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Governors

 

President and Chairs
President and Patron: His Eminence Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster
Chair: Mr Paul Raynes MA (Cantab)
Deputy Chair: Mrs Jane Ranzetta BA Hons, PGCE

 

The Chair of Governors can be contacted at the College as follows:

c/o St Edmund’s College, Old Hall Green,
Ware, Herts, SG11 1DS.
Tel: 01920 824203
Email: chair@stedmundscollege.org

Members

  • Mr Paul Raynes MA (Cantab) (Chair of Governors)
  • Mrs Jane Ranzetta BA Hons, PGCE (Deputy Chair of the Full Board and Chair of Academic Sub-Committee)
  • Mr John Bryant BA (Chair of the Prep School Sub-Committee)
  • Mr Stephen Grounds BSC, DPhil
  • Fr Alban McCoy OFM Conv BA, MLitt (Chair of the PR & Marketing Sub-Committee)
  • Ms Nichola Walsh BA Hons, MA
  • Dr Veronica Fulton FCA MA DSG (Chair of the Finance Sub-Committee)

Lead Governors

  • Mr Paul Raynes – Relations with Parents Lead
  • Mrs Jane Ranzetta – Safeguarding and EYFS leads
  • Mr Stephen Grounds – Health and Safety Lead
  • Ms Nichola Walsh – Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead

Governor biographies

 

Mr Paul Raynes MA (Cantab)

Paul Raynes has been a governor at St Edmund’s since 2018 and is the chairman of the Governing Body and lead governor for relations with parents. He is Director of Operations and Finance at the Diocese of East and Anglia and has had a career taking in roles at HM Treasury, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and in business and local government. He previously chaired the governors of one of London’s largest comprehensive schools, leading its transition to academy status, and has been a member of a number of advisory boards to government. He is also a Trustee of the Walsingham Trust, which oversees the Catholic shrine, and is Secretary of the Cathedral of St John the Baptist Trust. He was ordained a deacon in 2023.

Mrs Jane Ranzetta BA Hons, PGCE

Jane is rooted in Catholic education. Attending a Ursuline Convent school then completing an honours degree in Religious Studies at Lancaster University.  She completed her PGCE at Cambridge and also gained the Catholic Teaching Certificate.  After many years of teaching in a variety of Catholic schools as Head of RE in both prep, independent and state schools, she became a Section 48 Inspector for the Brentwood Diocese.  Jane is a trained catechist and Eucharistic Minister.

Jane is currently teaching RE and is a lay chaplaincy co-ordinator at a large State Catholic school in Suffolk where she is also involved with committees on staff welfare.  She is studying part-time for an MA in Catholic School Leadership application and practice at St Mary’s University in London.

Jane has been a governor of St Edmund’s College since 2015.  Since 2017 Jane has chaired the Academic sub-committee and was appointed as Deputy Chair of the Full Board in 2018.  She is also the Safeguarding and EYFS lead governor.

In her spare time, Jane enjoys charity fundraising, cooking, and looking after her selection of rare breed chickens.

Mr John Bryant BA

John was educated both at St Edmund’s College Prep (then St Hugh’s) and at St Edmund’s College, from where he won an entrance exhibition in Classics to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.  After graduating he read for the Bar and has been a practising barrister for some forty years, now specialising in professional negligence and property work.

John has been a governor of St Edmund’s College since 2012 and currently serves on the Prep and Finance sub-committees.  Since 2018 he has chaired the Prep School sub-committee.

John is married with three children and has three grandchildren.  In his spare time, John enjoys rowing, playing cricket, birdwatching, reading and tackling crosswords.

Mr Stephen Grounds BSC, DPhil

Stephen was educated by the Oratorians at St Philip’s Grammar School, Edgbaston.  He studied physics at London and Oxford Universities and holds degrees from both universities.

Stephen has worked in industry and the civil service, taught in schools and lectured in higher education.  Subsequently, and for 17 years, he was one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Schools specialising in the training of teachers.  He continues to do some inspection and consultancy.

Stephen has been a governor of St Edmund’s College since 2015 and currently serves on the Prep and Academic sub-committees.  He is also the Health & Safety lead governor.

Stephen is an avid reader focusing on current and past events, he also enjoys languages, music and walking.

Fr Alban McCoy OFM Conv, BA (Kent), MLitt (Oxon), MLitt (Cantab)

Fr Alban is a Fellow, Dean, Praelector and Second Bursar of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.  He was educated at St Bede’s College, Manchester and the Universities of Kent and Oxford.  After ordination as a priest in the Franciscan Order, he served as a curate in a far-flung rural parish in Lincolnshire, where he was also for three years a Chaplain in the Royal Air Force.  After three years at Oxford as a graduate student, where his thesis was on the philosophical problem of evil, he became Guardian, Master of Clerics and Dean of Studies at the Franciscan Study Centre, Canterbury, where he taught philosophy and, at the University of Kent, where he taught Medieval Theology.  Moving to London, he became Dean of Philosophy at Allen Hall, London, the Westminster Diocesan Seminary, before moving to Cambridge in 1998, as Catholic Chaplain to the University, a post he occupied for fifteen years from 1998-2013. Since 1995, he has been the Religious Books Editor at The Tablet, the London-based international Catholic weekly newspaper, and is their wine columnist.  He teaches philosophy part-time at Allen Hall.  He is the author of An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Catholicism (Bloomsbury 2001) and An Intelligent Persons Guide to Christian Ethics (2006) and numerous reviews and articles.

Fr Alban has been a governor of St Edmund’s College since 2014 and currently chairs the PR & Marketing sub-committee. In his spare, time Fr Alban enjoys travel, music history and wine.

Ms Nicola Walsh BA(Hons), MA

Nicola Walsh was born in London and is the Vice Principal of St. Dominic’s Sixth Form College, Harrow. She is an Associate Inspector Section 48 for the Westminster Diocese, a Dominican associate, and this is her first year as a governor of St Edmund’s College.

Nicola has been involved in Catholic education her entire career, is a practising Catholic and is a Eucharistic Minister.  She studied Theology at St Mary’s College, Twickenham, and attended the Institute of Education, London University, where she was awarded her Masters degree in education.

In her spare time, she is an avid sports fan, following football, rugby, cricket and boxing; and regularly attends concerts with tastes ranging from Bach to U2.

Nicola is the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion lead governor.

Dr Veronica Fulton FCA MA and DSG

Veronica was educated mainly abroad but her final years at school were spent at a Sacred Heart convent. Following school, Veronica went to work and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. She spent some years working in general practice being appointed as a partner in a top twenty firm in 1980. After ten years, she decided on a change in direction and went to work in the City for a trust corporation as a trustee of defined benefit pension schemes for large blue chip companies. Her next appointment was as the Secretary of the General Practitioner Board at the Institute of Chartered Accountants. In this role, she had responsibility for 40,000 practising members. She returned to the trust corporation to help with the winding up of a number of pension schemes.

During the later stages of her career, she did an MA at Heythrop College and upon taking retirement, she completed a Phd which examined the relationship between ecclesiology and canon law.

Veronica has for many years volunteered for Catholic charities and institutions. Amongst her appointments have been as a governor of St Mary’s College, Strawberry Hill (1999-2008) and she is currently a trustee of the student body. She was on the Finances Committee at Cafod for a number of years and was Chairman of the Cardinal Hume Centre. In her parish, she has been an RCIA and a Confirmation Catechist. As well as doing the accounts for her parish, she also did the accounts for five other parishes in the Diocese of Westminster. Currently, she is the treasurer of the Catholic Union, a governor of Allen Hall seminary and a foundation director of the Diocese of Westminster Multi Academy Trust. In the secular world, she is a trustee of the pension scheme of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

For her services to the Catholic Church, she was appointed a Dame of the Equestrian Order of St Gregory in 2020.

Veronica is the Chair of the Finance sub-committee.

Fr Michael O’Boy BA (York), Ph.D (Cantab), STB (Leuven), STL (Bellarmine Institute, Heythrop) M.Th (London)

Fr Michael is a priest of the Diocese of Westminster. Having studied at Allen Hall, the Diocesan Seminary now located in Chelsea, he was ordained in June 2000 and is currently Parish Priest of St Alban & St Stephen in St Albans. His parochial appointments have included Our Lady Help of Christians, Kentish Town; St Aloysius, Somers Town and the Cathedral Church of the Most Precious Blood, Westminster where he was also Sub-administrator. He has also served as Director of Westminster’s Diocesan Agency for Evangelisation where he worked in the fields of Small Communities, Adult Faith Formation, Catechetics and Youth Ministry. Between 2013 and 2019 he was Dean of Studies and Vice-rector at Allen Hall.

Before entering formation for the priesthood Fr Michael completed a first degree in History and Politics at the University of York, and doctoral studies in recusant history at Magdalene College, Cambridge. His seminary studies at Allen Hall led to a first degree in Theology from the University of Leuven. In more recent years, while a member of staff at Allen Hall, he obtained both a masters degree and licence in Theology at Heythrop College, London.

In the course of his ministry Fr Michael has served as a foundation governor on several governing bodies. In addition to St Edmunds he is currently a foundation governor at both of his parish primary schools. He was recently elected as a trustee of the Secular Clergy Common Fund.