Who we are

Rebekah Iiyambo

CEO

As well as being CEO of Eko Trust, Rebekah is a National Leader of Education, providing high quality school improvement work.

Previously Rebekah has been a Headteacher, Co-headteacher, Deputy Headteacher, an advisor for Science, Early Years and English as an additional language in two Local Authorities before becoming a senior advisor for continuing professional development (CPD). This role included specific responsibility for developing leadership capacity across primary, secondary and special schools. She has taught in schools in Britain and Namibia.

In this section

Laura has worked in East London for almost 30 years, and taught right across the primary age range prior to taking up her previous role of Headteacher of Earlham Primary School. She introduced synthetic phonics to her previous school when it was completely out of fashion, and has many years experience of implementing different versions of phonics programmes to achieve the best outcomes for pupils.

She is now a Trust Leader of Education.

Laura is an active member of several boards in the local education community covering a range of areas, including children’s mental health, behaviour and initial teacher education, and liaises with the local authority on behalf of Newham Heads.

Working in Newham schools since 2014, following a senior management career in the media, Kai was involved in setting up the Eko Trust and utilises his 20 plus years of executive management experience to ensure that the Trust delivers highly efficient business and operations to support the teaching and learning within the schools.

Deborah is a Trust Leader of Education whose specialist interest is supporting teachers so all children have access to high quality learning experiences with excellent outcomes.

She has been a teacher since 1994, teaching in London and Cambridgeshire – with a claim to fame being the first Primary AST in Cambridgeshire back in 2001.

She has an absolute commitment to inclusion and leadership development.

Prior to her Deputy and Head posts she ran her own Primary Learning Support Unit for pupils with SEBD (as it was then).

Deborah facilitates on the NPQ courses with UCL Institute of Education.

Mehreen is a clinical hospital pharmacist and Master of Pharmacy.

She has represented pharmacy services to local college students interested in pursuing a degree in pharmacy, and undertaken undergraduate interview and examinations at the UCL School of Pharmacy.

A Newham resident with 25 years’ experience in voluntary sector fundraising and communications, with national, local and international charities. Currently works as a freelance fundraiser and project manager on local projects, and studies part time.

Philippa’s skills include: premises & capital projects, strategic planning, data analysis, communications, community engagement, fundraising and marketing.

Director of UK Consultancy and Knowledge Transfer at the UCL Institute of Education. A wealth of experience within the education sector, supporting schools and developing CPD practice for teaching.

Kishor has 20 years of banking experience spanning treasury, corporate banking, financial control, trade finance, debt capital management and balance sheet management. His roles involved risk management, regulatory project management and controls.

He has worked extensively as project lead on regulatory projects working closely with FCA and PRA on key areas of treasury risk management.

Carmen Rodney, formerly Her Majesty’s Inspector, also worked as a lead team Ofsted trained inspector. She has specialist interest in school improvement. Inspection experience covers mainstream and independent schools as well as local authorities and initial teaching training.

She has held various roles as a senior manager.

Previously the Chair of Governors at Earlham Primary School, with over 30 years experience of governance in Newham. Julian is Director of Estates at the London School of Economics.

Professionally qualified in Town Planning and Surveying, Julian specialises in master planning, design and construction and property and facilities management.

He is a Trustee and former Chair of the Higher Education Design Quality Forum and Vice Chair and Director of the Northbank Business Improvement District in Westminster.

Daulat studied Aeronautical Engineering and became a software engineer in the Aerospace Industry. He has worked with technology and operating model design and management for a number of major organisations across energy, engineering, public sector and financial services for fifteen years. Currently, Daulat is with KPMG consulting where he is leading a large banking operating model transformation.

Natalie is Managing Partner of one of the UK’s most respected digital agencies. Natalie is an industry spokesperson and mentor, with a specific focus on Digital Talent & Skills and Women in leadership.

She has extensive experience working on Mergers and Acquisitions, and with start-ups. She is a Fellow of the CIM and an advisor and Fellow of the WWF-UK.

Helen has worked in education for many years and has taught and led in both secondary and primary schools. She is currently Head of a Teaching School Alliance in Brighton and Hove.

She has also worked as a consultant for a Local Authority leading on workforce development and governance. She is a trained facilitator and regularly designs and leads development for school teachers and leaders.

Her passion in education has always been developing others so that all children are given the opportunity to learn with the best possible teachers and leaders. This has been achieved through being an outward facing leader, working and learning collaboratively and establishing effective networks.

A long-standing member of both Kaizen and Eko Pathways schools governing bodies; a member of the safeguarding panel for Newham; an advocate supporting families in need in Newham.

Following a career in teaching, Father Owens served for 37 years as a Parish Priest in the Church of England and is a member of SEA. He has 11 years of school governance experience.

Founder of IROKO Theatre-in-Education Company Alex has 20 years’ experience providing practical creative arts activities in schools and higher institutions all over England. He has worked and continues to work as a Consultant for renowned British institutions like the BBC, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Victoria & Albert Museum, Horniman Museum & Gardens, The British Museum and the Museum of London, Member of the Steering Committee of The British Museum Supplementary School Programme, Member of The British Museum’s Community Steering Group for Object Journeys.

Vivienne Porritt is a leadership consultant working with school leaders on impact, vision, strategy, professional learning and development, and women’s leadership. She is also Vice President of the Chartered College of Teaching in England. Formerly, she was a secondary headteacher, Director for School Partnerships at UCL Institute of Education and a Chair of Governors in London. Vivienne is also a co-founder and, joyously, a Strategic Leader of WomenEd, a global movement that connects, supports and empowers women leaders in education.

She is the co-editor, with Peter Earley, of Effective Practices in CPD, Lessons for School (2009).

Vivienne is also co-editor, with Keziah Featherstone, of 10%braver: Inspiring Women to Lead Education (2019) Sage Education. She is the co-editor of WomenEd’s second book Being 10% braver, forthcoming December 2020, Corwin.