School Council

Mr Luis Arranz

With degrees in Economics and Journalism, a member of the Spanish Foreign Service where he spent several years in differernt vcountries and positions, he was appointed Director General of Turespaña, the Spanish Tourist Board, from where he moved to the post of Director General of Ifema (Madrid trade fair complex), to later become Chairman of Europavia and finally, of his own international consultancy company, Me Kunos. His expertise in international affairs provides an important asset to any organization.

Dr Bahjat Assaf

Spanish National Health Medical Consulting Madrid
Clinica Assana sl Medical Director.
Clinica Piquer President and General Director
INVENTION AND PATENT EQUIPMENT ECG TRANSTELEPHONIC
CARDIOPHONE ECG TRANSTELEFONIC ESPAÑA S.L. PRESIDENT
President of 27 Annual Meeting of ARABMED en Spain Madrid28-30 October 2011
Member of the Castilian Society of Cardiology.
Member of the Spanish Society of Cardiology.Member of New York Academy of Science.
Beneficent Member of the Real foundation pro Spanish Academy.
Member of Endocrine and Nutrition Spanish Society
Member Founder of the Spanish Society of Traffic Medicine. Actually 2ed Vice-president, treasurer, and coordinator of international Relations.Member of the Spanish Aerospace
Medicine Society.Member of the Spanish Society of Ecography.Director the First Medical publications
en Europe traffic Medicine (Bolitin Oficial de la SEMT). Sociedad Española de Medicina de Tráfico

Mr John Carrivick

John has lived in Spain for over 40 years and worked for the British Council in Madrid for 33 years until his recent retirement. His work included the coordination of British degree courses and the relationship with British schools in Spain, liaising with Spanish national and regional authorities and the Department for Education on inspection, certification, equivalence of qualifications and child protection, including the introduction of CRB checks for school staff in Spain.

Mrs Belinda Coombes

Belinda is Director of UK Trade and Investment at the British Embassy in Madrid, a post she took up in 2009 after a 15 year career in the corporate banking sector in the UK and Spain. Belinda has lived in Madrid for 16 years, and she and her husband Javier have two children at King’s College in Soto, entering years 11 and 9 in September 2013. Originally from Poole, Dorset, Belinda graduated from Bristol University with a 2:1 in French and Spanish.

Mr Julian Foot

Mr Julian Foot FCA CTA, also a qualified Spanish accountant, has over 40 years of international experience spread over the fields of information technology, audit, taxation and business consultancy in general. Most of his career has been spent with PwC.

Mr Edward Halse

Born and educated in South Wales, Edward began teaching at a successful Welsh comprehensive school before moving in the early 1980s to teach economics and sport at King’s College, Madrid. Edward returned to England to become a Boarding Housemaster, Second Master and then, for almost twenty years, a Head Master of two leading independent schools. Edward was chairman of the Committee of Heads of Former Direct Grant Boarding Schools, chairman of the Committee of Heads of Methodist Schools as well as chair to several charities. He also served on the Mercers’ Company Education Selection Committee, HMC committee and ASCL Council. He is now an educational consultant as well as a Reporting Inspector for ISI.

Mrs Izabella Hearn

Izabella Hearn is an author, teacher trainer and educational consultant. She has written numerous books for Primary and Secondary education for Pearson Longman, Oxford University Press and SM/University of Dayton Publishing. Izabella is also deeply involved in Nyumbani, a charity in Kenya caring for orphans left behind by the AIDS pandemic. She is founder member of the NGO Amigos de Nyumbani in Spain and sits on the advisory board of Nyumbani.UK

At present Izabella is involved in teaching a Master’s Programme at the Universidad International de Menendez Pelayo where she specializes in exploring communication strategies and the development of intercultural competence. She also trains teachers for the Cervantes Institute in a variety of places worldwide.

Izabella has strong links with King’s College Madrid, having taught at the school from the early 1980′s until the year 2000. Her sons were all educated at King’s College.

Mrs Natalie Langridge

Natalie Langridge is a dual qualified lawyer, having qualified as a Barrister in London in 1993 and as a Spanish Abogado in Madrid in 1998. She no longer practices as a lawyer and, since 2000, works for the Iberian Law firm, Uría Menéndez, as a support lawyer dealing mainly with the recruitment of lawyers. Natalie is married to Josep María JulIá Insenser and has three children who yearly attend King’s Group Summer School.

Mr Andrew Moore

Andrew Moore (M.A. Oxon) joined the School Council in December 2011, after a career with the British Civil Service, with the British Council (in Venezuela, Tanzania, Japan, Peru and Madrid) and with King’s Group in Madrid. He was Secretary General of the British Hispanic Foundation from 1996 to 2011, and is President of the Oxford University Society in Madrid.

Mr Sidney Perera

Sidney Perera is a Cambridge Law graduate, a Barrister and a Chartered Accountant. His career has been mostly in professional services in Spain, as a Management Consultant with Ernst & Young and McKinsey & Co. Changing to Corporate Finance, he worked with a British investment bank, the Wallace, Smith Trust Co, and then for ABN·AMRO. He was President and Managing Director of an industrial group, Draka Cables, the Spanish subsidiary of a Dutch multinational. He now has his own Corporate Finance practice, active in South America, the Middle East and Europe.

Mr Ralph Smith MBE (Chairman)

Ralph Smith MBE is International Counsel at law firm Gómez-Acebo & Pombo’s Madrid office where he specialises in intellectual property and technology law. Ralph is a dual qualified lawyer having qualified in London in 1993 and was admitted to the Madrid Bar in 1999. He graduated in Natural Sciences and Chemical Engineering from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and is a member of the Cambridge University Alumni Advisory Board as well as running the Cambridge University Association of Madrid. Ralph is also Vice-President of UK Alumni Network Spain, the umbrella organisation set up by the British Council to unite former alumni of all UK Universities who are resident in Spain. He was appointed an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list 2015 “For services to the British Embassy and the British Community in Spain”.

Mr. Steffen Sommer

Born in East Germany. Educated in Russia, Germany, France and the UK. Educationalist with significant experience of leadership at British and international independent schools. Head of modern languages at Rugby School (UK). Deputy Head at Sutton Valence School (UK). Head at British School in the Netherlands (NL). Headmaster of the British School of Paris (Fr). Director General of College Champittet in Lausanne (CH) (since September 2013). Vice Chair of COBIS. Chair of international division of HMC. Member of the Advisory Board of the New College of the Humanities in London.

Mr Ian Triay

Ian Triay is currently Chairman of MFO, a multifamily office in Madrid offering investment advice to wealthy families ; Honorary Consul in Spain for the Kingdom of Bhutan; Director of Abraxa Capital Privado III,S.C.R., a photovoltaic company ; Member of the Advisory Board of King´s College Group in Spain; member of the Executive Committee of the British Hispanic Foundation; member of the Fundación 2000 of the Prado Museum.

He is a Chartered Management Accountant; has an M.B.A from The City University of London ; PMD from Harvard Business School and other postgraduate diplomas from top Management Schools.

His previous experience was in international banking with the Lloyds Banking Group for 25 years until 2003 where he held senior positions in Private Banking, Investment Banking etc mostly in Spain and having also worked for several years in the UK and Switzerland. Prior to that he was with Procter & Gamble and Pedro Domecq S.A.

Dawn Akyurek (King’s Group CAO)

Head Teacher King’s College Madrid