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INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

FINANCE & OPERATIONS

CONSULTANCY

ABOUT US

Sage Consultancy was founded in 2020 to offer finance & operational consultancy services to schools & educational establishments.

Our belief is that schools & school leadership require targeted support to leverage their potential to help them achieve their goals.

Our consultants are qualified seasoned professionals with over 80 years combined of educational finance & operational experience.

Russell Cooke, BA Hons, ACA, BFP - Russell is a seasoned and senior finance & operations professional with over 30 years of experience in education and corporate sectors in Asia and Europe.

After an initial career with Price Waterhouse Coopers and finance roles in London, Russell moved to Austria where he led the commercial and marketing aspects of one of Westrock's European packaging divisions.

He has broad leadership experience in Finance, Operations and Human Resources. He was previously the Director of Finance and Operations at the American School in Guangzhou and the Business Manager of the American International School in Vienna as well the Executive Director of Human Resources at the Singapore American School.

Russell brings a wealth of experience in systems implementation and documentation, as well as leading the organisation of structures and reporting formats needed for successful finance and operations teams.

Russell is fluent in German and has knowledge of other languages.

Ian Forster, BA Hons, MBE - Ian is a seasoned educator and leader. Having initially held director positions in the building services industry, Ian has since spent nearly 30 years in school leadership. Returning to the UK after over 20 years overseas in 3 schools, Ian now serves as a governor in a UK state school as well as his involvement in international school consultancy.

Ian's last overseas position was an 11 year period at The Anglo American School of Moscow and St Petersburg, where he served as both Deputy Director and Director of the school. Prior to that he was the Director of The International School of The Hague, where he had moved to from The British School of Oman. Included in Ian's extensive experience of school leadership positions are those of Business Manager and Director of Finance and Operations. He has also served as a Human Resources Director.

As head of school Ian has supported School Boards, including such activities as Board retreats and Board development as well as mentoring school leadership members, experience he has carried into his new role as a school governor.

Ian was awarded the MBE for services to international education in 2019.

Charles Kite, Ph.D. - Charles has deep experience in education with more than 40 years in an international setting.

Beginning at Hiroshima International School as a teacher then head of school, his career included eight years in Africa as Head of School in Somalia and in Kenya as Executive Secretary of the Association of International Schools in Africa (AISA), leading this curriculum, professional development and conference planning organization.

After earning a Ph.D. in Educational Administration, Charles returned to Japan, joining the Canadian Academy in Kobe. Prior to becoming the Assistant Headmaster & Business Manager he had a variety of responsibilities at the school including IB Coordination, Alumni Relations, Director of Admissions, WASC/CIS self-study coordination, WASC team participation and Staff Development coordination.

Charles was a lead member of a development team that planned and opened the International School of Asia, Karuizawa (now UWC ISAK Japan), gaining dual certification from the Japanese Ministry of Education and the International Baccalaureate Organization. Recently he has consulted with schools in Japan on a variety of organizational issues.

Diane Stone BBA, CPA, CA - Diane has served as a Director of Finance & Business Operations for almost twenty years at the American School of Dubai and Pacific Academy, a large K-12 International Baccalaureate School located in British Columbia, Canada. Prior to entering the world of education, she worked with KPMG in their audit and international tax practices.

Diane is passionate about assisting schools achieve their mission through excellence in long term financial planning through strategic and creative financial solutions. She has seen first hand how schools that follow best practices in financial operations and planning thrive and achieve long term sustainability and strength.

Diane strongly believes that today’s finance office should provide improved data analysis and reporting to assist in making sound resource allocation decisions, she champions tools such as interactive dashboards, stability markers and key performance indicators.

Diane looks forward to helping schools improve their financial operations through a comprehensive “health check” review and report card, developing robust policies and procedures, long term financial plans, innovative risk management and procurement practices and reporting tools.

RESOURCES

Our Consultants regularly write articles on Finance, Facilities & Operations, Human Resources and School Leadership topics to support management in their role.

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SERVICES

We provide support to leadership in the education sector.

Our extensive experience means that we form collaborative partnerships for high impact project work or long term change leadership projects.

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CLIENTS

Our team has worked in the Asia Pacific, Middle East and European School regions. Our clients are also spread across the globe.

Here are a few of them and what they say about us.

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CONTACT US

1F Cantonment Road 37-67, Tanjong Pagar, Singapore 085601

Tel: +65 9116 2047