Benedicte is Chief Financial Officer at the River Learning Trust, a 31 school Multi Academy Trust. She has over 30 years’ experience in audit and finance. She spent the first part of her career in audit practice with KPMG in Paris and London before working as Director of International Affairs for the French Asset Management Association. In 2010, she became actively involved in setting up a multi-lingual free school near Oxford and joined the River Learning Trust in 2019. Benedicte was awarded CFO of the year at the 2023 MAT excellence awards for her contribution to system leadership and innovation and received the School Resource Management of the year award for the River Learning Trust at the 2024 National Schools Awards. She has a particular interest in the reform of the high needs funding system and is leading a group of experts exploring effective practices in the UK and abroad.