Edward Quinlan is a chartered accountant and is currently Chairman of the ICAEW Middle East Members' Advisory Board. He was UAE managing partner for a Big 4 firm until his retirement in 2010. He is currently a non-executive director of one of the largest privately owned groups in the Middle East including several of its subsidiary companies. He is also a director and chairman of the audit committee of a public company listed on Nasdaq Dubai and a director of an investment bank and member of three of its board committees.  He has served on a pro bono basis on boards or audit committees of several not for profit organisations including the Rotary Club of Dubai, Capital Club of Dubai, City, University of London Business School, Dubai Classical Concert Committee, International Cricket Council and Jersey Finance Middle East. 

He was appointed to the Board of Governors in 1988 and is currently Chairman and member of the Finance Committee. 

 

Charles has been residing in the Middle East for 40 years since the time he first moved to the region with Lloyds Bank International. 

While Charles is a highly experienced senior financial executive, he moved out of the world of finance and joined Landmark Properties LLC in 2008 as CEO, following his successful tenure with the Dubai International Financial Centre (“DIFC”). 

Charles was one of the original executives recruited to found the DIFC and amongst his roles was Commissioner for Anti-Money Laundering (Non-Financial Institutions) and Commissioner for Data Protection. 

Prior to his role with the DIFC Charles was the General Manager of Emirates Bank International, Dubai, UAE, and prior to Emirates Bank, Charles was the Regional Head for Lloyds Bank International in the Middle East. 

He is active as a Director of Eurotek Air Conditioning Services LLC an HVAC and MEP company providing maintenance and installation of air-conditioning, facilities management and civil works such as fit-outs, renovations and refurbishments.

Charles has been on the Board of Dubai College for 35 years and has recently taken on a major voluntary role as Deputy Chairman and Treasurer and is also Chairman of the Finance Committee and a member of the General Purposes Committee. 

Keith was educated at Rossall School before attending University College, Oxford where he read English, followed by a PGCE. He also gained three Blues at Rugby whilst at Oxford. He began his career teaching English at Eastbourne College, moving on to Marlborough where, following a year’s teaching exchange in California, he became a housemaster. He became Headmaster of Loretto School in 1995, overseeing the introduction of co-education, and Bedales in 2001. At Bedales, he introduced the Bedales Assessed Courses – more stretching and imaginative alternatives to GCSEs which are as strongly endorsed by universities as they are by students and teachers.

As Headmaster of Bedales Schools, Keith teaches as much as time allows; he loves teaching and really welcomes the insight that teaching gives him into what life is really like for students and teachers. Teaching is the lifeblood of any school. Apart from teaching... his job involves all sorts of things – happily, much talking with people, watching students and staff in action and doing all he can to extend the quality and range of opportunities open to students across the 2 – 18 range of the Bedales Schools.

Keith is married with three offspring who are now all gainfully employed.

Peter has been a UAE resident for over 30 years and attended Dubai College as a student from 1987 to 1991. Since graduating with a BA in Economics in 1995, he has led marketing organizations for several Fortune 500 companies in the region, built multiple public-private partnerships with large government organizations to drive regional technology development, and currently is the CMO for Microsoft for Middle East and Africa.

Peter has played an instrumental part in the development of the DC Alumni Association and also supported the College in our ‘Journeys’ Programme and Alumni Careers events. Peter joined the Board of Governors in 2012 and is a member of the Governance and Finance & General Purposes Committees.

Profile Eman Gaad is the Dean of the Faculty of Education and a Professor of Special and Inclusive Education at the British University in Dubai (BUiD). She is also an Affiliate Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, UK. Professor Gaad led BUiD’s special and inclusive Masters programme for many years and currently leads the Doctoral Programme. She has established herself as a world-class researcher, advocate, international social development consultant and expert in the field. Additionally, Professor Gaad is a regular invited keynote speaker, certified assessor, and a professional social trainer.  Over the last 25 years she has become a frequent national and international media figure on hundreds of live on-air radio and TV programmes, as well as writing and appearing in hundreds of articles published in local and regional newspapers.

Professor Gaad is a sound academic, an External PhD Examiner for reputed universities around the world (UK, Australia, Canada and India) and is a recognized international scholar in the field of special and Inclusive Education as well as social development. She co-founded one of the largest NGOs in the UAE, the Emirates Down Syndrome Association (EDSA), where she also acts as a Senior Educational Consultant.  She has advised policy and decision makers as a senior consultant for both governments of Dubai and Abu Dhabi on disability related issues. She is also a winner of HH Princess Haya Award for Special Education in the category of best-distinguished individual research in 2012, and in the same year was awarded the Global Leadership in Education Award from the Asian Leadership Award Board. For her services as an international leader in education, in 2017 she was awarded the ‘Prof. Idira Parikh 50 Women in Education Leaders’ which is an international award from the World Education Congress in India.  In 2020 she was awarded yet another international award (Asian Pacific Down Syndrome Federation Excellence Award).

Professor Gaad is also on the international advisory board for international peer-reviewed journals and is an associate editor for others. She was seconded for two years as the first Director of Disability Services in Dubai Government’s Community Development Authority (CDA). In 2011, she was appointed as one of the assessors of DEGP (Dubai Government Excellence Programme) and she is certified as an international quality management assessor by EFQM (European Framework for Quality Management). A committed advocate for the educational and social rights for people with disability, she is a UNESCO Consultant on inclusion of learners with disabilities in regular schools.  Professor Gaad has published the findings of her research work in international journals and her single authored book ‘Inclusive Education in the Middle East’ by Routledge in 2010 is very popular among scholars and researchers internationally. Professor Gaad is currently, and has been since 2008, a National Representative of the World Forum on Early Care and Education (WOFO). She has extensive experience in supporting and training families and workers in the field of social development. From 2013 to 2017, she designed, delivered  and managed the first long-term parental training programme in the region (Ta’alouf) funded by Al Jalila Foundation. 

Professor Gaad is a member of the Education Committee. 

Amanda has broad international business experience. She has spent the last 25 years living and working in Asia and the Middle East and has extensive experience in corporate training and talent development.

As a passionate believer in the value of continuing professional education, Amanda founded the largest provider of financial training in Singapore. Working together with UK and US-based training companies, she expanded the business across Asia. During this time she also lectured extensively on a range of corporate finance and risk management topics.

Since moving to the UAE, Amanda has provided consultancy services for educational businesses in addition to establishing the Middle East office of the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountant in England and Wales) with a remit to promote high quality financial education and training across the region.

Amanda now heads up PwC’s Academy in the Middle East. Her vision is simple – to provide premium quality teaching and excellent service in a way that leverages the knowledge and experience of PwC as a leading professional services firm.

The Academy provides a wide range of financial and professional skills training solutions to individuals and the organisations they work for. In addition, the Academy trains and supports students undertaking professional qualifications in accountancy and finance.

Amanda trained and qualified as a chartered accountant in London and has been a member of the ICAEW since 1989.

Graham Lovett is a partner and Head of Litigation for the Middle East at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a US law Firm.  Graham specializes in complex and high-value litigation and arbitration.  Having trained and qualified in 1995 at Clifford Chance in London, he became a partner in 2003 before moving to Dubai the following year (ostensibly for two years!) to help the firm develop its offering in the Middle East.  Graham then spent 9 years as the Firm’s Regional Managing Partner overseeing its growth from 22 lawyers in 2004 to around 120 lawyers as of 2015.  Graham is Chairman of the DIFC Authority Legislative Committee, a Member of the Steering Committee for the ICC UAE, Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb), Member of the Advisory Board of REACH (the first DIFC not-for-profit organization whose aims are to support and develop the skills of female professionals in the area of financial services and its related sectors through mentoring) and Member of the Advisory Board of the IBA Arab Regional Forum. He is co-editor of Summaries of UAE Courts’ Decisions on Arbitration (ICC). Graham regularly appears as an advocate before the DIFC Courts and the Special Tribunal Related to Dubai World and sits as an arbitrator in both domestic and international arbitrations. 

Graham has three children, two of whom being Dubai College Alumni.

Anju was born and raised in Jamaica before moving to America. She graduated with Honours in Sociology and Education at Brandeis university in Boston and worked as an editor with Addison-Wesley Publishing in the Maths and Science College Division. She is very involved in various philanthropic and community organisations and has served on the board of the Young Presidents’ Organisation as the Youth and Family Officer. She has undergone training with the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children and is currently involved actively in many community service projects that involve supporting the workers in the Dubai labour camps, as well as volunteering her time regularly at several of the special needs schools in Dubai such as the Safe Centre/Special Needs Foundation. She has three children attending Dubai College and has been an active parent supporter of the school as well as serving on the FDC parents committee since 2011.

Satish has been a resident of UAE for over 26 years adding value to various Major Strategic Technology Transformations initiatives in the Aviation, Hospitality and Education.

Those who were involved with him can recollect his favourite Quote “Tell me how I can add value.”

A leader who exudes innovation and has successfully created a portfolio in IT consultancy that only a few can match , he comes with a proven track record of optimising costs and is a force to be reckoned with.

Mr Lovraj Talwar is the founder and CMD of Terrazzo Group headquartered in the UAE and spread throughout the GCC.  Terrazzo is a diverse industrial Group, established 43 years ago primarily engaged in the manufacture of construction materials.  Lovraj belongs to an illustrious industrial family from India, which runs the renowned business Group “NITCO” headquartered in Bombay with business across Manufacturing and Real Estate sectors.

Lovraj believes in strict work ethics and discipline at the workplace.  His years of experience in India have stood him in good stead while managing the companies in UAE.  With him at the helm of affairs, the Group has rapidly expanded with factories and offices at different Emirates and other GCC countries.  The Group is committed to enhancing the communities in which it operates. It undertakes various sustainability projects and initiatives and its production processes strictly adhere to the National Environmental guidelines and policies.

Lovraj is an avid art collector and has been building up his collection over the last 25 years.    The collection is spread in different locations of his offices and residences.