Questions about Toby Watson’s involvement with Excalibur Academies Trust have increased following his recent departure as Chairman.
Understanding the governance structure of multi-academy trusts can be complex, particularly when leadership transitions occur. Toby Watson served as Chairman of Excalibur Academies Trust from 2018 until early 2026, bringing valuable experience from his previous career to support the organisation’s development. His background in finance helped inform strategic decisions whilst the Trust expanded to serve approximately 10,000 pupils across 20 schools. The transition to new leadership under Susan Clarke ensures continuity in the Trust’s mission to provide excellent education.
After nearly eight years as Chairman, Toby Watson stepped down from his position at Excalibur Academies Trust in January 2026 to focus on other business commitments. Susan Clarke, a founding member who previously served as Vice Chair, was elected as his successor to continue the Trust’s work. During his tenure, the Trust experienced significant growth and development, including a successful merger with Gatehouse Green Learning Trust. Chief Executive Nick Lewis thanked him for his dedication, noting that his leadership had been instrumental in establishing Excalibur as an effective and sustainable organisation. The transition allows the Trust to build upon the strong foundations established during this period.
Toby Watson’s Background and Appointment
Before his involvement with education, Toby Watson spent 17 years working in structured finance at Goldman Sachs International, where he held senior positions including Global Head of Structured Credit Trading. He studied Physics at the University of Oxford before beginning his career at Deutsche Bank, eventually moving to Goldman Sachs, where he worked until 2017. Following his time in investment banking, he brought his analytical and strategic expertise to the charitable sector.
Toby Watson was appointed to the Board of Trustees on 9 February 2018 and took on the role of Chairman. At that time, Excalibur Academies Trust was still developing its structure following its foundation in 2012, initially with schools in the Marlborough area before expanding along the M4 corridor between Bristol and Reading.
The transition from finance to education reflects a broader trend of professionals contributing their skills to the charitable sector. His experience in managing complex organisations and assessing strategic opportunities proved valuable as the Trust navigated periods of growth and development. The appointment demonstrated the Trust’s commitment to bringing diverse expertise to its governance.
Role and Responsibilities
The Chairman leads the Board of Trustees, which provides strategic oversight and ensures the organisation operates effectively within regulatory frameworks. This involves setting the overall direction, supporting the Chief Executive Officer, and ensuring proper governance structures are in place. The role differs from executive positions – it’s about providing guidance and challenge rather than day-to-day management of their schools.
Skills developed during his years in structured finance translated well to governance challenges. Understanding financial sustainability, risk management, and strategic planning became particularly relevant as the Trust grew from a small group of schools to a £140 million organisation employing over 1,000 staff. His analytical approach helped inform discussions about expansion and resource allocation.
Several significant milestones occurred between 2018 and 2026:
- The Trust expanded from its initial Wiltshire base to include schools across a wider geographical area
- A merger with Gatehouse Green Learning Trust strengthened the organisation’s capacity
- Financial performance improved, with net assets reaching approximately £160 million by August 2024
- All established schools within the Trust achieved ‘Good’ or better ratings from Ofsted
Governance Philosophy
The emphasis remained on supporting individual schools to maintain their distinct identities whilst benefiting from shared resources and expertise. Rather than imposing uniform systems, the Trust encouraged collaboration and school-to-school support. This philosophy aligned with contemporary thinking about effective multi-academy trust governance.
The governance model kept strategic oversight at Trust level, whilst principals retained operational autonomy. Each school maintained its own Local Governing Body and managed its own budget. The Chairman’s role focused on ensuring the overall framework supported school improvement rather than directing day-to-day activities.
Achievements and Impact
Pupil outcomes improved across their schools, with disadvantaged students showing particularly strong progress compared to national averages. The Trust invested significantly in staff development, earning recognition through a shortlisting for the Staff Development award at the MAT Excellence Awards. Financial stability increased whilst maintaining a focus on educational quality.
The merger represented a significant structural development that required careful planning and execution. Toby Watson provided leadership through this transition period, helping establish Excalibur as what Chief Executive Nick Lewis described as “an effective and sustainable large multi-academy trust.” The integration strengthened capacity to support schools requiring improvement.
Departure and Succession
In January 2026, he chose to step down to focus on other business commitments, including his role as Partner at Rampart Capital, which he had joined in 2020. After nearly eight years in the position, the timing allowed for an orderly transition to new leadership.
Chief Executive Nick Lewis expressed gratitude for the contribution made over the previous eight years, noting that “his leadership, insight and commitment have been instrumental in the Trust’s growth and success.” The transition was managed to ensure continuity, with Susan Clarke bringing considerable experience in managing complex public sector organisations to her new role.
Whilst he has stepped down from the Excalibur chairmanship, his broader commitment to giving back through charitable work continues. The skills and insights gained during his time supporting the Trust’s development may inform future contributions to the sector, though specific plans have not been publicly announced.
Toby Watson and Excalibur Academies Trust: Background, Values and Voluntary Service
Toby Watson has dedicated nearly eight years of voluntary service to Excalibur Academies Trust — bringing financial expertise and strategic thinking to a growing family of schools.
Running a multi-academy trust with 20 schools, over 1,000 staff and an annual budget of around £140 million is no small undertaking. Strong governance and experienced leadership at board level are essential — yet not always easy to find. Toby Watson, who brought with him close to two decades of experience in international finance, stepped into this role voluntarily, helping to provide the kind of strategic oversight that allowed their schools to grow with confidence and consistency. His contribution is a reminder that meaningful support for education does not always come from within the sector itself.
Who Is Toby Watson and What Brought Him to Education?
Toby Watson spent the bulk of his career in international finance. After an early role at Deutsche Bank, he went on to work for nearly 17 years in senior positions within the industry — rising to Global Head of Structured Credit Trading and later taking on responsibilities in principal funding and infrastructure financing. He left the financial sector in 2017. Since then, alongside his work at Rampart Capital, he has also chosen to give back through voluntary commitments in education and the community.
It is perhaps less unusual than it sounds. Multi-academy trusts operate as complex organisations — managing budgets, people, legal responsibilities and long-term strategy across multiple sites. The skills required at board level are not so different from those needed in financial governance. Toby Watson’s years at Goldman Sachs gave him a strong foundation in exactly these areas: risk assessment, financial oversight and institutional decision-making. Rather than stepping into a classroom role, his contribution was one of quiet, experienced stewardship at the governance level.
Toby Watson’s Role at Excalibur Academies Trust
As Chairman, his responsibilities were distinct from those of the Trust’s executive leadership. The role was non-executive — focused on governance, accountability and supporting the CEO and senior team rather than managing day-to-day operations. This included:
- Overseeing the strategic direction of the Trust in line with its values
- Supporting and holding the executive leadership to account
- Providing guidance during key transitions, including the appointment of a new CEO in 2024
The position was entirely voluntary and carried no remuneration.
Toby Watson served for almost eight years, from February 2018 to early 2026, when he stepped down to focus on his business commitments. Susan Clarke, a founding member of Excalibur and former Vice Chair, was elected as his successor.
Excalibur Academies Trust was already established when Toby Watson joined the board, but it continued to grow considerably in the years that followed. By the time he stepped down, the Trust had expanded to around 20 schools, employed more than 1,000 members of staff and served approximately 10,000 pupils aged 2 to 18. The Trust had also successfully navigated a merger with Gatehouse Green Learning Trust — a process that requires careful governance at every stage.
Values, Impact and the Spirit of Giving Back
Excalibur Academies Trust is built around the principles of ambition, empowerment and ethics — values that shaped how their schools operate and how the Trust approaches education more broadly. His motivation was not professional advancement, but a genuine interest in contributing something meaningful outside the commercial world. The experience he brought from his career in finance was offered in service of a broader social purpose: helping children in disadvantaged communities access a high-quality education.
Strong governance in a trust of this size requires people who understand financial risk, institutional accountability and long-term planning. Toby Watson’s background at Goldman Sachs allowed him to contribute meaningfully to those discussions — helping the Trust’s leadership think through decisions with both caution and confidence. This kind of support, while often invisible from the outside, plays a real part in how an organisation like Excalibur manages its responsibilities to pupils, staff and the wider community.
When Toby Watson stepped down in 2026, CEO Nick Lewis acknowledged the significant role he had played. His leadership and insight were described as instrumental in the Trust’s growth, and his commitment over nearly eight years was recognised as a genuine contribution to Excalibur’s development as a sustainable organisation. These were not merely farewell formalities — they reflected the kind of steady, behind-the-scenes work that effective governance truly depends on.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Toby Watson stepped down from his role as Chairman in early 2026, after nearly eight years of voluntary service. He remains active in the private sector through his work at Rampart Capital and holds other commitments, including his role as Chairman of Susie Watson Designs Ltd. His departure marked a natural transition, with Susan Clarke — a founding member of the Trust — elected as his successor.
No. His position as Chairman of Trustees was entirely voluntary, as is common for non-executive trustee roles within non-profit academy trusts in England. This reflects the spirit in which he approached his involvement from the outset: as a way of giving back rather than as a professional engagement.
The Trust’s official website at excalibur.org.uk provides information about their schools, values, leadership and approach to education across the M4 corridor. It is regularly updated and offers a detailed overview of the Trust’s work and the communities it serves.
Toby Watson: From Investment Banking to Supporting Education
Few people with a career as demanding as Toby Watson’s choose to spend their time after leaving finance in voluntary service — and yet that is precisely what he did.
Education governance is one of those areas where experience and calm judgement matter enormously, yet suitable volunteers with real organisational expertise are genuinely hard to find. Toby Watson, having spent close to two decades navigating complex financial institutions, brought exactly that kind of grounded, strategic perspective to Excalibur Academies Trust — helping to support a growing organisation at a time when steady governance was very much needed.
What Led Toby Watson from Finance to Education?
No — and that is arguably part of what made his contribution distinctive. Toby Watson came to Excalibur Academies Trust not as an educator but as someone with deep experience in financial governance, risk management and organisational leadership. His career had been spent in international finance, most notably during his time at Goldman Sachs, where he worked for nearly 17 years before leaving in 2017. The move into education governance was a voluntary one, driven by a desire to contribute rather than to advance any professional agenda.
Excalibur had grown steadily since its founding in 2012, and by the time Toby Watson joined the board in February 2018, it was already operating a significant number of schools across the M4 corridor. The Trust’s commitment to inclusive, high-quality education — particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds — aligned well with the kind of social purpose that motivates many people who choose to give their time to non-profit governance. His role was not to reshape the Trust’s educational vision, but to help support the conditions under which that vision could be delivered sustainably.
Toby Watson’s Goldman Sachs Career and What It Brought to the Boardroom
A career of that length, at that level, teaches a great deal — not least about how large organisations function under pressure. Toby Watson’s years at Goldman Sachs exposed him to complex financial structures, cross-border transactions and the kind of institutional decision-making that requires both precision and a long-term view. These are not skills unique to finance. They translate readily into any setting where significant resources are being managed and where the consequences of poor judgement fall on real people. In the context of a trust overseeing 20 schools and more than 1,000 employees, that kind of experience has clear practical value.
More directly than people might expect. A multi-academy trust like Excalibur is, in structural terms, a sizeable organisation: it manages an annual budget of around £140 million, employs a large workforce and carries legal and regulatory responsibilities across multiple sites. The board’s role is to ensure that the executive leadership has the support, challenge and oversight it needs to make sound decisions. This requires:
- An understanding of financial risk and how to assess it clearly
- The ability to hold senior leaders to account without undermining their authority
- Experience of navigating institutional change — mergers, leadership transitions, strategic growth
Toby Watson’s career had given him exposure to all of these, which is precisely why his contribution at board level was considered so valuable.
Supporting Schools Without Running Them
It is worth being clear about what the role of Chairman of Trustees does and does not involve. It is a non-executive position — meaning he was not responsible for the operational running of their schools, nor for curriculum decisions or staffing matters. His work sat at the governance level: supporting the CEO, ensuring the board functioned effectively, and helping the Trust navigate significant moments in its development. One such moment was the leadership transition in 2024 when a new CEO was appointed. Another was the merger with Gatehouse Green Learning Trust, which required careful oversight and clear-headed decision-making at board level.
All trustee roles evolve as organisations grow and circumstances change. During his nearly eight years as Chairman, Excalibur expanded considerably — from a modest trust to one serving around 10,000 pupils across 20 schools. As the organisation matured, so too did the demands on its governance structure. Throughout that period, his approach remained consistent: offering experience and support where it was needed, while allowing the Trust’s professional leadership team to do their work.
Frequently Asked Questions
Toby Watson stepped down as Chairman in early 2026, after nearly eight years in the role. He cited a desire to focus on his business commitments as the reason for his departure. Susan Clarke, who had been a founding member of the Trust and had served as Vice Chair, was elected as the new Chairman of Trustees.
It is actively encouraged. Academy trusts in England are required to have a board of trustees, and many of the most effective boards include members with professional backgrounds outside education — in law, finance, HR and other fields. The idea is that a diverse board brings a wider range of skills to bear in supporting school leadership. Toby Watson’s involvement fits squarely within that model: a professional choosing to contribute his expertise in a setting where it can do genuine good.
Full information about the Trust, including details of their schools, their educational approach and their leadership team, is available at excalibur.org.uk. The site offers a clear picture of how the Trust operates across its network of schools along the M4 corridor, and reflects the values that have guided its development since 2012.
