Lorna Cocking has been Chairman of the Council of the Girls’ Day School Trust since 2007. She is a Pro-Chancellor at Middlesex University and was the first woman Chair of the Board (2003-10), serving ten years as a governor. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University for her services to education in 2011. She is also a member of the Board of the Schools’ Network (formerly, the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust). Lorna was a member of the CBI Education and Training Council and during 17 years at Pearson Education, she was UK Schools Publishing Director and Education Director.
Her professional life has spanned education and included teaching, advisory, commissioning and publishing work, including roles as Publishing Director at the Open College and Director of Open Learning at the University of Sunderland. Lorna is a graduate of Ancient History and Archaeology and began her career teaching English in Norway and Finland, then at secondary level in England, before moving into educational publishing.
She served on two task forces on post-16 education, was a member of the Board of the British Education Technology and Communications Authority between 1997 and 2004 and was Chair of the Board of the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture between 2002 and 2004. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
Stephen is a Deputy Chairman of Council and a member of the Governance and Nominations Committee. He was educated at Repton School and the University of Reading. His professional background is in property and he was a director of the international property advisory firm DTZ. He is now on the management board of Infrastructure UK, the unit of HM Treasury providing support to the public sector on major infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and the Olympics and on public private partnerships in the education, health and transport sectors. He is a non-executive director of Local Partnerships.
Stephen is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and is married with two children
Clara Freeman is a member of the GDST Council and a member of the GDST’s Audit Committee.
She read modern history at Somerville College, Oxford, and followed a career at Marks and Spencer from 1975-2000. After appointments in the fashion, new developments and childrenswear divisions, she moved to the corporate centre, undertaking appointments in HR, corporate social responsibility and operations. She was appointed executive director in 1996, the first woman on the main board in the history of the company.
Clara has also had extensive experience in the voluntary sector. From 1998-2005 she was chairman of Opportunity Now, the campaign run by the Prince of Wales’ charity, Business in the Community (BITC), to increase the quality and quantity of women’s participation in the workforce. She was also a deputy chairman of BITC, and was awarded an OBE in 2001 for services to women at work. In the same year, she was appointed a Fair Pay Champion by Tessa Jowell, the Minister for Employment.
She currently has interests in education and the arts, including the role of deputy chairman of the University of the Arts London. She is an honorary fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, where she chairs the development board.
She is married, with a daughter and son.
Sue Iversen is a member of GDST Council and the Governance and Nominations Committee. She also chairs the GDST Academy Trust Board.
Sue Iversen is Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Special Projects and Emeritus Professor of Experimental Psychology and Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College in Oxford. She studied for her undergraduate degree and PhD in Cambridge followed by post-doctoral training in the USA at the National Institutes of Health, Washington and Harvard Medical School.
The years 1966-1983 were spent directing a research group in Cambridge before joining the US pharmaceutical company Merck & Co, where she was involved in establishing a large commercial neuroscience research centre in the UK, based in Harlow, Essex. She returned to academia in 1993 as Professor and Head of the Department of Experimental Psychology in Oxford, a post she held until 2000. In 2000 she became Pro-Vice-Chancellor with a broad portfolio of financial and research planning responsibilities. Her research focuses on disorders of brain function, particularly schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease with particular reference to the biological bases of these disorders, their clinical presentation and treatment. She has published widely, including scientific papers (>300), books and edited volumes.
She has served on a wide range of research committees for BBSRC, MRC, Wellcome Trust and OST/DTI and has served on the Councils of the SRC, BBSRC and the Academy of Medical Sciences. She is currently Treasurer for the Academy of Medical Sciences.
John Jay was appointed to the Council of the Girls' Day School Trust in 2009 and is also the Chair of the Investments Committee.
John is Business Development Partner at Brompton Asset Management. Prior to joining Brompton, John was business development director of New Star Asset Management, having joined the company when it began trading in 2001, after a 21-year career in journalism. He became City editor of the Sunday Times in 1986, then City and business editor of the Sunday Telegraph in 1989 and was appointed managing editor of the Sunday Times’ business section in 1995. As a director of the New Star Asset Management Group, John had board level responsibility for private clients
Stephanie North is a Deputy Chairman of the Girls’ Day School Trust, having become a Council member in 2002, and was Chairman of Governors at Oxford High School from 1986 to 1999. She also serves on the Senior Appointments and Remuneration Committee.
She read jurisprudence at St Anne’s College Oxford and worked as an attorney in Chicago. After raising her family, she increasingly worked in the voluntary sector, as a national tutor and employment specialist for Citizens’ Advice, teaching law and counselling skills and representing clients in industrial tribunals.
She was appointed as a magistrate in 1977, becoming chair of the Oxford Bench, the Oxfordshire Youth Court, the Oxfordshire Magistrates’ Association, and the committee overseeing the training of Oxford magistrates.
She served as an independent member of the National Parole Board of England and Wales; chaired the employers’ organisation of the Probation Service, the Central Probation Council [subsequently the Probation Boards’ Association] and the Thames Valley Probation Board; and has until recently chaired a national project (LCCS) aiming to raise confidence in and awareness of the criminal justice system. She was appointed OBE in 2000 for services to the rehabilitation of offenders.
She chairs the Grants Committee of the Oxfordshire Community Foundation, and was created Deputy Lieutenant for Oxfordshire in 1996.
Tom Wheare was born in Oxford in 1944 and one of his godmothers was Betty Johnston, later a formidable and long-serving Chairman of GDST. His sisters were both educated at the Trust’s Oxford High School. This early promise was not entirely cancelled out by a career spent teaching in independent boys’ schools, since he was elected to GDST Council in 2006. He also serves on the Senior Appointments and Remuneration Committee.
Tom was educated at the Dragon School and Magdalen College School, Oxford and then won a History Exhibition to King’s College, Cambridge.
Soon after arriving at King’s, he gained a place in the College choir and is still an enthusiastic singer and erratic historian. After a Dip. Ed. at Christ Church, Oxford where he was a lay clerk in the Cathedral choir, Tom taught at Eton from 1967 to 1976, before becoming Housemaster of the School House at Shrewsbury. In 1982 he was appointed Headmaster of Bryanston, a post he held from 1983 to 2005.
Tom Wheare was an engaged member of HMC (the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference), serving as Treasurer from 1993 to 1999 and Chairman in 2000. He has been a governor of eight prep schools at various times and is presently a Governor of Exeter School, The Dragon School and Port Regis School. He is a member of the Executive Committee of AGBIS (the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and he edits the HMC house magazine Conference & Common Room. He is married, with two daughters, and lives in Wiltshire.
Mary Chapman is a member of the GDST Council and Chairman of the Governance and Nominations Committee.
She is an alumna of Sutton High School and a graduate in French and German from the University of Bristol. Her professional background is in strategic marketing, HR and general management. For 10 years up to 2008 she was Chief Executive of the Chartered Management Institute, leading the organisation through significant corporate governance changes and improving the standards and qualifications of its membership resulting in the grant of a Royal Charter to the institution. Previously, she was the founding Chief Executive of Investors in People UK, the company responsible for the promotion and quality assurance of the Investors in People Standard. Her early career was in consumer goods marketing and general management, including posts within the L’OREAL Group, with Nicholas Laboratories and the British Tourist Authority.
Since leaving the Chartered Management Institute, Mary has developed a portfolio of non-executive and advisory roles. She was appointed a National Lottery Commissioner in January 2008. She is a non-executive director of the Royal Mint, where she chairs the remuneration committee and is a member of the audit committee. She is also a council member of Brunel University and a member of the Ministry Council of the Church of England. She has continued to be involved in education and workforce skills development through the Foundation for Management Education, HTI and the Association of Chief Executives in Voluntary Organisations.
Mary is a Chartered Director and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Jane Richardson was appointed to the Council of the Girls’ Day School Trust in 2004 and is Chairman of the Council’s audit committee. She is also a Trustee of the Girls’ Day School Trust Academy Trust Board.
After a career in a leading firm of chartered accountants before giving priority to her family, she has developed a second career as a volunteer through extensive involvement with a variety of charities and organisations, often using her financial background.
She first became involved in the education sector in 1989 as governor of a voluntary-aided school in London, and then from 1993 as a member of the Council of The Cheltenham Ladies College, including chairmanships of its audit committee and long-term strategy group. Other voluntary work has included involvement with the management of an Abbeyfield residential home and as a trustee and treasurer of a community centre in Bethnal Green, East London. Since being appointed as a magistrate in Westminster in 1991, she served for a number of years on the Betting and Gaming Licensing Committee and is involved in mentoring and appraising other justices.
She is a member of the Boards of the Independent Schools Inspectorate and of the Association of Governing Bodies of Independent Schools.
Nick Stuart was educated at Oxford before going to the Department for Education and Science in 1964. He had spells as private secretary to the Minister for Arts (Jenny Lee) In 1968-1969, as private secretary to the head of the civil service (Sir William Armstrong) and as a private secretary to successive prime ministers from 1973-1976. He also spent two years in Brussels as an adviser in the cabinet of the President of the European Commission (Roy Jenkins) in 1978-1980.
The rest of his career has been spent mainly in education. He became principal finance officer in the DES in 1985 and was promoted to deputy secretary (schools) in 1987. He transferred to the employment department as director general of resources and strategy in 1992. He became director-general for employment and lifelong learning at the Department Of Education and Employment in 1995 and director-general for lifelong learning at DfES in April 2000 until his retirement in September 2001. He is currently chairman of The National Institute of Adult and Continuing Education (NIACE), a board member of Ufi Ltd, a trustee of the Specialist Schools and Academics Trust, on the council of the University of London Institute Of Education, a governor of schools in both the maintained and independent sector, chairman of the John Lyon's Charity Grants Committee and board member of The Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS). Nick also chairs the QCA Audit Committee.
Jo was educated at a broad range of schools in the UK and overseas and has a degree in PPE from Somerville College, Oxford. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and has a Securities Institute Diploma in Corporate Finance.
Jo qualified with Ernst & Young in London after which she moved to their Corporate Finance Advisory department and was involved in a wide variety of UK and cross- border transactions including acquisitions, disposals, management buy outs and fund raising for both private and quoted companies. She joined the Reuters Group in 2006 where she built and headed up an in-house mergers and acquisitions team and subsequently worked as Finance Director of one of Reuters’ four Global Divisions.
She is now a shareholder in and the Finance Director for a private property investment and development group, Barwood Developments. At Barwood Jo is responsible for all aspects of project and corporate financial planning and management, investment analysis and treasury management. In addition she manages human resources and provides support to the Board on strategy and company management.
Jo is married and has two daughters who are at Northampton High School.