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.

Margaret Lenton (BA [Hons] FRSA JP) was Principal of Slough Grammar School for 22 years, retiring in 2010. Under her headship, the school became one of the finest in the maintained sector, where 99% of pupils in 2010 achieved five or more GCSEs at A*-C (in proper subjects!). The last Ofsted report under Mrs Lenton's leadership rated the school outstanding in every area and described it as ‘an outstanding educational experience for the pupils' which ‘could not have been achieved without the exceptional drive, enthusiasm and commitment of the headteacher'. Slough Grammar School was a hub for Gifted and Talented, an Employment Based Initial Teacher Trainer (EBITT) and Leading Edge. Mrs Lenton is a member of Brunel University's Council, a governor of a number of schools in Berkshire, and a member of the East Berkshire Bench. She works with St George's House, Windsor Castle, and was actively involved with the celebration of the 400^th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. She is already preparing for the 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta in 2015!

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. 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.