Anda Banks
Chief Operating Officer
Anda Banks comes from an education background with four years of teaching experience in China, Sudan and the UK. Inspired by her interest in education and language, she went on to graduate with a Master’s Degree in Chinese Studies from the Oxford University, following which she returned to China to work on a Chinese Second Language teaching programme at the Leshan Normal University.
Before her post with the Buckingham International School of Education, Anda was one of the founding members and recruitment director at Eurus, a leading teacher recruitment consultancy in Beijing. Here she played a key role in designing recruitment strategy, developing recruitment processes and building teams of recruitment consultants. Anda is well versed in China international / bilingual education and recruitment, operations management and business strategy & planning.
Professor Barnaby Lenon CBE
Dean of Education, University of Buckingham
Barnaby Lenon taught at Eton for 12 years, was the deputy head of Highgate School, head of Trinity School Croydon and head of Harrow School for 12 years. He then helped establish the London Academy of Excellence in East London, one of the most successful state sixth form Academies, where he is chairman of governors. He is chairman of the Independent Schools Council, which supports 1400 private schools in the UK, and has been a governor of 25 state and independent schools. He was a member of the board of Ofqual during the implementation of the reforms to GCSEs and A-levels and is now on their Standards Advisory Committee. He is Dean of Education at the University of Buckingham.
He has written six books including, recently, Much Promise about high-achieving state schools and Other People’s Children about the least academic 50% in England. He researches the characteristics of effective teachers in the UK and USA.
Professor John McIntosh, CBE
Chairman of Council
John McIntosh is a former Headmaster of The London Oratory School (1977–2007). He has a particular interest in education policy and has been actively involved in policy development and several think tanks concerned with education policy throughout his career. He was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the College of Preceptors 1998 and appointed a Fellow of the College of Teaching in 2016. He has been an external adviser to the Department for Education on Free Schools since 2011, He is presently the honorary president of a multi academy trust and a trustee of another. John served as a member of the Health Education Council from 1985 to 1988 and the National Curriculum Council from 1990 to 1993. He was a member of the Teachers Standards Review, the Teaching Agency advisory group, and the National College for School Leadership advisory board, and the National Curriculum Review in 2011-13.
From 2009–2011 he was education adviser to the Leader of Hammersmith & Fulham Council. In 2010 he was responsible for establishing a bilingual (English & French) primary school in West London, which was a partnership between the local education authority, the French government and the governing body of a maintained primary school. He has been involved in the School of Education at the University of Buckingham from the early days of its foundation in 2002. He became a member of the University’s Academic Advisory Council in 2013, joined the Council of the University in 2014, and has been ViceChair of Council since 2015. He is also Chairman of the Risk, Audit and Compliance Committee and of the Honorary Awards Committee. In 2018 he was elected a Professor of Professional Practice in Education by the University.
John was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1996 and promoted to Commander of the Order in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to education. He was a Knight of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of St George 2011. In 2016, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by the University of Westminster for his contribution to education.
Karl Yin
Chairman 
Karl Yin, Chairman of Hualan Education Group, started his career in the financial sector. He was first an FX trader and then an investment banker before deciding to work for his family's education business. He joined the group as a Director in 2012 and was initially tasked with overseeing the group’s development strategy. In 2013, he led a partnership project with the United Westminster Greycoat Schools Foundation with the goal of building a new school in China. The HIKSVS International School Tianjin was successfully launched in 2017, and he subsequently became the Chairman of Governors.
Apart from running the family business, he is keen on solving the global teacher shortage problem and believes that affordable, professional teacher training is the key. He partnered with the University of Buckingham Faculty of Education and launched the Buckingham International School of Education in 2019, aiming to train Chinese bilingual teachers with British methods.
Karl is the founder of the Hualan Scholarship, which provides teacher training funding for less privileged students internationally. In 2020, the Hualan Scholarship expanded to supporting Education Leadership in partnership with the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust, which provides scholarships for graduates from developing and emerging countries to study at the University of Oxford and participate in a specially created Leadership Programme.
Karl is the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the University of Buckingham Faculty of Education. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust.
School Council
- Prof John McIntosh CBE (Chairman)
- Prof Barnaby Lenon CBE
- Karl Yin