Sir David Clementi

Trust Member

Sir David Clementi was formerly Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and Chair of Prudential plc. He chairs the King’s... Cross Central General Partner Limited Board, was formerly Warden (Chair of Governors) of Winchester College, a Member of the Mercers’ Court; Honorary Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford; and Honorary Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Chair of the BBC governorsshow moreshow less

Robert Evans

Trust Member and Chair of Governors

Robert Evans is a Partner of Argent (Property Development) Services LLP and a Board Member of King’s Cross Central General... Partner Limited: the Developer of King’s Cross project. He has been closely involved with the whole site redevelopment since 2001. As a Member of the Camden Partnership for Educational Excellence (CPEE) Board he has worked with a number of local schools and in particular with Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children in drawing up the vision and plans for the Academy. He chairs the development committee of a property trade organisation, the British Property Federation and is also involved in regeneration work in Tottenham, as independent Chair of the Tottenham Landowners and Major Businesses Group. Robert is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
He is also the father of two primary school aged children.show moreshow less

Emyr Fairburn

Founding Head Teacher and Governor ex Officio

Upon graduating from the University of Wales in 1995 Emyr Fairburn worked in the Cardiff area as a teacher. Being bilingual... he worked in both English and Welsh language schools and supported the development of a Welsh curriculum for first language English speakers. After developing an ICT programme of study based around newly emerging internet technology he moved in 2000 to London as a teacher and ICT coordinator at Thornhill Primary School, Islington. During his time in Islington he supported other schools with the use of creative technologies to transform children’s learning and worked his way to becoming Deputy Headteacher of the school. At Thornhill Emyr helped to develop an innovative curriculum and assessment practices which resulted in the school recently being recognised as one of the top 200 schools in the country for children’s progress in learning. Emyr is very proud to be the founding Headteacher of King’s Cross Academy and looks forward to building a successful learning community.show moreshow less

Michael Freeman

Trust member

Michael Freeman is a qualified lawyer who in 1981 co-founded Argent, the development and asset manager of the King’s... Cross development, with his brother. He and his wife Clara have set up a charitable trust which supports a number of educational charities including sponsoring Teach First teachers in two Camden schools and also a Civitas supplementary school. As a non-executive Director of Argent, Deputy Chairman of the Royal Parks Foundation, a former trustee of the Almeida Theatre in Islington and with a great interest in world history, Michael brings a wide range of skills to us.show moreshow less

Clara Freeman

Trust member

Clara Freeman OBE was the first woman Director of Marks and Spencer’s. She is currently Trustee of the Girls’ Day Trust... and Deputy Chair of the Court of Governors of University of the Arts, London. She was awarded the OBE in 2001 for services to Women in the Workforce. Clara brings a wealth of understanding of running organisations, education and the arts at all levels.show moreshow less

Angela Jewell

Governor and Vice Chair

Angela Jewell is a Project Manager within the Regeneration Team at Argent. Amongst her responsibilities are: working with... Camden and Islington schools and building relationships with the local community. Angela has worked on the King’s Cross project for almost six years and in that time has built strong relationships with local schools, delivering a number of educational projects on site. These projects have aimed to raise educational attainment through applied ‘real-life’ learning and develop school pupils’ employability skills. Angela also sits on the Camden Education Business Links Project Board, which explores how businesses in Camden can be encouraged to support local schools through work experience, mentoring and other projects.show moreshow less

Louise Johns-Shepherd

Governor

Louise Johns-Shepherd is Chief Executive of the Centre for Literacy and Primary Education. She brings a wealth of experience... in education leadership and in primary schools. She was a Senior Director at the Primary National Strategies and Head Teacher Consultant at the National College of School Leadership. Louise trained as a primary school teacher at Homerton College Cambridge, studied for her MA at the Institute of Education and has taught for her entire career in London. Louise has been the Head Teacher of two schools, a nursery school and children’s centre in Lambeth and, most recently, a primary school in Southwark. Under her leadership the school moved from a very challenging position to one of the fifty most improved schools in England. Louise’s interests are in assessment, progression and curriculum development as well as all aspects of organisational leadership.show moreshow less

Mike Lightbound

Governor and Vice Chair

Mike Lightbound works in Argent on the King’s Cross redevelopment. He manages the overall business plan for King’s... Cross and is responsible for many of the financial aspects of the development. Mike also leads the Asset Management team – the group responsible for managing the growing retained estate at King’s Cross. Before joining Argent, Mike worked at Swiss Re and PricewaterhouseCoopers in the UK and the Caribbean. He is a Chartered Accountant and has a degree in Structural Engineering. Mike will bring essential financial skills to the governing body. He has two children in primary school.show moreshow less

Jane Roberts

Governor

Jane was Leader of the London Borough of Camden Council from 2000 to 2005 following which she has served in a range of non-executive roles including as... Chair of the Councillors Commission for the Department of Communities and Local Government, Chair of Parenting UK, a member of the Ofsted board, Chair of New Local Government Network and currently Chair of the charity, Living Streets. She is a former governor of Eleanor Palmer School and Regent High. She is a member of the Remuneration Board of the Welsh Assembly. Appointed DBE 2004.

Professionally, she is a medical doctor and is an Honorary Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist at the Whittington Hospital with experience of senior healthcare management in the NHS.show moreshow less

Jonathan Barratt

Governor

Jonathan Barratt is a freelance consultant in Higher Education and the Creative and Cultural industries.  Jonathan was... previously Dean of Academic Development and Quality for Central Saint Martins, a constituent college of the University of the Arts London.  With a wide-ranging portfolio of responsibility covering academic standards, curricula development, further education and aspects of institutional relations, this role included working with local schools, colleges, community organisations and local government agencies, hence his initial involvement with the Academy.  With Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in industrial design, Jonathan’s thirty years experience in further and higher education have included roles as Course Director for MA Industrial Design, and Dean for the School of Communication, Product and Spatial Design.  He has also worked with service and manufacturing industries, local and national governments and NGOs in Europe and Asia.  Jonathan has substantial experience in leadership, management and institutional governance and in educational development.  He is committed to the social and cultural development of the King’s Cross area and to equality of access and opportunity at all levels of education.show moreshow less

Antje Saunders

Parent Governor

Antje Saunders is the mother of two children in the Early Years at the Academy. Through her professional background as an architect and urban designer,... she has a far-reaching understanding of the setting of the school in the wider Kings Cross Central Development as well as a keen interest in learning environments. She chairs the Camden Broadway Conservation Area Advisory Committee and is also a member in the Camden Symphony Orchestra.show moreshow less

Anthea Harries

Governor

Anthea Harries is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and works for Argent where she is Head of Assets  for the King’s Cross... Estate. She also sits on the RICS UK and Ireland Board where her remit is to focus,
in part,  on the diversity and inclusivity strategy for the Built Environment and its Professional body. In addition, she is a Board member for Urban Partners, and organisation focused on working with the local communities to create a thriving neighbourhood for all.

Anthea is mother to two teenage sons and two stepdaughters and is  married to David, a primary school Teacher.show moreshow less

Roy Griffins

Governor

Roy Griffins chaired the Board of London City Airport for ten years after roles as Director General of the Airports Council International in Brussels and... British Chair of the Channel Tunnel Intergovernmental Commission. His previous career as a senior civil servant and diplomat included the UK’s Director General of Civil Aviation and Director of Railways, when he was responsible for the development of the UK’s first high speed rail line (HS1).

Roy is a graduate of Bristol University (French and German) and studied at the Sorbonne and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration in Paris. He was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 2003, and a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in France in 2017.show moreshow less

Alex Woolmore

Governor

Alexandra Woolmore is Head of Planning at Argent where she is responsible for securing planning permissions for Argent’s projects. As part of her role,... she was also heavily involved in the design and planning of the King’s Cross Academy and the subsequent sponsorship process, and remains the strategic lead for the delivery of new and replacement schools on Argent’s development at Brent Cross. Before joining Argent, Alexandra worked at Linklaters where she qualified as a planning and environmental lawyer. Alexandra also sits on the board of Poplar Harca, a housing association in East London, and was formerly a governor at Bow School for 11 years. She has a daughter who is currently at primary school.show moreshow less

Andrea Rowe

Governor

Andrea is Head of People at UK Youth where she is responsible for leading on organisational development and change in a progressive people function . Andrea... has experience gained in the charity and education sectors having previously worked as People Director at Ambition Institute who run training programmes for teachers and before that was Head of People at Frontline the social work charity.

Andrea was previously a trustee at Knights Youth Centre in Streatham.  Andrea grew up in Tottenham in North London and has a BSc degree from the University of Westminster in Psychology and an MSc from London South Bank University in Human Resource Management.show moreshow less

Emily Hubert

Staff Governor

Emily joined the Academy as a Newly Qualified Teacher in 2018, having trained to teach at the University of Cambridge, and taught Year 3 for two years.... She is now teaching Year 5, and this year has taken on the role of Communication Team Leader. She also completed a Masters in Education, studying Critical Approaches to Children’s Literature from 2019-2020. Prior to joining the teaching profession, Emily worked a wide range of roles, from theatre producer to trainee social worker.show moreshow less

Angela Scheffer

Chief Financial Officer

Angela Scheffer lived in Sidney, Australia and worked in pensions and property management. Returning to the UK she worked as a Management Accountant in... the property sector, and designed an accounting package for property management. Angela moved in 1997 to manage the finances of an investment portfolio and set up the UK finance operation for a multi-national equity fund. Angela was Finance Governor at her children’s school, and there she developed a passion for education and completed an Advanced Diploma in School Business Management. She worked in two voluntary aided schools and for a multi academy trust before joining King’s Cross Academy in 2016. Angela is part of the Senior Leadership Team, overseeing the business management and is excited to create an environment that supports learning, and engage with our partners in Kings Cross to develop amazing and unique opportunities for our children.show moreshow less

Faiza Ahmad

Governor

Faiza is Director of Legal and in-house solicitor at Estates & Management Ltd, a market leader specialising in the asset management of freehold and... leasehold properties in the UK on behalf of property landlords, and has been practicing as a solicitor since 2005.

At Estates & Management Faiza is responsible for leading the Legal Department and the delivery of legal and compliance advice to the business across a wide range of legal and operational areas. Prior to joining Estates & Management in 2016 Faiza was a partner at a West End law firm where she specialised in Property Litigation. In 2015 Faiza was described as “outstanding” in the Legal 500, a leading directory of legal services.

Faiza’s experience of working both as a solicitor in private practice for over a decade and, more recently, in-house, means she approaches day to day matters with a wide-lense and she prides herself in finding practical and pragmatic solutions.

Faiza is trained as a Mental Health First Aider and has a particular interest in the well-being of staff and pupils.

Faiza has lived in Kings Cross since 2009.show moreshow less

Anne Thidemann

Parent Governor

Anne is Director of Development and Communications at Commonland, an Amsterdam-based organisation dedicated to restore nature for people in large landscapes... and bring back opportunity and hope. With an educational background in the visual arts Anne has previously held senior roles both at Tate and Frieze and she continues to be a trustee at Gasworks Gallery in South London. Through her professional and voluntary work Anne has a strong interest in community building and developing projects for the benefit of local communities.show moreshow less