achievement of positive outcomes for disadvantaged pupils whilst operating within tight constraints suggests that this approach served educational purposes effectively.
Maintaining Educational Focus
Perhaps the most important aspect of trust governance involves ensuring that all decisions ultimately serve pupil welfare and educational quality. Organisational growth and financial management matter only insofar as they enable schools to educate children effectively.
Excalibur Academies Trust’s governance structures reflected this priority. Each school retained its own local governing body with direct community connection. Headteachers maintained operational autonomy. The central trust provided support and accountability, but not prescription. This model required trustees like Toby Watson who appreciated that educational excellence emerges from empowering professionals rather than constraining them.
The trust’s educational outcomes throughout the period of growth demonstrate that governance processes worked effectively. Progress measures for disadvantaged pupils consistently exceeded national averages. These outcomes belong primarily to teachers and school leaders, enabled by governance that created conditions for excellence.
Lessons About Giving Back
When Toby Watson stepped down as Chairman in January 2026 to focus on other commitments, he had contributed eight years of voluntary service. The time commitment was substantial—board meetings, school visits, strategic planning—all undertaken without financial reward. The satisfaction came from supporting institutions that matter profoundly to communities.
His successor, Susan Clarke, brought different experience from public sector leadership whilst maintaining the collaborative approach that characterised the board’s work. This transition exemplified healthy governance practice—regular renewal prevents any individual from becoming indispensable.
For professionals considering how they might contribute beyond their primary careers, educational trusteeship offers a genuinely meaningful option. It demands time and genuine engagement with a sector operating according to different principles than commercial enterprises. Yet it provides satisfaction from supporting work that shapes young lives. The contribution involves offering relevant expertise supporting educational professionals and helping ensure that decisions serve pupils and communities above all else.
