About Us

Our Trustees

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Derick Walker

Chairman

Derick Walker

Chairman

Derick walker joined the Foundation Trustees in 2014 and became Chairman in May 2021.

Educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford, Derick took up a career in advertising working for BMP, Leagas Delaney and Ted Bates, before becoming a founder partner of Laing Henry in 1988. Derick moved to Saatchi & Saatchi in 1995 where he was Director and Group Strategic Consultant until 2017.

His son and daughter are former pupils of Sevenoaks School and prior to becoming a Trustee Derick was a School Governor between 2002 and 2013.

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Buky Alakija

OS 2001

Buky Alakija

OS 2001

Buky Alakija grew up in Lagos, Nigeria moving to the UK for Sixth Form and completing her International Baccalaureate at Sevenoaks School.

After Sevenoaks, Buky studied law at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University. She is a corporate lawyer, with a specialism in joint ventures and mergers and acquisitions transactions. Buky started her career at Goldman Sachs International and qualified as a solicitor at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. She is currently a Senior Associate at CMS Nabarro Olswang LLP in the corporate transactions team with an energy and infrastructure sector focus.

Buky boarded at Girls’ International House while her three brothers, also Sevenoaks alumni, passed through the International Centre. Buky lives in London with her husband, son and daughter.

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Marco Alverà

OS 1994

Marco Alverà

OS 1994

Marco became a trustee in 2023. He studied the IB diploma at Sevenoaks school, followed by philosophy at the London school of economics.

Marco is Italian-American and has more than 20 years’ experience of global energy markets. He is currently CEO of Tree Energy Solutions (TES), a world-leading provider of green hydrogen into global markets, and is co-founder of Zhero, a developer of green and clean energy projects.

He began his career at Goldman Sachs then joined Enel, one of the world’s largest green electricity companies. He subsequently worked for Eni for over 10 years and was CEO of Snam until 2022, where he positioned the company as an international leader in green gas and green gas infrastructure. Marco is the author of ‘The Hydrogen Revolution’.

Marco is also a board member of the Giorgio Cini Foundation cultural centre in Venice, a Visiting Fellow of the University of Oxford and co-founder of the Kenta Foundation, a catalyst for the exchange of ideas to support a better understanding of one another, our communities and the world.

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Jin Yu Cheong

OS 2000

Jin Yu Cheong

OS 2000

Jin grew up in Malaysia and completed his IB Diploma at Sevenoaks School before going on to read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.

After graduating, he started his career as an oil trader at Glencore in the London and Singapore offices. He then joined Hess Energy Trading in the freight department before moving to Pavilion Energy to help build its LNG trading business. He is currently Director – Commodity Derivatives at the Singapore Exchange.

His sister also attended Sevenoaks School.

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Professor
Kenneth Cheung

OS 1982

Professor
Kenneth Cheung

OS 1982

Professor Cheung attended Sevenoaks School from 1975 to 1982, and then the Medical College of St Bartholomew’s Hospital, University of London.

He became a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1991, a Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine in 1995, and obtained his doctorate degree from the University of Hong Kong in 2007.

Professor Cheung is now the Jessie Ho Professor in Spine Surgery, Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, The University of Hong Kong. He is also the Past President of the Hong Kong College of Orthopedic Surgeons, and Past President of the (International) Scoliosis Research Society. He is a world-renowned academic spine surgeon with special expertise in the treatment of spinal deformities in children and adults.

His son also attended Sevenoaks School.

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Tat-Seng Chiam

OS 2005

Tat-Seng Chiam

OS 2005

Tat-Seng Chiam became a Trustee in 2019. He was educated at Sevenoaks School, where he was School Captain.

He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford and holds master’s degrees from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University.

Tat-Seng is currently a co-founder of Tandem, a tech startup focused on improving transportation options in smaller cities and towns. He was previously an Investment Director at the Global Innovation Fund, an impact investing fund focused on emerging markets, as well as a senior consultant at Monitor Deloitte.

He is Co-Curator of the London Hub of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community, as well as a School Governor of Harry Gosling Primary School in East London.

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Tim Child

OS 1981

Tim Child

OS 1981

Tim Child became a Trustee in 2014. He was educated at Sevenoaks School and the University of Birmingham where he read History and Politics.

He served in the Royal Marines prior to joining the oil industry. He spent 12 years as Chief Executive of The Optima Energy Group, an international trading and investment company. Currently he is President of Asfaltos de Arinaga a bitumen storage and trading company and is Managing Director of Invicta Energy Ltd, an oil and energy consultancy company.

Tim was a Trustee of Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, for seven years until March 2016, and Chairman of Trustees of Deptford Reach, a day centre working with homeless people in south London, for 11 years.

He was a member of the Board of Management of The Rockdale Housing Association in Sevenoaks until 2014. He is currently a Trustee of Porchlight, a Kent based charity for homeless and vulnerable people. All three of Tim’s daughters attended Sevenoaks School.

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Dr Nikki Lee

OS 2001

Dr Nikki Lee

OS 2001

Dr Nikki Lee (nee Chow) was born and raised in Hong Kong and attended Sevenoaks School Sixth Form.

She spent one year at the University of Bristol before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Communication.

She returned to the UK in 2005 to study medicine at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, graduating with Distinction in Clinical Sciences in 2010. She did her Foundation Year training in West London and then commenced Obstetrics and Gynaecology speciality training in South London.

She married Henry Lee in 2010 and they spent a few years in Hong Kong during which they had two children. She now lives with her family in London and works at Guys’ and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust.

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David McEuen

David McEuen

David McEuen has been a Trustee since the Foundation was established in 2004. He was educated at Harrow School and spent 46 years working in the City of London.

Initially a stockbroker, between 1975 and his retirement in 2004 David was involved in investment management. He managed the private clients division of Robert Fleming and the private clients and charities division of Newton Investment Management.

David has a close association with Sevenoaks School, where both his children were students (his daughter returning to teach) and his wife, Mary Ellen, was a Governor for 15 years.

He is also a Trustee of the National Benevolent Institution.

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Brian Ong

OS 2002

Brian Ong

OS 2002

Brian Ong was born in Singapore and raised in Malaysia. He completed the IB Diploma at Sevenoaks School, his undergraduate studies at Yale University (majoring in Economics and International Studies) and his graduate studies at Stanford University (majoring in Management Science and Engineering).

After graduation, he founded an education consulting and investment firm headquartered in Shanghai, China.

Brian serves on the advisory board of the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs and he is a member of the Yale Asia Development Council. He also serves as vice chair of the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation.

Brian lives in Shanghai with his wife and five children. Both his sisters also attended Sevenoaks School.

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Pratap Shirke

Pratap Shirke

Pratap Shirke studied for a degree at the College of Engineering in Pune, later obtaining a Masters in Civil Engineering from Stanford University.

He also gained a MBA from Stanford and served on the Advisory Board of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business between 1991 and 2000.

Having started his business career in the construction industry in Dubai, Pratap moved to the UK after ten years where he has developed businesses in construction, hotels and shipping. Pratap serves as a non-executive Board member of various companies in the UK and India.

Pratap is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights. His three daughters attended Sevenoaks School and he served on the Governing Body from 2007 to 2018.

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