Governors

Kieran Murphy, MA, was elected as a Governor of the Latymer Foundation in December 2020. He attended Latymer Prep and Upper schools, leaving in 1976, having been a beneficiary of a free place (LEA Scholarship) throughout his time in the Upper School.

Kieran read Natural Sciences at St John’s College, Cambridge, graduating in 1979. He joined the civil service and spent eight years at HM Treasury before joining the UK investment bank, Kleinwort Benson. At KB and subsequently at Gleacher Shacklock, he specialized in corporate finance advice, working with some of the largest companies across Europe in the building and construction industry.  He is currently Chairman of Mears Group plc, the leading provider of services to the social housing market. While at Gleacher and since retiring from the firm, he has built a portfolio of non-executive director and trustee roles. He is a director of Aliaxis SA and a Trustee of the University of London.

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.

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.

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. 

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).

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.

Pauline Campbell is a retired Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, where she was a member of the firm’s UK Supervisory Board and Global Network Board.  Pauline worked with Company Boards across a number of industries, both private and public owned, through business cycles of trading, acquisition, disposal and raising finance.  As an Audit Partner, Pauline has wide experience of risk and quality assessment.

Pauline has also been a Trustee for a social business that supports primarily young adults in achieving their potential and is currently a Trustee for Catch 22 Multi Academy Trust.

Jamie Grant, MA, is Global Chairman of Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan.

Jamie was born in London and grew up in Chiswick, attending both Latymer Prep and Upper Schools from 1968 to 1976.He was the beneficiary of a free place under the direct grant scheme in place at the time. He then read Philosophy and French at Worcester College, Oxford. Jamie joined J.P.Morgan in London in 1980, transferring to the New York Headquarters in 1987. He is currently a Global Chairman of Investment Banking providing strategic and financial advice to clients across multiple industries.

Jamie was formerly Chair of the US Friends of Latymer and is currently on the Executive Committee of the Inspiring Minds campaign whose focus is to raise funds for the Latymer Foundation.

Jamie is a Trustee of the National Public Radio Foundation and a Board member of the US Friends of Oxford University.

He is married to Nicola and has two children.

David Benson, BA,  was educated at St Paul’s School and then St John’s College, Cambridge, where he read Social & Political Sciences.

David is the founding Principal of Kensington Aldridge Academy (KAA).  As Principal at KAA, David has led the school from it’s opening with just one year group in 2014, to an “outstanding” Ofsted rating in 2017, and excellent GCSE & A level results, with over 50% of students progressing to Russell Group universities, and several to Oxbridge each year.

David led KAA through the challenging circumstances following the Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017. The school lost 5 students in the fire and many were relocated from their homes. Due to the school’s proximity to the tower, it was forced to relocate, first to two local schools for the remainder of the summer term, and then to temporary buildings for a full academic year in 2017-2018.

Prior to his role as Principal at KAA, David worked for ARK schools, one the UK’s leading academy chains, for 8 years. He has co-authored a book about curriculum design, ‘Creating Outstanding Classrooms’ (Routledge 2013), and written in the national press about the value of state and independent school partnerships.

Mark Edwards is a Partner at Infosys Consulting in London.Mark grew up in Portsmouth in one of Europe’s largest council housing estates and went to a comprehensive school.  He studied History & Politics at Brunel University, London, including one year working in the US Congress in Washington, DC.  For the past 30 years he has worked with private and public organisations to help improve their operations with new technology.

Mark sat on the All Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Technology, the CBI’s Technology Working Group and was a board member for data ethics at TechUK.  He also supports a local homeless charity.  One of Mark’s two sons attended Latymer Upper until 2022 and is now at Manchester University. The other son plays football for Brentford FC.  He is married to Anjna and they have lived in Ealing for 20 years.