At the Governors meeting held yesterday afternoon (Sunday 29th Nov) a unanimous decision was taken to appoint a new Chairman of Governors in succession to Nat Hone who is retiring after a long and distinguished service in the role. At the same time Nat’s co-chairman Tamsin Clive retires after reaching the natural end of her tenure.

Nat joined the governing body in 2006 and has been chairman for some ten years. He was instrumental in appointing Alastair Thomas as Headmaster, and more recently Chris Hattam. This is the most important function of a chairman and Nat attracted two outstanding leaders for the school. Nat was kind enough to say that he felt that he had assembled a strong board of governors during his tenure and leaves the board in good heart with the skills necessary to govern the school successfully. Tamsin has also given sterling service to the school especially during Nat’s year as high Sheriff of Herefordshire.

Governors have known of Nat’s intention to retire for some years and wanted to be careful to select an outstanding individual to fill the post and a full and rigorous search was carried out during this time. Governors are therefore delighted to announce that Simon Townsend will take over from Nat, having for some time been a member of the governing body.

Simon has had a distinguished career in the hospitality trade, rising to be the Chief Executive of Enterprise Inns, a FTSE 250 company . He holds a deep affection for the school as his children were educated there and is well known locally. He will bring a wealth of energy, talent and experience to the role of driving the school forward successfully .

Toby Stubbs

Chairman of the Governance SMG

30th Nov 2020