Governors

Jayne Adams

Appointed 2024

A practising solicitor specialising in charities, not for profits and governance, Jayne is a partner at McCarthy Denning and also runs her own consultancy. Her work is principally focused on advising charities of all shapes and sizes on charity law and practice, regulatory, constitutional and governance matters. She is an experienced school governor and charity trustee and also sits on the Advisory Board of Fraud and Financial Awareness Campaign CIC. Jayne was educated at Edinburgh Academy, the University of Durham (from where she holds a BA Joint Honours degree in French and Italian) and the College of Law, where she undertook her academic legal training, prior to practical training and qualification at Bircham Dyson Bell.

Appointed 2019, Current Parent

Jenny is a Partner at coaching and advisory firm, Stork & May. Jenny spent the first 25 years of her career as a management consultant advising the Boards of a number of FTSE companies. She co-founded her own business in 2000 and sold it to Mercer in 2015, where she worked for a further 4 years before joining Stork & May. Jenny now coaches CEOs and supports senior executives through career change. She has a keen interest in mental health in the workplace and in 2020 completed her post-graduate Diploma in Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. Jenny also holds a degree in Mathematics from the University of Oxford.

Sophie was appointed as a governor in 2020. Having previously worked at Ardingly Prep, she moved to Croydon High GDST where she was first Head of Junior School and now has responsibility for Sixth Form. A graduate of Exeter University, where she gained a first class degree in Education and Maths, she has enjoyed a career in teaching where she has experienced both state and independent schools, girls only and co-ed, as well as teaching from Pre Prep to Sixth Form.

Appointed 2023

Vari Cameron is a Chartered Accountant and former parent, who spent 10 years in the travel industry before joining global logistics provider DHL. She spent 22 years as CFO and Head of Compliance for the Global Forwarding business in the UK, IE, Nordics & Baltics. In 2019, she decided to embark on a new challenge, supporting smaller businesses and currently works primarily with a luxury car logistics company.

Appointed 2015

Siân became a Governor of Ardingly College in 2015. She is a law graduate having attended Exeter University where she obtained an LLB. Following this Siân qualified as a solicitor in a niche corporate firm in her native Wales. Sian has subsequently become a Partner at Knights Solicitors where she heads up the Corporate and Education team in Oxford. Her practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions with a particular specialism in charitable organisations including schools.

Russell became a Governor of Ardingly College in 2025 and is a Partner at Deloitte LLP, providing internal audit services and advice to the financial services industry in the UK and internationally.  He works with a wide variety of clients and has spent extended periods of time in the USA and the Netherlands.  Russell studied Law at the University of Warwick and is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Certified Internal Auditor. Living in West Sussex, he is married with two daughters and enjoys most sports, in particular tennis and going to the gym.

Appointed 2013, Old Ardinian, Current Parent

Guy left Ardingly College in 1996 after seven years at the school and continues to live locally in Haywards Heath. He went on to read Urban Planning and Management at the University of Nottingham before joining DTZ in London. In 2001 he joined Cluttons before moving to Savills in 2006 where he is a Planning Director advising major clients including Imperial College London, Catesby Estates, Brighton & Hove City Council and Crest Nicholson.

David graduated in 1998 with a BA in Secondary Education and then read Human Geography at the University of Leeds, achieving his Masters degree in 1999. He began his teaching career in York and progressed to Assistant Headteacher at a leading academy trust school.  David worked internationally for the Harrow group for over a decade. His responsibilities included serving as the Director of Studies at Harrow Bangkok, and later, he assumed the role of founding Deputy Head Master and Designated Safeguarding Lead at Harrow Shenzhen, successfully overseeing its inauguration in 2020.

In his current role as Vice Principal at Shoreham College, David has strategic responsibility for the academic and pastoral life of the College. He manages the team of Assistant Principals to ensure the smooth running of educational operations at Shoreham College.

David is a fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and Team Inspector for the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI).

Eloise is an accomplished industry leader with a wealth of experience as both an Executive and Non-Executive Director. She specialises in driving change and fostering innovation in areas like research, consultancy, engineering, property portfolio management and construction. Beyond her impressive industry profile, Eloise has been a key figure in promoting health, safety, sustainability and enterprise risk management in the built environment sector. She actively participates in several industry forums, including HSE’s Construction Industry Advisory Committee (CONIAC) and the Construction Clients Leadership Group. Previously, she has held roles at the Building Research Establishment, Legal & General, Royal Mail, and Capita. She also contributes to English Heritage’s Audit & Risk Committee, Ardingly College’s Board of Governors and a large Government property portfolio in a non-executive capacity.

Stephen joined the board at Ardingly in November 2024 following the merger with Great Walstead where he had been a Governor since 2022.
After studying Civil Engineering at university, Stephen spent nearly 25 years with Barclays both in the UK and USA, specialising in corporate finance, and risk and project management. Now retired, the latter half of his career was spent in education management, first as Bursar at Windlesham House School and latterly as Bursar and CFO at Hurstpierpoint College. While working he served on the Boards of both the Independent Schools’ Bursars Association and the Independent Schools Inspectorate, and he was a compliance inspector with the ISI.

Appointed 2023.

Georgina has an extensive background in executive search having worked for the international search firm Perrett Laver for over 10 years within their Global Schools Practice, appointing Heads and C-suite candidates to Schools across the globe.

In 2022 she joined Nurole, a technology powered board level search specialist ranked in the Financial Times 1,000 fastest growing companies in Europe, where she is growing the education practice.

She is currently a local board member at The Burgess Hill Academy, a mixed 11-16 secondary and part of University of Brighton Academies Trust.

Appointed in 2023, Old Ardinian

Felix graduated from Ardingly in 2010 where he was a full-time boarder, School (Hilton) and House Prefect. Felix is a research analyst at Barclays Corporate & Investment Bank. He focuses his work on quantitative portfolio strategies in global equities and credit markets. Felix holds a PhD in Financial Econometrics and MSc in Banking and Finance from King’s College London, and a MSc + BSc in Civil Engineering from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Appointed 2021

Richard is Director of Academic Services at Imperial College London, where he has worked since 2011. He leads the university’s student services and is responsible for the interface of academic operations between faculties and Imperial’s central services. Richard has also worked at University College London in the Faculty of Engineering Sciences and spent two years in South Australia establishing a postgraduate facility focussed on energy and resources. Richard holds a degree in History from Durham University.

Appointed  2023; both of her children attended the college.

Her career has been in the commercial world of professional sport and athlete management. She started in cricket where she became the first woman on the Marketing Advisory Committee of the England & Wales Cricket Board. She has worked with the England football and rugby teams, managing their commercial representation and contractual relationships with the FA, the RFU and commercial partners.  She has also directed VIP talent programmes for rights holders, involving athletes from F1, tennis, football, and athletics alongside international celebrities and music acts, and developed strategic brand work for Sport England and in the charity sector.

Freddie is now Head of Travel at SailGP, the international sailing league that sees professional sailing teams compete in a series of grands prix around the globe each season.

Richard retired from business life in October 2024 following a long career as a finance professional in the London Insurance industry. During that time he co-founded the Antares Insurance Group, which operates in the globally renowned Lloyd’s of London market, before selling the business to QIC in 2014 and joining their international leadership team as Chief Financial Officer.

Richard retains a connection to the industry and serves as Non-Executive Director and Audit Committee Chair at a number of insurance businesses.

Away from professional commitments, Richard lives in Sussex with his wife and two grown-up children (both Old Ardinians), where, for many years they have attempted to keep a small quantity of livestock and grow as much of their own veg as the vagaries of the British weather will permit.
Richard is a Chartered Management Accountant and Chartered Insurer.