Who’s Who

Iain is Director of The Bridge at Wellington College and Co-Director of the Festivals of Education. Until recently, he was Deputy Head (Educational Developments and Partnerships). He has taught in both state and independent sectors in the UK. He has been a Biology teacher; a Head of Year; a Boarding Housemaster; Assistant Head, and Deputy Head. He set up the golf programme at Wellington and built an enviable reputation as the leading school in the UK. He has worked with all of the schools in the Wellington Family to embed the essential Wellington DNA, ethos or culture, sensitively in each new context. Along with Shane Mann of EduvationSCape (formerly Lsect), he has developed the original concept of the Festival of Education at Wellington to be one of the most important events on the education calendar. He has also overseen Educational Conferences, the Wellington College Learning Alliance and the Wheeler Programme, as well as any other partnership or collaborative work undertaken by the school. He is a trained coach and has introduced and grown a coaching culture at Wellington. He has now trained over 500 teachers there and at other schools to become coaches. He is also a governor of Wellington College International School Bangkok and until recently, a trustee at Corvus Multi-Academy Trust.

Karen Taylor served as the Director of Education and the Institute of Learning and and Teaching at the International School of Geneva and Associate Professor in Practice at Durham University’s School of Education. Prior to moving to Switzerland in 2008, Dr. Taylor taught at the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC and in the Liberal Studies Degree program at Georgetown University where she earned her PhD in history in 2000. Dr. Taylor’s research interests focus on eighteenth-century French pedagogical writings, global citizenship education, intercultural learning, inclusion and plurilingual education.

Jaime is the Office Manager of The Bridge at Wellington College. 

Prior to joining The Bridge in April 2024, Jaime served as the School Business Manager in a Wokingham School for over 13 years and before that she was the Office Manager for a start-up design and build company in the leisure industry.

Jaime has an extensive background in operational and administration management and together with her adeptness at leading projects, co-ordinating events and collaborating with others, she brings a wealth of experience to the role.

Emmie Bidston is an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Character Project. Emmie studied Economics at the University of Cambridge before working for the UK civil service in a range of areas from education to contingency planning. She is former head of Economics at Wellington College and Director of the Wellington Leadership and Coaching Institute. She is also the Housemaster of our new co-educational Sixth Form boarding house.

Emmie runs conferences, coaching and leadership training for adults and young people. She is a Senior Fellow of the Human Flourishing Program Network at Harvard University and co-chairs of its Leadership for Flourishing Group. Together with Katy she authored, ‘Leader: Know, Love and Inspire your People’, which was runner up at the Business Book Awards ‘leadership book of the future’. Emmie and Katy were co-directors of the team who created the freely available online course ‘Leading with Character’, a collaboration between the Oxford Character Project (at the Department of Politics, Oxford University) and the Human Flourishing Program.

Dr Katy Granville-Chapman is currently a Deputy Head at Wellington College with responsibility for teachers’ performance and development, as well as pupils’ character education. Katy first became fascinated with how leadership impacts flourishing in the Army where she witnessed the profound influence leaders had on the happiness, fulfilment and stress of those they lead, especially in more complex and challenging environments. The Army was also where Katy discovered her love of teaching and figuring out how people learn. This led her to complete an MSc and DPhil (PhD) at Oxford where she now lectures part-time at the Department of Education on an MSc in learning and teaching. Katy is also an Associate Fellow of the Oxford Character Project, where she had the joyful task of co-creating a free of charge online course, ‘Leading with Character’ with an incredible global team. Katy and Emmie (Bidston) co-chair the ‘Leadership for Flourishing’ group at the Human Flourishing Program Network, Harvard University where they are Senior Fellows; this community of leaders from all walks of life (education, academia, business, charities, military, etc.) is a key inspiration for the book Katy is co-editing for Oxford University Press: ‘Leadership for Flourishing’.

Katy is the co-founder (with Jon Harper) of Global Social Leaders, a movement of young people (from age 7 upwards) in 105 countries who design and lead social action projects that make a meaningful change in their communities, empowering flourishing. Katy is married to Jeremy, and they have two boys and a Golden Retriever who eats anything he can get his paws on, edible or otherwise.

James began coaching as part of his teaching practice at Wellington College in 2015. He took his experience freelance in 2020, founding James Ellis Coaching, and has been coaching and leading coach training ever since. He works across two main sectors, Private Equity & Education.

James is a fully Certified Co-active coach (CPCC) with CTI, the Gold standard in ICF accredited coach training programmes, as well as being a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation.

James leads The Bridge foundational and advanced coach training, as well as collaborating with Iain Henderson to support the development of coaching cultures in organisations throughout the education sector.