Governors

Ben is a Chartered Civil Engineer with a proven record of building and leading high-performing teams across the UK and internationally. Specialist in the Mission Critical sector, delivering complex, high-value projects for global clients. Former Partner at a leading UK engineering consultancy and UK & Ireland Buildings Division Lead at a Nasdaq-listed global multi-disciplinary firm. Currently Co-Founder and Owner of one of the UK’s fastest-growing engineering consultancies. Brings extensive experience in driving financial growth, operational excellence and digital innovation. Widely recognised for pragmatic, inclusive leadership that empowers teams, strengthens governance and delivers measurable results.

Fiona Cornish was senior partner of a Cambridge GP practice and has successfully combined clinical practice with active roles as an appraiser, GP trainer, undergraduate teacher, school doctor at King’s College School and member of the University Health and Wellbeing Committee. She has been a senior member of the Medical Women’s Federation (MWF) for many years, serving as President from 2012-2014. She was the MWF representative on the General Practitioners’ Committee of the BMA. She has been a governor of a girls’ boarding school. She was a trustee of Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust (ACT) and a Non-executive director of the Medical Protection Society. She is a trustee of Cambridge Summer Music.

Denise Williams is a paediatric oncologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital having recently retired from full time clinical practice. She held a number of managerial posts within the hospital and within the region including the post of Clinical Director of the Women and Children’s Clinical Strategic Network. Since retiring, she has continued her teaching commitments with undergraduates within the clinical school and in paediatric post graduate education. She works with the charity World Child Cancer and has been helping to establish sustainable services for paediatric oncology in Yangon and Mandalay, Myanmar.

Jamie is both an Old Persean and a current Perse parent, with long-standing ties to the School. A local business leader, he is the Chief Executive Officer of Vindis Group, a successful family-owned car retail group representing some of the world’s leading automotive brands. Under his leadership, the business has expanded its reach and continued to build a reputation for innovation, customer service and community engagement. Jamie has also supported the School over the years, particularly through his involvement in engineering research projects, helping to inspire and equip Perse pupils with real-world insight into technology and industry.

Graeme Proudfoot is a non-executive director of two Stock Exchange-listed investment companies, one of which he chairs. Prior to retiring, he was Managing Director EMEA of a global investment group and CEO of the group’s insurance company, having also served with the group as General Counsel, Group Company Secretary and Managing Director of its Specialist Funds Division. He has served on a US ‘40 Act fund board and chaired funds domiciled in Ireland and Luxembourg as well as the UK.

Prof Alex Oliver is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and a Professorial Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. His research is mainly in metaphysics and logic. He has been Director of Graduate Studies in Cambridge’s Faculty of Philosophy, and the Chair of its Board. He has served as a member (and sometime Secretary) of the national committee of the Analysis Trust. He has served on the Knowledge Transfer Panel of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. He has undertaken research projects and consultancy work in the public and private sectors on topics such as loyalty, educational strategy, corporate values and responsibility.

Jason Hawkes is a Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge, and the Director of Studies in Archaeology at Gonville and Caius College. His research is on early religion and society in South and South-east Asia. He is an elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Royal Asiatic Society. He has been a Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, a Curator at the British Museum and the Manager of the Finds Laboratory at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit. He has undertaken research projects and consultancy work in the academic and public sectors and taught at universities in the United Kingdom, Denmark and India. As a college tutor, Jason is also committed to the pastoral care and well-being of students. Jason is also a long-standing volunteer for the Samaritans.

Christopher Hancock is a King’s Counsel and Deputy High Court Judge. He was joint head of his chambers for six years, standing down at the end of his term in 2019. He is a Bencher of his Inn of Court, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a qualified mediator. He has been Chairman of the Commercial Bar Association. He is a governor of a primary school and a director of The Learning Partnership Trust. He is an assistant Cub Scout leader in the Hatfield Forest Scout District, having been a Cub Scout leader for 20 years and a Deputy District Commissioner for five years.

Sue Freestone is the former Principal and Chief Executive of King’s School, Ely and Head of Sibford School. She has served as governor to a number of schools, both state and independent, in the UK and overseas. She is a member of the Bishop’s Council and the Finance Committee of the Diocese of Ely and is a Deputy Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire. She is Director of Education for the Kalisher Trust and a former ISI Team Inspector.

Jonathan W Scott (Chair) served as Senior Partner and Executive Chair of Herbert Smith Freehills, a leading international law firm and was one of the country’s leading competition lawyers. He has been a non-executive director of the Gambling Commission and a Trustee of the Family Holiday Association, is a non-executive director of The Press and Assessment Board of Cambridge University, a member of the University’s Audit Committee, Chair of the University’s Appeal Tribunal and Chair of the University’s Disciplinary Committee.

Nick Finlayson-Brown is Head of Office for a national law firm’s Cambridge office. He specialises in commercial and real estate where he has over 25 years of experience acting as relationship partner for a number of the firm’s key clients in the private, charities and public sectors based locally, in London and across the UK in connection with the development of and investment in property assets. Nick also heads the firm’s China Team with the aim of facilitating the entry of UK businesses into the Chinese market and Chinese investors investing in the UK businesses. Nick is a champion for diversity and inclusion within the firm, something that he is keen to see embraced in the wider community. Further afield, Nick is a Director of Cambridge BID Ltd and a trustee of Saffron Hall Trust.

David Ferguson is an Engineering Director at Google. He was previously a VP at Pearson and prior to that he held a number of leadership roles in technology companies based in and around Cambridge. Originally a software engineer, David’s technical experience is focused on computer networking and internet technology.

Glenn is a technology entrepreneur and leader of growth companies. He is a co-founder of CSR plc (Cambridge Silicon Radio) which successfully designed and sold most of the world’s Bluetooth chips. Since then, he has served as a non-executive director of 13 companies in the embedded technology and fintech sectors in the UK and France, including at Wolfson Microelectronics Plc, as chairman at Aquis Exchange Plc and, currently, at pureLiFi Ltd.

Martin Collier was Master of Haileybury and was previously Headmaster of St John’s School Leatherhead. Before that he taught for 14 years at Oundle and 10 years in the state system.

Martin served as Chair of the HMC Academic Policy Sub-Committee from 2016 to 2022. In that role, he played an important role in effecting positive change in the national examinations system and curriculum. He is an author and editor of numerous history text books.

Ishbel is a recently retired Cambridgeshire primary school headteacher. She started her working life in Edinburgh as a criminal prosecutor and then relocated to London to join a global law firm as a litigator specialising in aviation. After a spell in Brussels, she returned with the family to the UK and was a volunteer with Citizens Advice in Cambridge before qualifying as a teacher at Homerton College, Cambridge. Ishbel completed her teacher training at Melbourn Primary School and was subsequently appointed Assistant Head at Melbourn. She went on to become Head of Coton Primary School and The Icknield Primary School in Sawston. Now retired, Ishbel helps out with teaching at Melbourn from time-to-time and is a volunteer with Citizens Advice Witness Service at the courts in Cambridge.

Sally Boyle originally worked as a lawyer before becoming International Head of Human Capital Management at a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm. She has been a governor of a girls’ boarding school and a trustee of the Brilliant Club. She is a non-executive director on the Board of the Royal Air Force.

Cristina Bota is a Wealth Planning Director at Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management. She was previously a Managing Director at Cantab Asset Management.

Cristina trained at Santander Bank and has been advising private clients for many years. She is a Chartered Financial Planner and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Law from Babeș-Bolyai University.

Angela is Finance Director at Saffron Music Trust, an arts and music education charity. She is also a Non-executive Director of Cambridge Spark, an edtech company that equips the workforce in critical data and AI skills, where she was previously CFO. Prior to that, Angela specialised in scaling up technology start-ups, having supported the growth of the hi-tech company ARM from under 50 employees to a FTSE-100 and Nasdaq dual listed company with over 700 employees internationally.

Chris studied Geophysics at Durham University and Imperial College London. Chris joined the upstream business of a major energy company where he held a number of roles involving global project origination and operations management. Chris then moved to the trading and shipping business within that company where he now works as a Trading Analyst, specialising in the European gas markets.

Kate is a health tech award-winning entrepreneurial senior leader. She is COO and board director of Kooth, the world’s largest youth digital mental healthcare provider. Kooth provides a welcoming space for effective personalised digital mental health care, available to all. She is an advisor and investor in health tech start-ups and also a supervisory board member of Europe’s largest pan-European, dentist-led oral care organisation – European Dental Group.

Prior to Kooth, Kate was CEO of Blenheim Chalcot, the UK’s largest venture builder. Formerly Kate was founding team member and CEO of Doctor Care Anywhere, a digital healthcare company. Before that, as a Strategy Consultant, notably at Roland Berger and BDO, she built expertise in digital delivery of services specialising in health and local government sectors. She is also a CMI Companion and holds CMgr CCMI status.

Kate won Disruptor of the Year at the First Woman Awards 2016 and Innovator of the Year at Everywoman Women in Technology awards 2017. In 2019, she was placed in the 100 Most Influential in UK-India Relations and was also a member of the Secretary of State’s Healthtech Advisory Board. In 2021, Kate made the #womentowatch2021 Cranfield University list (shining a light on potential FTSE 350 board members).

Stephen Roberts is the former Headmaster of Felsted School and Principal of Stamford Endowed Schools. He was an ISI inspector, is a governor of another school and is on the Education Committee of a livery company which supports both independent and maintained schools. He is a consultant for a leading educational consultancy and works to support schools with their development projects. He was a governor of The Perse for three terms.

Simon Lebus CBE currently acts as a Non-Executive Director or Senior Adviser to a number of education technology companies, mainly specialising in online learning. He was previously from 2002-18 Chief Executive of the Cambridge Assessment Group (now Cambridge University Press and Assessment) and also served as Interim Chief Regulator at Ofqual in 2021, the second year of Covid restrictions.

During his time at Cambridge Assessment, he served on the University Financial Strategy Advisory Group and the University Estates Strategy Committee and was an external member of the Board of the Education Faculty and Chair of the Cambridge Commonwealth and Overseas Trusts. He is a Bye-Fellow of Emmanuel College and was appointed CBE in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours list for services to educational assessment.