Trustees
Baroness Fleet, Veronica Wadley CBE (Chair)
Veronica Wadley, Co-founder and Chair of the London Music Fund, is a Member of the House of Lords and Chairs the Department for Education’s National Plan for Music Education. She was previously Chair of the Expert Panel for the Model Music Curriculum (2021). She is also a Council Member of the Royal College of Music, Trustee of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, Governor of Shoreditch Park Academy in London and National Council Member of Arts Council England, having previously been Chair of Arts Council, London.
She was previously a Senior Advisor to the Mayor of London (2012-2016), Governor of the Yehudi Menuhin School, and Member of the City of London Education Board. A lifelong supporter of music and the arts, while Editor of the Evening Standard (2002-2009) she chaired the Evening Standard Theatre Awards and Film Awards. Previously she was Deputy Editor of the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph. In 2010 she was appointed to the GLA Music Education Steering Group and worked under the chairmanship of Karen Brock, Head of Music Services in Tower Hamlets, to develop a music curriculum for London schools and a programme to increase funding for music education. The work led to Veronica setting up in 2011 the Mayor’s Music Fund, now London Music Fund, with Richard Morris, former CEO of ABRSM.
She was a Non Executive Director of the Berkeley Group until 2021 and an Independent Director of the Times Newspaper Group. She received a CBE in the 2018 Queen’s New Year Honours List for Services to the Arts. She was appointed to the House of Lords in July 2020, taking the title Baroness Fleet.
Emma Chamberlain OBE
Emma Chamberlain OBE is a barrister and Visiting Professor of Law at Oxford University and LSE. She writes and lectures on tax and has been involved in various policy initiatives.
Emma is a keen cellist. She is particularly interested in encouraging young people from all backgrounds to have access to music and in developing music projects within the wider community.
Oliver Duff
Oliver Duff has more than 20 years of experience in leverage finance, with a strong track record of building relationships with syndicate desks, private equity firms and credit funds within the European markets. He joined PSP Investments in September 2016 as a Managing Director, Principal Debt and Credit Investments (Europe). In this capacity, Oliver’s mandate is to lead PSP Investments’ Private Debt efforts in Europe and complete the build out of London-based private debt investment professionals.
Prior to joining PSP Investments, Oliver was Global Head of Leveraged Finance (2009-2014) and European Head of Capital Financing (2014-2015) at HSBC Bank PLC. He had previously held roles as head of loan syndicate at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and started his leverage finance career with Bankers Trust in London in 1994. Oliver is also a qualified accountant (ACA).
Since inception the Private Debt team in London have deployed over $1bn in Corporate, Private Equity and Fund opportunities for PSP in Europe.
Richard Ewbank
Richard runs a single family office for a highly active principal that comprises various entertainment and consumer goods businesses, investment management (public and private), real estate plus charitable foundations, farming & forestry.
In prior roles Richard spent many years in the music business, working in both recorded music at Warner Music and music publishing at Stage Three Music, holding roles in finance, operations, business affairs and general management. During this time he spent seven years working in Asia which additionally included two years as COO of a start-up IT company based in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Richard is also a Chartered Accountant.
A life-long music fan Richard believes the great merit of our music scholarships is their power to enable musical children to flourish and develop their creative talents.
Kevin Gardiner
Kevin has worked in the City for more than thirty years. He started as an economist at the Bank of England and several investment banks before switching to global investment strategy and wealth management, where he has been a global investment strategist and Chief Investment Officer. In 1994, at Morgan Stanley, he wrote the ‘Celtic Tiger’ report on the Irish economy.
Kevin was educated at Glan Ely Comprehensive (Cardiff), the United World College of the Atlantic, the LSE and Cambridge. He was a Governor and Chair of the Resources Committee at Atlantic College (2009-2018), and is currently a member of the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal’s advisory board. His book ‘Making Sense of Markets’ was published in 2015.
Kevin is the guitarist with ‘The Derivatives’, a covers band available for parties and weddings, and plays the piano very slowly.
Alex George
Alex currently works as an Investment Analyst at Pricoa Private Capital, where he is part of a team responsible for marketing, originating and managing private placement and mezzanine investments in London, Scandinavia, Turkey and Ireland.
Alex’s love of music started as a child listening to Motown hits in his mother’s kitchen and he has since spent most of his life learning, making and enjoying music, including as a chorister at St. Paul’s Cathedral. He continued his musical education at Oundle School where he was a music scholar, achieving Grade 8s in Voice and Bassoon, before graduating with a BA in Music from the University of Bristol in 2017. Alex also holds an MSc in Public Policy from University College London (UCL).
Alongside choral music, Alex continues to enjoy a broad range of musical genres, including Jazz, Soul, Hip-Hop and Reggae, and is an avid concert-goer. Alex also volunteers as part of the senior team of Oundle Mencap Holidays, a charity which offers residential holidays for children with learning and physical disabilities.
Peter M. Glaser
Peter is Global Head of Private Credit and Asset Finance for Macquarie Asset Management as well as CIO for Private Credit and Chair of the Private Credit Investment Committee. He is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee.
Prior to joining Macquarie, Peter was a Managing Director at Alcentra Limited and its Head of European Direct Lending, Chair of the Direct Lending Investment Committee and Portfolio Manager of related funds. He was also Vice Chair of the firm’s Executive Management Committee and previously served as Co-Head of US Direct Lending and President of Alcentra Capital Corporation (NASDAQ: “ABDC”).
In his 35 year career in finance Peter was a partner at KKR, where he built and led KKR Sponsor Finance, and held leadership positions at firms including Barclays and Goldman Sachs.
Peter received his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. He is Chair Emeritus and a board member of the Midori Foundation (d/b/a Midori & Friends), a non-profit organisation that provides high quality music education to public schools in underserved New York City communities.
Katya Gorbatiouk
Katya has over 20 years of experience in international capital markets. She is Head of Funds, Primary Capital Markets and a member of Sustainable Finance Committee at the London Stock Exchange.
Katya serves on the Best Practice Committee of the Board of the Investor Relations Society. She is a member of its ESG Communications Sub-committee and Chair of its IR Communications and Engagement Sub-committee. She served on the judging panel for the IR Society 2021 Best Practice Awards in ESG Communications.
Katya has recently chaired the Board Effectiveness & Stakeholder Governance working group at the Institute of Directors’ Centre for Corporate Governance. She co-authored an IoD publication on best practices of enacting a stakeholder-centric approach by corporate boards and led the creation of the Centre’s content related to board effectiveness.
Her early career includes 14 years in investment banking at Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and Barclays, in New York and London.
James Marsh
James Marsh joined KKR in 2012 as a member of the Client and Partner Group. He has worked across a variety of roles in the firm’s London, New York and Hong Kong offices, including as product specialist for European and Asian private equity, as well as client coverage for the Netherlands, Germany, Israel and Spain & Portugal. Prior to joining KKR, he worked at Barclays Capital in its power, utilities & infrastructure group, where he was involved in a variety of merger, acquisition and financing transactions. He also worked for three years at the quantitative investment strategies division of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He holds an M.A. from Harvard University and a B.A. from the University of Cambridge.
Howard Mason (Treasurer)
Howard is a Chartered Accountant and read Modern Languages at Oxford. He has had a diverse working life which has included some time running a trading company in Papua New Guinea, a tour operator in the Seychelles and being the Chief Information officer of the Bahamas Telephone Company. For the last ten years he has largely done pro bono work with small overseas charities-typically, supporting children in Rwanda, Ecuador, Cambodia and Kosovo as well as involvement with Leprosy Society of India and sustainable fishing in Nicaragua. Although unable to even play the ukulele, over five years he was intimately involved in the rescue of an annual music festival from financial collapse and was Chairman of Cambridgeshire County Squash for several years.
When allowed he is a keen swimmer and real tennis player.
Richard Morris
Richard practised as a solicitor with Farrer & Co. and as a corporate financier at S. G. Warburg & Co. Ltd. He joined Hodder and Stoughton Publishers, becoming joint Managing Director in 1989.
Richard has been a member of the Council of Kent Opera and co-founded Almaviva Opera. From 1993 to 2009 he was Chief Executive of ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music). He has served as Chair of the Music Education Council, a Governor of Kent Music and as a trustee of Music Mark and Music Preserved. Between 2011 and 2019, Richard was Chairman of the Yehudi Menuhin School.
Richard co-founded the London Music Fund, together with Veronica Wadley, in 2011.
Richard was a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate in the 2019 General Election and has been a member of the National Executive of European Movement UK since 2018. In 2020 he was elected to the Board of European Movement International, Brussels.
Roxana-Viorica Mirica
Roxana Mirica is a Partner and head of Capital Markets in Europe. She is responsible for leading acquisition financing and ongoing debt and equity capital markets transactions for Apax’s portfolio companies. Additionally, Roxana manages day-to-day relationships with banks and institutional debt and equity investors.
Roxana is a Non-Executive Director for Genius Sports and serves as a Trustee to the Apax Foundation and the London Music Fund.
Roxana joined Apax Partners in 2017. Prior to joining Apax Partners, Roxana spent 9 years at Barclays, most recently as Director in Leveraged Finance.
Roxana holds a BA in Economics and Chemistry cum laude from Dartmouth College.
Mary Mycroft
Mary qualified as a Secondary Music Teacher (BA(hons), QTS) in 2001, following study at the Royal Academy of Music and the University of North London. She spent several years working in London Secondary schools before specialising in Primary and Early Years music teaching whilst her own family were young. Mary worked with Hackney Music Service as tutor and Support/Lead Tutor between 2007-2010 before moving to a Music Service management position at Newham Academy of Music (now Newham Music) in 2010. Mary Joined Waltham Forest Music Service as a senior leader in 2012, progressing to Joint Head of Service in 2015 and then Head of Service in 2020. As well as being a multi-instrumentalist at work, Mary is a violin/viola player and singer working with nu-soul duo, Flyt, and is currently working towards a MSc in Leadership and Management with the University of Roehampton.
Alethea Siow
Alethea practised as a solicitor with international law firm Dechert where she was a member of their banking department. Since leaving private practice, she has been head of structured finance at Blackfriars Investments, a property management and investment company.
Alethea has sat on the group board of A2Dominion, one of the largest providers of social housing in the South of England and has also been a trustee of the London Early Years Foundation, a social enterprise operating 39 nurseries in London including some in the most disadvantaged areas.
Alethea recently retired after 10 years as a Council member of the Royal College Music and she remains a member of the Campaign Committee.
She is an active member of the Methodist Church both locally at Hinde St Methodist Church and nationally as the Vice Chair of the Board of the Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes, the custodian trustee of the Methodist Church’s property estate.
Alethea makes up for a complete lack of musical talent by being an ardent opera enthusiast.
Ayanna Witter-Johnson
Ayanna Witter-Johnson is a multi talented singer, songwriter, pianist and cellist successfully crossing the boundaries of classical, jazz, reggae and R&B music. After graduating with a first-class degree from both the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, and the Manhattan School of Music, Ayanna has been commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra, Güerzenich Orchester, Ligeti Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Philharmonia and The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Company to name a few. She was also selected as an arranger/orchestrator for the LSO and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
A second-generation Jamaican born in Britain, Ayanna’s virtuosic, maverick cellist and vocal style effortlessly blends classical music with her reggae and soul heritage as demonstrated in the release of her EP's ('Truthfully', 'Black Panther', 'Ella, Reuben & Ay' and Rise Up) and her debut album 'Road Runner'.
An acclaimed performer, Ayanna has collaborated with several stellar artists, touring across the UK and Europe gaining both AIM Award (Best Live Act) and MOBO award nominations. A co-writer and featured artist on Anoushka Shankar's single 'Those Words' from the Grammy-nominated Love Letters EP, Ayanna has also collaborated with and featured on Nitin Sawhney's stunning single 'Movement Variation II' taken from his acclaimed album ‘Immigrants’.
Her live shows are intimate journeys that chronicle her experience as a female artist in the 21st century, due to her mesmerising vocals, non-compromising lyrics, and ability to deftly reinterpret songs on the cello. She is the definition of eclectic soul.
In attendance: Tim Spires, Senior Policy Officer, Cultural Education and Music, Greater London Authority
“Thanks to the London Music Fund Emilia met similar children and wonderful teachers who showed her the freedom of music, the change that music can make in her life, the uniqueness of herself... She became more confident, she practiced more and with joy, she heard many talented musicians and saw many wonderful places. You have changed her future already and you are changing the future of the people around her as well and for that we would like to say a very huge THANK YOU!!!!”
Parents of Emilia, age 10, Violin Scholar from Enfield