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 an Executive Officer at Capita, a large business services firm listed in the UK, leading the People Solutions division. Her division assists large and complex public and private sector organisations around resourcing, learning, HR shared services and pensions. She joined Capita in October 2019, after over 20 years at Willis Towers Watson, a global risk and people advisory firm where she was responsible for leading the Western European operations of the Human Capital and Benefits segment.  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. 

Joanna began her career at the literary publisher Faber and Faber where she worked with a number of prominent writers including Kazuo Ishiguro, Harold Pinter, Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes.

She then moved to the British Museum, working with the British Museum Director on the landmark BBC series  A History of the World in 100 Objects which went on to become an international bestselling title and major international touring exhibition.

More recently she collaborated on the exhibition India and the World staged at the CSMVS museum in Mumbai to commemorate Indian Independence in 1947.

Joanna became a Governor in November 2013. She lives in Hammersmith with her family. Her son is a Latymerian (Class of 2012).

Annamarie Phelps, MA, was appointed Chair of the British Horseracing Authority in 2019 following 5 years as Chairman of British Rowing.

Annamarie 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.

As Vice Chair of British Rowing 2002-2013, she oversaw safeguarding, anti-doping, governance and equality policies across the sport. She has championed safeguarding for adults in sport on the Sport & Recreational Alliance Steering Group, as Vice Chair of the British Paralympic Association 2013-2018 and later as independent chair of the national Safeguarding Adults in Sport Strategic Partnership. In 2016-17 she chaired the Independent Review into British Cycling and co-authored ‘Integrity in Sport: Mapping the UK Landscape,’ 2020. Annamarie is the Deputy Chair of the British Olympic Association and currently serves on the IPC Legal and Ethics Committee, the IOC’s Olympic Education Commission, and the boards of European Rowing and the Head of Charles Regatta. She was awarded a CBE for services to rowing in 2016 and is an Hon. Fellow at St John’s College, Cambridge.

Beyond sports, Annamarie is a decorative arts and design specialist and author of several books on the subject. 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. Both Alex’s sons are Latymerians. They and their parents have a shared passion for 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 has been Headmaster at Tonbridge since August 2018.

He was educated at King Edward’s School, Birmingham, where he was the recipient of an Assisted Place.  He moved to the Sixth Form at Taunton School and then on to Lincoln College, University of Oxford, where he was awarded a First Class Degree in English and was Proxime Accessit for the Newdigate Prize for poetry. James’ first teaching post was at Bradford Grammar School, where after two years he became Head of Year 7.  He moved on to Portsmouth Grammar School, being appointed as Head of English in 2000, and was subsequently promoted to Senior Teacher and then Assistant Head with responsibility for the Sixth Form, before becoming the first internally appointed Headmaster in almost 200 years.

During his time at Portsmouth Grammar School, James was Chairman of the Portsmouth Festivities, a city-wide annual celebration of young people and the arts, and a trustee of HMS Warrior (1860). He developed an interest in choral music as cantor in Lincoln College Chapel Choir, has performed in and directed a range of theatre productions, and is a keen follower of sport. James is a governor for The Marsh Academy in New Romney and for three preparatory schools in Kent:  The New Beacon School, Holmewood House and Bickley Park. He was involved in launching HMC’s magazine Insight as co-editor and chair, and is a team inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate. James is married to Helen, who teaches English, and they have three children.

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.

Charlie started his career in sports TV production in 1990 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 until 2010 as a director of the organising committee responsible for raising the private funding 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 a commercial consultant to sports rights holders, corporates and the UK Government. He has supported the school’s fundraising initiatives since 2011, originally as a member of the Development Committee. He was elected a Governor in 2015 and is a member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee.