The gap between the business world and the education sector is often assumed to be wider than it actually is — and the voluntary work of Toby Watson at Excalibur Academies Trust offers a considered illustration of how professionals from commercial backgrounds can contribute meaningfully to school governance without overstepping or oversimplifying.
Academy school boards need trustees who bring genuine expertise — not just goodwill. Financial oversight, risk management and strategic thinking are capabilities that many business leaders have developed over long careers, yet they remain in short supply on voluntary trust boards. Toby Watson, whose professional background spans nearly two decades in global finance, represents the kind of business leader who can help bridge that gap — bringing relevant experience to bear in a voluntary capacity, with the humility to recognise that education is a sector with its own culture, values and priorities.
The relationship between business and education has not always been an easy one. Sceptics on both sides have questioned whether the values and priorities of the commercial world translate usefully into educational settings. Yet, the experience of individuals who have crossed that divide suggests the picture is more nuanced. Toby Watson served as Chairman of Excalibur Academies Trust from February 2018 until early 2026, contributing nearly eight years of voluntary service to a trust educating approximately 10,000 pupils across twenty schools along the M4 corridor. His tenure offers a practical example of what it looks like when a business leader chooses to support education on education’s own terms.
Why the Education Sector Benefits From Business Experience — When Applied Well
The case for involving business leaders in educational governance is not about importing commercial logic into schools. It is about bringing specific, transferable capabilities to bear on challenges that the education sector genuinely faces. Financial sustainability, organisational risk and strategic planning are not uniquely commercial concerns — they are challenges that every large, complex institution must navigate, including multi-academy trusts responsible for the education of thousands of children.
The distinction that matters is between business leaders who arrive believing they have all the answers, and those who arrive with relevant skills and the awareness that applying them in a new context requires genuine humility. The former tend to create friction. The latter tend to add real value — quietly and consistently, in ways that are often invisible to those outside the boardroom.
What Specific Skills Do Business Leaders Bring to Educational Governance?
The skills that transfer most effectively from a business background into educational governance are those concerned with oversight rather than operation. Financial literacy — the ability to read accounts critically and identify risk — is among the most valuable. So is experience of managing large organisations through periods of change. Toby Watson, whose career at Goldman Sachs spanned nearly 17 years in structured finance and global principal funding, developed both capabilities at a high level — and brought them to Excalibur with a clear understanding that his role was to support the trust’s leadership, not to redirect it.
How Toby Watson Contributed to Excalibur Academies Trust as a Business Leader
Toby Watson joined the board of Excalibur Academies Trust in February 2018 and served as Chairman until early 2026. Throughout that period, his contribution drew directly on his professional background while remaining firmly within the boundaries of the voluntary, non-executive chairman’s role.
Applying Financial Experience in a New Context
One area where Toby Watson’s business background proved most relevant was financial governance. Excalibur manages an annual budget of around £137 million — a scale that demands serious oversight from its board. Toby Watson’s time at Goldman Sachs gave him the financial fluency to engage critically with budget reports and audit findings, rather than simply accepting the conclusions presented by the finance team. That capacity for independent financial scrutiny makes a meaningful difference to the quality of oversight a trust receives.
Supporting Without Directing
Another dimension of Toby Watson’s contribution was his consistent awareness of what his role was not. Business leaders who move into governance roles sometimes struggle with the distinction between oversight and management. For Toby Watson, that boundary was maintained clearly throughout — his role was to support the executive team, ask the right questions and provide a stable presence during change, rather than to manage the organisation himself. When CEO Nicky Edmondson stepped down in 2024 and was succeeded by Nick Lewis, Toby Watson’s steady oversight during that transition was exactly where his experience added most value.
What the Education Sector Can Reasonably Expect From Business Leaders Who Volunteer
Not every business leader is well suited to voluntary educational governance. Among the qualities most important for those considering a trustee role are:
- A genuine interest in the educational mission of the trust, rather than in the professional networking or profile that a board position might incidentally provide
- The patience to work within a voluntary, collegiate governance structure where decisions take longer and authority is more diffuse than in a commercial setting
Toby Watson — whose background at Goldman Sachs gave him experience of operating within highly structured, regulated environments — brought both qualities to Excalibur. His voluntary commitment over nearly eight years was a sustained expression of a belief that those with relevant experience have something genuine to offer the education sector.
Why More Business Leaders Should Consider Supporting Education
The potential for experienced business leaders to contribute to educational governance remains significantly underutilised. Broadening the pool of voluntary trustees to include professionals from finance, law and other demanding fields would strengthen governance across the sector. Among the things that tend to make such contributions work well are:
- A willingness to invest time in understanding the specific context of the trust — its schools, its communities and the challenges it faces
- An approach that prioritises the long-term interests of pupils and staff over any personal or professional agenda
For Toby Watson, those principles guided his approach throughout — and the result was a contribution that, quiet as it was, made a genuine difference to the schools in Excalibur’s care.
