MEET THE BOAC TEAM

Britannia Overseas Admission Control was originally conceived as a student recruitment service for Alfred the Great College in London, and remains its exclusive educational consultancy. However, due to an overwhelming demand to provide students with wider opportunities, BOAC expanded its business to cover every country and to build a global and comprehensive portfolio of colleges and universities. Many of our staff still work out of the Barbican campus, and such is the belief in the success of BOAC, the more senior amongst the college board have retained their interest in BOAC.
Simon Creese-Parsons
DIRECTOR




Khurram Shahzad Wirak
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT




Neil Adam Mackay
DIRECTOR




Khalid Mahmood
STUDENT LIAISON




Sara Walden
COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER




Massimiliano Cervellino
HEAD OF EVENTS ORGANISATION




Michael Evans
ACCOUNTANT




Roxane Gaydu
EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANT




Matthew Vidler
EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANT / BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT








THE son of a serving soldier, Simon was fortunate to be able to spend his early years in the Middle East where he developed a love for the area and its people. Returning to England, Simon attended his father's former public school, Monkton Combe School near Bath. Although originally planning to read International Law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, he decided instead on a career in business. For thirty years he and Neil Mackay together ran an extremely successful international design and antiques business from Bath and northern France. Simon and Neil share a passionate belief in the transformative power of education.
Simon is currently working on his book, a history of the French monarchy from 987-1824. Part linear history and part dramatisation, this revolutionary approach is typical of Simon's belief that learning and education should be based on traditional values but open to new ideas.







- Postgraduate Diploma in Business Administration from Bite College, London, MCS from Asian School of Computer Science, Lahore, B.Com: University of Punjab, Lahore
FROM a distinguished family in Pakistan, Chand was educated at Pilot High School, Lahore, where he gained his I.Com qualification. He came to London in 2001 in order to add to his already impressive academic qualifications, gaining an MBIT (Masters with combined Business Administration and IT). Chand's background has impressed on him a duty to help those most in need of education. He and his business partner Sohail Mehboob started their own school for foreign students in 2004.




- BA (Hons) Bath Academy of Art, Fellowship Bath Academy of Art
NEIL was born in Nairobi, Kenya, where his father, Sir Gordon Mackay, was director of East African Railways. When his family moved to America where his father took up positions with the United Nations and the World Bank, Neil attended Edgeborough prep school in England and then Gordounstoun in Scotland. Despite being courted by the major London art schools Neil chose to study at the Bath Academy of Art, from where he graduated with a BA (Hons) and was offered a Fellowship. Neil returned to Gordonstoun to teach Art, History of Art, Architecture and Sculpture and was made a Deputy House Master. Together with Simon, Neil founded the design and antiques company Jadis Limited in 1984. His work has ranged from international multi-million pound project management to mural and design projects for clients as various as the King of Saudi Arabia, the American billionaire John Kluge and the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.






KHALID came to the United Kingdom in 1986 at 25, having obtained a BA in Urdu from Punjab University, Lahore, and worked in the family business in Pakistan. A successful career as chef and owner of an Indian restaurant in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, followed. A devoted husband and father of three sons, Khalid will be taking care of students' accommodation needs and organising their airport transportation.






SARA joined The Sunday Times newspaper and its renowned Insight investigative team in the early 1980s. She and her colleague and husband then left the paper in 1985 to live in Miami and Washington DC, where they researched and wrote two investigative non-fiction books. They continued their travels worldwide, writing investigative articles for prestigious British and American magazines, with the reward of a home base in a mediaeval hilltop village in Provence overlooking olive trees and vines. Sara returned to London in 2009, enthused by the college founders' vision of education in its broadest sense. Her dream is to find and bring to the college girls who are disadvantaged by society, that they can inspire and educate women in their turn. As the Chinese proverb says: "Women hold up half the sky."






- BA (Hons) Commercial Music from University of Westminster; Degree Diploma in Music Composition from Birkbeck University, London
MAX is a professional multimedia creative with substantive lecturing experience in Information Technology, Web Design and many other creative subjects. During the last few years he has specialized in developing production-based MA courses for prestigious art and educational institutions in Italy. He is researching an international educational project and is about to embark on post-graduate studies via distance learning.





- Member, Chartered Association of Certified Accountants; BA (Hons) Business Studies from University of East London; Advanced City and Guilds qualification in Clothing Management, London College of Fashion
MICHAEL started his career as a management trainee in the clothing industry. An opportunity to return to his native Jamaica to teach in high school prompted Michael to broaden his horizons and gain a qualification widely applicable; therefore, with a good foundation in business, he studied and qualified as an accountant, working in public practice and in industry. He has always been keen on enabling others by passing on the knowledge he's gained, and helping people reach their goals.








ROXANE came to London from Paris in 2008 to further her teaching qualifications and to live in a city she has always loved. She joined BOAC in August 2010, attracted by the sense of freedom she feels the work offers in encouraging our students to flourish in a modern, multicultural society, and now works as Mr. Wirak's personal assistant, as well as being an Educational Consultant in her own right.








- HND Graduate, Open University; Criminology and Social Policy; Psychology
SINCE leaving the prestigious Torquay Grammar School for Boys, Matthew has worked passionately to turn around the lives of some of the UK's most dangerous offenders. In 2007, while working as an officer with the Lambeth Public Protection Team, he founded and currently manages a charity to help victims of violent crime. He comes from a professional background of helping the most troubled and disadvantaged young people into a more promising life of education and training, in his beloved home city. "With BOAC I have the chance to do this on a global scale."
He has worked tirelessly to establish the global credentials of BOAC.