Academies Update Conference

Chris Whiting is the managing director of Academy Advisory and has previously held CFO positions for a number of academy trusts.

Academy Advisory is a specialist provider of internal audit and consultancy services to the academy sector with over 300 academies nationwide. Its services cover all aspects of academy trust operations, including areas such as educational improvement, safeguarding, finance, HR, ICT, estates and governance. Chris has worked closely with the DofE and ESFA on a number of engagements including anti-fraud response and academy turnaround in addition to his work as an internal auditor.

Jamie Baxter is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries within Hymans Robertson’s public sector team, advising Local Government Pension Schemes and employers across the UK. He is one of the accounting specialists in the public sector accounting team responsible for delivering over 4,000 annual IAS19 reports for local authorities and FRS102 disclosures for academies and trusts. Within his role Jamie is responsible for the training and development of actuarial staff at Hymans and the planning and delivering of IAS19 and FRS102 exercises for employers across the LGPS throughout the year.

Gemma jointly leads the team responsible for Mercia’s file and compliance reviews, including performing reviews at client sites or remotely. She also lectures on Mercia’s Early Careers Programme and on specialist areas such as charities and academies, ESG and Mercia methodology, as well as advising clients on technical queries.

Gemma joined Mercia from audit practice in January 2021, where she had worked for 13 years, specialising in not-for-profit and charity clients for over a decade. Gemma has a keen interest in academies and sits on several ESFA working groups.

Prior to joining Mercia, Roger worked as an audit manager at a regional firm, specialising in the financial reporting and compliance requirements of charities and academy trusts. He managed a varied portfolio, supporting organisations from small local charities to large national bodies.

He has strong sector expertise across both single academy trusts and medium‑sized multi‑academy trusts, with practical insight into academy funding, regulatory standards and the financial challenges faced within the sector.

Roger has also served as treasurer for a community co‑operative, overseeing statutory reporting and further strengthening his governance experience.

Simon is the Director of Resources for Southend High School for Boys in Essex and the ISBL National Lead on school finance and efficiency. As a qualified accountant, a project manager and lean practitioner, he spent a number of years working in the charity sector and a lot of his career working on finance system-related projects, including a period working for one of the UK’s largest software consultancy firms.

Simon also worked in one of the largest FE colleges in the country so has knowledge of both charity and education accounting. Simon is well known across the sector having delivered numerous training sessions and presentations with ESFA and on behalf of ISBL. He is also a member of one of ESFA’s Financial Assurance working groups and the ISBL Funding Special Interest Group.

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