SEA Committee

Leanne is a highly driven Commercial Director with over fifteen years of demonstrable success developing and implementing commercial strategies, driving profitability and value proposition in the independent education sector.

It was at Repton School that she began commercial journey within education. Her passion as a former international basketball player has driven her to widen access to sports for young people from a diverse range of backgrounds through local and national partnerships. Leanne built an extremely successful enterprises function at Repton during her tenure, leading a strong and ambitious team to double revenue.

Leanne accepted the position of Head of Commercial Enterprises at Denstone College in 2022, ready to take on a new challenge, and has since developed a five-year strategy following a challenging few years of COVID restrictions.

Les started at Radley in November 2007, having managed leisure facilities in the public sector for many years prior to that. He began in leisure at an outdoor sports park and athletics track before moving onto manage an outdoor pool and then a full leisure centre, before then moving to the Independent School sector with Radley. He feels that he has therefore built up a wealth of knowledge managing in a number of leisure settings. Les is thrilled to be returning this year as Vice-Chair of the SEA and his aim is to discuss many issues with people and hopefully pass on his knowledge gained in the past 21 years.

In September 2021, whilst continuing to manage the Sports Centre, Les took on the new role of Commercial Enterprises Manager.  As well as managing the sports centre and commercial bookings, he also coaches swimming and football and runs a number of fitness classes for the boys at Radley.

Over the last 8 years at Harrow, Lauren has developed and grown the events and tours business. Hosting over 100 events per year, for clients such as NFL, 02, Credit Suisse, Netflix, Tatler and alike. Out Tours market has been the quickest to recover post the pandemic, so this has been wonderful to see. Her role also focuses time on the Schools outreach programmes which provides her with more exposure with the SMT at Harrow. Prior to her current role, Lauren worked in Event Management at the National Theatre and Tate Galleries, London. These iconic and world-famous brands helped shape and develop a career in hosting and planning events for private, corporate events for both domestic and international clients.

Having been apart of the SEA since its very inception, Harrow School was thrilled to be one of the very first Schools to join the membership. Lauren has seen the association grow enormously over the years and enjoys being apart of such an interactive and supportive group.

Marie is a resourceful leader with 30 years’ experience working in Local Commercial Radio (on and off air!), Professional Sport and Education. Marie has been Business Development Manager for the Dean Close Foundation for 9 years and has been part of the SEA group since its inception.  The role has oversight of all commercial income through a number of business strands, across multiple schools.

Marie has experience in commercial management, business development, sponsorship, fundraising and charitable support for organisations, providing leadership, business planning, programme management and execution. In the 9 years at Dean Close , Marie has grown the commercial team, and Dean Close Services Ltd now delivers a number of its own Camps & Courses, (Easter Revision, Sports, Drama, Swim School) in addition to delivering year-round Lets,(Residential, Sports, Day Hire), managing the Foundation Retail business, Immersion programmes & a 566 seat Theatre with full commercial programme. In this time profits have grown significantly and are gift aided back into the Foundation.

The role requires close working with HR, finance, marketing, admissions, estates, IT, school SLT’s, a variety of academic & school staff and the Foundation Exec. Marie has also recently become the Designated Safeguarding Lead for Dean Close Services Ltd.

Prior to Dean Close , she was Commercial Manager for Football League Club, Cheltenham Town and prior to that was Managing Director of Cheltenham’s commercial radio station. This followed after starting her career on air as a radio and news presenter. As a result, she has a wealth of experience in a variety of income generating areas & in managing teams.

She considers herself a people leader who is passionate about enabling others and supporting the development of people and talent, taking genuine delight in celebrating the achievements of others.

With nearly 30 years’ experience of commercial business in the independent school sector, nothing beats the reassurance one gets from sharing experiences, particularly when tackling complex and difficult challenges and even more so in the unusual and unique environment of an independent school steeped in centuries of tradition.

With nearly 40 years working across a spectrum of environments including local authority and private leisure operators prior to moving into the School’s sector, plus a bit of private consulting thrown in along the way, Tim brings a wealth of experience in many aspects of leisure and commercial business including a broad ranging experience in start-ups and established businesses, in everything from typical public sports centres to ice rinks and indoor water parks, and of course, the unique world of independent school commercial enterprise.

For the past 10 years Ed has built and enhanced an extensive commercial programme at Shrewsbury School with particular focus on sporting and residential business. Their operation now generates a sizeable contribution aiding bursaries and capital projects. Ed’s time with the SEA has highlighted the benefit of experience sharing and he’s excited by the opportunity of aiding its long-term support to members maximising use of school facilities, whilst balancing this with the needs of pupils.

He is a talented manager with a strong background in leisure, school and facility management. These experiences have enabled him to develop a skill set in a number of areas including maximising income potential and sourcing funding opportunities, management of varying teams of staff, developing effective partnerships, budget monitoring, producing business plans, health and safety and the creating, monitoring and evaluating of business operations. With 20 years of experience in this domain and an excellent track record of over achieving on targets set he is delighted to support SEA members.

Patrick has worked in the Sports, Leisure, and Fitness industry for close to 20 years now, with the past 4 years spent as the Assistant Commercial Manager for Sport at Caterham School in Surrey.  Previous to this, Patrick was at Nuffield’s second largest club in Surbiton, Surrey where he managed the day-to-day operations of a busy 4000-member club while the GM undertook a cluster management role. His 6 years working for Nuffield Health were some of the happiest he has experienced, and was immensely proud to be involved in some of the most prominent changes as they moved to be the market leader in the health and fitness industry.

Patrick is delighted to be able to share the skillset he has gained in (almost) 20 years in the Sport, Leisure and Fitness industry with his peers and understands the challenges sport centres face in the independent school environment.