Governing Body

Tim Clarke is Chair of the Independent Schools Governing Body and Vice-Chair of the King Edward’s Foundation. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford where he read PPE. He is currently the Chair of Birmingham Airport and Chair of Timothy Taylor & Co Ltd. He is also a director of TriplePoint 2011 VCT PLC and of Hall & Woodhouse Ltd.

He began his career in the City, where he was a Partner of Panmure Gordon & Co and Head of Investment Research. Subsequently, he followed a career in industry and was Chief Executive Officer of Six Continents PLC, Chief Executive Officer of Mitchells & Butlers PLC, and Senior Independent Director of Associated British Foods PLC. Tim is a supporter of the Assisted Places scheme sponsoring a pupil at King Edward’s School, and a pupil at King Edward VI High School for Girls.

Jog Hundle is a partner at Mills & Reeve, having qualified as a solicitor in 1991, following her degree course at the University of Sheffield. Mills and Reeve is a major UK law firm with more than 1,000 staff, including 122 partners and over 450 lawyers. Jog has over 25 years’ experience as an employment law specialist and is known for her employment law expertise advising the healthcare sector.

Jog was a Trustee at Millennium Point Trust (2007-2015), she has been a Foundation Board Governor and Parent Governor of the Independent Schools Governing Body (ISGB) since 2014, Deputy Safeguarding Governor and Vice Chair of ISGB since 2017 and Safeguarding Governor of ISGB since 2019.

George Andronov graduated from Imperial College, London with a degree in physics and then did postgraduate research at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge whilst tutoring at Corpus Christi College.

After teaching at Nork Park School, Langley Park School and Manchester Grammar School he was appointed Head of Physics at King Edward’s School in 1975 latterly becoming Head of Science and then Deputy Chief Master. 

Having retired in 2010, George was appointed Foundation Board Governor, Independent Schools Governing Body Governor and King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls’ Governor in 2011.

George served as Bailiff to the King Edward VI Foundation in 2015-2016.

Gill Ball is a qualified accountant with the majority of her career spent within Higher Education. She was Director of Finance at the University of Birmingham for 20 years until retiring from that role in December 2014. The University of Birmingham is a significant global, national and local organisation with a turnover of £680m, 35,000 students and 7,200 staff.

Within the King Edward Foundation, Gill is a member of the Board, Chair of the Audit Committee, a Trustee of the Staff Pension Fund, a Governor of King Edward VI Handsworth School, Chair of the Finance Committee there and a member of the Site Committee.

Gill is an advisor to Accelerus Education Limited, director of Professional Higher Education Services Ltd and an Associate of AdvanceHE. She was formerly President of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) – the largest global accountancy body with 170,000 members and 340,000 students. Gill was also in a Non-Executive Director role as Deputy Chairman of an insurance mutual and Council member of one of the UK Research Councils.

Gill was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2012 for services to Higher Education.

Dr Geraldine Brodie is Associate Professor in Translation Theory and Theatre Translation at University College London and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her research centres on theatre translation practices in contemporary London, with The Translator on Stage (Bloomsbury 2018) among recent publications.

Geraldine read English as an undergraduate at Brasenose College, Oxford, followed by 12 years working in audit, tax, professional development and graduate recruitment at KPMG in London and New York. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. She continues in her role as the managing director of a private property investment and management company specialising in the residential and commercial sectors in South East England.

Geraldine has been a member of a range of charitable, voluntary and industry boards and organisations. Current appointments include the Barbican Centre Trust and the Independent Schools Governing Body of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI in Birmingham, where she was herself a pupil. She also sits on the Norman Wates Family Committee of the Wates Foundation, an independent grant-making family trust supporting the charitable and voluntary sector.

Patrick Burns has been a Foundation Governor for 20 years and now chairs the Foundation Board and the Joint Strategy Committee. He also serves as a Director of the King Edward’s Academy Trust.

Patrick has been a strong supporter since its inception of what began as the Widening Access initiative and, in particular, of Assisted Places at our independent schools. He wants as many children from as wide a variety of backgrounds as possible to benefit as he has from an excellent education.

Patrick has worked as a TV News Reporter in Northern Ireland at the height of “The Troubles” and as a Political Correspondent at Westminster for national news programmes. He became the Midlands Political Editor in 1998 and has been a member of the Lobby at Westminster for more than 30 years. He is the presenter of Sunday Politics Midlands on BBC One and appears regularly on Midlands Today and BBC News.

Barnaby Lenon taught at Eton for 12 years, was Deputy Head of Highgate School, Headmaster of Trinity School Croydon and Head of Harrow (12 years). He has been a Governor of 22 schools.

Barnaby is Chair of Governors and joint founder of the London Academy of Excellence school in Newham, East London, one of the most successful state schools in England. He is Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham, Chair of the Independent Schools’ Council, a Trustee of the Yellow Submarine charity, and a consultant to the Robertson Foundation which sponsors schools in New York and South Africa (amongst other things). He is a member of the Ofqual standards advisory group.

He has recently published two books, Much Promise: successful schools in England and Other People’s Children: what happens to the academically least successful 50%? 

George Marsh was educated at King Edward’s School and the University of Sheffield (civil and structural engineering).

He spent most of his career with construction company Galliford, including 10 years as Chief Executive. He has since been involved as non-executive Chair of a number of construction companies, including leading MBOs and PFI Projects, and has been actively involved in industry affairs for 40 years. A former Chair of Governors and Pro-Chancellor of Coventry University, George has recently served as a trustee of the Engineering Council.

George served in the TA Royal Engineers for 30 years, ultimately commanding the RE Specialist TA as a Colonel and working on projects on the worldwide military estate and is currently a Board Member of the West Midlands Reserve Forces and Cadets Association.

An active Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands, George previously served as Vice-Lord Lieutenant and acting Lord-Lieutenant.

Ian Metcalfe, a qualified solicitor, retired as managing partner of international law firm Wragge & Co in 2014 after eight years in post. Prior to managing the business, Ian was a corporate partner at the firm for 14 years, acting for several substantial public and private companies and private equity houses on a wide range of transactions.

Ian now pursues a “portfolio” career, with a range of non-executive appointments, combining his interests in sport and business. Ian is Chair of Commonwealth Games England and a non-executive director of the global waste management and environmental services group TRRG Holdings Ltd, a joint venture between the Dutch Terberg Group and the Spanish Ros Roca Group.

In the public company world, Ian is the senior independent Non-executive Director and Chairman of Remco at Mercia Technologies plc and a Non-executive Director and Chairman of Remco of Arena Events Group plc.

A double rugby blue, Ian represents Cambridge University RUFC on the Council of the Rugby Football Union, having previously served nine years on the Board of the RFU, chaired the Professional Game Board and sat on the Board of ER 2015 Limited, the organising body for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

Having completed master’s degrees in history, and educational leadership and management, Colin worked in the insurance industry before starting his teaching career. Having initially taught in a large comprehensive school he is currently Headmaster of King Edward VI Aston School.

He is the Chair of Governors of a primary school, a registered Ofsted Inspector and has been appointed onto the Department for Education’s professional conduct panel for teachers.

Jane Sherwood joined the Independent Schools Governing Body in 2014 and is particularly interested in increasing access to an excellent King Edward’s education through the campaign to increase the number of Assisted Places at King Edward’s School and King Edward VI High School for Girls.

After leaving King Edward VI High School for Girls, Jane went to Oxford University, where she studied for her undergraduate degree and doctorate in classics at Corpus Christi College. Jane has built most of her career to date at the University, where her roles have included being the Academic Director at Jesus College, Oxford, and the University’s Director of Graduate Admissions and Funding. She is currently Director of the Oxford Learning Institute and Director of the Oxford University Language Centre. Jane chairs a network of senior European university managers, within the Heads of University Management & Administration Network in Europe (HUMANE).

Amanda Smith came to read Law at the University of Birmingham and never left! She qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC with experience in the Audit & Assurance Practice and Corporate Finance followed by a career at FTSE 100 Compass Group Plc.

Amanda is the Vice Chair of Governors at an Outstanding maintained primary school in her home town of Sutton Coldfield, where she also Chairs the Finance and Resource Committee, and sits on both Teaching & Learning and Staffing.

Together with her husband she is also a supporter of the Assisted Places scheme. Outside interests include being a keen theatre supporter, being a patron of the Birmingham Hippodrome, Royal Shakespeare Company and Town Hall Symphony Hall locally as well as the Old Vic.

Stuart Southall attended King Edward’s School between 1969 and 1976 before studying mathematics at St John’s College, Cambridge.

Stuart was a co-founder of the Punter Southall Group, which grew from nine people in 1988 to over 1,250 people 30 years later. He was a founding Trustee of the King Edward’s School Birmingham Trust and he has provided funding for Assisted Places and capital projects at both King Edward’s School and King Edward VI High School for Girls, including the Southall Pavilion.

Geoff Thomas has been a Governor of the Foundation since 1995 and is Chair of the Foundation’s Finance and Investment Committee. He is a member of the Independent Schools Governing Body and serves on both its Finance and Buildings Sub-Committees. 

After graduating in physics at the University of Birmingham and then a brief spell in Chartered Accountancy, Geoff went on to make his career in commercial property. Until his retirement he was Regional Chairman of DTZ, one of the largest firms of property advisers. A Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, he is qualified as both arbitrator and independent expert relating to commercial property issues. Geoff has advised many of the largest property investors, owners and developers in the UK.

Geoff is a Trustee of the Roger and Douglas Turner Charitable Trust, a substantial grant giving Charity which supports causes in the Midlands.

Hywel Thomas is Emeritus Professor of the Economics of Education, University of Birmingham and was the Director of the Centre for Research in Medical and Dental Education at the University. He was Head of the School of Education for 10 years, from 1993-2003.

His research and writing included studies on resource management in schools (DFE/OECD), the school workforce (DfES), smoking prevention strategies (EU), the career paths of graduates (HEFCE), designing a curriculum for training medical general practitioners (RCGP) and evaluating selection processes for medical speciality training (DH).

Hywel has undertaken work for The World Bank, UNESCO, the British Council and the Department for International Development (DfID). He has been Education Adviser to the British Council and specialist adviser to the OECD.

Professor Shearer West was appointed as the seventh Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Nottingham in October 2017.

Shearer is a Professor of Art History and has held several significant leadership roles in universities and higher education. She obtained her BA degree in Art History and English at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, and her PhD in Art History at St Andrews.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Historical Society, she also has a number of international roles, most recently acting as main panel chair for the national research assessment exercise for Humanities in Norway and serving on the steering group to introduce impact into the Excellence in Research exercise in Australia.

Idnan Yunas is a former pupil and School Captain at King Edward’s School. He studied medicine at Cambridge and currently works as a GP Partner in Edgbaston.

Idnan is a Training Programme Director for GP Education in Birmingham/Solihull as well as being a GP Trainer and Appraiser. Idnan is currently the link Governor for Health and Safety and the Deputy for Safeguarding on the Independent Schools Governing Body.