Our Governors

Mr Justin Lewis
MDA BSc MInstRE

CHAIR OF GOVERNORS
Member of all Committees and Working Groups

Justin has been a specialist management consultant at PA Consulting, focused on business case development and programme management in the Bristol area.  In his early years he was a construction engineer, leading large teams on projects in the UK and abroad.  Justin later developed expertise in corporate management roles covering policy, organisation, human resources, strategic communication and language capability development.  He lives in Chippenham with his wife, Rosemary; their two daughters attended Badminton as boarders in the Junior and Senior Schools.  Training and education have been an important strand running throughout Justin’s career, both as a recipient and in delivery, so he is delighted to be supporting Badminton’s strategic management.  Justin’s wider interests include offshore sailing and canal restoration.

Mr Dai Thomas

VICE CHAIR OF GOVERNORS
Education & Welfare Committee

Dai is a National Governance Association Consultant and provides Educational Governance Consultancy Services to schools across the South-East, South-West and London.  Dai grew up in the Brecon Beacons, was an undergraduate at the University of London and a postgraduate student at the University of Bath.  He has over 25 years leadership experience in Post-16 education including Sixth Form Colleges and led international operations in China for Edinburgh College.  Dai is Co-Chair of the Board of the University of Portsmouth Academy Trust of which the large primary school in Portsmouth where he was Chair of the Board of Governors is a founder member. He previously chaired the board of the secondary school in Lymington where he lives. 

Dr Madhu Bhabuta
MBA, PhD

Madhu is a seasoned business transformation and evolution agent. She has an excellent track record of business and technology leadership, specialising in business design, strategy, digital transformation, integration and organisation and operational change delivery.

She has an MEng in Software Engineering from Imperial College, a PhD in Mathematical modelling in Computing, also from Imperial College and an MBA, specialising in industrial turnarounds and transformation from London Business School.

She is also a committed Bristolian who gives freely to her city. She has served on the board of University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Trust and the University of Bristol. In both organisations, she had specific responsibilities for improvement and change. She also fundraises for Southmead Hospital.

Mrs Kay Crosse
MA Cert Ed

Chair of Risk, Regulatory & Compliance Committee

Kay qualified as a teacher in 1967 and has extensive experience over all ages.  Her most recent employment was as Principal of Norland College where she had the overall responsibility for all student training and residential accommodation, three nursery classes, a pre prep school, three-day nurseries, an out of school facility, a children's hotel and the graduate employment agency in addition to relocating the college from Hungerford to its present location in Bath without any interruption to student training.

After retirement Kay set up her own business carrying out educational consultancy work, Ofsted inspections and publishing two educational books and was also the Chair of a multi academy trust in Cornwall.  Governor development and training, staff welfare and governor liaison were always high on her agenda.  She participated in a trust external review of governance putting in place the resulting recommendations.

Mr Ronald Egelman

Chair of Property Committee

Ronald currently works as an independent hotel development consultant and lives in Bristol.  Ronald is a Dutch national and holds a degree in hospitality management.  He started his career in hotel operations in London before joining IHG hotels in 2001.  He worked on the integration of new hotels into the brand system and performed operations reviews at a regional level.  In 2004 he transferred to the UAE as analyst for the Middle East and Africa region.  He moved into a development role in 2007 with a focus on negotiation management, franchise and licence agreements in order to grow the portfolio of hotels.  He has extensive experience negotiating agreements under difficult circumstances and in challenging locations.

Ms Alison Jarratt
BA(Hons), FCA

Chair of Finance & General Purposes Committee

Alison attended Badminton from 1984 – 1988 and subsequently graduated in French from Durham University.  She qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand, London in 1998.  After qualifying, she worked as a management consultant, and then joined the Head Office finance team of a privately held investment company in London.  Alison was previously the bursar of The Unicorn School in Abingdon, a specialist school for children with dyslexia, dyspraxia and other communication difficulties. Alison was Chair of Governors of her local primary school for 7 years.

Mrs Funmi Joseph
LL.B; B.L

Risk, Regulatory & Compliance Committee

Funmi attended Badminton from 1973 – 1975 and went on to become mother to an OB in turn.  She completed a Law degree before returning to Nigeria.  She was the Legal Adviser and Funds Manager for Chase Merchant Bank, which later became Continental Merchant Bank Nigeria Limited.  Funmi now runs Independent Schools Advisory Services Limited in Nigeria and consults with parents as they choose schools for their children in the UK and the USA.  She also run the law firm FJRS & Associates Limited with her sister who also attended Badminton School.  She has served as Chairperson of the PTA of St. Saviours School Lagos and served on the PTA Committee of Hampshire School London UK.  She is presently a member of the Board of Governors Badminton School Bristol UK.  She is also a member of the Board of Trustee of Queen’s College Lagos Nigeria.

Mr Martin Keogh  
BSc (Eng) Hon, MBA

Finance & General Purposes Committee

Martin spent the early part of his career in telecommunications and internet where he held a number of senior roles. He most recently worked in Australia for Telstra as Executive Director of Customer Experience.  On his return to the UK Martin re-trained as a teacher and has spent the last 11 years teaching mathematics and economics at Kennet Academy in Thatcham.  He is a teacher governor of Kennet academy and since 2016 has been a Director of the Kennet schools Academy Trust where he chairs the finance committee.               

Miss Constance Moss
MA (Cantab)

Education & Welfare Committee, Deputy Lead Safeguarding Governor

Constance is a Consultant in the Schools Practice at Odgers Berndtson, an Executive Search firm. During her time at Odgers she has worked on a variety of searches within schools across the UK and internationally, handling a wide range of different roles. Constance previously worked for the Royal Collection Trust at Buckingham Palace, where her work in visitor services extended across the Royal Mews, The Queen’s Gallery and Clarence House. She graduated from the University of Cambridge with a degree in History, having attended Norwich High School for Girls and Norwich School.

Dr Sophie Otton
MA MBBChir FRCP FRCPath

Education & Welfare Committee; Lead Safeguarding Governor

Sophie is a Consultant Haematologist at North Bristol NHS Trust. She trained at Cambridge University and St Thomas’s Hospital, London before moving to Bristol in 1994.  She took up her consultant post in 2002. Her practice is principally in the field of lymphoma and blood cancers.  She was the clinical lead for Haematology at North Bristol NHS Trust for 8 years. She is heavily involved in the educational supervision of junior doctors embarking on careers in hospital medicine and is committed to the recruitment and retention of women in medicine.

Mr James Rimmer
BSc (Hons)
MSc
Exec MBA

Property Committee

James is an experienced healthcare executive, currently Chief Executive of St Margaret’s Hospice in Somerset. James grew up in Somerset and has been living in Bristol since his undergraduate days at the University of Bristol. James has postgraduate degrees from the University of Oxford and more recently Quantic School of Business and Technology. James worked in the NHS for over 25 years during which he has been Chief Executive of both commissioning and provider organisations. James joined the NHS from a research background and has recently been a member of the National Institute of Health Research funding boards.

Mr Elliott Spencer
ACA

Finance & General Purposes Committee

Elliott spent the majority of his career in the energy and utility sector in the UK, briefly in Hong Kong and most recently in the USA for Southern Power and PowerSecure, subsidiaries of Southern Company, where he held a number of senior and executive roles. His responsibilities included the oversight of accounting and finance functions, as well as the direction of project and market analysis activities.  He also served on the Board of Trustees for the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, USA.  Elliott is a qualified accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and attended Bristol Cathedral School.  He is now retired upon his return to Bristol, UK in 2023.

Board Member

Anna is a self-employed Barrister specialising in personal injury.  She predominantly acts for Insurance companies defending high value personal injury claims arising from road traffic accidents, accidents at work and in respect of public liability claims.  She is the Co-Deputy Head and Treasurer of her London Chambers and sits on the Chambers Management Committee.  She was a boarder at Queen Anne’s School in Caversham, and during her Gap year worked at Ashdown House School as an Assistant Matron.  Whilst there, she was always happy to take children to the school’s Chateau in France for up to 6 weeks at a time! More recently she was a Governor at Alexander Hosea School.

Mrs Lynda Thomas
LLB (Hons)

Property Committee; Governor with responsibility for Health & Safety

Lynda is an Associate Solicitor who manages a team in the clinical negligence department of Bevan Brittan LLP, Bristol.  Her 20 years’ post-qualification experience has involved her working for public and private sector organisations, as well as individuals.  Currently she acts for a selection of NHS clients, advising upon litigation and risk management issues. Lynda specialises in high value claims, mainly arising from birth or brain injury. 

Lynda successfully defended a group action arising out of the prescription of an anti-retroviral drug, AZT, and claims brought by RAGE (Radiation Action Group Exposure) arising out of physical injuries caused by radiotherapy for breast cancer.  She also handled a high-profile group action, and spin-off litigation, arising from allegations of abuse at a private hospital in South Gloucestershire.

Dr Steve Wharton
BSc, PhD, Chevalier dans L'Ordre des Palmes Académiques

Education & Welfare Committee

Steve is Associate Professor of French and Communication at the University of Bath, Honorary Vice Secretary of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, a Trustee/Director of the Education Support Partnership, and a Trustee of the Reform Club and of the Reform Club Conservation Charitable Trust. He served on the Board of the Universities Superannuation Scheme 2016-2020 and chaired the Board of Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution between 2013 and 2019. He is particularly interested in young people’s mental health and resilience and facilitating the transition from school to university in terms of independent learning.