The Most Revd Mark Strange, President of Council
Most Rev Mark J Strange, Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church. Bishop Mark was brought up and educated in Aberdeen, he read Divinity at Aberdeen University before completing his studies at Lincoln Theological College. Bishop Mark served his Title at St Barnabas Church in Worcester before becoming Vicar of St Wulstan’s, Worcester. Bishop Mark returned to Scotland and served as Rector of Elgin, Lossiemouth, Aberlour and Dufftown as well as Synod Clerk of Moray. He was elected Bishop of the diocese in 2007 and was elected Primus in 2017. Bishop Mark is married to Jane and has three children; Bishop's House is on the Black Isle at Arpafeelie.
Ian Gray OBE, Chair of Council
Ian was educated at Glenalmond (Patchells 1963-67) followed by Durham University. Although an FCMA, he converted to become a Marketing Director many years ago before being appointed CEO of various Thorn EMI subsidiaries. Subsequently he was CEO of the FTSE listed companies Brown and Jackson plc and later General Cable plc. Ian joined Vodafone in 1998 as Managing Director of the UK Retail business and served on the Board of Vodafone Egypt from 2000 to 2017 as Managing Director, CEO then Chairman, living in Cairo until 2007 when he also became Regional Director, Central Europe.
Ian retired from his executive role in 2010 but returned to the front line from late 2015 until 2018 as CEO of Vodafone Qatar, a company listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange with a market cap of around $2.5bn, and led the company through a turnaround. His links to Egypt remain and he has been Chairman of the Egyptian-British Chamber of Commerce since 2014 and also, since 2010, UK Co-Chairman of the Egyptian-British Business Council which was set up by the Egyptian and British Governments to facilitate trade and investment links between Egypt and the UK. Ian now lives in rural Oxfordshire with his wife Karen.
David Fox-Pitt MBE, Chair of Health & Safety Committee
David Fox-Pitt MBE has been inspiring young people to embrace adventure for over thirty years. When living in Hong Kong he participated in the MacLehose Trail - an endurance event in the New Territories - and this prompted him to start his own events business, WildFox Events. WildFox is behind many of the UK’s most iconic adventure challenges and has enabled fundraising in excess of £40m for charities at home and abroad. David encourages resourcefulness and resilience along with a healthy attitude to fear and failure. He is the author of Positiverosity: 7 Golden Principles, and is an experienced public speaker. Additional commitments include his involvement of the cross-party think-tank 'Inspiring Scotland’ and his support for the apprenticeship scheme he set up in Aberfeldy, which teaches practical skills such as woodwork, metalwork, and laser cutting. He and his wife, Joanna, have also hosted over a decade of Glenalmond College Leadership camps at and around their base at Loch Tay. His most recent endeavour was to cycle from Lands End to John o’ Groats - on a Penny farthing, covering 80 miles a day, which raised over £30,000 for Mary’s Meals.
John Gordon, Chair of the OG Club
John attended Blairmore school in Aberdeen-shire and then Glenalmond (71-76). His father was also at Glenalmond (29-34) and numerous uncles. He spent his childhood in Easter Ross living on the family farm which was sold to the aspiring oil industry. After leaving school he ran the family farms which had relocated to Angus and the Borders. The main output was beef, lamb and cereals with some other activities threaded in. Seeking to diversify he has an interest in a film facilities company and some property development. For distraction he owned a couple of aircraft, one to do aerobatics and one to visit rural friends. He also enjoys leisurely cycling now the planes are gone, but still has a fascination with aviation. He ran the Borders OG dinners for many years, and now enjoys being Chairman of the OG Club. He is married to Sarah and they have two children.
The Rt Revd Ian Paton, Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane
The Right Revd Ian Paton has been Bishop of St Andrews, Dunkeld and Dunblane since October 2018. He was elected by the Diocese, having served as Rector of Old St Paul’s, Edinburgh since 1997, where he was also honorary Anglican Chaplain to the University of Edinburgh University, and a Canon of St Mary’s Cathedral. He originally comes from Liverpool, but has served most of his ministry in Scotland, and with extended family in Perth and Fife he has a life-long association with communities in this Diocese.
Christopher Reynolds, Chair of People Committee
Christopher was educated in England at Cranleigh School, Magdalene College Cambridge, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He served in the British Army for 19 years before joining Gemini Consulting in 2000. He founded a management consulting company with two colleagues from Gemini and ran that successful business until he joined CH2M Hill (now Jacobs) in 2017, moving to take up the role as Senior Vice President for Programme Management Practice and Capabilities at AECOM in 2020. Recently retired, Christopher lives in Perthshire with his wife and two Labradors; he has two sons, both of whom went to Glenalmond.
David Sibbald
David was educated at Glenalmond College (1961-66) and a pupil in Skrine's House. He studied Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot Watt University graduating in 1973 joining Robert Hurd & Partners in Edinburgh and founding his own Architectural Practice in 1977 in Edinburgh before joining with the London practice of Carl Fisher and Partners 1979. He continues to work in the commercial sector for Private Developers and Public Companies, and was recently elected a Fellow of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland. He has been a member of the Council since 2005 and sits on the Committee of Council. He is married with a grown up son, also educated at Glenalmond, and lives in Edinburgh.
Linda White, Safeguarding Governor
Linda White was born in Glasgow and brought up in a small village in South Lanarkshire. She was educated at state schools before attending Strathclyde University, where she graduated with a Law Degree in 1974. After completing her legal apprenticeship in Glasgow, she went on to specialise in Criminal Law. Known in her professional life as Linda Smith, she worked for twenty years as a defence solicitor in the Glasgow courts, mainly in Sheriff and Jury trials. The arrival of the first of three daughters necessitated a career change and subsequently, in 1995, a house move to Comrie in Perthshire where she and her family still live. Linda then began her career in the Civil Courts, primarily dealing with all aspects of Family Law. Presently, she works full-time as the Court and Staff Partner in the long-established Stirling firm of Hill & Robb. Since 2006, she has sat as a Part-Time Sheriff.
Toby Seth
Toby is currently Head at Pocklington School Foundation - a boarding and day co-ed Foundation for around 800 pupils aged 2-18. He is a serving ISI inspector and also a member of the HMC Professional Development Committee.
Prior to these roles, Toby was Deputy Head (Development) of the King's School in Macclesfield, a Diamond structured day school of around 1,200 pupils.
Toby's first teaching post was at Dulwich College, where he spent five years, three as Head of Spanish. He then moved to Wellington College, where he was Head of MFL. In 2009, Toby moved to The Godolphin and Latymer School as Head of MFL and was Assistant Head when he left after 3 years.
Toby has undertaken an MA in Educational Leadership at the Institute of Education which he completed in 2013. He has an active interest in all areas of sport, having coached rugby, football, cricket, and tennis in the past and whilst not a musician or actor, also has a passion for all things dramatic and musical.
Kate Porter
Kate was educated at Craiglowan Prep School, Perth and then at St Leonards’s School, St Andrews. After a jam-packed gap year where she picked olives in Greece, worked on a Kibbutz in Israel, travelled through Asia and worked in the Northern territory of Australia, she went on to Napier University in Edinburgh where she attained a diploma as a Staff Nurse and then went on to do a Bsc in Nursing. Having worked in the respiratory department at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, she went on to marry OG James Porter (at Glenalmond chapel!) and gave up nursing to bring up her four children, three of whom are at Glenalmond, and one who is on her gap year and off to Bath University in September. Kate now runs a farm shop/café at home on their farm; she is a member of the Children’s Panel.
Jim Gully
Jim was educated at Glenalmond (Mathesons 1988-93) followed by Durham University. He trained as an ACA with PricewaterhouseCoopers before moving into financial services heading up the Group M&A team and the Bank of Scotland Growth Capital business. Following the merger with Lloyds Banking Group plc he was Strategy and Commercial Director for SME Banking, Corporate Banking and finally Group Operations, leading the strategic and cultural transformation of these divisions.
Jim retired from his executive role in 2018 and now invests in and advises a number of SMEs across the tourism and leisure, agriculture, renewables and estates sectors. A keen skier, golfer and squash enthusiast he is often off-piste or in the long rough when not following the family trials and tribulations at horse trials. Jim now lives in the Scottish Borders with his wife Alice, daughters Sophie and Louisa started Glenalmond in Lothian and Home respectively in September 2023, and Iona is finishing her time at Belhaven.
Lucy Elphinstone, Chair of Education Committee
Mrs Lucy Elphinstone has recently stepped down from the headship of Francis Holland School Sloane Square after eleven transformational years in which the school doubled its roll, ascended to the top academic ranks in the country and was awarded Sunday Times Independent School of the Year 2023. Voted Best Head of a Public School by Tatler in 2019, Lucy crowns an eventful and varied career. She holds an MA in English from Cambridge University, a PGCE and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She has taught in senior and prep schools throughout England and Scotland, but prior to a career in teaching, she worked in publishing, property development and hospitality. As a ghost-writer, she has published several books. She now runs a private education consultancy.
Her vision is to prepare young people for the challenges of the workplace in a world being swiftly transformed by artificial intelligence. She believe that skills of problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration and communication are vital tools for success, and seeks ways in which the curriculum can develop creativity, enterprise and innovation. She is on the steering committee of the Bourne-Epsom Protocol which seeks to maximise the benefits of AI in education.
Lucy is an intrepid explorer, recently trekking in China, Argentina, Japan, Ethiopia and Turkey. At Easter 2023, she hiked the 180km of the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal, crossing 5416m high Thorong-la Pass, and raising £500,000 for a scholarship at her school in perpetuity. She has four grown up entrepreneurial children, and enjoys riding, skiing, tennis, theatre, playing the piano, singing and painting.
Robin Black, Chair of Committee of Council (F&GP)
Robin was educated at Glenalmond (Patchells 1986-89), followed by Aberdeen University and then a postgraduate degree from York University. He began his career in Edinburgh, as an investment manager with Martin Currie, before moving to London in 1999 to become a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch. In 2002 Merrill Lynch relocated him to New York, where he remained until 2010. His final five years in New York were as a Managing Director of Deutsche Bank. He moved to Hong Kong in 2010 with Macquarie, where he served as Global Head of Pan Asian sales and was a member of the Senior Leadership Team of the Asian equities division. In 2016 he returned to Scotland to join Aegon Asset Management where he serves as an investment manager in the global equity team. He is the Chair of Home-Start Edinburgh and is a Trustee of the Church of Scotland Investors Trust. All three of Robin’s children went to Glenalmond and two are still in Goodacres. He enjoys skiing, golf and hillwalking, often in the company of OGs.
Ralph Peters, Chair of Estates Committee
Ralph has a strong and long association with Glenalmond having followed his father and uncle to the school from 1988 to 1993 before his brother attended and now his own children. Leaving Glenalmond in 1993 he ventured to Canada spending some time terrifying himself and others on the ski slopes and trying to avoid bears! Returning to Scotland he studied Cultural History before taking a Masters in Land Economy at Aberdeen University. From there he started work in Ayrshire and Renfrewshire where he qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 2002 with a focus on rural estate management and associated professional work. His career has since taken him from Stranraer to Aberdeenshire before settling in Perthshire as a partner with Bidwells in 2015 where he heads up the Scotland Division and Estate Management and Professional Team.
