Board of Directors

Dean holds a BSc in Geography and a MA in the Geography of Third World Development.

Prior to co-founding Equustrong UK, Dean worked in several different roles including as a civil servant for HMRC and as a care assistant working with the elderly mentally ill.

He then went on to train as a secondary school teacher specialising in Geography with ICT and spent almost nine years teaching in schools in Essex and Cambridge including spending several years as Head of Geography in a school with a high percentage of pupils on the Special Educational Needs Register. 

It was during this time he co-founded an educational charity, Education for Everyone with his late wife and this provided him with a good grounding in how the non-profit sector operates.

Katy is the founder of the prestigious Equestrian Business Awards as well as Equinnect, an organisation which aims to promote and support businesses and professionals and gives peace of mind to horse owners that the professional they use holds the correct credentials. She has an academic background in psychology and working background in Special Education Needs, initially with deaf blind adults before working at a secondary school then qualifying as a primary school teacher with a keen interest in SEN. She continues to teach at a primary school on an army barracks.

Alongside running her equestrian businesses and teaching, she is also a school Governor at a local primary school, chairing the curriculum committee; and is also a member of the Public Advisory Group for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. The group exists to support RCVS activities by helping it to better understand issues affecting the public, to act as a sounding board on its draft policies, to assist in the development and improvement of its public services, and to help pilot and test its communications.

As a result of Katy’s experiences and areas of expertise particularly in terms of horses, the impact of military life on veteran and current military personnel and their families, SEN and alternative education provisions, she is a keen supporter of Equustrong UK.