Members have a wholly strategic view of the Trust, setting out the vision and values and ensuring that they are adhered to. Click the links below for more information about the Members.
His Honour Peter Collier KC was born and brought up in Hull. The home in which he grew up was one where the Christian faith was very evident and he developed a faith of his own from an early age and has ever since been active in church and related activities.
He went on from school in Hull (Hymers College) to Selwyn College Cambridge where he studied law. There he probably spent more time on the river with the college boat club than in law lectures, and he did go to all the lectures. After graduation he spent a year in London studying for the bar exams and was called to the bar by the Inner Temple in July 1970.
The plans to go into pupillage in London were put on hold as he was asked to become a travelling secretary for the organisation which linked University Christian Unions. He did that for 3 years, travelling between the universities in the North East of England. After that he resumed his legal career, going into pupillage in Leeds. That was the beginning of a career in the law based in chambers in Leeds. Since that time he has lived in York with his wife. They have two sons, now very grown up, and living respectively in Vienna and Tokyo.
Much of his early career at the bar was spent in York Crown Court. He became a QC (as they were then called) doing criminal and public law family cases.
Some of his experience shows that he has skills which are readily transferable to being a MAT Member. He oversaw the development of a more professional approach to the running of Chambers, his being one of the first to adopt the new “kite mark” for professional management. He was elected as the Leader of the North Eastern Circuit (local barristers’ trades union). In 2007 he was appointed as a judge and was the Recorder of Leeds (the resident judge at Leeds Crown Court) until his retirement in 2018. During that time he not only had a wide range of organisational responsibilities but was also involved in developing and piloting in Leeds various new national initiatives – the prerecording of cross examination of child witnesses, and a new system for managing more efficiently and effectively the cases before the Crown Court from their arrival to their completion.
In retirement he has been able to give his attention to various issues of ecclesiastical law, particularly in relation to safeguarding and clergy discipline.
He has had various roles and responsibilities in St Michael le Belfrey and in York Minster, being until very recently the chair of the Cathedral Council.
In retirement he decided that he would never again need to cut the grass in the rain as within a day or two the sun would be shining. And so it has proved.
The Right Reverend Paul Ferguson was born and brought up in Birkenhead on Merseyside. He went to New College, Oxford as Organ Scholar where he studied music. He trained as a teacher and briefly returned to his old school as a staff member. Alongside his organ playing and teaching he had the opportunity to see closely the daily work and ministry of a parish priest, and so it was that he went to Westcott House, Cambridge as an ordinand, taking a theology degree at King’s College.
He was ordained to a title post at St Mary’s, Handbridge, Chester. He went on to Westminster Abbey, where he was first Chaplain (where his duties involved the pastoral care of staff and worshippers) and then Precentor (with responsibility for the Abbey’s daily and special services). In 1995 he came to York Minster as Precentor and Residentiary Canon, and in 2001 was appointed Archdeacon of Cleveland on the retirement of Christopher Hawthorn. He was consecrated as Bishop of Whitby in June 2014.
He is author of Great is the Mystery of Faith: exploring faith through the words of worship (Canterbury Press)
He is a member of the Church of England’s Porvoo Panel which oversees links with the Scandinavian and Baltic Lutheran churches.
Paul is the Group Chief Executive of Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT). Paul started at Joseph Rowntree on 1 September 2020, and was previously a Director General in the UK Government working on the national response to the COVID-19 crisis. He has held Director General roles at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for Education.
He was Deputy Chief Executive for Policy and Organisational Strategy at the Ministry for Children in New Zealand. Paul has also held senior roles at HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, and a local authority. He has worked throughout his career on economic and social policy issues and public service reform.
Andrew is a qualified teacher and headteacher with over 20 years’ experience in primary education working in York and North Yorkshire. He is skilled in primary education, Educational Leadership, Leadership Development and Performance Appraisal. He has also worked successfully in a number of collaborative partnerships, including within Teaching School Alliances and with schools overseas, particularly focusing on developing effective school leadership and shared curriculum development.
He currently represents the Diocese of York Educational Trust (DYET) as a corporate member on Multi Academy Trusts and is a director of DBE Services, a consortia of several Church of England dioceses in the north of England.