Margin Call: fear in hearts of private school board members

Scots Pipes and Drums 14 Novermber 2008. The Scots College Pipes and Drums Band, have been named the Australian Juvenile and Grade 4 Champions at the Australian Band Championships. Photo: Alan Place.

The decision to override the Scots College board in Sydney over governance issues should strike fear into the hearts of a who’s who of corporate Australia who serve on the councils of our nation’s top private schools.

On Friday the Presbyterian Church sidelined the entire council of the elite Bellevue Hill learning institution for boys amid allegations of a power struggle. The school says that although the board has not been dismissed, the trustees have exercised their “constitutional right to govern the college directly”.

Trustees of the school had been keen to ensure “the educational mission” of the elite school was being prioritised.

The board of the registered charity had been led by chair Gillian Heard, a director of training consultancy The Learning Community.

Gillian Heard, who had led the Scots College board.

In her most recent note to the college annual report, Heard recounted an update of the school’s “strategic plan” as well as implementation of a “ new policy suite to enhance our governance arrangements”.

Scots 2014 annual report shows the council included former Macquarie banker Greg Simitian, TressCox Lawyers corporate finance partner Philip Mitchell and ANZ executive director and former KPMG head of capital markets advisory Andrew Leithhead (whose other interests include racing an Alfa Romeo).

None could be reached for comment so far today.

Scots alumni include billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff, owner of Meriton Apartments, the late painter Brett Whiteley, film director Peter Weir, journalist-turned-barrister Stuart Littlemore and neurosurgeon Charlie Teo.

It is of one Sydney’s eight prestigious GPS schools for boys, and is a neighbour to Cranbrook, whose alumni include James Packer and disgraced businessmen Jodee Rich and Rodney Adler.

The board of Cranbrook also boasts a host of leading business identities. It is led by ARTC chair and outgoing Veda chair Helen Nugent and Eureka Capital’s Roger Massy Greene, with its council also comprising former adviser with boutique investment bank Gresham Jon North, Washington Soul Patts director Warwick Negus, Boston Consulting Group senior partner Patrick Forth and McKinsey partner Angus Dawson.

Billionaire Gretel Packer’s son Benjamin is a current student at Cranbrook.

Other GPS schools include Sydney Grammar, The King’s School, where NSW Premier Mike Baird was educated, Shore and Sydney Boys High.

Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour knows first hand the perils of serving on an elite school board.

He was a director of posh Melbourne girls’ college MLC and played a role in the sacking in 2012 of popular principal Rosa Storelli under the direction of board chair and head of Melbourne University Press Louise Adler.

Adler has since been replaced as chair by PwC managing partner Tony Peake.