David Jones MA (Cantab) - Chairman is a director of NMS and works for the international investment firm Oldfield Partners. Prior to 2007 he spent 26 years at S.G. Warburg and its successor firm UBS, where he was Managing Director, Head of US Equities and a global COO. He was a member of the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the Court of the Fishmongers' Company, a City livery company.

Jonathan Cubitt BA ACA has been Finance Director of The Art Fund, a national art charity, since 1998. Prior to that, he spent 15 years in the accountancy profession working for several leading accountancy firms.

Roger Cummins is a director of NMS, and is currently a director of a number of companies in the City of London. He has spent most of his business life in advertising and marketing and has published a number of technical works and edited journals on the law and practice of long-odds betting. He was a founder the National Hospital Trust and was the first secretary of the Lotteries Council.

Norman Kudish is a director of NMS. He is a retired chartered surveyor with 50 years experience of property investment, development and management. He has worked as a director or senior executive of Trafalgar House, the Manifold Trust and Lucas Industries.

Professor John Marks OBE MA (Cantab) PhD (London) FInstP is the author of more than 30 papers and books on education and has been governor of a comprehensive school since 1978. He has over 40 years teaching experience in physics, mathematics, electronics and history of science in universities, polytechnics and schools. He has served on the Schools Examination and Assessment Council (1990-3), the National Curriculum Council, (1992-3) and the Schools Curriculum & Assessment Authority (1993-7) and has been awarded the OBE for services to education. He is a Professor of Education at the University of Buckingham.

Dr Peter Scott, MA, DPhil has spent a lifetime in education. His first post was at Charterhouse, where he taught chemistry. He spent 17 years there, during which time he became director of studies and a housemaster. In 1991 he moved to the Royal Grammar School in Guildford, where he was deputy head, and five years later he moved to Bancroft's School in Woodford Green, where he was head for 12 years. In that time Bancroft's was often the top-placed co-educational school in the KS2 and GCSE league tables. He also spent a term at Selwyn College Cambridge as a Schoolmaster Fellow, and a year on sabbatical working for Shell in Amsterdam. He has published eight books on chemistry, and has been involved in governing a number of schools, including chairing Gatehouse School in Bethnal Green and Maple Walk School.

Justin Shaw MA (Cantab) is a director of NMS, having been its chairman from the company's foundation in 2004 until 2008. He was also Chairman (2001-09) and remains a trustee of the independent social policy think-tank Civitas, which studies ways in which education and other services can be provided by cooperative and voluntary activity within civil society. After receiving a Senior Exhibition in Philosophy at Cambridge, he studied law and was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn. Justin Shaw is now working full time as a writer. His first novel, The Illumination of Merton Browne (Sceptre, 2007), explores the impact of educational and other forms of social failure on disadvantaged children in contemporary Britain.

Irina Tyk BA Hons (London) has been head of Holland House School in Edgware, one of North London's most renowned independent preparatory schools, since 1989. She is a director of The Butterfly Project, set up in 1991, and of Butterfly Educational Enterprises, set up in 2005, to run summer courses for children who wish to benefit from a rational and purposeful teaching approach. Her Butterfly Book, a phonics-based reading course, was published in 2007 in its first commercial edition by Civitas. This was followed in 2008 by The Butterfly Grammar, while The Butterfly Arithmetic will complete the trilogy at the end of 2010.

Robert Whelan MA (Cantab), a director of NMS, is the author of a number of books on education and the history of voluntary action, including The Corruption of the Curriculum and From Two Cultures to No Culture. He was formerly deputy director of the think-tank Civitas (2000-2009) and director of the Family Education Trust (2000-2004). He is chairman of the Ruskin Society and teaches English at a Saturday school in East London.

Rick Williams BSc (London), Dip E M (OU) held senior positions in state schools for 20 years before moving to the independent sector as deputy head then head. He was the founding principal of a secondary boarding school in Nigeria, and CEO of the New Model School Company from 2005-2009. He is chairman of governors of Stephenson School.

Advisers

Simon Philips was formerly Global Head of Communications and Marketing at UBS Investment Bank; he now advises companies on marketing strategy and planning. Prior to joining UBS he spent some time as European director of an internet firm, DoubleClick, and before that he held a number of senior positions at The Economist Group in various markets around the world. In addition to his own advisory business, he is the UK Marketing Director for the Grosvenor Group.

Officers

Peter Wolton MA (Cantab) (Chief Executive Officer) has a background in asset management where his roles included membership of the Group Management Committee of Schroder Investment Management Limited and Chief Executive of Baring Asset Management Limited. He is currently a director of Dunedin Income Growth Investment Trust plc and TR Property Investment Trust plc. He has served as a member of the Council of Queen Mary, University of London and as a Trustee of the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

Peter Meyer BA Hone (Bristol) FCA (Chief Finance Officer) has had a career in financial management that has included spells at JP Morgan and HSBC. In 1990, he joined Schroders, where over 11 years he acted as CFO of their banking, securities and fund management arms. He then went into residential property development with his own company.