Governors

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  John McIntosh CBE, Honorary President of the WLFS Academy Trust

  John McIntosh CBE retired in December 2006 after nearly 30 years as the Headmaster of The London Oratory School, an all-ability school for 1,400 boys, ages 7 to 19, in central London.

  He was a member of the Health Education Council from 1985 to 1988 and the National Curriculum Council from 1990 to 1993. More recently he has been a member of the Teachers’ Standards Review, the National Curriculum Review Committee, the Board of the National College for School Leadership and the Board of the Teaching Agency. He is now an adviser on Free Schools.

  He has been a governor of several maintained and independent schools and is presently chairman of governors at a preparatory school in London. He is a trustee of the English Schools Orchestra and Choir, and a member of the Education Committee of the David Ross Education Trust.

  He has a particular interest in education policy and has been actively involved in several think tanks concerned with education throughout his career.

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  Toby Young, CEO of the WLFS Academy Trust

  Toby Young is one of the founders of the West London Free School. He is a British journalist and the author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2001), The Sound of No Hands Clapping (2006) and How to Set Up a Free School (2011).

  Young is an associate editor of the Spectator and a blogger for the Telegraph. He co-produced the film version of How to Lose Friends & Alienate People and, more recently, co-produced and co-wrote a dramadoc for More4 called When Boris Met Dave.

  His teaching experience includes working as a teaching fellow at Harvard and a teaching assistant at Cambridge. He is currently a visiting fellow at the University of Buckingham and a Fulbright Commissioner. He lives in Acton with his wife and four children.

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  Cosmo Lush, Chair of the WLFS Academy Trust

  Cosmo is one of the founders of the West London Free School and a Partner at executive search and advisory firm Skillcapital LLP providing specialist recruitment and management-related services to private equity investors. Previously, Cosmo spent 12 years in the media and telecom sectors in a range of commercial and strategy roles at EMI Music, Channel Four Television, Orange and 3 UK.

  Earlier in his career Cosmo worked in the not-for-profit sector with a specialist media consultancy advising environmental and social justice organisations on their public advocacy campaigns.

  Cosmo lives in Acton with his wife and three young children. He is actively involved with his children’s primary school, organising fund raising events and occasionally playing his violin in the school band. For several years he was a Prince's Trust Business Mentor and a Prison Visitor at HMP Wormwood Scrubs.

  Cosmo has a degree in Geography from the University of Oxford and an MBA from INSEAD.

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  Louise Allanach, Director of the WLFS Academy Trust and Chair of the WLFS Secondary LGB

  Louise is a partner at EC Harris LLP where she is the national account leader for academies, free schools and trusts. A trained lawyer and programme manager, Louise was the project director on the West London Free School.

  Louise has managed the setting up of over 20 new schools in London and across the UK. Through the academies and free schools programme, she brings significant experience of governance structures, admissions and a breadth of experience of national and local education policy. Louise has previously been a director of two education charities based in west London. Prior to joining EC Harris, she worked in schools and with education charities in Pakistan, Rwanda, Ecuador and New Zealand.

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  Stefan Bojanowski, Member of the WLFS Academy Trust and Chair of the Finance and General Purposes Committee of the WLFS Secondary's Local Governing Body

  Stefan Bojanowski is one of the founers of the West London Free School. He is an economist by trade, but tries to use his free time more productively. Stefan's roots are firmly in West London. His mother grew up in Acton and is now an Assistant Head at a local primary school. His father grew up in Chiswick.

  Stefan is grateful for the secondary education he received at the London Oratory School in Fulham. The Oratory's ethos was designed to resemble a grammar school with a traditional approach to both discipline and education. He is grateful to have had the opportunity to study Latin and thankful to the teachers for maintaining a studious atmosphere that ensured those who wanted to learn could do so.

  His involvement in the West London Free School is driven by a desire to pass on the best parts of his education to those children who may otherwise not receive it, giving them the opportunity to forward their education, confidence and ambition in a similar environment.

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  Dr Elisabeth Cook, Member of the WLFS Secondary's Local Governing Body

  Lis started her teaching career with Lewisham LEA before moving to Kent (Dartford Grammar School) and then to the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music as Assistant Director. She is currently Head of Academic Development & Undergraduate Programmes at the RCM and, in this role, plans the design and delivery of music degrees, continues to teach and researches in particular areas of interest (including pedagogy training for conservatoire students).

  As a Governor, she takes a particular interest in musical developments at the school and facilitates connections between the school and the internationally-renowned Royal College of Music.

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  Kathryn Cooper, Director of the WLFS Academy Trust and Chair of the WLFS Primary's Local Governing Body

  Kathryn Cooper is one of the founders of the West London Free School. She is committed to contributing to an excellent education for local children where pupils are ambitious about their future and work hard to achieve the goals they set for themselves.

  She is the Link Governor for Inclusion at the primary school in Chiswick that her two sons, aged 10 and six, attend. Before becoming a parent she spent her professional life in marketing and corporate sales within the IT Industry.  She now works as an independent marketing consultant across a variety of sectors.

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  Caroline Ffiske, Director of the WLFS Academy Trust and Chair of the Education Committee of the WLFS Secondary's Local Governing Body

  Caroline Ffiske is one of the founders of the West London Free School. She is currently a full-time mother looking after two girls under five. She grew up in New Zealand, trained as an economist and worked for six years in the New Zealand public service before moving to London where she worked for 10 years as a management consultant. Caroline also served for four years as a councillor on Hammersmith and Fulham Council, serving the North End ward.

  Caroline is passionate about the West London Free School bringing choice to parents. She works tirelessly to ensure that parents from all backgrounds and walks of life are aware of the school and its ethos, as well as the opportunities it creates for them and their children.

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  Sarah Gore, Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the WLFS Academy Trust and Member of the WLFS Primary's Local Governing Body

  Sarah works as an independent strategy consultant within the education sector advising both private sector organisations and charities. She was a councillor for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham between 2006 and 2010 representing North End ward and sat on the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee. She was latterly promoted to the executive position of Cabinet Member for Children's Services. Prior to entering local politics, Sarah worked in banking and management consulting, beginning her consulting career with the Boston Consulting Group.

  Sarah has a degree in Economics and History from Cambridge University and an MBA from INSEAD. She was educated entirely within the state sector.

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  Zaki Hashmi, Member of the WLFS Secondary's Local Governing Body

  Zaki Hashmi was educated at Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. He is a solicitor-advocate and partner at Aston Clark Solicitors in Acton where he specialises in criminal defencework. He is a senior peer reviewer in crime for the Legal Services Commission.

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  Suzie Hobart, Member of the WLFS Academy Trust and Member of the WLFS Primary's Local Governing Body

  Suzie is one of the founders of the West London Free School. She is a Trustee of the WLFS Foundation Trust and a Governor of the secondary school. Suzie was a Governor of the local primary school her three children attended and an active member of the PTA. She was educated at an Independent grammar school and went on to study Engineering at Oxford.

  Her professional life has been as a project manager and business process consultant in the IT sector.

  Her passion is to create an academically excellent school for the local community within a socially mixed environment, and where staff, parents and children share responsibility for achievement.

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  Ian Hunter, Parent Governor of the WLFS Secondary's Local Governing Body

  Ian is the West London Free School’s first Parent Governor. Ian has a daughter in year eight and twins who will join the school in 2014. Ian is a business consultant and has worked extensively in the education sector.

  Ian was state educated before going on to Bristol, Warwick and Oxford universities. He can be contacted on iancurtishunter@gmail.com

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  Dr Jonathan Katz, Member of the WLFS Secondary's Local Governing Body

  Jonathan is the Stipendiary Lecturer in Classics at St Anne’s College Oxford. Prior to taking up this post he was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, and formerly a Visiting Fellow of the Humanities Council at Princeton University. He was Master of the Queen’s Scholars and Head of Classics at Westminster School, London, from 1987-2010.

  He has published a wide portfolio of books, articles and reviews on Greek, Latin and Sanskrit literary subjects. His research interests also include Indian music theory and history, Plato, Greek philosophy and south Asian musicology and bibliography.

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  Justin Tooth, Director of the WLFS Academy Trust and Member of the WLFS Secondary's Local Governing Body

  Justin is one of the founders of the West London Free School and sits on the secondary's finance and general purposes committee.

  He was educated at Winchester and the University of St. Andrews before serving in the Royal Navy as a pilot. After his commission, Justin moved into the financial sector, living in Asia before returning to London and specialising in natural resources finance.

  Born and bred in West London, Justin now lives in Acton with his two daughters and wife who is principal of a local ballet school. His eldest daughter is at the WLFS in Year 7.

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  Charlie Ben-Nathan, Member of the WLFS Secondary's Local Governing Body

  Charlie Ben-Nathan is one of the founders of the West London Free School and sits on the secondary finance and general purposes committee. He is also a Trustee of the WLFS Foundation Trust. Charlie is an economist but after his degree and a short period in industry gained an MBA and then a PGCSE and now teaches economics in the independent sector where he is an assistant head.

  Charlie is a keen cyclist and has cycled from Land’s End to John O’Groats and from Seattle to New York, both for various different charities.  Charlie is also the author of Emergence (2012), a science fiction novel.

  Charlie lives in Acton and his involvement in the West London Free School stems from a belief that pupils and parents should have choice in education.