Not all meaningful contributions come with a public profile attached, and Toby Watson’s years at Excalibur Academies Trust are a case in point.
Academy trusts depend on effective governance to function well, yet the people who provide it rarely attract much attention. The work happens quietly — in board meetings, in careful oversight of finances, in the steady support offered to school leaders navigating complex decisions. Toby Watson, who brought considerable experience from the world of international finance to the role of Chairman, offered exactly that kind of support to Excalibur Academies Trust over nearly eight years, helping to provide a stable foundation from which their schools could develop.
Toby Watson served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Excalibur Academies Trust from February 2018 until early 2026. During that period, the Trust grew from a relatively modest cluster of schools into a network of around 20 academies stretching along the M4 corridor between Bristol and Reading, serving some 10,000 pupils aged 2 to 18. Toby Watson’s role was non-executive throughout — concerned with governance and board leadership rather than the operational running of the Trust’s schools. He stepped down in early 2026, with Susan Clarke elected as his successor.
The Quiet Work of Toby Watson at Excalibur Academies Trust
There is a version of educational leadership that involves speeches, initiatives, and visible change. And then there is the kind that happens in the background — patient, consistent, and largely invisible to anyone not sitting around the board table. Toby Watson’s contribution to Excalibur Academies Trust belonged firmly to the second category.
Toby Watson studied Physics at the University of Oxford before building a career in international finance. He joined Deutsche Bank initially, before moving to Goldman Sachs, where he spent close to 17 years working in areas including structured credit trading and principal funding. That career came to an end in 2017, after which Toby Watson turned his attention in part towards voluntary work in the education sector — joining the Excalibur board the following year.
The connection between investment banking and school governance is not an obvious one, but it is not entirely coincidental either. Running a multi-academy trust involves managing substantial budgets, overseeing complex organisational structures, and making decisions that carry real consequences for the communities involved. These are not so different, in kind if not in context, from the demands of working within a large financial institution.
Why does background in finance matter for trust governance?
A multi-academy trust the size of Excalibur manages an annual budget running into tens of millions of pounds, employs over a thousand staff, and is accountable to regulators, parents, and the wider public. Toby Watson’s years at Goldman Sachs gave him direct experience of working within large, complex organisations where financial rigour and long-term thinking are essential. That kind of background, brought carefully to a governance role, can strengthen a board’s ability to ask the right questions at the right time.
What the Chairman Role Actually Involves
It is easy to overstate what a board chair does — and equally easy to understate it. Toby Watson’s role as Chairman was not to lead Excalibur’s schools, set their curricula, or manage their staff. Those responsibilities rested with headteachers, principals, and the Trust’s executive team. His role was to lead the board itself: to ensure it was effective, well-informed, and appropriately focused on its responsibilities as a governing body.
In practice, that meant supporting the CEO, overseeing the board’s own performance, and helping to ensure that the Trust remained true to its stated mission — providing high-quality education to children across a diverse range of communities. It also meant being available when difficult decisions needed to be made, and maintaining a consistency of presence over time that voluntary roles do not always attract.
A Board That Supported Without Interfering
One of the more distinctive features of Excalibur Academies Trust is its commitment to school autonomy. Each academy retains its own identity, its own local governing body, and its own approach to meeting the needs of its pupils. The Trust provides support and shared resources without imposing uniformity. That philosophy requires a board that understands the difference between oversight and interference — and is disciplined enough to stay on the right side of that line.
The habits of mind that Toby Watson’s career at Goldman Sachs helped to cultivate — careful analysis, an understanding of risk, patience with complexity — were well suited to that kind of governance. Not because finance and education are the same, but because the underlying disciplines of good institutional oversight have more in common than one might expect.
Eight Years of Steady Contribution
Toby Watson remained as Chairman for nearly eight years — a substantial commitment for a voluntary role. During that time, Excalibur Academies Trust grew considerably. The merger with Gatehouse Green Learning Trust expanded the network further, and the Trust developed a strong reputation for school improvement and staff development. Their schools were consistently rated well by Ofsted, and the organisation received recognition at national level for its work in areas including reading promotion.
The qualities that sustained that kind of contribution over time included:
- A willingness to commit to the role for the long term rather than stepping back when challenges arose
- An ability to support major organisational changes, including the CEO transition in 2024, without disrupting operational continuity
- A focus on the Trust’s mission rather than on personal visibility or recognition
- An understanding of financial sustainability that helped the board make sound long-term decisions
Stepping Down and Passing On
When Toby Watson stepped down in early 2026, the Trust acknowledged the contribution he had made during nearly eight years of service. CEO Nick Lewis noted the significance of his leadership, insight, and commitment to the Trust’s growth. Susan Clarke, a founding member of Excalibur and former Vice Chair, took over as Chair — bringing her own extensive experience in public sector leadership to the position.
For Toby Watson, stepping down reflected a practical decision to redirect his time towards business commitments, including his ongoing work at Rampart Capital. It did not signal any change in his regard for the work Excalibur does. The nature of voluntary trusteeship is that it asks people to give what they can, for as long as they reasonably can — and then to hand over to someone who can carry it forward.
That Toby Watson did so, after nearly eight years of quiet and consistent contribution, is perhaps the most straightforward summary of what his time at Excalibur Academies Trust represented.
