Governing Body
Mr Philip Howell
ACIB, AMP (Harvard)
Chair of Governors, Finance & General Purposes Committee
Philip is Executive Chairman of The Openwork Partnership, one of the UK’s largest financial advice networks comprising over 800 professional practices. Prior to joining Openwork, he was Chief Executive of the FTSE 250 listed wealth manager Rathbones.
Following an early military career, Philip enjoyed a 24 year career with Barclays, primarily in investment banking and wealth management. This also included assignments as Regional CEO in Asia and subsequently South Africa. He returned to the UK as Head of Strategy & Corporate Development. Following his time with Barclays, Philip has focused on the wealth management and financial advice sector for over 20 years, serving as Chief Executive of Fortis Private Banking, Williams de Broe, Rathbones and Openwork.
Philip is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Programme and is the proud father of three former OBH pupils, for whom the school is etched as their happiest years.
Mrs Penny Calnan
Marketing & Health & Safety Governor
Penny grew up in Essex and attended Bishop’s Stortford College. After leaving school Penny worked in US equity sales for 12 years before moving into organising financial roadshows for Media Tree and then to Apax Partners as Head of Events and Corporate Partnerships.
Penny now runs her own logistics company and combines this with working for her family’s tourist attraction, Mountfitchet Castle.
Penny and her husband moved to Suffolk from London and in her spare time enjoys playing the piano, gardening and spending time with her family.
Penny is a current parent with a son in Middle School and joined the Board in 2019.
Mrs Camilla Ewart
BSc (Hons), LLB (Hons)
Health & Safety Governor and Chair of Finance & General Purposes Committee
Camilla studied Agricultural Business Management at Wye College, before spending 10 years in Institutional Equity Sales, covering the US stock market. Camilla then became a Freight Derivatives broker at GFI Group, before a return to education to study Law. Camilla practised briefly as a barrister, specialising in the financial element of family law. The arrival of her second daughter brought a change of focus, resulting in a family move back to Suffolk. Prior to having children, Camilla was an enthusiastic point to point jockey, and more recently has enjoyed trialling and working her cocker spaniels. Both daughters are keen members of the Essex & Suffolk Pony Club.
Camilla joined the Board in 2019.
Mr Paul Ferguson
Governor
Paul was brought up in an RAF family so travelled widely growing up and was educated at Grace Dieu Manor then Ratcliffe College in Leicestershire, before going on to read History and Italian at Warwick University followed by law school in York. He trained at international law firm, Clifford Chance and then was a Managing Director at Citi in London. He is currently a senior lawyer at Bloomberg based in London and New York overseeing News, Employment and Litigation matters globally.
Paul is an assistant girls cricket coach at Copdock and Old Ipswichians and he and his wife Sophie, are devoted cricket fans. He and Sophie and his family of three (all former or current OBH pupils) moved to Suffolk in 2008 and now live in Groton.
Miss Hannah Fox
MA, FCCT
Governor
Hannah read Classics at Trinity College, Oxford as a Blakiston Exhibitioner. An alumna from Withington Girls’ School in Manchester, she was also educated in Paris at Collège Lavoisier in Antony and at the Lycée International. She has been Head of Classics at The School of St Helen and St Katharine in Abingdon and taught at Winchester College after starting her teaching career at The King’s School, Gloucester in 1995. In all these schools, she coached rowing after doing university level coxing at Oxford. She joined Harrow School in 2018 from Somerville College, Oxford where she was a non-stipendiary lecturer, teaching Greek and Latin language and also New Testament Greek to undergraduates. She was made Master-in-Charge of Oxbridge and Scholars in 2019.
In 2021 she became the first female to be appointed to the Senior Management Team. In her role as Academic and Universities Director, she has overall responsibility for the day-to-day running of academic life at Harrow and coordinates the support given to Harrovians as they apply to university and prepare for life after Harrow. She has a house in North Norfolk and is happiest when walking with her three teenage boys and her dog on the beach.
Mrs Sally Greenlees
Safeguarding Governor
Sally comes from a farming background and has lived in Suffolk for most of her life. She read History at Exeter and then followed a career in bloodstock insurance, working in both Newmarket and London, before retiring when she had children. Since then, she worked at the CAB in Sudbury before helping various organisations with their administration.
Racing, particularly National Hunt, remains a passion. Sally has three children, two of whom attended OBH in the 2000s, and three grandchildren.
She joined the Board in 2023.
Mrs Sarah Kerr-Dineen
MA (Cantab)
Education Committee
Following a primary education under her headmaster father, Sarah was educated at Steyning Grammar School in West Sussex from which she went on to read English at Trinity College, Cambridge, and to pursue graduate study at Christ Church College, Oxford. Her husband’s career as a Director of Music took the family to Kelly College, Tavistock, and St Edward’s Oxford, with Sarah teaching alongside for the Open University and then in schools. She was Assistant Head of English at Oxford High School, the inaugural Housemistress of a new girls’ Boarding House at St Edward’s and finally Director of Studies, before being appointed Warden of Forest School, London, in 2009. Sarah was appointed Head of Oundle School in 2015.
Sarah and her husband have four children and a growing posse of grandchildren. She joined the Board in 2017.
Mr James Moore
BA Hons
Governor
James spent most of his childhood in Arabia travelling back to England to school at Cothill House and then Eton. After graduating from Exeter, James served in the British Army. He then returned to Yemen to establish a Saladin affiliate providing security services to oil majors until the outbreak of civil war at the end of 1993. When he was growing up, his family had always had a base in Suffolk but he finally made it his permanent home when he got married. He and his wife have a small farm nearby in Lindsey.
He joined SG Warburg in 1994, which became part of what is UBS Investment Bank today, retiring from the bank in 2017. He is now Chairman of Alpha Associates AG, a Zurich based asset management firm and The Seaweed Company, a 2018 Dutch start up.
Mr Fergus Wells
Finance & General Purposes Committee
Fergus lives in Suffolk. Having attended Orwell Park School and St Edward’s, Oxford, he read Modern Languages at Bristol University. As an undergraduate, Fergus organised and participated in sponsor-funded mountaineering and travel expeditions. As a result, Fergus has a mountain named after him and his brother has two Guinness World Records in respect of exploring (but now only three toes)! Fergus is fluent in French, Spanish and Italian.
Having trained at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a Chartered Accountant, Fergus specialised in personal and corporate tax. He has since gained financial experience in diverse sectors: from online gambling, industrial property development, to manufacturing. He has also acquired broad management experience in small to medium-sized businesses, and is a partner of his family farm partnership in Suffolk.
Fergus enjoys providing financial oversight to senior business executives, and has fulfilled a number of non-executive support roles throughout his career to date. He has advised Construction, HR, Financial Services and Engineering businesses.
Fergus joined the Board in January 2023.