Our People

Our Team

John Whitgift Foundation has a wide pool of talent across the foundation. Our people work in a variety of roles, caring for and assisting thousands of people in Croydon on a daily basis. John Whitgift Foundation’s staff are based in our schools, care homes, Carers’ Information Service or in the Foundation’s head office in central Croydon.

Foundation Head Office

Emily Boynton - Interim CEO / Director of Human Resources

Emily Boynton joined the Foundation in March 2023. She brings a wealth of public sector experience acquired working across local government and healthcare settings at Board level. Her last role was as Director of HR for Kingston University and prior to that she worked at the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, where she developed their people strategy and culture change programme in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire. Well versed in working in complex, multi-faceted organisations, Emily was previously Director of Human Resources and Organisational Development at Central London Community Healthcare – an NHS community trust. She has also held senior roles at Surrey County Council in children’s services, covering education and social care; environment and property asset management.

Michael Webb - Chief Finance Officer

Prior to joining the Foundation in 2020, Michael was CFO at Lambeth College, part of Southbank University, and held senior finance roles at Girls’ Day School Trust and University of Westminster. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales with 20 years’ experience in London Higher Education Institutions. As CFO, Michael provides strategic leadership of the finance, accounting, and fees and bursary teams.

Helen Gough - Director of Property

Helen is an experienced real estate and construction professional who has worked in the commercial property sector advising clients on maximising the returns and realising the potential of their assets and estates, operating at Board level in Executive and Non-Executive roles.

A Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, she built an Executive career in property consultancy. At JLL she was Head of Project & Development Services, a member of the UK Executive Board, EMEA Corporate Solutions Leadership Team and Global Project & Development Services Board.

In a Non-Executive capacity, Helen is an Independent Co-opted Member of the Estates Strategy Committee of King’s College London and Chairs the Property Committee at the Haberdashers’ Company and is a Governor at the Haberdashers’ Elstree Schools.

School Head Teachers

Jane Burton – Head, Old Palace of John Whitgift School
Alasdair Kennedy – Headmaster, Trinity School
Chris Ramsey – Headmaster, Whitgift School

Whitgift Care

Melody Akena – Head of Care, Whitgift House
Magda Kuffel – Home Manager, Wilhelmina House
Tanya Fitzgerald – Manager, Carers’ Information Service

Our Governors

Our Court governors come from a range of educational, care and business backgrounds. They oversee the day-to-day management of the charity. The Court of Governors meets four times a year to make key decisions and discuss the Foundation. Governors also sit on subcommittees that meet three times a year relating to aspects of the Foundation’s work.

Christopher Houlding - Chairman

Christopher was appointed as Chairman of the Court of Governors on 25 March 2015. He was educated at Trinity School before embarking on a career in financial services, initially joining stockbroker W Greenwell & Co. Christopher built his early career as a fixed income specialist and held senior positions at several leading investment banks. He was a Managing Director in the Wealth Management division of UBS AG in London from 2003 to 2019, before retiring from banking to run his own consulting business. Christopher is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. He joined the Court of Governors in 2001 and served as a Trinity School Governor from November 2000 to March 2015.

David Seymour CB

David was educated at Trinity School and studied history and then law at The Queen’s College, Oxford. He worked for a firm of lawyers in Los Angeles for a year before taking a postgraduate LL.B degree at Cambridge University and qualifying as a barrister in 1975. He has spent his career in Whitehall. He was Director General of the Attorney General’s Office from 1997-2000 and was Legal Adviser and Director General at the Home Office from 2000 until his retirement in 2012. He was elected a Bencher of Gray’s Inn in 2001 and elected to the Management Committee of the Inn in 2011. He received a CB in the New Year’s Honours List in 2005. He has been Chairman of Reigate Squash Club and is also currently Chairman of the Remuneration Committee at The Queen’s College, Oxford. In 2013 he was appointed by the Secretary of State to be the Independent Reviewer of police operations under the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007. In 2015 he was appointed Chairman of the Trinity School Committee and a member of the Court of John Whitgift Foundation.

Anand Mehta FRCP

Dr Anand Mehta has a long association with Croydon since 1994, initially as a trainee senior registrar and then as a Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine at Croydon University Hospital and private practice based at BMI Shirley Oaks Hospital, Croydon. He trained in Geriatric Medicine and Gastroenterology in Liverpool, Hammersmith Hospital and St George’s Hospital in London. His clinical practice includes the holistic management of older people with multiple complex chronic medical conditions and has a special interest in Parkinson’s disease, Dementia and Gastroenterology. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London. Since 2004 he has worked part-time as Associate Dean at Health Education England where he is responsible for ensuring high quality training of postgraduate doctors in South London. Anand is Chairman of the Whitgift Care Committee.

Asif Patel, ACA, MSc

Asif trained with Arthur Andersen and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2001. Since then he was worked in the banking sector as an Internal Auditor. Since 2003, he has worked in Group Internal Audit at UBS AG and has held various roles in both the UK and Switzerland. Asif is Chairman of the Governance & External Relations Committee.

The Revd Canon Dr Andrew Bishop, Chaplain to the Foundation

Andrew took up his appointment as Incumbent of Croydon in September 2018. He was previously a Residentiary Canon of Guildford Cathedral and Chaplain to the University of Surrey. Andrew has extensive parish experience in London and Winchester Dioceses as Vicar and Area Dean. Andrew is part of the Church of England’s Strategic Leadership Development Programme. Prior to ordination Andrew studied History and Religious Studies and spent a year living and working in Bangladesh at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed in Dhaka. Andrew has pursued further studies in theology, completing a Master of Theology degree at Heythrop College, London and a Doctorate in Theology and Ministry at Kings College, London. Andrew is author of two books, Eucharist Shaping: Hebert’s Liturgy and Society(2013) and Theosomnia: A Christian Theology of Sleep (2018).

Peter Cornforth

Peter has spent over 30 years in the real estate investment and development industry and currently holds a range of business appointments, including Senior Adviser to global investment house PineBridge Benson Elliot. Most recently he was a Director at European private equity property fund Benson Elliot. He is a Chartered Valuation Surveyor, holds a BSc in Land Management and is a Fellow of The Royal Society for Arts.

Peter is currently a Trustee and finance committee member at Ormiston Trust, a 52 school/32,000 pupil national provider, and has previously held non-executive/audit committee roles at 2 London social housing providers, has chaired an NHS mental health Trust, and been vice-chair of the National Autistic Society, having joined as a volunteer parent member. He also sits on the Investment Advisory Group for Transport for London’s £2bn wholly owned property subsidiary, TTLP.

Nick Edwards

Nick is the Chief Operating Office of Audley Group, the UK’s leading Developer and Operator of Retirement Villages. Nick joined Audley in December 2019 and before this was Chief Financial Officer of Moorfield Group, a UK focused Real Estate Private Equity Fund Manager. He was at Moorfield from 2008 to 2019 and was a member of the Board and the Investment Committee, on which he continues to sit following his move to Audley.

Mark Long

Mark was educated at Trinity School before graduating with a law degree at University College, Oxford. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse before spending his career in investment banking with firms such as Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and HSBC. At HSBC, he was a Managing Director and Global Head of its Transport, Shipping, Services and Offshore business before spending three years in Hong Kong where he served as Co-Head of Infrastructure and Real Estate in Asia before retiring from banking in 2018. Mark is Chairman of the Finance and Administration Committee.

Jo MacKenzie

Recently retired, Jo has over 30 years working in the education sector, beginning her career in the Girls’ Day School Trust. Most of her experience has been in teaching in girls’ school (three GDST schools) but was one of the first female Heads of Department at Alleyns School, Dulwich. In her last headship Jo was asked to merge the two largest girls’ school in Bedford to form Bedford Girls’ School, now one of the largest and very successful girls’ school in East Anglia.

Jo was educated in Australia and has much experience of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, and introduced to Bedford Girls’ School the IB’s Primary Years Programme whilst she was Head. She was Chair of the GSA Sports Committee for five years, an ISI inspector, and has recently become a member ECB London and East Regional Advisory Board to support women and girls’ cricket. Jo also works as an advisory Head for RSAcademics, a company that offers specialist services for the search and selection, coaching and development of school leaders and senior staff.

Jo has a Masters in Education and Leadership (Dist) and has been asked to mentor many Heads as they start their careers in these senior positions. Two of her Senior Leadership Team she appointed went onto Headships and many of her Heads of Dept have moved onto Senior Leadership roles.

The Rt Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett

The Right Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett was born in Barbados but has lived much of her life in the UK. She has worked in West and East Africa as well as back in the Caribbean as an academic and researcher. She returned to the UK to study for her PhD. After working as an academic sociologist for twelve years, she trained for ordained ministry. Since 2005, she has served in various roles in the Diocese of Southwark, based in south London and East Surrey, as parish priest, diocesan director, and archdeacon, and now serves as the bishop of Croydon.

Rosemarie is Chair of the Southwark Diocesan Board of Education, and a Trustee of several other diocesan and national para-church organisations, including Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (CTBI). From 2010 to 2021, she served on the General Synod of the Church of England, was one of the Synod Chairs for 5 years, and on several Archbishop’s Council committees, including the Women in the Episcopate Steering Committee and the Pastoral Advisory Group. Rosemarie is a Fellow of the Westminster Abbey Institute and a Visiting Fellow of Jesus College Cambridge.

Warwick Jones

Warwick was educated at Trinity School and Pembroke College, Cambridge. After qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1976 he spent most of his career in financial services and banking. He was finance director of a number of commercial organisations until 2006, when he was appointed Finance Director of the Bank of England, a position he held until he retired in 2013. He is the Treasurer of the charity Family Lives, a national charity supporting parents and the wider family, and a member of the Council of the Trinity Midwhitgiftian Association, the school’s former pupils’ association. Warwick has been a member of the Audit Committee of Surrey County Cricket Club for a number of years, and is currently Interim Treasurer.

Jeremy Beckwith

Jeremy was educated at Brighton, Hove & Sussex Grammar School and St Catharine’s College Cambridge before a career in wealth and asset management. He was a Managing Director for Merrill Lynch Investment Managers from 1998 to 2002 and then Chief Investment Officer for Kleinwort Benson from 2003 to 2011. His last role before he retired in April 2023, was working for the Financial Conduct Authority as the internal subject-matter expert on investments. He is a passionate about cricket, particularly umpiring and was Chair of the Surrey Championship Umpires Panel from 2008-2022. Jeremy is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment. He joined the Court of Governors in 2024.

Vivienne Dews

After reading medical sciences at Newnham College, Cambridge, Vivienne decided not to go on to a clinical training but joined the Civil Service where she spent her whole career. The early years were mainly in the Home Office, often working in Croydon, where she has lived for most of her adult life. Later in her career she qualified in public finance and moved into financial and other leadership. Her last role before retirement was in the Office of Fair Trading where she was Chief Executive for its closure. She has been on the Board of several national charities, and for 4 years to December 2023 chaired the Henry Smith Charity – a large grant giving foundation with assets of about £1.3Bn. Her son was educated at Whitgift School, and her daughter at Old Palace. Her mother spent the last seven years of her life in Whitgift Care.

Clare Ashley

Clare is a strategic leader with over 20 years of experience working in financial services primarily focused on using technical solutions to execute on the firm’s strategy and enable business growth while adhering to regulatory requirements. Clare joined Goldman Sachs in 2010 and is currently a Managing Director in the Implementation and Execution office, where she manages strategic regulatory programs that require firmwide cross divisional collaboration. As part of Clare’s work on strategic programmes Clare has been able to contribute to the creation of best-in-class strategies to structure, develop and implement solutions to solve business problems. She has worked to create standards within her team and for broader usage on best practice to create the right governance and structure to implement change across varying business and products.

Clare sits on the Goldman Sachs Regional New Activity Committee for EMEA which is convened with senior management at the firm to challenge and approve (or reject) any new activities across the EMEA business landscape and in 2023 she became the first female Co-head of the EMEA Black Network covering the UK and continental European regional chapters.

Prior to Goldman Sachs Clare spent 4 years at JPMorgan Chase as a business analyst/project manager focused on the Rates and Credit eTrading space where she led enhancements to support the trading desks such as expansion into new markets and provision of technical uplifts to support client requirements. She also spent 5 years working in technical IT service roles at GE Capital, GL Trade, Chevron, and British Gas.

Outside of her role at the firm Clare sits on the advisory board of Crisis Venture Studio, which seeks to invest, build, and fund ventures that seek to end homelessness.

Michael Gascoigne

Teaching for over 30 years in secondary schools, Mike has a vast experience of education. For 20 years he was on the Senior Leadership Team of Tiffin School, which he led as Headteacher for the last 8 years, during a period of great change, retiring from this post in the summer of 2023. For many years Mike also served on the local Schools’ Forum, chairing that body for 3 years, and working with the local authority and other local stakeholders to help decide upon and manage the local education budget and funding formula. Mike is a long-term Croydon resident, and an Old Whitgiftian, and joined the Court in 2024.