Governors

Michael Goff was appointed a Governor in 2014.  Michael is an OG (Farfield 1968-73), a past Chairman of the OG Club and was the OG Governor from 2008 to 2011.  He is married to Julia and their children, Charlotte and William, both went to Gresham’s. He is a chartered accountant running a family business distributing fuel oil throughout East Anglia and the South East and has a large farming interest in Mid Norfolk, where he lives.  In the past he has been a governor of Taverham Hall Prep School and Chairman of the Governors of Catton Grove First School in Norwich.

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.

Following a career in the City specialising in the medical sector, Charles now chairs several public and private companies and a government grant-giving body. He is deputy chair of the Royal Humane Society and served as High Sheriff of Greater London in 2018/9. He was previously a governor of Gresham’s between 2003-15 and Marion Richardson Primary School in Stepney between 1996-2013. He is a published author and has an MA from Cambridge University and a PhD from London University, both in history.  

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.

Alex de Capell Brooke joined the Board in December 2016.  Alex is CEO of the Great Oakley Estate which has been owned by the de Capell Brooke family since 1575.  The Estate is circa 5000 acres situated in 3 parcels around the town of Corby, near Uppingham & just South of Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire. The Estate is mixed, the majority farmed in hand, and a dairy where milk is produced for Stilton Cheese.

In 1987 planning permission was sought by Alex’s father, a former teacher, for the construction of a school on part of the farm, just behind Great Oakley Village.  In 1991 The Brooke City Technology College opened its doors to 1300 students, at a time when educational attainment in Corby was very low with only 6 people in the whole borough of Corby going to University.

Since 1991, what is today known as The Brooke Weston Academy, has gone on to become one of the leading state funded schools in The United Kingdom, and is the lead school within The Brooke Weston Trust which now operates 9 other schools, with over 7000 young children to educate and over 1000 members of staff.

The Brooke Weston Trust, set up and created by the de Capell Brooke & Weston families is a non- profit making educational charity.

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.

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 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 has been a Gresham’s parent since 2011. Anna is Group Chief Executive of the R G Carter Group. Anna is a Trustee of Priscilla Bacon Norfolk Hospice Care, is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of East Anglia and is a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Norfolk.

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 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.

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.

Sir William Goodenough Bt. Married to Delia Mary. Three children, Sophie & Celia, (OGs) and Sam.

1986 Founding Partner of Design Bridge Limited, a Brand Design Consultancy based in London, then establishing offices in Amsterdam, Singapore, Shanghai and New York. 500 staff working with large number of multi-national clients such as: Unilever, Diageo, MasterCard, Mondelez, Colgate and local clients like Fortnum & Masons. Retired from Design Bridge December 2019. Currently a Governor of Goodenough College, Trustee of The Norfolk Rivers Trust and Chairman of Green Park Content Limited.

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 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. 

Paul is an OG (Kenwyn & Tallis 1982-1990) and became a Governor in 2012. Having read Modern History at University College, Oxford he began his career in the insurance market before entering the investment industry in 1997.  Having run leading specialist UK equity funds at Cazenove Capital and Schroders, he founded Tellworth Investments  in 2017. He is married with three children, lives in Suffolk, and is a keen runner.

James Maunder Taylor was appointed a Nominated Governor in June 2017. James is a Chartered Surveyor with more than 30 years’ property experience. He has lived and worked in the Far East, EMEA and the UK, overseeing the strategic asset management of pan-European and multi-national corporate property portfolios. James now leads the finance advisory role at Crestbridge Property Finance LLP sourcing conventional and Sharia investment and development finance.

James grew up in North London but now lives in Northamptonshire close to Stamford, in the Welland Valley. Married with two daughters, when time allows having hung up his cricket boots he can be found in the field or on the river bank. Recently James was awarded honorary membership of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) for his charitable fundraising efforts, much of which was focused on Woodcock conservation. James is a keen member of the Fishmonger’s Flyfishing Society.

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.

An OG (Crossways and OSH 1973-1980) and English Speaking Union Scholar from Gresham’s to a US private school in 1980/81 before Nottingham University.  A recent parent, Stephen was an advisory partner at PwC and is now a self employed consultant and NED. Stephen joined the Board of Governors in 2012 and sits on the Finance & General Purposes Committee and is Chair of the Audit Risk and Compliance Committee.

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 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.

Nick Youngs is a past OG Farfield (77-79) who was born in Norfolk. His school days were more focused on sport that academia. He currently runs a successfully family farm in Aylsham, Norfolk and enjoys spending time with his family and watching his son’s play Rugby.

Before taking on the farm, Nick represented Leicester Tigers (81-87) and within that time represented his home nation at Twickenham. After his playing days, he began coaching rugby at grass roots level. For 15 years he focused on development and talent spotting with a feed into Leicester Tigers.