WM College Governors

Guy Shackle (Chair)

Guy is an architect who lives in Camden. He brings many skills to the Board not only from his professional life where he has designed a number of educational buildings, but also from his experience as school governor and chair of governors.

Beatriz Aguilar

Beatriz is a Student Governor. She is a Primary Education teacher from Chile, specialising in Language and Communication. She has been living in London for almost four years. Beatriz is currently a Level 2 ESOL student. After taking this course, she hopes to continue her professional studies by applying for a Master’s degree in Education at a London university

Amanda Blinkhorn

Amanda is the teacher governor. She teaches English and childcare and first became involved in the College as a student, studying creative writing and a teacher training course. She also brings experience as a parent governor at a local primary and secondary school.

Barbara Byrne (Vice-Chair)

Barbara has had experience as Deputy Chief Executive and Finance Director of a London Mental Health Trust; a  senior finance professional, CCAB qualified, with over 20 years of experience in a variety of NHS sectors with a strong commitment to the values and ethos of WMC.  Barbara is the Chair of the Finance, Personnel and Development Committee.

Susan Corby

Susan Corby is Professor Emerita of Employment Relations at the University of Greenwich, specialising in disability discrimination and employment tribunals. She has held several public appointments: a lay member of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, a member of the Central Arbitration Committee, an independent expert under the Equal Value provisions and currently she is an arbitrator/mediator for the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) and a governor of a local primary school.

Hien Doan Thi

I am a student governor studying ESOL at level 2. I won the college competition for writing about my personal story and success at the College “How WM College Changed My Life Award 2020”. I have a Customer Service Volunteer position at the WM College Library. I enjoy my volunteer role with the Vietnam Association of the Elderly in East London and my paid employment as Liaison Officer at a busy property management company.   I look forward to further developing my English, IT skills and applying them to my daily life and work. My ambition is to gain a qualification in Residential Letting and Property Management.’’

Fran Fahey

Fran is a qualified chartered accountant and has pursued a successful career in financial services. She has held corporate finance, strategy and chief operating officer roles in a major international bank and after 4 years as COO of an asset management company has returned to the bank in a chief of staff role. She is interested in work-place equality, work-life balance issues and in the development of work with the local community and local businesses.

Dr Neil Garner

Neil is a local resident who has long and wide-ranging experience in education with a special interest in music education and associated digital developments. He had a 20-year teaching career in the secondary sector as a Head of Department and Pastoral Lead and has subsequently worked in the university sector at UCL. He now enjoys his role as Senior Lecturer in Music Education, Initial Teacher Education, at UEL. He has also written reports in the fields of education philosophy, policy and practice whilst continuing his research in the areas of the digitisation of knowledge and data analysis and management. Neil is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

June Jarrett

June is a retired College Principal with extensive experience of governance in schools, academies, colleges and universities: most recently as a governor at the University of Bedfordshire where she was Chair the Student Experience Committee. She is keen to see that people from all community backgrounds, regardless of educational history, remain active in learning and / or employment.

Samata Khatoon

Samata is the Camden Council representative on the governing body. She is a local councillor (St Pancras and Somers Town) and resident and has been a governor of a local Camden primary school.

Alexi Marmot

An architect, Professor at UCL, with a professional career helping organisations to shape their built assets to deliver corporate goals. She has been the founding director since 1990 of a professional consultancy firm.

Tom Robins

Tom grew up on an estate in Taunton and began his education at the local school serving the town’s two largest social housing estates. He later went to Cambridge to read Chemical Engineering. His career to date has taken him around the world and given him access to a wide range of board rooms from manufacturing, defence, private equity, financial services, outsourcing, infrastructure, and technology. His business specialism is in commercial scale-up and turn-around. He has extensive experience of best practice governance scrutiny and has a particular commitment to diversity. Tom is currently CEO of an innovative technology company operating in the social housing sector.

Maria Rosenthal (Acting Principal)

Maria has a long and successful record of work to improve provision for adult learners. After four years as Deputy Principal at WM College, Maria has assumed the role of Acting Principal. She has a focus on extending the curriculum and employability opportunities offered to learners whilst maintaining the strength of the College’s provision in ESOL literacy and numeracy and its full range of courses in arts, crafts and wellbeing.

Alice Rubbra

Alice works at the Department for Education on post-16 education, having previously worked at HM Treasury. She is interested in how we can make post-16 education as effective and enjoyable as possible for all learners. She regularly volunteers for the educational charity, IntoUniversity, and is studying to get an economics diploma.

Jon Sibson (Vice-Chair)

Jon is the Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Greenwich in London and the Head of the Business School.  His professional career began in the Civil Service (Home Office and Cabinet Office) before joining one of the UK’s leading professional services firms where he worked on  public sector reform and innovation.  He is interested in ways of enhancing students’ engagement through digital technology.

Max Silver

Max Silver is a local resident with strong business and finance experience at a senior level. He has worked for the Bank of England and now holds a number of directorships of manufacturing/technology companies. He is a keen painter and pianist with positive experience of courses in the creative and performing arts: he is also a mentor for the Prince’s Trust. Max is an advocate of the College’s work to make courses accessible to people with learning difficulties or of limited financial means.

Paul Smith

Paul is a qualified accountant who has worked in senior management roles at the London Business School for 15 years where he was until recently Chief Operating Officer for Executive Education. He has a career of successful delivery of strategic goals, and further expertise in mentoring. He is now spending more time developing his mentoring skills.

WM College Corporation:

Corporation and Committee papers and the Register of Interests can be viewed in the Clerk’s office.       

Bill Barker – Clerk to the Corporation
WM College
44 Crowndale Road
London, NW1 1TR
Tel: 020 7255 4717
Email: BillB@wmcollege.ac.uk