Governing  Council

Chair of Governing Council, Chair of Nominations Committee

Anne started with Price Waterhouse in 1981 and qualified as a chartered accountant. Almost 38 years later she retired from PwC having spent the majority of that time as a partner in the firm’s assurance Banking & Capital Markets practice, initially as an auditor and latterly leading the Banking Regulatory practice where she built the practice and advised clients and regulators on difficult regulatory matters.



Mid-career, Anne spent six years consulting with clients and client teams on accounting technical issues. For her last four years with PwC, Anne sat on the firm’s Supervisory Board and chaired it for the last two years.
Anne worked under her maiden name, Anne Simpson. She graduated from Middlesex Polytechnic with a BA (Hons) Business Studies and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Anne is a former Benenden parent.

Vice Chair of Governing Council, Chairman of Risk Committee

Patrick’s whole career has been in the city. He worked at a number of institutions before joining Lehman Brothers. At Lehman Brothers, he headed up the loan portfolio and restructuring businesses in Europe and Asia.

He was appointed to manage the loan assets of the firm in its bankruptcy. In this role Patrick led the restructuring of a number of businesses and managed loan portfolio in excess of US$10 billion for the benefit of creditors. He has since worked in fund management, and is Global Head of Private Credit at Federated Hermes, managing a number of funds providing loans to SMEs and real estate in UK and mainland Europe.

He often speaks at conferences and universities on diverse financial matters. He was previously a governor of the Benedict Primary School in Mitcham, and is a current trustee to Brighter Path, a charity focused on giving educational support to young people who were in social care in Sri Lanka, and a governor at Orwell Park School in Suffolk.

Patrick is married with two boys. He has Bachelor of Commerce in Business Studies and French from the University of Edinburgh.

Vice Chair of Governing Council, Chairman of Education Committee

Debbie has worked in education for over 40 years and has had a varied range of experiences, including becoming one of the country’s first National Leaders of Education in 2006. Prior to her recent retirement, she was CEO of a small secondary multi academy trust, having previously been a successful Headteacher and Executive Headteacher in a number of secondary schools in West Kent.

Debbie has a BA (Hons) degree in History from Hull University and studied for her PGCE at Nottingham University. In addition, she has an MBA in Educational Leadership (International), also from Hull University, and holds the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH).
Most recently, Debbie has undertaken part-time educational consultancy work in education, and is also a governor in two East Sussex secondary schools.

Fiona is CFO of Balderton Capital and is responsible for all financial activities at Balderton including reporting to investors and the monitoring of portfolio performance. Prior to joining Balderton, Fiona spent over 16 years at Man Group where she held a number of senior finance roles and most recently was Head of Investor Relations and Business Finance.



A Benenden Senior, after leaving School Fiona read Engineering, Economics and Management at Brasenose College Oxford. She trained with PwC where she audited a wide range of financial services companies including asset managers and venture capital firms. Fiona is a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, and Treasurer and Trustee of the Sick Children’s Trust.

Annabel is a highly experienced finance professional with over 25 years working in the sector, primarily in credit risk management. She has held positions at various global banks but has spent the majority of her career at Moody’s Investors Services, a renowned credit rating agency. Currently, she leads a global team of analysts specializing in structured finance transactions.

In addition to her finance career, Annabel is actively involved in the education sector. She serves as a Governor of Gladesmore Community School in Tottenham, North London, where she also leads the finance, site, and pay committee.

After leaving Benenden, Annabel read Economics at Manchester University. She lives in West London with her husband and son.

Chairman of Safeguarding Committee

A Senior and former Benenden parent, after leaving School Fiona was educated at Cambridge and St Thomas’s. She has been a GP in Cambridge for more than 20 years and has successfully combined clinical practice with active roles as an appraiser, GP trainer, undergraduate teacher and member of the University Health Services Committee.
From 2012 to 2014 she was President of the Medical Women’s Federation.

She is also the school doctor for King’s College School in Cambridge, and a Trustee of Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, Medical Support in Romania and the Paragon Trust. She was on the GPC Committee of the BMA from 2013 to 2015, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of GPs in 2013. She has been the Benenden Seniors’ Rep for Cambridgeshire for many years. She is a member of Safeguarding Committee.

Katie spent 15 years working in sponsorship and events, where her clients were leading sports governing bodies and major corporates. From 2007 she ran a division that is now part of one of the world’s top three sports agencies. In 2017 she set up and ran Huddl, a social enterprise. Huddl events and workshops were attended by over 5,000 people before it was acquired by The Wellbeing Hub from Teen Tips, where Katie is now Head of Business Development.

Drawing on both her professional expertise and experience as a mother of three, Katie is passionate about early intervention and empowering parents and schools with the tools to support young people’s mental health and wellbeing. Through her work, she focuses on building partnerships and initiatives that create meaningful, lasting impact for children, families and communities. Katie has a Masters in Religious Studies from Edinburgh University.

Joe Lewis was a boarder at Malvern College before reading English and Italian at the University of Leeds.

His academic travels included a year in Geelong, Australia, and a period of study in Milan, Italy.

Joe has taught at St George’s Weybridge, Pangbourne College and Millfield School, where he held leadership roles such as Head of Department and Senior Housemaster.

He is currently the Headmaster of Saint Ronan’s Prep School, Hawkhurst, a school he runs alongside his wife, Milly. Together, they have four children and share a passion for travelling and the great outdoors as a family.

Joe is a keen sportsman and a voracious reader. He is an advocate for boarding and the tremendous opportunities it brings.

Chair of the Orwell Park Committee

Callum works in the advisory industry and sits on the board of KPMG in the UK and Switzerland. He has over 30 years experience in financial services, having acted as COO of a bank and spent many years running large global transformation programmes. He joined the Benenden Council following the merger with Orwell Park and is the Chair of the Orwell Park Committee.

Principal, The John Wallis Church of England Academy

Damian McBeath is the Principal of The John Wallis Church of England Academy, 0 – 19 years. 



He was also, the founding headteacher of Ark Conway Primary Academy, the first free school to be designated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted and described by former Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, as ‘an engine for social mobility’.

He has worked as an executive headteacher and a regional director for the children’s charity, Ark Schools. In 2014, Damian was named by the Education Foundation as one of their Educational Reformers of the year. He is co-author of ‘The 9 pillars of Great Schools’ and has contributed to publications and reports for the Department for Education.

Chair of the Finance Committee

Duncan is a partner at PwC with a global role overseeing the assurance quality programmes in a number of different territories. Over a career spanning 35 years he has been an audit partner, the head of operations for the London audit practice and the Head of FS Regulatory Affairs in the UK. Duncan was part of a PwC team that ran a global bank after it collapsed. He spent the next eight years helping banks restructure themselves to have a better chance of surviving a similar crisis.
Duncan led PwC’s community affairs programme in Southwark, working with schools in the area to arrange mentoring for their pupils. He has also taken two sabbaticals to work with charities in South America and the UK. Duncan is a former Benenden parent.

Chair of the People Committee

Alison works under her maiden name, Alison Clarke.
Alison started her career as a graduate trainee with a division of Mars and then moved in to communications consulting where she has spent over 25 years running major international consultancies and networks both in the UK and in Asia Pacific. She has advised some of the world’s best-known global organisations on reputation strategies, issues management and crisis communications.

Alison now runs her own business working as non-executive-director and board advisor to a range of businesses and developing and mentoring talent for corporates and consultancies. She is a Member of the Remuneration and Nominations Committees.
Alison holds a degree in Combined Arts from Reading University. She is a Fellow and former President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and a Fellow and former Chairman of the Public Relations Consultants Association.

Chairman of the Investment Committee and Chairman of the International School Committee

Jonathan has worked as a solicitor for 38 years in the area of corporate law specialising in mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance. 
He worked at Ashurst, Coudert Brothers and latterly at the niche corporate firm Marriott Harrison where he was finance partner for seven years and managing partner for four years up to his retirement from the partnership in 2018. His practice was largely working with equity providers and SMEs in a wide range of sectors including many which were intellectual property based or ‘people businesses’.

His work included international transactions and participating for four years in, and a term as chair of, the EMEA committee of Primerus which is an international association of over 150 law firms. He remains a consultant at Marriott Harrison.
His degree was at St Benet’s Hall Oxford where he read Law and won a cricket blue. Cricket remains an interest and he is the treasurer of The Free Foresters CC.
He is married and lives in Kent a few miles from Tonbridge School where his two sons were educated. He is the Chair of the Investment Advisory Committee and sits on the Remuneration Committee. 

Paul studied law at Churchill College, Cambridge University, graduating in 1989. He has since worked in Banking for Citigroup in London and also New York and is currently Chairman of EMEA Leveraged Finance.

He serves on the PCC and Finance Committee of St Helen’s Church, Bishopsgate, London. He is a member of the Benenden Finance Committee and has three children who attended Benenden School.

Helen is a Consultant Radiologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge specialising in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, especially breast cancer. She trained at Oxford University and then in various London Hospitals, before being appointed in Cambridge 25 years ago. She is also keenly involved in medical education, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Helen is College Lecturer in Anatomy at Newnham College, Cambridge. She is also a Tutor and postgraduate mentor for students.

She is a member of the Safeguarding and Education committees.

Chair of the Estates Committee

Clare studied law at the University of Exeter and Cardiff Law School before going on to be a solicitor specialising in commercial real estate. She has 20 years’ experience and is a partner at global law firm CMS where she is co-head of the real estate sector, one of Europe’s leading real estate groups.

In her role, Clare acts for global property companies, funds and institutions on the acquisition, disposal, letting and development of property. Her transactional expertise spans a range of sectors including office, hotel, retail and mixed use.

She is an active member of a number of real estate associations including the Urban Land Institute and Investment Property Forum (IPF). She is a Board member and Treasurer of the IPF and has previously chaired its Education Committee. She was part of a working party which produced the IPF’s Guide to Readiness for Sale (a best practise guide to buying and selling commercial real estate which has been adopted widely within the sector) and was recently instrumental in the production of industry standard non-disclosure and exclusivity agreements.

She has been named one of Bisnow’s 51 most influential women in real estate and appeared in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 List. Clare leads CMS’s annual Thought Leadership research for the Real Estate Group and speaks extensively at industry events on topics including the future of work, environmental, social and governance matters and real estate post the pandemic.