Governors

Rosalind Sweeting, LLB, has been Chair of Governors of the Latymer Foundation at Hammersmith since July 2017 (having been a Governor since 2013).

She was educated on a free place at a direct grant grammar school in south London and read law at Birmingham University. Ros is a solicitor who spent most of her career as a partner in a major City law firm where she specialised in banking and insolvency disputes. Since retiring from the law, she has spent time as a non-executive director of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and Sport Resolutions UK. She is currently a trustee of both a City pension fund and an endowed grant giving charity. She is also on the board at The Orange Tree Theatre. Her son and two daughters attended Latymer Upper School (2009, 2011 & 2017).

The Chair of the Governors can be contacted by emailing chair@latymer-upper.org or telephoning 0203 004 0491.

Gubby Ayida, MA, FRCOG, DM, is a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, London.

She is a graduate of Somerville College, Oxford University and St Thomas’s Medical School, London. At the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, Ms Ayida is currently Associate Medical Director, one of the most senior medical positions in the hospital. She has been involved in NHS Management and Clinical Leadership for over 10 years.

She is Founder and Clinical Director of The Women’s Wellness Centre – a private healthcare facility in Chelsea for women, dedicated to all aspects of women’s health and wellbeing. Gubby is passionate about women’s education and the challenges that women face in the workplace. An old girl of the Cheltenham Ladies’ College, Gubby Ayida was on their Board of Governors for nine years.

Mark Brewer, BA, was born in Ohio, USA in 1959, was educated in the UK at a comprehensive school in Lewes, East Sussex and has over 30 years of experience within international specialist staffing sectors.

He studied English Literature at the University of Bristol, moved to London and embarked on a career in recruitment. In 1986 he founded a specialist recruitment company, growing it into a global professional services recruitment consultancy with offices across Europe, Asia, Australia and the US. In 2017 he stepped aside into a non-executive board director role.

He is a trustee of Maldon Festival in Essex and a recruitment advisor at Richmond FC, currently the only amateur rugby club successfully competing in the second tier of English professional Rugby Union.

Mark has three Latymerian sons, classes of 2014 and 2017 and 2019. He has lived in Chiswick since 1991 and is married to Adrianne.

Simon Downham is Vicar of St Paul’s Hammersmith. Educated at Fettes College where he was a Foundation Scholar and at Kings College London, Simon practised as a solicitor with Slaughter and May specialising in International Corporate Finance.

He then trained for ordination at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford where he took a first in the Oxford Schools of Theology. He was ordained and served as curate at Holy Trinity Brompton before leading a team to refound St Paul’s in 2000. He holds numerous chaplaincies and trusteeships in west London.

In the field of education he is an advisory governor at Ravenscourt Park Preparatory School and Chair of Governors at St Paul’s Church Primary School. He is an associate lecturer at St Mellitus College and St Paul’s Theological Centre where he lectures in Urban Theology, Church Growth, Christian Spirituality and Patristics.

Contact details for Lucinda Evans, Clerk to the Governors, are available from The Head’s PA on head@latymer-upper.org or by telephoning 020 3004 0491.

Chantal Free, MBA, joined the Latymer Foundation as a Governor in January 2018.

Chantal is a Managing Director at Willis Towers Watson, a global risk and people advisory firm, leading the Western European operations of the Human Capital and Benefits segment. She has been with the firm for over 20 years, based both in Asia and Europe. Chantal works with organisations to improve their human resources programmes and practices to help with their attraction and retention issues. Chantal studied Business Administration and completed an MBA at Imperial College. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personal and Development (CIPD). Over the years, she has served on various business councils including the British Chamber of Commerce China Committee in Hong Kong as well as the CBI South East Regional Council in London. Two of Chantal’s three children are Latymerians. She speaks French, Spanish (intermediate) and Turkish.

Nick Jordan, MA, is a Governor of the Latymer Foundation. He attended the Latymer Prep and Upper schools, leaving in 1977, having been a beneficiary of a free place (LEA scholarship) when Latymer was a direct grant school.

Nick was introduced to rowing at school, and in the school 1st VIII achieved National Schools and National Champion status. He won an Open Exhibition to read Geography at Keble College, Oxford, and continued rowing, representing the University in the Isis crew, and was elected Captain of the Oxford University Boat Club Lightweights. After graduating, Nick pursued a career in banking for over 30 years and subsequently has been appointed as a non-executive director on the board of several companies. Nick joined Latymer’s Development Board in 2004 and was elected a Governor in 2010. He is also Vice Chairman of the Chelsea and Westminster Health Charity. Nick’s son Tom attended Latymer, as did his elder brother.

Robert studied Modern History and Politics at The Queen’s College, University of Oxford.  After graduating, Robert participated in the Teach First programme and taught History at Kingsbury School and Sports College in the West Midlands before converting to law.  Robert is now a Managing Associate at Mishcon de Reya LLP where he specialises in employment and education law.  He is currently Vice Chair of the Industrial Law Society. 

As Deputy Director (Public Engagement) of the British Museum Joanna’s role is to manage the relationship between the Museum and its many publics, to agree the strategy for the Museum’s future exhibitions and public programme, in the UK and worldwide, to ensure the content, tone and balance of the programme matches the Museum’s strategy.

Directing the Museum’s departments of Exhibitions, International Engagement, Learning and Audiences, Digital Media, Communications and Marketing to ensure coordination and coherence of all activities in which the public can engage, Joanna leads on digital and broadcast strategies which includes the major landmark BBC series A History of the World in 100 Objects and also on the creation of the Zayed National Museum, National Museum of the UAE.  Previously Joanna was Publishing Director for the leading independent literary publisher Faber and Faber.  Joanna became a Governor in November 2013. She lives in Hammersmith with her family. Her son is a Latymerian (Class of 2012) and is now studying History of Art at the Courtauld.

Annamarie Phelps, MA, was awarded the CBE in 2016 in recognition of her services to rowing.

She has been Chairman of British Rowing since 2013 but has been actively involved in rowing for over thirty years after taking up the sport whilst an undergraduate at St John’s College, Cambridge. She enjoyed a successful international rowing career representing Great Britain at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, competed in World Rowing Championships between 1991 and 1995 as well as the Commonwealth Regatta in 1994. She was World Champion in 1993 in the lightweight coxless fours. For 11 years Annamarie was Lead Safeguarding Officer at British Rowing and was Deputy Chairman from 2002 to 2013. Since 2002 she has also been a Steward of Henley Royal Regatta, a trustee and vice chairman of the British Paralympic Association for the last eight years and in 2015 was appointed to the board of the British Olympic Association.

Away from the water Annamarie is a decorative arts and design specialist and author of several books on the subject, she is also a director of the Fine Art Society. Annamarie is married to Olympic oarsman Richard Phelps, Class of 1983, and their three children are Latymerians.

Alex, MA OXON, FCA,  joined Latymer in 1976, his brother Dragan having joined two years earlier.

Alex made a late but fortunate decision to study economics at Latymer, the department then headed by the engaging Andy Leake. Alex studied PPE at Keble College, Oxford from 1983-86. He joined and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with a medium sized accountancy firm enjoying a variety of work from writing up accounts to auditing listed PLCs. In 1990 he joined KPMG as an auditor before moving to an embryonic forensic department.

Alex has been a forensic partner at KPMG since 1998, specialising in investigations of fraud, bribery and corruption, and accounting misstatement. Alex led the KPMG Forensic UK practice from 2009 to 2013 and is now head of its Investigations and Compliance team: a team of over 200 investigators. For a number of years Alex was a trustee of the Fraud Advisory Panel – which is an ICAEW sponsored body with the purpose of raising awareness of fraud amongst individuals and businesses.  Alex has been a member of the Latymer Audit Committee for 8 years. Both Alex’s sons are Latymerians. They and their parents have a shared passion in supporting West Ham United.

David was at Latymer Upper from 1967-1973. He has an undergraduate degree and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He was a Fulbright-Hayes Scholar and Research Associate at the University of Chicago, and a Research Fellow at Clare College Cambridge, before moving to UCL in 1983 as a Royal Society University Research Fellow. At UCL, he was appointed Professor at the age of 33, and later served as Head of the Department Earth Sciences, and as Dean of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, before being appointed to his current position of Vice Provost in 2007.

He was awarded the Schlumberger Medal of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain in 1999; the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2002; and in 2006 he was awarded the Louis Néel Medal of the European Geosciences Union for “establishing the importance of computational mineral physics in Earth sciences and for outstanding contributions to the physics of the Earth’s core”. He is a Member of the Academia Europaea, Fellow of the Geological Society of London, and an Elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and of the Mineralogical Society of America.

He is chair of the Research Policy Committee of the League of European Research Universities, and is the Chair of Panel B for REF2021, having been a member of the RAE2008 sub-panel on Earth and Environmental Sciences, chair of the REF2014 sub-Panel in this area.

He was President of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland (2004-6) and has been a Vice-President of the European Mineralogical Union. He has been a non-executive Director the North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (2011-15); Chair of Governors of the UCL Academy School (2011-17); a Council Member of the UK’s STFC (2012-19); and was the inaugural Chair of the HEFCE Responsible Metrics Forum (2016-17).

James Priory, MA OXON, was born in Solihull in 1973 and educated at King Edward’s School, Birmingham.

He moved to the Sixth Form at Taunton School and subsequently read English at Lincoln College, Oxford. His first teaching post in 1994 was at Bradford Grammar School, where he helped to introduce the first girls into the school as Head of Year 7. He moved to The Portsmouth Grammar School in 2000 as Head of English and later became Assistant Head (Head of Sixth Form). He was appointed Headmaster in January 2008.

James is Chairman of Portsmouth Festivities, a city-wide annual celebration of young people and the arts. He is also a trustee of the Preservation Trust responsible for HMS Warrior 1860, a governor of Oakwood Preparatory School, and a Team Inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate. James is married to Helen, who teaches English at Bishop Luffa School and they have three children. His interests include walking, natural history, kayaking and fly fishing. In September 2018 James began his new appointment as Headmaster of Tonbridge School.

Tracey Scoffield, BA, was educated at the Godolphin and Latymer Girls’ School and then Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she read English Language and Literature.

Her career has been spent in television and film drama, first as a researcher, then script editor at the BBC and finally as Executive Producer for BBC Films. She also worked at Faber and Faber Publishers for eight years as an editor on the film books and plays list. During this time she also served as Chairman of the Board of the Bush Theatre. Since leaving the BBC to set up an independent production company, Tracey has produced a number of films and drama series for HBO, the BBC and ITV. She has lived in Hammersmith with her twin sons for 23 years.

Bobby Uberoi, BSc(Econ), ACA was recently elected as a governor in 2019. He attended Latymer between 1984 and 1991. After graduating from the London School of Economics in 1994, Bobby joined Ernst & Young as a trainee chartered accountant in the financial services division. On qualifying, he changed career paths and joined JPMorgan in the markets business of the Investment bank. He held various trading roles covering a range of fixed income market instruments before becoming a Managing Director in the Global Emerging Markets group running an illiquid credit and secured financing business. After 19 years of an exceptionally stimulating environment, he felt the time was right for a change and left in 2016.

Bobby continues to be a non practising member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW).

He lives in Ealing with his wife and 2 daughters and is a keen and enthusiastic cricketer for a local club.

Charlie Wijeratna, BA, attended Latymer between 1977 and 1986. He went on to read modern history at Worcester College, Oxford University where he represented the University at rugby union, rugby league and athletics.

Charlie started his career in sports TV production with Sky Sports, making cricket, football and tennis programmes, before working in the city as a lawyer with Clifford Chance and as an investment banker with Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. His career in the business of sport began in 2003 when he was one of the first members of London’s bid team for the 2012 Olympic Games and he remained on the Olympic and Paralympic project as a director of the organising committee for the Games. In 2010 he became Commercial Director of Tottenham Hotspur FC before fulfilling the same role at the European Games and then at Aston Villa. He is currently working as an independent consultant to sports rights holders. He has been supporting the school’s fundraising initiatives as a member of the Development Committee since 2011 and was elected a Governor in 2015 and is a member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee.