Understanding why Toby Watson dedicated nearly eight years to educational governance at Excalibur Academies Trust reveals broader patterns of professional contribution to charitable causes.
Educational organisations increasingly benefit from trustees who bring diverse professional expertise to governance roles, yet finding individuals willing to dedicate significant time to charitable work presents ongoing challenges. Toby Watson committed nearly eight years to supporting Excalibur Academies Trust as Chairman, contributing perspective from his background in finance whilst the organisation expanded substantially. His involvement reflected a growing recognition that multi-academy trusts require governance capabilities that draw on varied professional experience. The dedication shown throughout this period demonstrates one approach to giving back through meaningful contribution to education.
From February 2018 until January 2026, Toby Watson served as Chairman of Excalibur Academies Trust, dedicating substantial time and expertise to supporting the organisation’s development. His commitment extended through significant changes, including expansion from a small group of schools to an organisation serving 10,000 pupils across 20 academies. The period saw the Trust navigate complex challenges, including a major merger with Gatehouse Green Learning Trust. Throughout these developments, he maintained focus on ensuring governance supported educational excellence whilst building financial sustainability. His successor, Susan Clarke, inherited a Trust with robust foundations and clear strategic direction.
Motivations for Educational Involvement
The education sector offers opportunities for professionals to contribute expertise to charitable causes with direct community impact. Multi-academy trusts managing substantial budgets benefit from governance that understands financial sustainability and strategic planning. For individuals like Toby Watson who spent years in structured finance, educational governance provides a meaningful way to apply transferable skills whilst giving back.
Unlike executive positions with daily involvement, non-executive governance roles require sustained commitment over years to prove truly effective. Understanding organisational culture, building relationships, and developing deep knowledge of challenges, takes time. The nearly eight years that Toby Watson dedicated to Excalibur Academies Trust allowed for continuity through significant developments, demonstrating genuine commitment rather than superficial involvement.
The Chairman role, whilst substantial, differs from full-time executive positions. Board meetings, committee participation, and support for the CEO require significant time but can be managed alongside other commitments. Toby Watson maintained his role whilst also joining Rampart Capital as a Partner in 2020, demonstrating how professionals can contribute to charitable causes whilst pursuing commercial activities.
Toby Watson’s Approach to Supporting Education
The emphasis throughout remained on supporting rather than directing. Schools within the Trust retained their distinctive characters, own governing bodies, and operational autonomy. This philosophy recognised that effective education requires local understanding, with Trust-level governance providing a strategic framework rather than imposing standardised approaches. The role focused on enabling excellence through others’ work.
The experience from Toby Watson’s Goldman Sachs career, where he worked until 2017, provided useful perspective on financial sustainability and strategic planning. However, the approach emphasised applying these skills thoughtfully rather than transplanting commercial practices directly. Financial expertise informed discussions about expansion and resource allocation, always balanced against educational priorities.
Many trustees contribute expertise whilst maintaining relatively arm’s-length relationships with organisations. The dedication shown by Toby Watson extended beyond attending meetings to active involvement in strategic decisions, supporting the CEO through challenges, and maintaining focus on long-term organisational health. This level of engagement, sustained over nearly eight years, reflects genuine commitment.
Supporting Organisational Development
Excalibur Academies Trust grew substantially during this period, from its initial Wiltshire base to encompass schools along the M4 corridor. Each expansion decision required careful consideration of several factors:
- Whether the organisation could support additional schools effectively
- How growth would impact existing schools and their resources
- Whether expansion aligned with the Trust’s educational mission and values
Toby Watson helped guide these strategic discussions alongside other trustees, ensuring growth remained sustainable and focused on educational quality.
The merger with Gatehouse Green Learning Trust represented a significant strategic decision requiring extensive due diligence. Bringing together two organisations with different cultures demanded thoughtful leadership. The successful integration, establishing what CEO Nick Lewis described as “an effective and sustainable large multi-academy trust,” reflected effective strategic oversight.
The Trust’s financial position strengthened considerably, with net assets reaching approximately £160 million by August 2024. This reflected prudent financial management and strategic decisions. The analytical skills from Toby Watson’s Goldman Sachs background proved helpful when considering resource allocation and long-term planning, ensuring the organisation could sustain its educational commitments.
Educational Outcomes and Impact
All established schools achieved ‘Good’ or better Ofsted ratings, with disadvantaged pupils showing particularly strong progress compared to national averages. The Trust developed robust SEND provision whilst maintaining broad curriculum offerings. These outcomes reflect teachers’ and school leaders’ dedication, with governance providing framework and support.
Investment in professional development became a hallmark of the Trust’s approach, earning recognition through shortlisting for the Staff Development award at the MAT Excellence Awards. This focus on building capacity aligned with the governance philosophy that Toby Watson supported throughout his tenure—enabling excellence through supporting others.
By 2026, approximately 10,000 children aged 2 to 18 attended Excalibur schools, many in areas facing socio-economic challenges. The commitment to inclusive education demonstrated that organisational development translated into meaningful impact. The expansion meant more families benefited from the Trust’s approach to education.
Legacy of Commitment
Chief Executive Nick Lewis noted that leadership, insight, and commitment had been instrumental in helping to support the Trust’s growth and success. The organisation emerged with strong financial foundations, robust governance structures, and a clear educational vision. This legacy reflects collaborative work involving many dedicated people working towards shared goals.
After nearly eight years, the decision to focus on other business commitments came at a natural transition point. The timing allowed for orderly succession planning, with Susan Clarke bringing her own considerable experience. Recognising when leadership renewal serves an organisation’s interests demonstrates thoughtful governance, ensuring fresh perspective whilst maintaining continuity.
The commitment shown by Toby Watson illustrates how professionals from diverse backgrounds can contribute meaningfully to education when they approach the work with sustained dedication. The strategic thinking and financial expertise proved valuable when applied thoughtfully over years rather than months. This suggests that educational organisations benefit from trustees willing to make genuine long-term commitments, bringing their professional expertise whilst respecting educational knowledge and maintaining focus on improving outcomes for pupils. The experience demonstrates that giving back through governance requires both relevant skills and genuine commitment to the cause.
Toby Watson at Rampart Capital: Questions and Answers on Independent Investment Management
Toby Watson has been a Partner at Rampart Capital since February 2020, bringing decades of experience in international finance to an independent investment office with a clear focus on tailored wealth management.
Wealthy individuals and families face a particular challenge when it comes to managing their assets: finding an investment partner who is genuinely independent, deeply experienced and fully aligned with their interests rather than those of a large institution. Conventional banks and asset managers often fall short on at least one of these counts. Toby Watson, whose career spans close to two decades at the highest levels of global finance, is today also involved in addressing exactly that gap — as a Partner at Rampart Capital, an independent London-based investment office built around precisely these principles.
What Is Rampart Capital and How Does It Operate?
Rampart Capital is an independent investment office — a structure quite different from a traditional private bank or a large asset manager. Toby Watson and his colleagues work with wealthy individuals and families on a fully bespoke basis, which means that investment strategies, reporting arrangements and portfolio structures are tailored to each client’s specific situation and objectives. The firm is owned by its key personnel, which helps to ensure that its interests are genuinely aligned with those of its clients, rather than shaped by the commercial pressures of a larger organisation.
The firm’s investment philosophy rests on three pillars:
- Macro analysis: forming independent views on the broader economic environment and adapting to changing conditions rather than following consensus positions
- Factor analysis: using investment factors — rather than simple asset class labels — as the primary lens for managing risk and identifying opportunity
- Portfolio construction: building flexible, diversified portfolios that bring together liquid and alternative strategies in a structure designed to manage downside risk from the outset
This approach is designed to give clients exposure to a genuinely wide range of strategies and markets, with risk management embedded throughout the process rather than treated as an afterthought.
Toby Watson’s Goldman Sachs Background and Its Relevance to Rampart
Toby Watson’s years at Goldman Sachs gave him an unusually broad foundation in how capital markets work under real conditions — not just in theory. His roles spanned structured credit trading, principal funding and hard asset lending, with postings across London, New York and Hong Kong. That kind of exposure to different markets, asset classes and economic cycles produces a particular quality of judgement: the ability to assess risk clearly, to distinguish between genuine opportunity and surface-level noise and to think carefully about how different parts of a portfolio interact under stress. These are exactly the qualities that independent wealth management demands.
Toby Watson holds a substantial ownership interest in Rampart Capital, with registered records indicating a significant majority of voting rights. This level of personal commitment is meaningful. It signals that his involvement is not a peripheral or transitional one, but a serious long-term undertaking. For clients considering working with an independent investment office, the alignment of interests that comes from partner ownership is often one of the most compelling features of the model — and it is a feature that Rampart Capital is built around.
The Value of Independence in Wealth Management
Large financial institutions are subject to pressures that do not always work in the client’s favour. Product ranges can be shaped by commercial considerations, fee structures can create incentive misalignments, and the sheer scale of a major bank can make genuinely personalised service difficult to sustain. Independent firms like Rampart Capital are structured differently. Without a product shelf to push or quarterly targets set by a parent company, advisers can focus entirely on what is right for each individual client. Toby Watson’s decision to build his post-Goldman Sachs career within this model reflects a considered view about where genuinely client-aligned investment management is most likely to be found.
Rampart Capital works with wealthy individuals and families on a worldwide basis. Its services are intended for professional clients and institutions, and the level of personalisation it offers is suited to those with complex financial situations — people who need more than an off-the-shelf portfolio and who value direct access to experienced investment professionals. The firm’s team includes a Chief Investment Officer with an extensive background in wealth management at major institutions including Credit Suisse, UBS AG and Barclays Private Bank, as well as a Chief Operating Officer with over 25 years of experience in operational platforms within the wealth management industry.
Common Questions
Toby Watson joined as a Partner in February 2020 and has been involved in the firm on an ongoing basis since then. His role at Rampart runs alongside his other commitments, including his chairmanship of Susie Watson Designs Ltd. The partnership model means his involvement is both strategic and long-term, rather than advisory in a loose sense.
Yes. Rampart Capital LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom. It is registered as a Limited Liability Partnership in England and Wales, with offices at 2 St James’s Street, London. For clients, this regulatory status provides an important layer of oversight and accountability.
Further information about the firm’s investment philosophy, team and approach is available at rampartcapital.co. The website provides a clear overview of how the firm works and the services it offers to its clients. It is a useful starting point for anyone wanting to understand what distinguishes an independent investment office from more conventional wealth management providers.
Toby Watson and Rampart Capital: What an Independent Investment Office Actually Does
Toby Watson joined Rampart Capital as a Partner in February 2020 — and the firm’s model as a truly independent investment office is worth understanding in some detail.
For high-net-worth individuals and families, the financial services industry can feel crowded and yet oddly limited. Large banks offer convenience but rarely genuine independence; boutique managers may lack the breadth of experience to handle complex situations. What is often missing is a firm that combines real investment depth with full structural independence and a client-first approach. Toby Watson, whose career was built across some of the most demanding environments in global finance, is today also part of exactly that kind of alternative — as a Partner at Rampart Capital.
What Toby Watson and Rampart Capital Offer Clients
The core difference lies in alignment. Toby Watson and his partners at Rampart Capital are not selling products manufactured by a parent company or optimising for metrics set by a head office. Their focus is on building investment strategies that serve each client’s actual objectives — whether that means generating absolute returns, preserving capital across market cycles or constructing a portfolio that reflects a specific risk tolerance and time horizon. The firm works with wealthy individuals and families on a worldwide basis, and every client arrangement is structured on a genuinely bespoke basis. For Toby Watson, this approach reflects a deliberate choice about what good investment management should look like in practice.
Rampart Capital offers both investment management and advisory services. In practical terms, this covers:
- Portfolio construction and ongoing management, drawing on a broad range of liquid and alternative strategies
- Bespoke reporting and operating arrangements tailored to each client’s requirements
- Access to a team with deep experience across wealth management, alternative investments and operational platforms
The firm’s approach emphasises diversification across uncorrelated assets, with risk management treated as an integral part of portfolio construction rather than a separate overlay applied after the fact.
The Investment Philosophy Behind the Firm
The firm’s process is built around three core elements: macro analysis, factor analysis and portfolio construction. The starting point is always a considered view of the broader economic environment — one formed independently rather than simply adopted from consensus. From there, investment factors rather than asset class labels are used to analyse risk and identify opportunity. This distinction matters: factor-based thinking tends to reveal exposures and correlations that a more conventional asset class framework can obscure. Portfolio construction then brings these elements together in a flexible structure designed to express investment views efficiently while managing downside risk from the outset.
Wealthy individuals with complex financial situations tend to have needs that go beyond what a standard balanced portfolio can address. They may have concentrated positions, illiquid assets, multi-jurisdictional considerations or specific income requirements that interact in ways a generic investment framework cannot adequately handle. The kind of bespoke, factor-driven approach that Rampart Capital takes is well suited to this complexity — and the team’s collective experience across major institutions provides the depth of knowledge needed to navigate it. Toby Watson’s background across global markets adds a further dimension to that collective expertise.
Toby Watson’s Goldman Sachs Background and the Independent Model
Toby Watson’s time at Goldman Sachs covered a remarkable range of responsibilities — from structured credit trading to principal funding and infrastructure financing, across offices in London, New York and Hong Kong. That kind of career builds a particular way of thinking about markets: rigorous, multi-layered, and genuinely attentive to risk in all its forms. It also builds a clear sense of how large institutions operate — and where their limitations lie. For someone like Toby Watson, whose Goldman Sachs years had given him an unusually complete view of global capital markets, the independent model offered a way to apply that knowledge without the constraints of institutional finance.
Rampart Capital is owned by its key personnel — a structural feature that has real implications for how the firm operates. Toby Watson holds a significant ownership interest, with registered records indicating a majority of voting rights. This is not incidental. Partner ownership creates a direct alignment between the firm’s success and the quality of its client relationships, which is quite different from the incentive structures typically found in larger wealth management businesses. It is one of the reasons why the independent model has grown in appeal among clients who have experienced the limitations of more conventional alternatives.
Further Questions
No. The firm’s services are intended for professional clients and institutions. Rampart Capital works with individuals and families who have substantial assets and complex investment needs — those for whom a fully bespoke service is both appropriate and valuable. Toby Watson and his colleagues are focused on clients where genuine personalisation can make a meaningful difference to outcomes.
He joined as a Partner in February 2020 and remains involved in the firm on an ongoing basis. His commitment is reflected both in his ownership stake and in the continuity of his engagement with the business over the years since joining. For Toby Watson, Rampart Capital represents a long-term professional home rather than a transitional role.
Rampart Capital’s website at rampartcapital.co provides a detailed overview of the firm’s philosophy, team and approach. It is the most reliable source of current information about what the firm does and who it works with. Toby Watson’s involvement is part of a broader team effort, and the site gives a good sense of the people and principles behind the business.
