Governors

Philip has a background as a chartered accountant and management consultant with 20 years senior experience within the financial services sector. Philip retired 14 years ago and now holds a range of Non-executive and trustee roles in the public and voluntary sector including Chair of a drug and alcohol Charity and a large primary school. Philip has been a non-executive within the NHS for the past 11 years and is currently chair of the Audit Committee for Central London, Hammersmith & Fulham, Hounslow and West London CCGs and was previously Chair of Ealing Primary Care Trust.

An ‘old boy’ of Merchant Taylors’ and a graduate of the London School of Economics, Nadeem qualified as a Chartered Accountant from the stables of PricewaterhouseCoopers gaining exposure to both listed companies and owner managed businesses in a broad spectrum of industries. Nadeem is Vice Chairman of The Splendid Hospitality Group, an owner, operator and developer of a portfolio of 20 hotels with over 2000 bedrooms located in London and across the UK, ranging from limited service to luxury. The group enjoys the support of major franchisors such as IHG, Accor and Hilton. Further sites are at various stages of development. Nadeem founded Splendid Restaurants in 2016 with the aim of establishing a strong food and beverage platform in the UK. This entity has now grown to include over 40 KFC units with more in the pipeline.

Nadeem spends much of his time working in a voluntary capacity for the Ismaili Community in the UK. Nadeem served for seven years on the community’s grants and review board, where he was heavily involved in budget and strategy reviews and management audits and served a further 7 years on the Community’s Economic Planning Board, whose mandate is to improve the economic well-being of the community by providing assistance, advice and support in the areas of business, employment and personal finance. Nadeem was also the Project Manager overseeing the redevelopment of community centres in Stanmore, Birmingham and Edinburgh.

The Boghani family have donated substantially to many causes over the years, including the gift of a building as part of the Centre for Innovation in Medical Education (CIME) at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan. CIME is a leading-edge teaching and learning centre for educating and training doctors and nurses that enables the University to perform at the level of international best practice and provides new ways for assessment and evaluation of clinical skills.

Monica is an Associate Professor of Law at University College London and is also a Consultant for Fruity Fresh (Western) Ltd working on legal and strategic issues. She is also a governor at Pinner High School. She is an Old Girl of St Helen’s, starting in reception and completing her A Levels at the school. She went on to complete her LLB and LLM at King’s College London and her LPC at BPP Professional Education. She was a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer at King’s for a number of years before moving to University College London in 2012. Monica is a Chief Examiner for the University of London distance LLM programme, having written one of the courses, and is an examiner on the distance LLB programme.

She has also taught English law for a number of American Universities in London. Monica has been involved in admissions for both undergraduate and postgraduate students in the law department. Her work has also included pastoral care of students and she has a keen interest in ensuring that the school environment is a nurturing one as well as one providing an excellent education with a wide variety of experiences. Monica joined the Board of Governors in 2014.

Puneeta is an Old Girl of St Helen's, having started in kindergarten in 1978 and continuing through to complete her A Levels in 1991. She then went on to read Engineering at New Hall, Cambridge, followed by an MBA at the London Business School in 2001-03.

Puneeta is currently Customer Experience Leader at Tech Mahindra, where she creates cutting-edge digital experiences for retail, telecoms and banking customers around the world. Her background is in strategy consulting where she has helped many British and European retailers to design, develop and grow their online sales channels. Prior to that, Puneeta spent 10 years working as an Aerodynamicist for Airbus, who sponsored her through her degree programme. Puneeta became a Governor in 2011 and she is also a Director on the Board of St Helen’s Enterprises.

Vivek has been with the Royal Bank of Scotland for 16 years and is currently a Senior Director in the Infrastructure Finance Team, responsible for leading and managing project teams focused on advising, arranging and structuring debt for project finance solutions to Infrastructure within the UK and EMEA market. In this time he has also held a number of directorships for various companies. Prior to joining RBS, Vivek spent three years with an equity investor in UK infrastructure and before that spent 6 years as a Chartered Civil Engineer for various consultants and contractors.

Vivek qualified as a Chartered Civil Engineer and has a MBA (Finance) from City University Business School. He currently lives in Stanmore with his wife and two daughters one of whom is a current pupil at the School. Vivek joined the Board of Governors in 2014.

Robin Street has worked in schools across London as a highly effective and successful school leader. As Coprincipal of the UCL Academy he has played a central role in establishing the country’s first ever University sponsored academy. Since opening in 2012, the UCL Academy has built a strong reputation nationally and internationally as a highly academic, innovative and inclusive school serving the needs of an inner city community through a broad, enriching and inspiring curriculum.

Robin has a reputation for building highly effective working relationships with all key stakeholders and in particular the Sponsor UCL IOE. Robin has also established effective partnerships with a range of organisations including the NSPCC, Tottenham Hotspurs Football Club and the ENO to support staff and student enrichment and education experiences.

Robin achieved his NPQH in 2010 and is currently completing an MA in educational leadership with St Mary’s College.

Educated at University College School, London, and the Universities of Exeter and Cambridge, Robin is deeply committed to ensuring that students of all backgrounds are given a broad, balanced, enriched and academically excellent educational experience.

Alison attended St Helen's from junior school through to A Levels, leaving in 1982. She went on to read American History at Warwick University.

Alison spent over 30 years working for United Airlines in a variety of roles across divisions including Customer Service, Sales and Marketing. Her career enables her to pursue her passion for travel, and led her to move first to Australia for eight years and then Japan for four years as MD Asia Pacific Sales. Her most recent role was MD Product and Brand Marketing, based at the company's headquarters in Chicago. This variety of roles across geographies and cultures enables her to work collaboratively to build meaningful partnerships and achieve goals.

Alison and her husband Mark returned to the UK in 2020 and have recently moved to Wantage, where they are renovating a farmhouse.

Suzi studied Chemistry at university and then went on to gain her ICAEW qualification and is an FCA. She has worked at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP (PWC) for 36 years and has already been a Governor at St Helen’s and was Chair for five years. Suzi is passionate about education and was actively involved in the Governance of the School and is delighted to return as governor. Suzi is a Senior Partner of PWC. She spends her days working with entrepreneurial businesses and private equity backed businesses and she is also the partner responsible for the induction of the new graduates each year. She also acts as a role model and mentor for a significant number of staff at PWC and also chief executives. She is also involved with a number of other charities.

Gemma joined the council of governors in 2020. She is a member of the Finance and Estates committee and the HR committee. Gemma is a qualified accountant and tax advisor and spent close to 13 years in private practice at PWC, one of the country’s largest accountancy firms advising families and private businesses on a range of finance and tax matters. Gemma’s current role is as Head of Tax for a large family controlled business. Gemma lives in Hendon with her husband - a Merchant Taylors’ ‘Old Boy’ and their four children.

Zahra has spent approximately 15 years as Head of Governance and Business Advisor to the Karali Group - a leading player in the UK Hospitality and QSR Sector. Through her time in the organisation, she has played a key role in growth strategy, diversification and risk mitigation, drawing on the strengths of her MBA focused on risk management. Zahra has an active background in the political domain, being the first female member of the Conservative Muslim Forum - an integrated think-tank advising the government on inter-faith policy-making. She also plays a sizeable role within the Ismaili Community, in various leadership positions, including: mentorship, bereavement support and youth development. Zahra lives locally with her husband and has two children, one of whom is an 'Old Girl' and the other an 'Old Boy' of Merchant Taylors