Council

Role of the Council

The National Army Museum was founded by Royal Charter in 1960. The Council is the organisation's governing body, responsible for setting strategy and overseeing performance.

Key responsibilities of the Council are to:

• set the Mission, Vision and Values of the NAM;
• develop the overall strategy with the NAM Director and Senior Leadership Team;
• oversee operational and financial performance;
• provide guidance to the Director and Senior Leadership Team;
• maintain effective board performance.

Council members

Lt Gen Sir Simon Mayall KBE, CB

Chair of Council

Sir Simon Mayall recently retired from a long and distinguished Army career in which he served in a variety of senior military and political advisory roles focused on the Middle East. Sir Simon began his career with the British Army in 1978 and held a series of increasingly senior roles until his retirement in July 2015.

Sir Simon joined Greenhill & Co as a senior advisor in September 2015. He was educated at Oxford University (Modern History), and has a master’s degree in International Relations and Affairs from King’s College London.

Mr Patrick Aylmer

Council Member

Patrick Alymer is a former army reservist, a Chartered Accountant and Managing Director of Fox Funding, a property finance business. He is also a trustee of The Land Trust and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

Dr Jonathan Boff

Council Member

Dr Jonathan Boff is a Senior Lecturer in History and War Studies at the University of Birmingham, where he specialises in the First World War. His book, ‘Haig's Enemy: Crown Prince Rupprecht and Germany's War on the Western Front, 1914-18’ was published in 2018. His previous book, ‘Winning and Losing on the Western Front: The British Third Army and the Defeat of Germany in 1918’, was short-listed for the Templer Medal and for the British Army Book of the Year award.

He was educated at Oxford University and the Department of War Studies, King's College London, and spent 20 years working in finance before returning to academia. He also serves on the council of the Army Records Society and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Mrs Judith Donovan CBE

Council Member and NAMTL Chair

Judith Donovan was one of the first female entrepreneurs in Yorkshire, founding her own marketing agency in 1982, which she grew to over 50 staff and a turnover of £12.5 million, before selling in 2000.

Since then, she has pursued a non-executive career. Some of her current roles include: Chair of Keep Me Posted, Chair of the Royal Mail Letters Advisory Board, Trustee of the Science Museum Group, Chair of the Advisory Board of the National Science and Media Museum and Chair of Ripon Cathedral Council. Previously, she has been a Millennium Commissioner and a Director of HSE and the BIG Lottery Fund.

Mr John Duncan OBE

Council Member

John Duncan is a former Ambassador and British Overseas Territory Governor. During a 38-year career in HM Diplomatic Service, he served in Paris, Sudan, Albania, Brussels, Geneva, New York, the Virgin Islands and the Falkands. John’s most recent overseas postings were as British Ambassador at the United Nations and as HM Governor for the British Virgin Islands and Interim Governor for the Falkland Islands.

John was the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative to the 2011 London Conference on Cyberspace. He was senior advisor to the FCO Board on the development of Digital Diplomacy and subsequently served as FCO Director for Communications and Engagement. John was educated at Wycliffe College (Gloucestershire), the Université de Paris, Sorbonne, Keele University (Staffordshire), and the Nato Defence College Rome.

Mr Guy Perricone

Council Member

After qualifying as a solicitor with Linklaters, Guy Perricone worked for 20 years in investment banking at Salomon Brothers, SG Warburg and ABN AMRO. During this time, he was a founding partner in an investment banking firm specialising in the markets of Central and Eastern Europe, which was subsequently acquired by ABN AMRO.

In 2005, Guy left investment banking to become Managing Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. From 2009 to 2013, he was Chief Executive of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. He joined the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple as Chief Executive and Under Treasurer in 2013. He is currently Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Academy of Dance.

Dr Paul Schreier

Council Member

Dr Paul Schreier was born in Australia. He took his BA, Master’s and PhD degrees in engineering at Cambridge University before joining the Royal Navy. After commanding a ship, he left to join McKinsey & Company’s London office, where he became a partner before moving to Kuala Lumpur.

He was subsequently appointed to the Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, becoming deputy secretary with responsibility for economic policy and strategy. He then served as Chief Operating Officer at Macquarie University in Sydney before three years leading Hakluyt from 2016. He is now serving as Chief Operating Officer at the Wellcome Trust.

Mrs Sabine Vandenbroucke

Council Member

Sabine Vandenbroucke is the Chief Operating Officer of Condé Nast Publishing, where she oversees the operations of Vogue, GQ and Vanity Fair, among other titles. Previously, she was Winkorp’s Chief Financial Officer, which she helped establish and develop into multiple brand extensions with global reach.

She sits on the boards of Condé Nast Publishing Ltd and the Belgian publisher Die Keure, and previously held board roles in Winkorp’s global entities. Sabine studied business engineering and philosophy before completing her MBA at INSEAD.

Mr William Wells

Council Member

William Wells was educated at Oxford University (Modern History) and the London Business School (MBA), and served in the Royal Green Jackets. William is the Executive Vice-Chairman, Central & Eastern Europe, at Rothschild & Co.

Prof Andrew Roberts

Council Member

Andrew Roberts is a biographer and historian who appears regularly on radio and TV. His books 'Salisbury: Victorian Titan', 'The Storm of War', 'Masters and Commanders', 'Napoleon the Great' and 'Churchill: Walking with Destiny' all won literary awards. 'George III: The Life and Reign of Britain’s Most Misunderstood Monarch' is published in October 2021.

He is a trustee of the Margaret Thatcher Archive Trust and President of the Cliveden Literary Festival, a Visiting Professor at the War Studies Department of King’s College London and the Roger and Martha Mertz Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Lt Gen Sir George Norton

Council Member

Lieutenant General Sir George Norton is Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies after an Army career which spanned 38 years and culminated in his appointment as the UK's senior military diplomat in Brussels. He was educated at Cambridge, Sandhurst and the Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr, and commissioned in the Grenadier Guards.

The highlights of his Regimental service included Battalion command and the honorary appointment of Regimental Lieutenant Colonel during the closing years of the Colonelcy of HRH Prince Philip. His wider military service was primarily operational and multinational in its focus, including multiple tours of Afghanistan and Northern Ireland, and a year in Sarajevo following the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement.

He commanded the Household Division over the period of The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, when he found himself additionally responsible for the Army's support to the 2012 Olympics in London. He concluded his uniformed career as the UK's longest serving Military Representative to Nato and its final Military Representative to the European Union.

Mr Richard Hughes

Strategic and Legal Advisor to Council

Richard Hughes is a practising City solicitor and a partner at a leading law firm. He has a law degree from Oxford University and a degree in modern history from Birmingham University. His 37 years' professional experience also includes periods as in-house counsel at a major investment bank (Morgan Stanley) and a leading airline (Emirates).

In parallel with his work as a lawyer, he has always played a role in the charitable sector; this has included running a pro bono law centre and acting as trustee of a benevolent fund. In addition to his work with the National Army Museum, he is a trustee of the Western Front Association for which he organises its annual commemoration at the Cenotaph on 11 November.