Simon is an Old Dunelmian (1977-1982). In his final year at Durham School he was Head of School and Head of School House. After leaving school, Simon went to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where he was commissioned into the Parachute Regiment. After leaving the Parachute Regiment Simon returned to the North East where he worked for a Newcastle based IFA and then worked for Arthur Andersen, until it was subsumed into Deloittes. In 1999 he joined Dickinson Dees' Private Client Department as an IFA and he has remained there ever since. The firm is now known as Womble Bond Dickinson. In his role, he advises wealthy individuals and trustees on financial matters and helps to organise their complex personal affairs. In his spare time, Simon enjoys rowing; in 2011 he was appointed Chair at Tyne Rowing Club. In the role, he oversaw the funding, construction and adoption of Tyne Amateur Rowing Club’s £1m boathouse which was then opened by the Duchess of Northumberland in 2016. This work also included, converting the club from an unincorporated association to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. He continues to compete at regattas and head races and frequently encounters Durham School pupils and staff as they represent the school at events in the community and further afield.
Mr Keith Ballantyne is a highly experienced human resources generalist, whose strengths include excellent communication and inter-personal skills gained in FMCG, automotive, oil and gas, and technical business service sectors.
Alongside his career as a corporate HR Director, Keith also draws on his experiences running his own consultancy business, which offers a wide range of people management related services to clients across all sectors.
A former parent at both Choristers and Durham School, Keith brings to the board a passion for new challenges and significant experience in organisational development, change management, corporate governance, employee engagement and strategic business planning.
Steve Bryan retired from a senior management position after a professional career in the European chemical industry. Born in the West Midlands and educated in the state sector, he holds BSc and PhD degrees in chemistry from Durham University. He joined ICI in 1983 as a catalysis scientist, progressing subsequently with ICI, Huntsman Corporation and SABIC through a variety of roles in product management, commercial operations, business development and external affairs. His later career was spent as a Company Senior Specialist in the field of energy and climate policy, in which capacity he served with both CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council, and the UK Chemical Industries Association. He has extensive experience of lobbying and advocacy engagement with the European Union and UK Government, was a member of the UK Government Chemical Growth Partnership Group and worked on a number of industrial policy initiatives with NE regional bodies. In retirement, his interests include local history and various outdoor activities.
Chris was Head Chorister at The Chorister School and Music and Art Scholar at Durham School (1984-93). He holds an MA in English from the University of Glasgow, and a PG Dip, MMus and MOpera from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
With over 25 years in Executive Search and Leadership Development consultancy, he is the founder of Elliott Armstrong, a collective of senior headhunters, consultants and coaches, working with blue-chip & SWF clients through to start-ups across Europe and the Middle East.
A leading Birkman Certified Consultant, he helps individuals and executive teams understand how they can best achieve maximum productivity and happiness, and helps senior school and university students to make the right start in life.
Privileged to have worked around the world, he co-created the Executive Search arm of the largest Tech recruitment group in Europe, then in 2000 set up and ran the Executive Search division of Australasia’s leading dot com recruiter. There he also co-founded VC Watch, which became Australasia’s principal networking forum for Internet entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists.
Chris then joined Heidrick & Struggles, the world’s leading Executive Search Firm, where he specialised in Financial Services & Technology before becoming co-head of their UK Healthcare & Biotech Practice.
Alongside his consulting career, over 14 years Chris devised and ran children’s workshops, first for the Edinburgh International Festival, and then Independent Schools Victoria (ISV) and the Arts Learning Festival Melbourne. He also acted as advisor to the CEOs of both ISV and The Association of Independent Schools of South Australia (AISSA) on structural reform, arts-centred education and other matters.
Chris is President of the Old Dunelmian Society, the body that represents all DCSF alumni. He also enjoys a career as an operatic tenor.
Michael Hampel was born in the Lake District in 1967 and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon where he was educated at Shakespeare’s school and developed a passion for theatre and music. He read Classics at Durham and trained at Westcott House for ordination. He returned to Durham in 1993 as Assistant Curate of Whitworth with St Paul Spennymoor and then Minor Canon, Precentor and Sacrist of Durham Cathedral. In 2002, he was appointed Senior Tutor and Director of Development of St Chad’s College, Durham. He returned to the cathedral world when he became Precentor of St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Suffolk in 2004, Sub-Dean in 2008, and Acting Dean in 2009. In March 2011, he was installed as Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. There, he was involved in the staging of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Service, the Opening Service of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Lady Thatcher’s Funeral Service, the Queen’s 90th birthday service, and the Grenfell Tower Memorial Service, as well as overseeing the daily round of worship, music, and special events there. He wrote the words for the anthem commissioned for the Diamond Jubilee Service – ‘The Call of Wisdom’ – set to music by Will Todd and sung by The Diamond Choir made up of children from every part of the UK, together with the Choristers of St Paul’s and of the Chapel Royal. In 2018, he returned to Durham as Vice-Dean and Precentor of Durham Cathedral where he takes a strategic role in governance and fabric as well leading the team which presents the liturgy and music of Britain’s favourite cathedral.
Having sung as a boy in Peterborough Cathedral and then as un undergraduate at St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied Classics, Richard Hillier came to Durham in 1982 to study for a PGCE (doing his teaching practice at Durham School) and then a PhD, whilst singing as a lay clerk in the cathedral, where he married Elaine in 1984. Richard taught Classics at Durham School from 1987 to 1991, when, on his appointment as Head of Classics, Richard and Elaine moved with their two young sons to Repton School, subsequently becoming Housemaster of Latham House in 1997. When not teaching Classics, housemastering, or continuing to sing on a semi-professional basis, Richard spent much of his time teaching singing or producing drama, directing a total of six plays and musicals at Durham and seventeen at Repton. In 2006 Richard was appointed Headmaster of The Oratory Preparatory School in Oxfordshire and in 2010 became Headmaster of The Yehudi Menuhin School, an independent specialist music school, supported by the Department for Education through the Music and Dance Scheme, in which capacity he also served as Chair of the Music and Dance Scheme Schools. Richard now spends much of his time engaged in academic research and is a Visiting Fellow at St John’s College in the University of Durham.
John Hind grew up in north Nottinghamshire where he attended the Manor Comprehensive School before studying History at Downing College, Cambridge. Completing his PGCE there in 1981 he spent four years at Exeter School before joining Durham School as second in the history department in 1986. Over the next eleven years he became Head of History and Director of Studies as well as coaching sport and serving in the CCF. He also completed a part time MEd degree and PhD. In 1996 he and Ginny held their wedding reception in Big School before moving to Surrey when John became Deputy Head of Kingston Grammar School. The family returned to the North East with their two young daughters when John was appointed Principal of Dame Allan’s Schools in 2004. Retiring from that post in 2020, John now works part time as Director of Education and Leadership for the Rank Foundation, a role which allows him time to serve as a trustee for a local academy trust and also to pursue his interest in campanology.
Young people, education and her native North East are Michaela's passions.
Educated at the then South Shields Grammar School for Girls and Durham University where she studied Law, Michaela's first career was as a solicitor. Married to a solicitor, she decided on a change in career after fifteen years in practice and moved into the voluntary sector. After four years with the Community Foundation serving Tyne and Wear & Northumberland as Director, Special Projects, Michaela accepted an invitation from Sunderland A.F.C. to help them establish a registered charity incorporating their education and community programmes, a pioneering model which has since been replicated by many other sporting institutions across the UK and which now operates as The Beacon of Light.
Now retired, Michaela is a North East Board Member of Maggie's Cancer Care Centres and a Trustee of St Nicholas Educational Trust.
She is married with two adult children.
Tom Mole is Principal of Van Mildert College, one of the constituent colleges of Durham University, where he is also Professor of English Literature and Book History in the Department of English Studies. He is a fellow of the English Association and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. The first in his family to go to university, he received his PhD from the University of Bristol. He has been a professor at McGill University in Montreal and at the University of Edinburgh, where he was Director of the Centre for the History of the Book. He is the author or editor of several books on literature and cultural history, most recently The Secret Life of Books (2019). He has also written for The Big Issue and appeared on In Our Time on Radio Four. His daughter is a pupil at Durham School.
After growing up in Sussex, Philip studied German and Russian at the University of Cambridge followed by Theology at Durham University while training for ministry at Cranmer Hall. His PhD was awarded by the University of Edinburgh for research into Paul’s hardship narratives in 1 and 2 Corinthians. Philip served his curacy at Christ Church, Chineham, an ecumenical church in the Diocese of Winchester, and was ordained priest in 2002. In 2006 Philip was appointed Vicar of Claygate, in the Diocese of Guildford, a church which in 11 years grew from three to five Sunday congregations and also planted a further church nearby. From 2012 Philip additionally served as Area Dean of Emly. Philip was elected to the General Synod in 2009 and served until 2021, serving on a range of committees including the Simplification Task Group. Philip was appointed as Warden of Cranmer Hall, St John’s College, Durham, in 2017, where he taught New Testament and Christian Leadership and also hosted the popular podcast Talking Theology. He was made an Honorary Canon of Durham Cathedral in 2022 and took up the role of Dean in September 2023. As Dean he leads and oversees the mission and life of Durham Cathedral and chairs the Cathedral Chapter (the trustee body). He is also on the University Council and the Bishop’s Leadership Team.