Our Trustees

Oliver Haarmann is our Chair of Trustees. He is a Founding Partner at Searchlight Capital Partners, a private investment firm. Previously, he served as a Partner at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. Ltd. (KKR) for 12 years. Before this, he worked for various firms in the investment industry in the United States and Europe. He received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1996 and has a dual B.A. in History and International Relations from Brown University.

Pasha Michaelsen is Vice-Chair of Trustees. She helps organisations design and deliver social justice strategies in the areas of migration and education. She was head of operations for Refugee Education UK, which supports refugee and asylum-seeking young people to build more hopeful futures through education and is vice-chair of Praxis, which provides holistic support to migrants across London. Previously, Pasha was a finance solicitor.

Steve Windsor is our Treasurer. Steve first became involved with IntoUniversity through his work on the Goldman Charitable Giving Committee in 2010 and has been a dedicated supporter of the charity ever since.

Nilufer von Bismarck spent her career at Slaughter and May where she was a partner for 27 years. She retired in May 2021. Whilst at the firm, she had a wide corporate, commercial and financing practice which included private and public mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, IPOs, financings, equity and debt capital markets transactions and corporate governance.

Rory Brooks CBE founded the private equity group, MML Capital, in 1988. He is the Chairman of the Quintessentially Foundation. His family philanthropic engagements span poverty research, social justice, higher education and contemporary art.

Professor Nishan Canagarajah is President & Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester. Born and educated in Sri Lanka, he is a double Cambridge graduate and former Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of Bristol. Nishan has been appointed to a number of national roles including being a member of the UUK advisory group to tackle racial harassment in higher education.

Julian Granville is Chairman of Boden having been CEO from 1997 to 2017. He also chairs Monica Vinader and sits on the Advisory Panel of Piper Private Equity.

Sarah Havens works directly with the students in our Academic Support programme and is a member of the Diversity & Inclusion and the Development Committees of the Board. She is active with other charities, serving as Treasurer of the family foundation Lef-Pillon Trust and as a member of the Friends Committee of the international conservation organisation Whitley Fund for Nature.

Christoph Henkel is Founding Partner of Canyon Equity LLC, a private equity firm specializing in hotel and resort development. His business experience includes general management positions at Interpublic Company, Nestle S.A and Henkel AG. He has been a non-executive director at Loctite Inc., Clorox Inc. and Henkel AG. As a board member he has served on HR, nomination and finance committees.

Clare Richards is Chief Executive of The ClementJames Centre as well as a Trustee of IntoUniversity. Clare has been at the centre of developing our educational programme. Previously, Clare was a teacher.

Jenny Brown was educated at North London Collegiate School and Oxford University, where she read English. She started her career publishing for Robert Maxwell at Pergamon Press, but the move into English teaching at Cranleigh School ‘felt like coming home’. She taught at Highgate School in 1995 and then South Hampstead High School in 2000 and became Head of English at Channing School and then Director of Senior School at St Paul’s Girls’ School, until taking up her first Headship at St Alban’s High School for Girls. Since September 2019, she has been the Headmistress of the City of London School for Girls.

Harlem Nguyen is a Primary school teacher in Greenwich, having graduated from Durham University with a BA in History and English Literature and Cambridge University with a PGCE. She attended IntoUniversity Lambeth for ten years whilst at school and participated in a range of programmes during this time. Her interactions with IntoUniversity have fostered a love of education and played a fundamental role in her decision to pursue a career in teaching. Alongside teaching full-time, Harlem is currently completing a Masters in Education at Cambridge, with a focus on diversity in the curriculum.