The United Synagogue

Family
I grew up in Cockfosters in North London where my parents were founder members of the Shul. In 1973, I married Cheryl Klyne who lived in Hampstead Garden Suburb. We met at Manchester University where we both spent 4 years. We moved to Hadley Wood in 1977 where we still reside. We have 2 adult children – Susannah Jacobs who lives in Muswell Hill with her husband Yoni and 2 children – Mazhira and Arye, and Anthony who lives in West Hampstead.

Communal life
I have been a Trustee of the United Synagogue for 9 years, 6 as a Treasurer and 3 as a Vice President. During that time I have been Chairman of the Remuneration Committee and been closely involved with the Religious Affairs Group, US Schools, Peir, new communities and many matters involving individual Rabbis and shuls. I also represent the US on the JLE committee dealing with Jewish Education. I am also a Trustee of the Chief Rabbinate Trust where I am responsible for the financial side of the Charity.

I am Life President of the Hadley Wood Jewish Community and together with Cheryl have been responsible for nurturing the community from its early days when it met in my home to it current state where it is expanding rapidly. I regularly lead the davenning and was appointed an Elder of the Community in 2010.
I was Chairman of the Cockfosters shul for several years and prior to that was its Financial Representative.

Outside of the Jewish sphere, I was President of the Hadley Wood Association for over 10 years.

Professional life
I have a Masters Degree in Business Finance from Manchester University and Manchester Business School and a Bachelors degree in Economics and Accounting. I joined Price Waterhouse (now PwC), qualified as a Chartered Accountant and became a partner in 1984. I initially specialised in audit and was responsible for two of the firm’s largest FTSE 100 clients. I was appointed director in charge of operations for the audit practice and London office. Some years later I helped to establish a new global business process outsourcing division and following the sale of that business I moved into management consulting. In that
role I led many transformation programmes for large clients helping them to achieve their strategic objectives. I was appointed Head of Risk and Quality for the UK firm (which by then was the largest professional services firm in the UK) and led a team of 180 professionals dealing with all aspects of risk, quality and compliance for PwC.

I retired from the firm last year and within a few months was headhunted by another major firm to assist them with their risk and quality organisation. I have just completed a consulting assignment for them.