As a private and independent school, Lycée International Winston Churchill is overseen by a Board of Governors whose roles and duties are prescribed by British law and good practice guidelines set by NAIS (National Association of Independent Schools). Board members volunteer their time, are not compensated, claim no expenses, and do not receive any financial benefit from the school.

Fiduciary responsibility rests with the Board of Governors as they are responsible for the overall stewardship of the school, including establishing the school’s direction and priorities (its strategic development) and overseeing its financial and administrative functions. The Governors work closely with the Head of School to ensure the overall success of the school. The day-to-day running of the Lycée is the responsibility of the Head of School and the Leadership Team.

The Board is comprised of 10 Governors from various community stakeholder groups, including current parents. Board members are selected based on their capability to dedicate time and energy to the school, their representation of school and community stakeholders, and the match between their skills and resources and those needed for effective governance of the school, including expertise in education, facilities development, finance, fundraising, human resources, information technology and law. The Board holds five to six full board meetings during the school year and more than 20 committee meetings. Special meetings are also organised as and when required. In addition to Development, Finance, Health & Safety, Governance, Safeguarding, Communications and Curriculum Committees, ad hoc committees may be formed at the Board’s discretion.

Meet our governors

Arnaud Vaissié

Arnaud Vaissié is Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of International SOS, the world’s leading medical and travel security risk services company.

After graduating from the Institute of Political Sciences of Paris, Vaissié began his business career as a Financial Executive in France, and then moved to San Francisco as Head of Compass Inc for America.

In 1985, alongside Dr. Pascal Rey-Herme, Vaissié founded International SOS in Singapore. Due to its path-breaking work, International SOS has achieved fast and consistent growth, expanding first throughout Asia, in the United States and finally in Europe.

Present in 92 countries, the group currently operates with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,400 doctors and 200 security specialists. For the past 30 years, International SOS has provided global services that include assessing medical and security risks, advising on preventative programmes with in-country expertise and assisting with emergency response for travellers, expatriates and their dependents.

International SOS has over 10,000 corporate clients, including 61% of the Fortune 500 companies, as well as Governments and NGOs.

Arnaud Vaissié chairs CCI France International which is the Union of French Chambers of Commerce and Industry Abroad which brings together 112 French Chambers in 82 countries.

He co-founded the Cercle d'outre-Manche (CoM), a think tank gathering key French leaders of international groups operating in the United Kingdom. Its purpose is to look at competitive issues in both countries and to highlight their very best practices.

Board member of the Institut Montaigne, Vaissié chaired a working group on French start-ups and business development (From birth to growth, how to help our SMEs, Institut Montaigne, July 2011).

Vaissié chairs the France-Singapore committee at MEDEF International, the French employers’ organisation.

He is also the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Lycée International de Londres, Winston Churchill.

Arnaud Vaissié is chevalier de la Légion d'honneur and officier de l’ordre national du Mérite. In 2009, he was honoured as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year from Singapore.

Jenny Banks Oughourlian

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.

Laurent Bigorgne

Since 2011, Laurent Bigorgne has been the Executive Director of the Institut Montaigne, a leading French non-partisan think tank focused on providing the public debate with innovative and pragmatic ideas and helping shape public policy to improve both economic and social environments in France. Passionate about education, Bigorgne started his career as a teacher before joining Sciences Po as Dean of Undergraduate Studies (2000-2003). He was then appointed Dean of Studies (2003-2008) and Pro-Vice Chancellor (2007-2009). He spent a year as a visiting fellow with the General Management of the London School of Economics.

Agrégé d'Histoire, Laurent also holds a Master’s degree from Sciences Po and a B.A. in History from La Sorbonne. His passion for education made him an early supporter and a Governor of the Lycée.

Lionel Bouvard

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.

Jane Camblin

Formerly the Executive Director of the United Nations International School, www.unis.org, from August 2013 to July 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.

Emmanuel Caradec

Emmanuel Caradec has been Head of Legal at the London branch of Natixis bank since September 2010. He joined Natixis in 2004 and previously worked in Paris for the securisation legal team from 2007 to 2010 and the fund structured products legal team from 2004 to 2006.

Before joining Natixis, Caradec worked for law firms Allen & Overy in Paris and Clifford Chance in Paris and London.

Emmanuel holds a postgraduate degree in business law and taxation from the University Paris II – Assas. He also holds a master of laws from Cambridge University. He is dual qualified as a solicitor (England and Wales) and a French avocat. As such, he has a strong interest in the French and British education systems experienced first hand.

He lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and three children.

Emma de Fontaubert

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.

She lives in Pinner with her husband and two children.

Emma has a Bachelors degree in International Relations from the University of Santa Barbara, California.

Bertrand Michaud

Bertrand Michaud, 58, 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.

In Hong Kong, where he spent 11 years as Regional Managing Director of “Hermès Asia Pacific” from 1998 to 2009, 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 is also the Honorary President of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Hong Kong and past Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce.

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 & Defence Studies.

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 Michaud has three daughters.

Mike Penrose

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 councillor for other former hostages and their families.

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

Kristoffer Laurson

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 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 & 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).