Governance & organisation

Chairman of Council and Nominations Committee

Guy Black has spent his career in the communications industry and is Deputy Chairman of Telegraph Media Group and a former Director of the Press Complaints Commission. As Chairman of the Commonwealth Press Union Media Trust and board member for the World Association of Newspapers, he also has a significant international media role. He has been a member of the RCM Council since 2009 and became Chairman in 2017. He was educated at Brentwood School – where he first discovered his passion for music, and where he is now Chairman of Governors – and then at Peterhouse, Cambridge, from which he graduated in history. He is Co-Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary group on Music Education, a former Chairman of The Hanover Band, and a former Trustee of the Imperial War Museum. He was made a Life Peer in 2010 and has spoken widely in the House of Lords on media issues, music education and the Commonwealth.

Deputy Chair of Council, Chair of the Remuneration Committee

Catherine Clarke qualified as a solicitor and gained a broad spectrum of experience at leading law firms in both London and Hong Kong, where she lived for 20 years. She co-founded The Hillcrest Partnership LLP, an independent consultancy which advised businesses on the impact of financial services regulation and corporate governance and has also provided legal and governance support to a number of charities. From 2016 to 2024 she was a trustee (and also Vice Chair from 2020) of the Music of Life Foundation, a charity providing access to music-making for children and young people with a range of disabilities. She was also a Trustee and Chair of a community charity in the London Borough of Richmond.

Catherine has an MA in law from Queens’ College Cambridge and a Diploma in Governance Risk and Compliance from the International Compliance Association. She studied violin and piano at the RCM Junior Department for nine years and continues to study the piano as well as sing with various choirs in London.

Baroness Fleet CBE

Baroness Fleet, CBE (Veronica Wadley) is Chair of the London Music Fund and former Chair of the Department for Education’s Advisory Panel and Monitoring Board for the National Plan for Music Education 2022. She chaired the Expert Panel for Model Music Curriculum published in 2021. She was Chair of Arts Council, London and Board Member of Arts Council England (2010-2018) and re-joined as national council member, 2022 - 2025. From 2002-2009 she was Editor of the Evening Standard and chaired the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and Film Awards. In 2010 she was appointed to the Mayor of London’s Music Education Taskforce to develop philanthropic music giving. In 2011, Veronica co-founded the Mayor’s Music Fund, now called the London Music Fund and was re-appointed Chair in July 2020. From 2012 - 2016, she was Senior Advisor to the Mayor of London. She has worked with many charities and arts and education organisations including Northern Ballet and City of London Education Board and the Yehudi Menuhin School and is now a Governor of Shoreditch Park Academy and was a Trustee of ABRSM until 2025. She was a Non-Executive Director of the Berkeley Group until 2021. In 2018, she was appointed to the Council of the Royal College of Music. She was awarded a CBE in the 2018 Queen’s New Year Honours List for services to the Arts and in July 2020 was appointed to the House of Lords.

Chair of the Finance & General Purposes Committee

Richard Goulding is a member of the Board of Bank of Ireland Group PLC, where he chairs the Board Audit Committee, and is a member of the Risk, Transformation Oversight, Nominations, Governance and Responsible Business Committees. He is a member of the Board of Zopa Group Limited, where he chairs the Board Risk Committee and is a member of the Audit, Remuneration and Nomination Committees. He also serves as a member of the Business Strategy Committee of the Canada-based Global Risk Institute. Richard was formerly a member of the Board and Chair of the Board Risk Committee of Citigroup Global Markets Limited, served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Global Association of Risk Professionals and sat on the Advisory Board of Renmin University of China's Postgraduate Risk Management Programme.

Richard retired as a Director and Group Chief Risk Officer of Standard Chartered Bank in July 2015. Simultaneously, he also stepped down as Vice Chair of IFRI, the International Financial Risk Institute. Previous roles include Chief Operating Officer for Standard Chartered Bank, Chief Operating Officer for the Old Mutual Group, member of the Global Executive Board, Chief Credit Officer and Group Head of Risk Policies and Systems for UBS investment banking division and European Treasurer for Bankers Trust.

Richard qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen and Company, having previously obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a postgraduate degree in finance from the University of Natal in South Africa. His interests are mainly in Opera, Classical Music, Dance, Theatre and the visual arts.

Elected administrative member (August 2024 – July 2027)

Sarah Hanratty is Head of Projects, Facilities & Operations at the Royal College of Music. Sarah has a Batchelor of Music from Cardiff University and a Masters degree in Arts Administration & Cultural Policy from Goldsmiths, University of London.

During her 13 years at the RCM, she has worked on major capital Estates projects, including the South Building, Prince Consort Village and the Wolfson Centre. Sarah is most proud to have worked on the More Music Courtyard project, which has truly transformed our campus. She played a key role in managing Business As Usual to protect music-making during construction, requiring strong relationships with all RCM departments. Sarah’s role also heads up facilities and daily estates operations, across the busy RCM campus, 7 days per week. These essential services provide a warm welcome to students, staff and visitors and facilitate RCM activity providing FM services, porterage, customer service, box office and house management.

Sarah swapped playing the flute for a high viz jacket and construction hard hat. She uses her musical background as passionate project manager, ensuring music is prioritised whilst striving to improve campus facilities. Sarah was awarded an Honorary Membership of the RCM in 2018

Chair of the Audit & Risk Assurance Committee

Professor Peter Holgate is a chartered accountant, having retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in June 2013. At PwC he was senior accounting technical partner from 1995 to 2013. He was for many years a principal author of the PwC’s Manual of Accounting – UK GAAP and the Manual of Accounting – IFRS for the UK.

He was an editor of A practical guide to the Companies Act 2006 (PwC/CCH). He is sole author of Accounting principles for lawyers (CUP, 2006) and joint author of Accounting principles for non-executive directors (CUP, 2008). He is the author of numerous articles in the professional press and a contributor to a number of books and other publications.

Peter has spoken frequently on accounting subjects at seminars and conferences. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and holds a master’s degree in management from the University of Bradford Management Centre. In 2016, he completed a music degree at City University, London.

Peter was a member of the FRC's Urgent Issues Task Force from 1994 to 2012. He has acted as a member of the advisory board of the ICAEW’s Financial Reporting Faculty. From 2006 to 2012 he was Chairman of the ICAEW’s Research Advisory Board. From 2012 to 2019, he was a visiting professor of accounting at London School of Economics. From 2015 to 2024, he was a trustee of St John’s Smith Square (now Sinfonia Smith Square). He is a director of The Frater Clinic Limited, a private GP clinic on Harley Street. In recent years, he has acted as Expert Witness on accounting matters in a number of legal cases, in which context he has been described as “a chartered accountant of the highest standing”.

SU President

Leila Hooton is a freelance flautist, based in London. She is currently the President of the Royal College of Music Students' Union. Leila graduated from her Masters in Instrumental Performance at the Royal College of Music in 2024. She was supported throughout her studies as the Fishmonger’s Company Beckwith Scholar and also by Help Musicians UK and the Sir Richard Stapley Educational Trust.

Alongside her presidency, Leila performs as both a soloist and ensemble musician, teaches flute and enjoys working in arts admin. She worked as the SoundLab Coordinator for the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's Learning and Participation Department's outreach project SoundLab for the academic year 2021–2022 and is also currently the Operations and Pastoral Assistant at Guildhall Young Artist Norwich. Leila is delighted to be continuing the role of the Royal College of Music Student Union’s President for the year 2025–2026.

Ruth Keattch has long and varied experience in the financial services industry encompassing investment research, corporate broking and fund management. Latterly she was chief investment officer at Artemis, the fund management firm, where she oversaw all the firm’s investment strategies and asset classes. She has served on the boards of Redburn (Europe) plc and Ravensbourne University London. She is currently a trustee at Moorfields Eye Charity, chair of its Investment Committee and a member of its Oriel and Nominations Committees. She is also a member of the Investment Committee at The HMS Victory Preservation Company.

Ruth has a degree in mathematics from St Anne’s College, Oxford. She is a keen amateur pianist and collaborative performer. A believer in lifelong learning, she completed a music degree with The Open University in 2021.

Jamie is a political strategist, commentator and former music industry executive. He was Director of Strategy at No. 10 Downing Street from 2023 to 2024, before which he was Chief Executive of UK Music, the collective voice of the UK music industry (2020 - 2023). He has also worked as a special adviser at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and at the Department of Health and Social Care.

Jamie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Nottingham and a Masters in International Relations. He is a trustee of Britten Pears Arts, sits on the board of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and is a member of Council of the Royal College of Music.

Jamie has frequently acted as a cultural sector representative to Government, and has sat on the National Council of Arts Council England, the National Plan for Music Education Monitoring Board, and on the Creative Industries Council. He was also on the expert advisory panel for both the Government’s National Plan for Music Education and the UK City of Culture 2025 competition.

Chair of the Estates Committee

Duncan is the Chair of Link plc, which is Asia’s largest REIT, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and which invests across the APAC region. He is also chair of their Finance and Investment Committee and NOMCO and a member of the REMCO and ESG committees. Duncan is Chair of Sellar Property Group and he is also an independent non-executive director and chair of the board of directors of Workspace Group PLC, a REIT listed on the London Stock Exchange, where he is chair of their NOMCO and ESG committees. Duncan is also Chair of The Oxford Science Park Partnership, which is a venture between GIC and the University of Oxford, Magdalen College.

Duncan has over 30 years’ experience in the real estate investment and development sectors. Up until 2023, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Immobel Capital Partners. From 2012 to 2020, he was the Global Head of Real Estate of Schroders PLC. He served as Chief Executive Officer of Invista Real Estate Investment Management Holdings PLC from 2006 to 2011. Prior to those appointments, he was managing director of Insight Investment Management Limited and the co-founder of Gatehouse Investment Management Limited. He held various positions in Jones Lang LaSalle and LaSalle Investment Management from 1990 to 2001. Duncan has worked across all the main real estate sectors in both private equity and listed REIT structures.

He has been active in public service, having been a member of the Board of Governors of the Church Commissioners and the chairman of their Real Assets Investment Committee from 2016 to 2022, and a member of the Policy Committee of the British Property Federation for 14 years.

He holds a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Urban Land Economics from Sheffield Hallam University. He is a Chartered Surveyor and a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and a Financial Conduct Authority Approved Person for investment management.

Chair of the Investment Committee

Nandu Patel is a Senior Adviser to Private Bank clients, Head of Charities and Investment Consultant Relationships for Barclays Private Bank in the UK. He is responsible for building, managing and growing relationships with investment consultants as well as charities and not-for-profits.

Nandu has over 37 years’ experience in financial services and wealth management. During 20 years at Morgan Stanley he initially worked with non-resident Indian, UK and some European private clients as well as small sized money managers. He then focused on working with UK charities, before joining and spending 11 years at Rothschild & Co, where he was appointed UK Head of Charities and created and grew a dedicated charities team and business. He joined Barclays in April 2021.

Nandu is married to Jane, and is a trustee of a small UK registered charity, is among the Spear’s 500 and is on the Board of Philanthropy Impact UK.

Elected professorial member (March 2022 – July 2028)

Ingrid Pearson came to the UK from her native Australia to pursue her interest in the history and repertoire of the clarinet. Following lectureships in the UK university sector she joined the RCM professoriate in 2005. In her current role as Senior Academic Tutor, Ingrid works across the College’s undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. As a clarinettist she performs historical and contemporary repertoire. Ingrid has played with major UK period ensembles here and abroad, and recorded for ASV, Deutsche Grammophon, Opera Rara and Rubicon Classics. Her publications have appeared in English, Chinese and German; and her research has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Galpin Society.

Geoffrey Richards was Head of the Fleming Family & Partners International Family Offices, Trust & Administration businesses and Chairman of Fleming Family & Partners in Zurich and Liechtenstein. He also chaired the Singapore family office and trust services business and was an executive director of the Fleming Group. Following his retirement in 2009, Geoff founded Richards & Partner Consulting Limited in order to continue with his Trustee and Advisory consultancy to international families. He is a Freeman and Liveryman of the City of London, a past member of The Prince's Charities Council, a past Member of the Philharmonia Trust and an Honorary member of the University of Lund-Sweden’s student choir.

Elected professorial member (August 2022 – July 2028)

Patricia Rozario, OBE FRCM is a Bombay-born British soprano. Her wide concert and opera repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary music. Her unique voice and artistry have inspired over 15 of the world’s leading composers to write for her, notably Arvo Pärt, Sir John Tavener and Jonathan Dove. In a career that has included concerts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and several at The BBC Proms, she has sung opera and concerts under the world’s leading conductors at the world's leading venues, in North America, Canada, Russia, the Far East, Australia, throughout Europe and the UK. Her extensive discography covers works from opera to new music to song, including several world premiere recordings, often of pieces written especially for her. Patricia runs the foundation, Giving Voice Society, which instructs Indian students in western singing. The foundation produces operas with all-Indian casts, and has sent several singers for international study abroad.

Patricia was head of the jury for the Kathleen Ferrier Competition in 2025. She was awarded the OBE in 2001, the Asian Women’s Award in 2002 and the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award in January 2013. She received a fellowship of the Royal College of Music in 2014. She is currently a professor at the Royal College of Music and Trinity Laban.

Nadine is a marketing and communications consultant with substantial experience in the arts and cultural sector. Her work covers brand development, promotional and fundraising campaigns, capital development projects, audience development strategies and corporate communications.

Nadine was Head of Communications and Marketing at Tate before becoming Director of Communications for English National Opera in 2008. In 2012 she took the position of Managing Director and then Chief Operating Officer for Sutton, an international communications company working with a wide range of cultural clients. She set up her consultancy in 2021 and her clients have included the Barbican, Chelsea Physic Garden and the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

Nadine strongly believes in the importance of access to arts education for young people. She is a Trustee of Ealing Youth Orchestra and supports Art History Link-Up, a charity providing free Art History courses to state school students. Nadine has a degree in Art History from the Courtauld and a postgraduate diploma from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

The multi-award-winning composer, university professor of music and film-maker Shirley J. Thompson, is a visionary artist and cultural activist that has transformed contemporary classical music with ground-breaking works that have attracted new audiences worldwide. Thompson is a highly versatile and prolific composer with many compositions for orchestra, the operatic stage, the instrumental/vocal/dance/multi-media Shirley Thompson Ensemble, TV, film, theatre, choir, and the solo voice.

The music of Shirley J. Thompson is often described as ‘superbe’ (Le Figaro) and ‘powerful and striking’ (BBC Radio 3) and she is thought to be the first woman in Europe to have composed and conducted a symphony within the last 40 years. The work, New Nation Rising: A 21st Century London Symphony is an epic musical story celebrating London’s thousand-year history, and one in which the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is accompanied by two choirs, solo singers, a rapper and dhol drummers, a total of nearly 200 performers in the recording of it. This extraordinary work was originally commissioned to celebrate Her Majesty the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 and the concept was latterly assumed as a framework for the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony.

She co-scored the ballet PUSH that toured to over 40 of the world’s major opera houses, including The Marinsky Theatre, La Scala Milan and Sydney Opera House. Her opera series, Heroines of Opera (2006), encapsulating narratives of iconic women in history and especially those of African and Caribbean heritage, has created exciting new roles for extraordinary performers as well as challenging the traditional portrayal of women in the operatic canon. Thompson has consistently demonstrated in her work a belief in the transformative power of music to affect social, cultural and political change, setting up educational schemes in the UK such as Every Child A Musician. In 2023 she was personally commissioned by HM King Charles III to compose orchestral music for The Coronation in May 2023 making her one of a kist of iconic Coronation Composers. Thompson is claimed as ‘the present and future’ of British classical music in a 700-year legacy of iconic composers from Tomas Tallis to the symphonic composer, Ralph Vaughan Williams.” The Gramophone (June, 2023)

Paula Walter has worked in Technology, Digital, Data and Information Security within the Financial Services industry for over two decades, holding multiple technology roles across regions and business units within Goldman Sachs. Other leadership roles include Chief Technology Officer at Newton Investment Management, Chief Operating Officer at Ruffer LLP and Chief Technology and Information Officer at Aldermore Group, part of First Rand Group. She is currently a Non-Executive Director at Brightwell, the pensions service provider.

She has a strong interest in education, and currently serves as a Director for the German School London, on her alma mater the University of Cape Town's UK Board of Trustees, and as a Trustee for Learning with Parents.

Paula holds honours degrees in Mathematics and Linguistics from the University of Cape Town, and an MPhil and DPhil in Linguistics from the University of Oxford, where she was a senior scholar at Christ Church. She completed the Advanced Management Programme at IESE Business School.