Giles is Chairman of The John Lyon School Board of Governors and also a Foundation Governor. An Old Harrovian and former Harrow parent, he studied law at Cambridge University and Virginia Law School and worked as an attorney in Washington DC before returning to the English Bar where he specialises in tax law, particularly its contentious aspects. He has a keen interest in professional training and recruitment. Giles is a member of the Finance & General Purposes Committee.

Since 2011, Neil has been the Headmaster of Queen Elizabeth’s School in Barnet, which has consistently been named in the national press in recent years as the country’s top state school for A-Level and GCSE results.  He attended John Lyon as a pupil from 1989 to 1996.  Following his undergraduate degree at Oxford and PGCE at London’s Institute of Education, Neil started teaching in 2000 in a mixed comprehensive in the London Borough of Brent.  He moved to Queen Elizabeth’s in 2002.  Before his appointment as Headmaster, he has been Head of Geography, Head of Year, Assistant Head and Deputy Head.  Neil was awarded his National Professional Qualification for Headship in 2007 and an MBA in 2010.  He is Deputy Chairman of Governors at The John Lyon School, and his other current voluntary roles include being a governor of Harrow School, Longfield Primary School in Harrow and of St Albans High School for Girls.

Catherine started her career with PwC in Australia where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant before transferring to London. Having worked on audit and transactional clients for some 14 years, she then moved into the commercial environment working with listed media groups and operations going through rapid change – UBM, Heathrow and Johnston Press plc where she is currently Group Head of Finance. Her son is a current pupil at John Lyon.

Since 2018, Matthew has been Headmaster of Leighton Park School, an HMC co-educational day and boarding school in Reading. Previously, he was Second Master of Haberdashers’ Boys’ School, Elstree and latterly also Headmaster of the Preparatory and Pre-Prep. He has also held posts as Principal of an independent fifth and sixth form college in central London. Matthew was a senior public examiner for Geography and is a serving ISI inspector and a Magistrate. He has served on a number of boards, including as school governor and chair of trustees for an international education charity. He is a member of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers’ and freeman of the City of London. Matthew was educated at a state comprehensive and attended the University of Wales and Queens’ College, Cambridge and he currently chairs the Education Committee at John Lyon.

Liam is an economist, writer and broadcaster. He is also an experienced business investor, having been a board member and partner of an international asset-management company working with leading pension funds, insurance companies, charities and sovereign wealth funds. A widely respected economics commentator, Liam has been a reporter for The Economist, The Financial Times and Channel Four News and is now best-known for his award-winning weekly “Economics Agenda” column in The Sunday Telegraph. He remains a regular broadcaster, frequently appearing on BBC radio and television, CNN, Sky and RTE to provide economic and political commentaries. Liam is also a shareholder and Editor-at-Large at bne IntelliNews. He holds a First Class (Hons) degree in economics from the University of Warwick and an MPhil (Econ) from St Antony’s College, Oxford University. Liam came to John Lyon on a scholarship in 1980 and left in 1987 as Head Boy. He was the first person in his family to go to university.

Kay has worked in the real estate industry for nearly 20 years and has a wealth of experience in the public, private and government sectors. Kay has led on some of the UK’s most high-profile infrastructure and residentially lead development projects. Kay is a chartered surveyor, with expertise in the initial set up and structuring of patient capital projects to unlock delivery of major infrastructure and mixed-use developments. Kay was previously at Homes England, the Government’s Housing Agency as a National Land and Partnering Director.

John holds the Davson Chair of Biomedical Research at University College London, Institute of Ophthalmology. Over a 40-year career in research he has been awarded many prestigious grants, has published in major scientific journals including Nature and the Lancet, and served as head of department. He runs a large and active research group studying eye and brain diseases and cancer and has launched a related biotech company. John is an Old Lyonian from the class of 1974 and was appointed a Governor of the School in March 2020.

Simon is the CFO of The Curtis Brown Group, the UK’s leading Literary and Talent agency, with its US parent based in Beverly Hills, California. Whilst at the school Simon played football for the England Public Schools XI and was the inaugural winner of the Vessey Shield for sporting achievement. After leaving school Simon qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Moore Stephens and has spent his working life as a senior executive and corporate financier within the Entertainment and Media industry in the UK, North America and Europe. Outside of work Simon served two terms on the MCC’s Marketing and Public Affairs Committee, during which time they championed and oversaw the admission of Women members to the MCC. Simon was also previously the Chair of Members of a muti academy trust of primary schools, having started as a parent Governor and then as a Trust Governor.

In 1997, Derek Gilroy obtained his PhD from the William Harvey Research Institute, University of London and thereafter received postdoctoral training jointly at the University of Houston Texas and at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan from 1998-2000. After which time, he returned to the William Harvey Research Institute for a further four years. In 2004, Derek was appointed as New Blood lecturer funded as a Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow at the Division of Medicine, Rayne Building, University College London. In 2009, he became a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and in 2010 was promoted to Professor of Immunology. At UCL he is now Head of Department, Experimental and Translational Medicine. He has pioneered research examining how the body regulates immune responses to infection and, when this goes wrong, how chronic inflammatory diseases develop. Professor Gilroy has won the Bayer International Young Investigator Award (2005), the Norvartis Award (2007), and the Peter Dressel Award (2020). He is a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and a member of the British Immunological Society and the Henry Kunkel Society, New York.

Chinmay is a surgeon scientist and ex professional cricketer who specialises in sports injuries of the knee. After he left John Lyon in 1990, he was awarded a domus scholarship at Oxford and was also awarded 5 Oxford Cricket Blues, captaining the side in 1996. Chinmay’s surgical career was based around London, and he above ordered the Robert Jones gold medal proxime accessit in 2008. He was later appointed at Imperial College in 2011. He is also a trustee/executive board member of the British Knee Society, an ex-president of the Royal Society of medicine orthopaedics section and served on the main committee/board of the Marylebone Cricket Club for 8 years. He continues as a knee specialist and the academic researcher supervising PhD and postdoctoral projects and also runs his clinic in Harley Street.

Richard, a former Lyonian who left the School in 1990 to study Town Planning at Manchester University, is a Chartered Town Planner with over 25 years’ experience working in the private consultancy sector. He is an Executive Director and founder partner of hgh Consulting, a niche planning consultancy business based in central London, which became an Employee Ownership Trust in 2021. Richard specialises in sensitive and challenging projects in urban, Green Belt and rural areas advising property owners, land promoters, developers, public sector bodies, schools and charities to maximise their property assets through securing planning permission. Richard is highly recognised for his work in the residential and supported living sectors. Over the past number of years, he has been advising schools including Haberdashers’ Boys’ School, Haberdashers’ Girls’ School, Emanuel School, The Whitgift Foundation and Queen Elizabeths’ School, Barnet on their strategic development plans and delivering planning permissions for new teaching, dining, operational, administrative and sporting facilities.

Ian began teaching English at a comprehensive school in Nottingham in 1977. He entered the preparatory school world in 1979, becoming Head of English and a Housemaster at Cabin Hill (Campbell College Preparatory School) in Northern Ireland. In 1987 he moved to Dulwich College Preparatory School as Head of English, and returned to Cabin Hill as Headmaster in 1996. From 2005 until 2020 he was Headmaster of Durston House School in Ealing.

Joanne Owens is a partner at the law firm Eversheds Sutherland. She specialises in consumer credit, mortgage and payments regulation. She has worked as a solicitor in this area for over twenty years.  Joanne is married to a teacher and housemaster at Harrow School. She has two sons, who studied at Quainton Hall before moving to Harrow School. Joanne is a member of the Quainton Hall Committee of governance.

David started his teaching career at Forest School in 1984, teaching Science and Chemistry to GCSE and A-Level in the boys’ and girls’ schools. After being Boarding Housemaster for boys aged 7 – 13, he was appointed Deputy Head of the Prep School and Curriculum Co-ordinator for Key Stage 2. In September 1998 he became Head of Reigate St Mary’s Preparatory and Choir School. During his five years at the school it became co-educational and became the Junior School to Reigate Grammar. David was Headmaster of St Martin’s School, Northwood, a boys’ Prep School of 400 pupils for 16 years until 2019. He is now an Educational Consultant and is Chair of the Advisory Board for Inspired Learning Group. He is also a Governor of Aldenham School.

Anup is a Senior Director with Vyman Solicitors Ltd, a law firm which he co-founded in 1998, eight years after having graduated with a First Class degree from the University of Southampton. As a multiservice and multi-office law firm, Anup continues to work on high-value and complex litigation, and commercial and property transactions. He is also a Trustee of one of the largest and most prominent Hindu religious charities in the UK and Europe. Anup is an Old Lyonian and also a former John Lyon parent.

Richard is a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. He is a member of the Council of Wycombe Abbey School and a Trustee of Sussex House School. He is Deputy Chair and treasurer of Save the Children, a Trustee of international Rescue Committee and was previously Chair of Medical Emergency Relief International (Merlin). Richard is also a John Lyon’s Foundation Governor.

Michelle is a full time mother whose three sons all attended John Lyon.  She has also been a member of The John Lyon School PFA since 2014. Michelle has always been an active volunteer in school life managing the uniform shop at Quainton Hall whilst also organising and supporting numerous fundraising activities.

Sarah Hollis has recently retired as the Head Teacher of Buckingham Preparatory school in Pinner, following on from her long career in teaching and management of Preparatory and Pre Preparatory schools. Sarah holds Trusteeships and other positions in children’s charities and establishments and is passionate about helping both academically able and special needs children.