The Trust

Nick attended the King’s School, being a boarder in Hostel House between 1988 and 1990.  On leaving King’s Nick went on to Bath University to study Civil and Structural Engineering.  The main thrust of his career has been the development and implementation of energy management services and asset optimisation within the UK, Europe and wider global markets.

As a strategist within the global management team, Nick leads a multi-geographical deployment of services, working with key blue chip businesses and cross border partnerships.

Nick is also a King’s parent and lives in Worcester with his wife and three boys.  He has been actively involved with King’s for a number of years, sitting on the OV Committee as well as attending and helping out at many OV and School events, in addition to his duties as a Trustee.

John Attwater is Principal of The King’s School, Ely.

A chorister at Chichester Cathedral, he was then educated at Rugby and Oxford, where he read PPE.
His first teaching job was at Wells Cathedral School where he was Housemaster and Head of Religious Studies. After four years at Sevenoaks, John became Headmaster at King Edward’s School, Witley in 2010 before taking up his current role in August 2019.
A bursary recipient himself, John is passionate about increasing opportunities for children to access independent education. He served on the DfE ministerial working group on Assisted Boarding, is on the Advisory Board of the Royal Springboard Foundation and chairs the Chichester Cathedral Choristers Association Scholarship Trust Fund. John also serves on the Committee of the Choir Schools Association and the Membership and Standards Committee of HMC, and was appointed a Lay Canon of Ely Cathedral in 2022.

Bill Ballard did a civil engineering degree at University of Bristol before qualifying as a chartered accountant with PwC at their Bristol office. After a few years in Australia he returned to the UK and set up his own chartered accountancy firm in January 1985 joining up with fellow Trustee, Douglas Dale and others to form the local accountancy firm that now trades as Ballards LLP. He retired from the partnership in June 2019.

Bill is also a director of a family food manufacturing business and is also a partner in a Bristol based property development partnership and a finance director of his son’s contracting company.

All four of Bill’s children attended King’s where he has been a governor since 2020 and he is also a member on the finance and general purposes committee

Katie studied Engineering at Oxford University before beginning a successful career as a Chartered Engineer. She worked for British Airways in various management roles, before deciding to retrain and undertake a PGCE. After qualifying as a teacher, Katie joined King’s Worcester in 2010 to teach Maths. Katie’s three children also attend King’s and so she is able to bring to the Trust her experience as a parent as well as a member of staff.

Lewis is an OV who started St Alban’s in 1978 and left the School (Chappel House) in 1987. He studied Civil Engineering at Portsmouth Polytechnic before becoming a Chartered Civil Engineer in 1996.

He has worked in a structural and major loss insurance consultant capacity specialising in subsidence and landslip damage as well as investigating and diagnosing structural defect damage to buildings.

Lewis set up his own company in 2005 and continues to work in the structural, insurance and private domestic sectors.

Lewis’s son started King’s St Alban’s in 2021 and is a fourth generation Bryer at the school.

Hugh Carslake retired in 2017 as a Consultant at Shakespeare Martineau Solicitors in Birmingham, specialising in private client work. He is a Trustee of numerous trusts for clients and charities. Hugh is also Chairman of the Trustees of the Barber Institute at Birmingham University, President of the City of Birmingham Choir and acts as Registrar for the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham. He is a Churchwarden of his local church.

He has served as a Governor at King’s since 2002 and as Chairman of Governors since 2010. He is a member of the Finance & General Purposes, and Nominations Committees.

Tom Dupernex works for the fintech company iCapital in central London. Previously, Tom worked for a Swiss bank and he is a solicitor (non-practising). He studied Geography at Trinity College, Cambridge and currently sits as Chair of the Investment Committee at the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of Trinity College Cambridge. Tom lives in London with his wife and three children.

Hannah is a  UCL Honours Economics graduate and she has worked in the wealth management industry for many years, having managed either larger teams of client facing planners or more recently sat at the board table of a regional wealth manager.  Her successes have led to a number of professional awards, including the Worcestershire Business Women of the Year 2013, while in summer 2019 Hannah secured the UK Investment Advisor of the Year and IFA of the Year for the Midlands and East Anglia at the Annual Professional Advisor awards. Hannah is Managing Director of Eva Capital Management, a Worcester based wealth management boutique.

Giving back to the local community is close to Hannah’s heart: she joined St Richard’s Hospice as a Governor in 2011, where she sits on a number of their finance and investment committees, lending much investment experience.  As a committed Christian, Hannah has a strong faith and has previously been involved in fundraising for Christians Against Poverty.

Hannah’s two boys attend The King’s School and this experience as a parent, as well as the depth and breadth of her investment experience, are very useful qualities when conducting her role as Trustee.

John qualified as both a Barrister and a Chartered Accountant after attending Durham University, and he has been a director of various public and private companies for over 30 years. He was a Chief Executive of a public company for 12 years and remains Chairman of four Groups of companies. The largest business is Premier Technical Services Group Ltd, which he and two close friends founded 13 years ago. They grew it from scratch, took it to the public market and then sold the business to an investment bank in Summer of 2019, although John remains as PTSG’s Chairman.

John has a close family connection with King’s as his brother, sister and one of his daughters attended the School. Via The Foley Family Bursary, we are delighted that John has committed to providing financial support to fund one full bursary place at King’s, starting in September 2020.  This bursary epitomises John’s enthusiasm about helping others from less financially privileged backgrounds to benefit from a King’s School education.

Laurie is an OV and parent of an OV. He is a solicitor and, prior to his retirement from professional practice, Laurie was a partner and head of Litigation and Dispute Resolution at Parkinson Wright in Worcester, completing 49 years with that firm. He also served as an adjudicator and assessor for the Legal Aid Agency alongside his practice responsibilities.

Laurie has always had a particular interest in education and training. For 13 years, he served as a governor of a horticultural further education college until 2007 when he became a governor of King’s School Worcester, serving in that capacity until retirement from the board in July 2023.

He is particularly committed to increasing opportunities for children of all backgrounds to access a King’s School Worcester education, having himself benefitted from the then existing Direct Grant Scheme.

Laurie is a member of the Finance Committee of Holy Redeemer Church, Pershore.

Donald read Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College, and then qualified as a Chartered Accountant.  Following five years working for a London firm of management consultants, he joined GEC where he became Managing Director of GEC Mechanical Handling Ltd and eventually Group Managing Director of the GEC ALSTHOM Low Voltage Group.

He is now retired. From 1986 to 2010 he was Chairman of the King’s School Governors and of their Finance & General Purposes Committee.