Jenny Baldwin, Community Governor

Jenny attended the University of Sheffield to study medicine. After two years of her medical degree, she changed course to a Civil and Structural Engineering MEng with a study abroad year at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. During her degree she found particular interest in low-carbon design, engineering in developing communities, and linking this with a Māori Treaty module.

Jenny has been working at Buro Happold in the Bath office for two and a half years since graduation, having previously worked a summer placement in their Leeds office, and for a formwork and falsework company both in NZ and the UK.

Jenny’s current role is structural engineer at Buro Happold, an international integrated consultancy of engineers, consultants and advisors. She has been involved in design of the biggest indoor arena in the UK, mixed used residential projects and the new Everton stadium.

She was the chair of Buro Happold Bath’s Young Engineer’s Forum, a group that leads personal and professional development for young engineers, as well as organising outreach opportunities. Jenny is now the vice chair of the IStructE Western Counties Young Members Group which represents views of students and graduate engineers in the southwest, as well as developing initiatives tailored for young members.

Dr Fraser Greenroyd

Fraser has an Engineering Doctorate and a BSc in Computer Science. He is also a Chartered Engineer with the British Computing Society.

Fraser is currently responsible for the development operations across BuroHappold Engineering. This includes ensuring software development can happen according to best practice, preparing and producing protocol and procedural documents to ensure software development can occur safely, in compliance with legal requirements and be supported during project audits. He ensures the continuous integration and deployment actions are appropriately built and maintained, as well as ensuring the framework for the codebase used is appropriate. He is also the development lead for building environments, responsible for producing software tolls to support the sustainability and physics and MEP teams to deliver their engineering projects.

Fraser is actively involved in STEM events to help inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers and to support different career paths such as 'Hold back the flood' and 'Life on Mars'.

Mike Hall, SEND Governor

Mike has worked in the mechanical engineering sector for more than 35 years across a broad range of disciplines covering senior management, production plant leadership and logistics, distribution and production control.

Mike’s present role is managing director for Knorr-Bremse systems for commercial vehicles of Emersons Green, North Bristol. The company is the world leading manufacturer of braking, control and driver assistance systems for commercial and passenger service vehicles.

Mike has progressed through multiple developments of the company since joining as a trainee, providing experiences across the full range of STEM based subjects from both learning and practical application perspectives.

His professional qualifications include BTEC level 5 diplomas in both production and inventory management and management studies, and is an active member of the Institute of Operations Management and supports the South West membership board for MakeUK (formerly the Engineering Employers Federation).

Ashlea Lane, Community Governor

Ashlea has over 20 years of experience in the utilities sector, focused on engineering and leadership. His current role is as the Director of Water Production for Wessex Water.

His responsibilities include the operation and maintenance of over 100 sites producing the highest quality drinking water 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. His current position forms part of the operations senior leadership team at Wessex Water with strategic responsibility for operation and maintenance of around 100 water treatment centre sites, providing our customers with around 350 million litres of water a day. His team of around 140 members includes operatives, electrical, mechanical and instrumentation technicians, scientists and control room staff.

He joined Wessex Water as an electrical engineering apprentice. After successful completion of his apprenticeship, he went on to achieve a National Certificate, a First-Class Honours Bachelors Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and an MBA. He is an Incorporated Engineer and member of the IET, a Chartered Manager and a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.

Ashlea said supportive teachers, lecturers and mentors guided him through his career and as a governor he hopes to provide support and strategic oversight to ensure this continues to happen for other young people, particularly in STEM subjects.

Dr Rebecca Parker, Joint Staff Governor

Becky has an MChem in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD (Organic Chemistry) and PGCE from the University of Bath.

She started teaching following two years in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries. She spent 13 years teaching across KS3 to KS5 at her previous school, including time as KS3 Science Co‑ordinator before moving to teach at IKB Academy when they opened in 2015. She is part-time, teaching A-level Chemistry and teaching and co-ordinating the Level 3 Applied Science and Forensic and Criminal Investigation.

Bharath Ranganathan, Community Governor

Bharath has a 21 year career covering engineering and leadership roles, primarily in safety critical sectors such as aerospace and railways.

His current role is R&D Programme Manager for Siemens Mobility Ltd which specialises in the command control and signalling of railways, metro and tram systems around the world. Some of the responsibilities as part of this role include

• contributing to the technology strategy
• generation of business cases and presentation of these to the relevant stakeholders for approval
• co-ordination with the delivery team and the customer on development activities.

Siemens Mobility Ltd has an active graduate and apprentice programme which encourages students interested in STEM subjects to pursue careers in engineering.

Bharath holds a Master's Degree in Technology and a Master's Degree in Science. Bharath also holds a Project Management Associate certification from the Association of Project Management. He is a member of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Institution of Railway Signal Engineers and an Associate Member of the Association for Project Management.

Chris Trout, Chair of Governors and Community Governor

Chris is now retired having been a Chartered Engineer and a Senior Civil Servant involved with equipment procurement and support in the Ministry of Defence and having spent seven years in Senior Management roles for BMT Defence Services Ltd of Bath. Chair of the Academy Governance Committee of the IKB Academy, Chris previously served on the Wellsway School Governing Body for around 15 years with eight years as Chair.

Chris brings a wealth of organisational and business experience to the Trust as well as a significant appreciation of school governance to the IKB Academy. This includes a well-honed set of chairmanship skills as well as plenty of experience in nurturing teams to deliver meaningful outcomes across all these sectors.

Dr Natasha Watson, Community Governor

Natasha attended the University of Bath to study civil and architectural engineering. She then completed an Engineering Doctorate, where she investigated the use of low impact materials in UK construction.

Natasha has over 10 years’ experience as a structural design engineer and over four years as a structural job leader on projects that range in scale and materiality. She also works as an embodied carbon consultant, leading the development of knowledge on the embodied impacts of construction materials within the construction industry as well as on Buro Happold projects. She also helps upskill her colleagues in this area.

Finally, she is an advocate for equity in the built environment through tackling biases in urban design and understanding the social value of urban spaces. She develops her skills in this area by co-leading the UK Chapter of Buro Happold’s ‘think tank’ called Urban C:Lab. If we are going to save the world from climate change, then we need to make sure it is a world worth saving!

She believes that in order to get a more diverse group of people into STEM subjects, you need to see a diverse group of people in STEM. Only through a wide range of people becoming engineers, can we ensure that engineers are solving the real issues that impact society as a whole.