Governors
The Governors are responsible for the well being of the School, endorsing strategic development and ensuring the School’s financial accountability. There are currently 23 members of the Board of Governors who come from a variety of backgrounds including the professions, finance, business, education and property and bring a broad range of knowledge, skills and expertise to the management of the School.
They give their time freely and are deeply committed to the success of the School. The Board of Governors meets at least four times a year with one meeting a year being held at Fishmongers’ Hall, London. The Finance & General Purposes Committee, Estate Committee and Education Committee meet prior to Board of Governors’ Meetings. The Articles of Association stipulate that the Board of Governors shall be composed of one ex-officio Governor, up to 10 nominated Governors and up to 17 co-opted Governors. The current Governors are:
Chair of Governors
Paul Marriage, MA (Oxon)
Ex Officio Governor
Andrew Sutcliffe KC, Prime Warden of The Fishmongers’ Company
Nominated Governors
Representing the Fishmongers’ Company
William Donger
Simon Gorton, Governor responsible for Health & Safety and Boarding
Airlie Inglis
Bill Mills
Representing the Lord Bishop of Norwich
The Reverend Canon Jonathan Riviere CVO
Representing the Old Greshamian Club
Charlotte Coventry MRCVS
Co-Opted Governors
Martin Bailey, BA (Hons), Dip Surv MRICS, Chair of the Property Development Committee
Simon Clarke
Martin Collier
Anna Dugdale, ACA, DL, Chair of Strategy Committee
Sir James Dyson, OM, CBE, FRS, FREng
Nigel Flower, BA PGCE, Chair of Prep and Pre-Prep Committee
Richard Grisenthwaite
Debra Hayward
James Morgan, LLB, Deputy Chair of Governors, Chair of the HR & Staff Conditions Committee
Dr Susan Rubin, FRCPCH, FRCP, Governor with responsibility for Single Centralised Register and Child Protection
To contact the Chairman or any member of the Board of Governors please write to: Mrs A Holloway, Acting Clerk to the Governors, Gresham’s School, Cromer Road, Holt, Norfolk, NR25 6EA or email [email protected]
OUR GOVERNORS
Paul Marriage MA (OXON)
Chairman of Governors
Paul (PJ) is an OG and became a governor in 2013. Having read Modern History at University College, Oxford, he began his City career in the insurance market before entering the investment industry in 1997. Having run specialist equity funds at Cazenove and Schroders, he founded Tellworth Investments in 2017 and sold it to Premier Miton plc in 2024. He has a broad range of business interests across agriculture, property, and e-commerce, and has also founded a charitable Trust that supports activities in education, recreation and conservation. He is married with three children, lives in Mid Suffolk, and is a keen runner.
Paul is member of the Livery of the Fishmongers’ Company and sits on their Property and Investment Committee.
Andrew Sutcliffe KC
Prime Warden of the Fishmongers’ Company
Prime Warden of the Fishmongers’ Company
June 2024 – June 2025
Andrew has been a barrister for 40 years and a part-time judge in the High Court and Crown Court for 25 years. He is a beekeeper, vice president of the Blackface Sheep Breeders Association and enjoys swimming in the North Sea. Andrew joined the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers in 1996, was elected to its governing body in 2013 and for the past three years has been chair of the Company’s charitable trusts. He and his wife Emma have three daughters and two grandsons and divide their time between London and the North York Moors.
Martin Bailey, BA (Hons), Dip Surv MRICS
Chair of the Property Development Committee
Martin became a Governor in October 2018. He is a Chartered Surveyor, having worked in property for 30 years. Specialising in Planning and Development, Martin’s career has focused upon residential development and investment, having worked for Savills, and national and regional house builders. He now runs his own property business, in Norfolk, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.
Martin has educated both of his girls at Gresham’s, through both the Prep and Senior School.
Simon Clarke
has been Headmaster of Spratton Hall, a thriving prep school in Northamptonshire, since 2014. He has taught in prep education throughout his career, with his first post being at Gresham’s Prep in 1995, as an English, Drama and Games teacher. In 2005 he moved to Millfield Prep in Somerset as Head of English, Director of Drama and Games teacher before moving on to Spratton. Simon serves on the IAPS District 10 Committee, is an IAPS Head Sports Rep and is the IAPS rep for all ECB cricket matters. He is married to Danny, herself an OG, and they have three teenage children. Simon was elected to the Board of Governors in December 2022.
Martin Collier
graduated with an MA in Modern History from Oxford University. He was previously Headmaster of St John’s School Leatherhead and before that was Second Master at Oundle. He was appointed as Master of Haileybury in September 2017. Martin currently serves as Chair of the HMC Academic Policy Sub-Committee and has played an important role in effecting positive change in the national examinations system and curriculum. He is an author and editor of numerous history text books. Martin was elected to the Board of Governors in December 2022.
Charlotte Coventry MRCVS
Governor representing the Old Greshamian Club
Charlotte Coventry was appointed OG Governor in 2020 after being Chairman of the OG Club for the past 3 years. Her husband Andrew is a teacher at the Senior School and two of their three sons attend the Pre-Prep. Charlotte was a pupil at Gresham’s from 1996-2001 (Oakeley) before qualifying as a vet from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Initially she worked in mixed practice in Norfolk, then solely equine practice in Cambridgeshire and Lancashire. In 2012 Charlotte studied a PGCE at the University of East Anglia and went on to teach maths at Litcham School. She now lives on the family farm and is involved in managing the livestock side, along with running around after the littlest Coventry who arrived in the April 2020 lockdown!
Anna Dugdale, ACA, DL
Chair of The Strategy Committee
Anna Dugdale has been a Gresham’s governor since 2017 she is a full time Chairman and Non-Executive Director with G’s Group, one of Europe’s largest family owned farming and fresh produce businesses. Prior to her current role Anna was Group CEO in a large family-owned business and prior to that CEO of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. In her early career she qualified as a Chartered Accountant and worked in private practice and as a CFO. She is a founding Trustee of Priscilla Bacon Norfolk Hospice Care which has been responsible for raising £14.5m and building a 24 bed palliative care hospice in Norwich, she is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Norfolk and an Honorary Senior Lecturer at UEA.
William Donger
William is currently CEO of Thomas White Oxford, a company owned by St John’s College, Oxford. The company is in a Joint Venture to build a new science based innovation district in Oxford, Oxford North comprising of 90,000 m² of laboratories and offices, a hotel and 500 homes.
After reading English at Oxford he briefly worked in education before going to work in India, on his return he started his career working in the property sector in London.
Over the last 40 years he has worked in London and Oxford as a property advisor and asset manager to a wide variety of institutions including Wellcome Trust and private individuals. He has experience in all aspects of property development and planning negotiations.
Sir James Dyson OM CBE FRS FREng
James Dyson is the Chairman and Founder of Dyson. Working with Dyson’s 4,550 engineers and scientists he develops products which solve problems ignored by others through the application of science and technology. Dyson is currently investing £2.5 billion in new technologies and £200m into a new Technology Campus in Hullavington, Wiltshire. Dyson employs 12,500 people and has its own operations in 82 countries. Dyson products now span autonomous household vacuums, connected air purifiers, fans and humidifiers, lighting, hand dryers, and hairdryers.
Sir James was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2015, and in the 2016 New Year Honours was appointed to the Order of Merit. James was awarded a CBE in 1996 and a Knight Bachelor in 2007. James holds honorary doctorates from the University of Bath, Imperial College London, University of Brunel and the Royal College of Art. He is a trustee of the James Dyson Foundation, a charity he set up in 2002 to encourage design and engineering education and run the international student design competition: the James Dyson Award. The charity has donated £60 million since its conception. In 2017 he opened the Dyson Institute of Engineering and Technology, offering school leavers a full time job at Dyson whilst they study towards a Bachelor of Engineering degree.
Nigel Flower, BA PGCE
Chair of The Prep and Pre-Prep Committee
Nigel Flower joined the Board of Governors in 2019 and is Chair of the Prep and Pre-Prep Committee. A pupil at Gresham’s from 1968-73, he returned to teach English and coach cricket and hockey in 1991, after a period of furniture making after university. In 2006 he was appointed Deputy Head, and apart from nearly a year as Acting Head, remained in post until his retirement in 2016. Nigel can often be found on his boat at Morston, or at Sheringham Golf Club.
Simon Gorton
Governor responsible for Health & Safety and Boarding
Simon Gorton is a past parent and was appointed a nominated Governor in 2012. He is retired from the Police Force after serving several of the north Norfolk towns from Stalham to Holt over the past 31 years. He currently owns and runs Sloley Estate near Norwich.
Richard Grisenthwaite
Richard Grisenthwaite is a Chartered Engineer, and has worked in Cambridge for past 25 years leading the computer architecture for Arm, the world’s leading supplier of semiconductor intellectual property, with some 200 billion Arm processors having been build worldwide in the last 30 years. Richard hopes to use his experience of technology to help Greshams as a governor.
Richard was educated at the Edinburgh Academy and Cambridge University, and is married to old Greshamian Dr. Marijcke Veltman-Grisenthwaite, (GH & Oak 1977-1982). He is keen rifle shot, having represented Great Britain internationally and Scotland in the Commonwealth Games, and has seen many highly skilled shooters produced by Gresham’s over the past 30 years.
Debra Hayward
Debra Hayward is an Oscar nominated producer of film and television. She launched her own production company, Monumental Pictures, in 2014. Debra’s producing credits for film include Les Miserables, Mary Queen of Scots, and Bridget Jones’s Diary, and for television include BBC 1’s hit series Ghosts, Harlots, Netflix’s Anne With An E, and the upcoming Murder in Provence. She has an Honorary Degree from UEA.
Airlie Inglis BSc. (Hons)
Airlie Inglis (nee Carver) is an OG, Oakeley 1980 – 1985. She went to Manchester University (UMIST) and has a BSc Hons degree in Textile Design and Design Management. She worked in Interior Design and the arts prior to marrying Charles Inglis. They farm near Holt and have three children. Airlie is a member of the Livery at the Fishmongers Company, serving on the Livery Select Committee. She also runs the Sir Colin Anderson Memorial Trust which provides funds for the acquisition of works of art for Gresham’s School.
Bill Mills
Bill is currently CEO of Explore Learning Ltd., a business he founded in 2001. Explore Learning provides maths and English tuition to children aged 5 – 16 from approximately 100 centres across the UK and online, with over 25,000 children enrolled as members.
Bill is also the Chairman and owner of Highfield and Brookham Schools, a prep school and pre-prep respectively. Highfield was founded by Bill’s grandfather in 1907, while Bill founded Brookham in 1992. Together, the schools serve 450 children of whom 120 are boarders. Bill was born and brought up at Highfield when his father was Headmaster.
Bill was educated at Winchester College and St John’s College, Cambridge, where he read maths. After university, he joined the American consulting firm, Bain and Company, in London. In 1991, Bill joined Warrior International, a corporate finance boutique focused on the natural resources sector worldwide, moving to Chicago in 1995 to establish the firm’s North American office. Returning to England in 1998 following Warrior’s acquisition by Standard Bank he left soon after in order to focus on education.
Bill’s interests include golf, skiing and various country pursuits. He used to be a keen oarsman, rowing in Goldie in 1988 and several times at Henley.
Bill is on the court of the Fishmongers’ Company.
James Morgan, LLB
Deputy Chairman of Governors
Chair of the HR & Staff Conditions Committee
James Morgan is an OG (Crossways and Woodlands 1980-89) and joined the Board of Governors in 2013. A solicitor specialising in advising HNW individuals, particularly landowners and previously a managing partner of West and north Norfolk law firm Hayes+Storr, James is founder of a specialist private client firm Morgan Trusts and Tax Planning Ltd. James has held various political and charitable posts in Norfolk in recent years and is a trustee of Gresham’s linked charity The London Children’s Camp.
The Reverend Canon Jonathan Riviere CVO
Jonathan has been a clergyman in the Diocese of Norwich since 1983 and from 2003 to 2022 Rector of the Sandringham Group of Churches and Domestic Chaplain to Her Majesty The Queen at Sandringham.
Since 1988 he has been continuously a governor in various different church primary schools, as well as 10 years as a governor of King Edward the Seventh High School in Kings Lynn.
After Westminster School Jonathan trained as a land agent and worked on Exmoor for 4 years before going to Theological college at Oxford. He maintains an interest in all things agricultural not only through living at the centre of a large agricultural estate but also as a member of the Norwich Dicesan Glebe Committee.
Susan Rubin FRCPCH, FRCP
Governor with responsibility for Single Centralised Register and Child Protection
Susan joined the Governing Body in 2016. For 20 years, she was a Consultant Paediatrician at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn. She was also the lead for the Eastern Neonatal Network. Her work covered all aspects of acute Paediatrics, including Child Protection. Her main areas of interest were neonatology and cardiology. She graduated from the Westminster Medical School, University of London. Once qualified, she moved to East Anglia to specialise in Paediatrics, working in Norwich and Cambridge and she also spent a year at Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital – before joining the Paediatric department in King’s Lynn. Her husband, David Barton, was a local GP in Swaffham. Their 3 daughters, Ruth, Josie and Maddie all attended Gresham’s.