It is my pleasure to introduce to you the members of the Board of Directors and Board of Governors. I am very pleased to have this body of people sitting alongside the school management and in a position to support the various governance and management structures of the school. There is a balance in the membership of the Board of Governors between parents and independent outsiders who have no specific ties to the school and are here only to serve its best interests.
Kascha Reed, ISCT School Principal
The Board of Directors are as follows:
Mukesh Shah
Mukesh Shah is a Director and founder of Strategic Consultants Limited, a practice that he established in 1992, which provides specialised consultancy services in the areas of strategic planning, high level advisory to family owned business, business revival and reconstruction and mergers and acquisitions to national and international clients. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (UK), Member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya and Institute of Certified Public Secretaries of Kenya. He has worked with Price Waterhouse UK and Price Waterhouse Kenya where he has specialised in assurance, accounting and investigations. He was an authority in the audit of banks, financial institutions, oil companies, tour operators and hotels. He holds directorships of private companies mainly in a professional capacity and is the Chair of Braeburn Schools Limited as well as being a non-executive Director of NCBA Bank Plc and Carbacid Investments Plc and advises boards of various other corporate and family-owned businesses. He was a non-executive Director of the Kenya Revenue Authority from May 2018 to January 2023.
Rob Williams
Rob Williams is the current Acting CEO of Braeburn Schools Limited in Kenya. He worked as a Biology/Chemistry teacher in State schools in the UK for ten years before joining Braeburn in 1989. Since then in Braeburn, he has fulfilled roles as Teacher, Boarding Parent, Deputy Headteacher, Headteacher (in three of the Group Schools), Education Director and Managing Director. While in Kenya, Rob also chaired the Kenya Association of International Schools for many years and also chaired the Education Sector Board for KePSA (Kenya Private Sector Alliance), a body in Kenya’s private sector which mirrors the Kenya Government in structure and represents the private sector interests. Rob has also been appointed on selection committees to assist in appointing several government officials. Rob sits on several Braeburn Boards and is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors for ISCT.
Chris Childs
Chris Childs is the Chief Operations Officer for Braeburn Schools Limited in Kenya where he lives with his wife and two young children. He has a MEng from Newcastle University and has worked at Braeburn in various capacities for over ten years. Chris is also a Board Member of Braeburn’s parent company and was part of the team that worked on the acquisition of ISCT from the school’s previous owners. As an ISCT Board Member, Chris will be the main point of contact between the school management and the Board of Directors.
The Board of Governors are as follows:
Mark Horner – Chair of the Board
Mark has a PhD in physics from the University of Cape Town and is now the Director for Impact and Learning at the Siyavula Foundation, an educational technology company focused on secondary school mathematics and the sciences. His work extends across 7 African countries where he pursues his mission to champion a love of maths and science – and not just for his two boys who attend ISCT. He was previously the Open and Collaborative Resources Fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation.
Mongana Tau
Adv Mongana Tau is an experienced educationist who has experience as a teacher, principal and university lecturer. He also has managerial experience in government and Parliament where he served in various senior management positions. He also served in various positions in school governing bodies as vice chairperson and chairperson. His highest qualifications are Masters degree in Economics and LLM in Commercial law. He is an Advocate of the High Court. He believes that good school governance has potential to create a conducive effective teaching and learning. Potential to enhance accountability, cooperation, trust and confidence among the stakeholders within the school community.
Neville Yoland Vaughan Ontong
Neville is the Principal of King’s School Goodwood as well as the Regional Chair of SAHISA South West Region, SAHISA National EXCO member, ISASA Transformation and Diversity committee member, and serves on the ISASA National EXCO team. He was born and raised in Kimberley and now lives in Cape Town with his family. He holds several degrees in education and leadership and has done research in Multicultural Education, Democracy in Education, and curriculum planning and development as well as holding a Diploma in Theology from Western Cape Bible Institute.
Courage Karenyi
Courage has been a parent at ISCT since January 2015, with three children attending the school. He holds a degree in Architecture from the University of Cape Town and currently works as a Consultant Professional Construction Project Manager. As the Managing Director of a Project Management Consulting firm based in Cape Town, he leads infrastructure projects across South Africa, Africa, and the Caribbean. Passionate about transforming lives, he strives to shape urban landscapes through the architectural developments he undertakes.
Mahesh Cooper
Mahesh has been a parent at ISCT since January 2019. He is a qualified actuary and graduated from UCT with a Bachelor of Business Science degree and has his Masters in Business Administration from the Institute for Management Development. He has worked in financial services for over 20 years and is currently COO at Allan Gray.
Jeremy Main
Jeremy holds an MSc in Environmental and Geographical Science (Climatology) from the University of Cape Town and has been a parent at ISCT since 2015 until relocating with the whole family to Cheshire in the UK since November 2023 to continue work on the global mega-science project Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Mid and Low frequency radio telescope, based in South Africa and Australia, respectively. Jeremy is currently the Project Manager responsible for delivering Networks and Computing into the SKA project for which construction recently commenced and is expected to complete by 2030.
Mirah Ranchod
Mirah holds an LLB degree and is practising as a conveyancer and a legal practitioner at Erasmus Ranchod and Associates (“ERA”) based in central Cape Town. This general legal practice gives her extensive experience into various aspects of law such as commercial, company, estate administration and property. She has been part of the ISCT Community since 2021 in the capacity as a parent. Mirah is currently the managing partner at ERA, a guest lecturer and a presiding officer in a specialised court from time to time. She has won the first runner up in the WOZA Women in Law awards for Best in Thought Leaders, Innovation and Academia. Mirah is also a main trustee of the Sando Bursary Trust which awards tertiary education bursaries to deserving previously disadvantaged students and currently serves on a few boards of directors for different institutions as an independent non-executive director.
Jim Baggott
Jim holds a B.Sc. (Manchester) and a doctorate (Oxford). He has had an eclectic career, as an academic scientist (Oxford, Stanford, and Reading Universities), as a business manager (with Shell, including Shell South Africa), and as an independent business consultant and trainer working with commercial enterprises (Shell, Microsoft) and not-for-profits. He has written several books related to science, philosophy, and history and was awarded the Glaxo prize for science writing in 1992 and the Italian Cosmos prize in 2020. His books have been translated into more than a dozen different languages.
Angeli Arora
Angeli is a former parent at ISCT. She graduated from Oxford University and is currently managing parent of Allectus Law LLP – specialising in corporate law. She was previously a senior corporate partner at global law firm, Dentons (heading up their Africa private equity practice) and Akin Gump. She is an advocate for inclusivity, including the advancement of women. She believes education plays a critical role in empowering communities and bringing about equal opportunities.
