Staff & Governors

Jo Clague

has been Chairman of Governors at the Kings School since September 2015.

Joanne is Chief Operating Officer of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, a partnership between the University of Manchester and six NHS organisations across Greater Manchester. It is one of only six centres in the country designated as an academic health science centre, recognising excellence across research, innovation, education and patient service.

Having trained with Deloitte, Joanne is a qualified Charted Accountant with 16 years of post-qualification experience and significant experience of leading transformational change in the higher education and healthcare sectors. Joanne is currently a Non-Executive Director at Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and has previous experience as a Non-Executive Director and Secretary in the charitable sector.

Joanne has three young children and, as a keen cellist, also plays cello with the Wirral Symphony Orchestra and the Pavilion String Quartet.

Stephen Cross

has been Clerk to the Governors since 2002. He retired from the Police Service after 31 years, having specialised in the criminal investigation of serious crime, fraud and drug-related crime, as well as being national hostage negotiator.

Following his retirement from the Police, Stephen graduated in Law and is now the in-house lawyer for the Countess of Chester Hospital, a Governor of the Deeside Group of Colleges in North East Wales and Chair of their Audit Committee. He is a reader and server at Chester Cathedral.

The Right Reverend Dr Peter Forster

read Chemistry at Merton College, Oxford, and then studied Theology at Edinburgh University. He was a Curate in Liverpool before being appointed Senior Tutor at St John's College, Durham University.

Before becoming Bishop of Chester in 1996, he was Vicar of Beverley Minster. He has wide educational interests and was formerly Chair of Governors at a local Academy.

The Very Reverend Gordon McPhate

is Dean of Chester. He is also Visiting Professor of Theology at University College, Chester, specialising in Medical Ethics.

He held academic appointments in Physiology and Pathology at the Universities of Cambridge, London and St Andrews and was also Consultant Clinical Pathologist to Fife Hospitals until 2002. He served as a priest in the diocese of Southwark and in the diocese of St Andrews between 1979 and 2002.

Graham Ramsbottom

has three children at King's, and is Chief Executive of the Wheatsheaf Group, a division of the Grosvenor Estate. He served in the Royal Navy before studying Land Management, spent seven years with Strutt and Parker, becoming a partner in 1999, and was a Director of the property division of the Co-operative Group.

He joined the Grosvenor Estate in 2009, becoming CEO of their Wheatsheaf Group in 2011.

He is the current Chair of the Governance and Audit Committee.

Hagan Bayley

is an Old King's Scholar who has a distinguished career as a scientist in both the USA and in the UK. He graduated from Oxford in Chemistry, carried out postgraduate work at Harvard and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He then went on to work at Colombia University, the Worcester Foundation and Texas A&M University. He joined the University of Oxford as Professor of Chemical Biology in September 2003 and is a fellow of Hertford College. He is a fellow of The Royal Society, the highest scientific honour to which practising academics can be elected.

Ian O'Doherty

is Chief Executive of MBNA Limited, a subsidiary of Bank of America. A civil engineer by training with degrees from University College Dublin and the University of Missouri, he also holds an MBA from Boston College.

Ian has held several positions within MBNA in the US, Ireland and the UK. He has been a King's parent, and a Governor since 2013 and is the current Chair of the Finance & General Purposes Committee.

Jon Billowes

is Professor of Physics at the University of Manchester, Head of Nuclear Physics Group in the School of Physics and Astronomy and was the first Director of Education in the Dalton Nuclear Institute.

He came to Manchester in 1986 following post-doctorate research at Oxford University and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Before his academic career he served in the Royal Navy, and he retains an active interest – and still participates - in rowing.

He is the current Chair of the Education Committee.

Richard Arnold

is the Group Managing Director of Manchester United FC. He was educated at King’s and the University of Bristol, and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1996. Richard was a senior manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) from 1993 to 1999, and worked subsequently with Global Crossing Europe Ltd, and as Director of InterVoice Ltd. In 2007, he joined Manchester United as Group Commercial Director. He has two sons at King’s and lives in Cheshire.

James Timpson

is Chief Executive of Timpson, a family retail business based in Manchester. He has become well known for his management initiatives and for encouraging firms to recruit from prisons; he currently chairs the Employer Forum for Reduced Re-offending.

He was awarded an OBE in January 2011 in recognition of his services to training and employment of disadvantaged people, and was the David Goldman Visiting Professor of Innovation for 2012/13 at the Newcastle University Business School.

Steve Docking

is the Headteacher of The Delamere CE Primary Academy. He is founder and a Director at St Martin's Academy, Chester and he is also CEO of The North West Academies Trust who sponsor the Oakview Academy in Winsford.

He is an experienced Headteacher, whose leadership and management has been developed across five schools and during time spent learning in South Africa, the USA and Holland. Significant achievements include moving a school from satisfactory to outstanding in under three years, and supporting St Martin's Academy to achieve outstanding in their first ever Ofsted inspection.

Janet Carr

qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1983 and as well as acting for a general portfolio of clients, Janet specialises in acting for charities. She is a member of the Tax Faculty, the Charity & Voluntary Sector Group of The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and is a Member of the Association of Charity Independent Examiners and the Association of Church Accountants and Treasurers. She also sits on the Diocese of Chester Finance and Central Services Committee as a professional adviser.

Janet is married with one teenage daughter. When she is not in the office Janet enjoys spending time with family and friends, taking part in church activities and going to the gym. She is also a keen theatre goer.

Ruth Ashford

Professor Ruth Ashford holds a PhD in Consumer Behaviour from University of Lancaster. She has recently become the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Business and Management at the University of Chester. She was previously Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was also the Chief Examiner of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Senior Examiner for University of Cambridge International and Board member of the Chartered Association of Business Schools. Ruth's father attended the King's School in the 1940s and still has very fond memories.

Nick Wood

is a former pupil of King’s, a graduate of Liverpool University where he read Urban Estate Management, and a qualified Chartered Surveyor. He is currently a Senior Surveyor with the Connells Group specialising in residential valuation surveying in the Chester area.

He is a trustee of Chester Municipal Charities, which supports local charity and education initiatives, including the School’s bursary and scholarship system, and is responsible for the Charity’s diverse city centre property portfolio. He was appointed to the Board of Governors at King’s in 2016 and has been actively involved in the School’s development strategy.