Meet our Governors

Arnaud Vaissié is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of International SOS.  He is also the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill.

International SOS is the world’s leading health and security services company.  Present in 90 countries, the group currently operates with more than 13,000 employees, including 5,200 medical professionals. International SOS has over 12,000 corporate clients, including the majority of the Fortune 500 as well as many Governments and international organisations.

International SOS is in the business of saving lives, protecting organisations’ employees from health and security threats wherever they are, 24/7. The group has been at the forefront of the Covid-19 pandemic, helping its clients to build and implement their Health and Wellbeing strategy, ranging from prevention to crisis management.

Arnaud Vaissié is also a Board member of the Institut Montaigne as well as a Board member of the Meti (Mouvement des Entreprises de Taille Intermédiaire) which gathers 5,400 French mid-sized companies (ranging from 250 to 4,999 employees).

Arnaud is a graduate of the Institute of Political Sciences of Paris (Sciences-Po).

Jenny Banks Oughourlian began her career at Société Générale in Paris in equity derivatives research before taking a role in marketing equity derivative products and strategies to Swiss institutional clients.

In 1998 she transferred to Société Générale in New York, where she worked with corporate and investment bankers on transactions with high-net worth individuals and US and Canadian companies. Her last position was as Managing Director, in charge of corporate equity solutions for US companies.

Banks Oughourlian has an active interest in education, in particular in a bilingual and multi-cultural environment. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lycée Français de New York for five years until 2013 and served on a number of committees, including chairing the Development Committee of which she remains a member.

After 20 years in France and the US, Jenny moved to London in 2012 with her husband and three children. She is a member of the Lady Margaret Hall Advisory Council at Oxford University and a Trustee of Friends of the Lycée, a charity supporting French and bilingual education.

She graduated with a MA in Modern Languages from Oxford University.

Lionel Bouvard was born and educated in France. He started his career in Luxembourg working for the Investment Division of the European Union Commission and then for the European Statistics Office.

After serving as an Officer in the French Army, he joined EDF SA in 1991, where he occupied various roles in the Contractual Affairs and International Legal Departments for the construction of thermal power plants in France, Spain, Mexico, Egypt, and China.

In 2000 Lionel moved to the Human Resources Department for the Headquarters of the Engineering, Generation, and Services Division of EDF, where he was in charge of workforce mobility, and advised the Executive team on long term planning of future employment needs.

Lionel moved to London in 2009 to join EDF Energy Ltd. as Head of Corporate Affairs in the New Nuclear Engineering Team, and subsequently as Head of HR Business Support within the New Nuclear Build Business Unit.

Since 2013 he has been responsible for all activities related to International Mobility for EDF Energy, and has taken a particular interest in the education of the children of expatriated EDF families worldwide. He joined the board of Governors in 2014.

Lionel has a Master’s Degree in Cost Analysis from the University of Lyon 2, and holds Diplomas in European Affairs and International Affairs from the European Institute for Higher International Studies in Nice.

Currently  Head of the Canadian International School of Hong Kong, since August 2019. Formerly the Executive Director of the United Nations International School, www.unis.org, from 2013 to 2017, Jane Camblin was also previously the Head of the French American International School in San Francisco, www.internationalsf.org. Both are large, highly accredited K-12 institutions offering dynamic, challenging, academically rigorous programs leading to the International or French Baccalaureate degrees.

Camblin holds an honours degree in English and Russian, from Bristol University, UK; a graduate degree from Sydney University, Australia, in teaching Theatre and English as a Second Language; and a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and Bilingual Education from Stanford University in California. She has worked previously as a teacher, administrator and consultant in public and private schools in England, France, Monaco, Australia, and the United States, and is a recipient of an SDB Outstanding Educator Fellowship Award (Johns Hopkins University) and a Klingenstein Fellowship (Columbia University). In July 2016, Jane was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree (JD) by Bristol University in recognition of her lifelong work in international education.

Jane is a three-term elected Board member of the Council of International Schools (CIS), a membership organisation representing the interests of hundreds of international schools around the world, and was the founding Chair of the Council of International Schools in the Americas (CIStA). Jane currently serves as Chair of the Foundation Board of Bristol University, and until January 2012 held an elected seat on the International Baccalaureate Heads Council, providing advice to the Executive Director of the IB Organisation on strategic policy issues. Currently, Jane also serves as Vice-Chair of the Manhattan Guild of Independent Schools, and as a Trustee of the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS).

In 2004, Jane was named Chevalier des Palmes Académiques by the French Ministry of Education for her services to French culture and education as a dynamic, innovative and visionary leader who believes fervently that an intellectually challenging, international, 21st-century education emphasising critical thinking, cross-cultural communication, and a strong appreciation of and respect for diversity in all its forms, is of utmost importance to the world in which we live.

Emma de Fontaubert, was born in New Zealand and educated in the United States. She spent ten years working in Silicon Valley in senior marketing positions for Silicon Graphics and Beyond.com.

De Fontaubert moved to London in 2001, where she founded and later sold a boutique lifestyle company. In 2012 she founded Gemini Capital Partners, a private investment office business, with her husband.

Coming from a family of educators who spent their careers in both the American and International school system, Emma has always had an abiding interest in education.  Married to a Frenchman, she has come to admire and appreciate the pure and theoretical educational aspects of the French system and is keen to infuse into it some of the pedagogical aspects of the British/American systems, integrating them in a way that will ensure the best of the both worlds.

Emma became a Member of the Board of Governors in 2014. She also donates her time to meet with budding entrepreneurs and still takes a keen interest in the start-up community.

Emma has a Bachelors degree in International Relations from the University of Santa Barbara, California.  She lives in Pinner with her husband and two children.

Kristoffer Laurson is the CEO of PAS Solar, an energy access business with operations in Western Africa financed by Renewable Energy Performance Platform, a UK based clean energy fund. Laurson has also worked as Syndication Director with Camco Clean Energy since 2019. Prior to that he was the CFO of a renewable energy developer in sub-Saharan Africa for two years. During this time he developed utility-scale projects and initiated a Commercial and Industrial development business in West Africa.

Laurson previously worked in corporate finance, capital markets, and project finance with UBS, Nomura, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, mainly in Eastern Europe. He continues to be active with startups in the impact energy, agritech, and medtech sectors.

Kristoffer holds a BSc from London School of Economics (LSE) and a Masters in Finance from London Business School (LBS).

Bertrand Michaud, has been the Managing Director of Hermès UK since September 2012.

From 2009 to 2012, Michaud was Regional Managing, based in New Delhi, in charge of the management, operations, and business development of Hermès in India, Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, and Africa.

He spent 11 years as Regional Managing Director of Hermès Asia Pacific in Hong Kong from 1998 to 2009. While there, Michaud was President of the Foreign Trade Advisor of France, Board Member of the Macau-France Business Association, “Invest Hong Kong” Ambassador, member of the board of Pro Musicis, Director of the France-Hong Kong Cultural Association, and Trustee of the French Welfare Fund in Hong Kong. He was also the Honorary President of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hong Kong and past Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce.

In 1996, Michaud attended the National Defence College in Paris (Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale). Graduated from the Staff College, he is lieutenant colonel in the French Paratroopers Reserves Forces.

In France, he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur, the Ordre National du Mérite, the Defense Department Gold Medal and the Youth and Sport Department Medal.

Bertrand is a graduate of the University of Paris with a BA in Law, a BA in Political Sciences, and a Masters in Public Law and Defence Studies.  In his personal life, Bertrand has three daughters.

Mike Penrose has been the Executive Director of Unicef UK since May 2016. Previously he was the CEO of Action Contre la Faim in Paris and Global Humanitarian Director at Save the Children.

Penrose is an experienced senior leader with a well-established track record in the commercial, humanitarian, and development sectors, with 24 years experience working in aid and development as well as risk, crisis, and disaster management in more than 60 countries.

Mike’s extensive experience of crisis and emergency response has included consultant deployments as Head of Operations for the UN WHO in Banda Aceh for the tsunami response; Crisis Management Adviser for the Torino Winter Olympics; UK Government Department for International Development Operations Adviser in numerous emergencies, including Iraq in 2003 and the Pakistan earthquake in 2005; and as the Evacuation Team Leader for the inter-governmental civilian evacuations of Lebanon 2006, and Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2007. Mike has also advised many large commercial organisations on how to operate effectively and ethically in fragile environments.

A former hostage, having been kidnapped in Chechnya in 1996, Mike also occasionally works as a Trauma Counsellor for other former hostages and their families.

Fluent in French, Mike currently lives in London with his wife and young son.