ISBA

42 www.theisba.org.uk CONFERENCE SPEAKERS Choice of panel sessions E1 10.10 – 11.10 Developing diversity – an enduring approach Richard Harman, chair Richard was educated at The King’s School, Worcester, followed by Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read English. Having spent two years working for an academic publisher, he decided his real vocation was in teaching. After five years at Marlborough College teaching English and drama, during which time he also completed his PGCE at Exeter University, he spent 12 years at Eastbourne College. Progressing from head of English to housemaster of a sixth form girls’ house to member of the senior management team, he then became headmaster of Aldenham in September 2000 and thence to Uppingham in 2006. After a decade leading Uppingham and 32 years overall in teaching, he embarked on a third career as chief executive of AGBIS. Richard is much enjoying the challenges at AGBIS, having been chairman of the Boarding Schools’ Association for 2011-12 and chairman of HMC for 2014-15. Claris D’cruz Claris D’cruz is a consultant at Wrigleys’ working with clients nationwide. Claris qualified as a barrister in 1994 and has been practising as a charity lawyer for nearly 25 years. She worked ‘at the coalface’ as an in-house legal adviser for registered charity, Interchange Trust, and then gained invaluable experience on the other side of the fence as a Charity Commission lawyer, before going into private practice. Prior to becoming a consultant, Claris was head of charities at a major Newcastle firm. Claris advises charities and independent schools on a range of legal issues including: charity formations, restructures, mergers and collaborations, trustees’ powers and duties, managing conflicts of interest and dealing with the Charity Commission. She regularly provides trustee training for small, medium and large charities, including academy trusts. Claris chairs and speaks at conferences for the voluntary sector about charity law and practice issues for the voluntary sector, lawyers and other professionals. She has written articles for amongst others Charity Finance, Third Sector and the Bursars’ Review. Claris is a local governor of Excelsior Academy and a director of Northumberland Cricket Board. Ivié Itoje Ivié Itoje is the anti-racism expert at Flair and leads on developing data-driven recommendations for their clients. She is committed to finding innovative strategies to resolve racial inequity, with a keen interest in policy formulation and implementation. Being deeply invested in societal change, Ivié has gathered a wealth of experience tackling gender- based violence and challenging institutional racism.  Mark Taylor Mark Taylor is bursar at King’s School, Canterbury. Having worked in the City, his career as a bursar started in 1993 at Cranbrook School. He was appointed to Dulwich Prep School (Cranbrook) in 1996, Bedales Schools in 2003 and the King’s School, Canterbury in 2010. Mark joined the ISBA Board in 2007 and was elected ISBA chairman from 2013 – 2016. In October 2008 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society for Encouragement of the Arts (FRSA). He has sat on both the ISI and BSA Board as a director and is currently an ISI compliance inspector. Mark is a director on the Independent Schools Council (ISC) board and currently a governor of Tring Park School for the Performing Arts and a trustee on the Turner MAT Schools’ group. He was elected as chair of AGBIS in March 2019 and became vice-chair of the ISC in January 2021. Helen Tucker (As before) E2 10.10 – 11.10 A re-shaped sector – defining the new normal Barney Northover, chair Barney is a partner and has 20 years’ experience at VWV advising independent schools and charities on their governance, constitutional review, strategic projects and charity law. He has developed a special interest and expertise in advising schools on strategy and structural change including charity mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and collaborations. Barney understands the governors’ perspective in challenging situations, having been a governor of two schools. He can guide you through the traps and pitfalls and give you the confidence needed to deal with challenging situations and to take difficult decisions in the best interests of your school. Barney is a regular speaker at national education conferences and has written for numerous publications on good governance and managing strategic change. He is a member of the Charity Law Association and sits on working parties, including on public benefit for education charities. Rhiannon Cutler Rhiannon graduated with an honours degree in psychology in 2008 and joined Crowe Clark Whitehill to work in business development. During that time, she supported Tim Baines’ schools’ initiatives and helped him develop the pilot study of teacher salaries, which was carried out in 2009. In 2010 she moved to Cheltenham to research and conduct the sector’s first detailed Teacher Salary and Benefits Survey. This was repeated in 2013/14 and extended to junior schools and again in 2016. In 2012 she conducted the first wide-ranging survey of fundraising and development in UK schools and was the survey’s lead author. This survey was also repeated in 2014. In 2012 Rhiannon became a certificate member of the Institute of Risk Management and she advises schools on their risk management processes. She set up Baines Cutler Solutions with Tim in June 2013. In 2016 Rhiannon led the launch of the ‘Fee Affordability and Parental Time survey’ service, helping schools to understand the earnings and time /workload profiles of their parental body. She now advises schools on teacher pay, teacher workload, strategy, school offering and on fundraising. John Forsyth John is the founder and CEO at Forfar Education, which started two years ago with the acquisition of Brackenfield School in Harrogate and it now has six schools and several nurseries across the UK. John has more than 20 years’ leadership and operations experience, having been a captain in the British and American Armies, then a chocolate maker for Mars Ltd before moving to Asia where he built, scaled, bought and merged healthcare and education businesses. He was the first CEO of the Clermont Group, a global public and private equity platform with headquarters in Singapore and Dubai that had c.$5bn of assets under management, and more than 10,000 employees in over 40 companies. John was also the founder of Rising Tide Asia, where he served as chairman and CEO of Nobel Education (K12 schools in Europe, Middle East and Asia), Newton Education (vocational training in Bangladesh), Rumi Education (low-cost schools in India) and Lorna Whiston Pre-Schools (Singapore, China and Malaysia). John is an alumnus of Newcastle University, Royal Military College Sandhurst, Harvard University and INSEAD business school.