Welcome to our new board members for the charity

Sarah Sayeed, William Ramsay (Chair) and Jeremy Peckham are our new Trustees.

William Ramsay

William joined Morgan Grenfell & Co. Limited as a graduate entrant in 1979. After training in the investment research department he managed UK pension fund assets and was appointed an assistant director of the bank in 1984. He joined NM Rothschild Asset Management Limited in 1986. Appointed a director in 1987 he was a member of the Management Committee from 1992 to 1998. Whilst at Rothschilds he was appointed as a member of the Occupational Pensions Board, the UK government watchdog on the pensions industry by the Secretary of State for Social Security and served on the board from 1989 until its dissolution in 1997. In 1998 he joined the fledgling EFG International, where he was successively the Chief Investment officer of the London bank, then of the Swiss bank, the Group's Chief Economist, and finally the Group head of Regulatory Compliance before retiring in 2017, by which time EFG was one of the largest Swiss banks traded on the Zurich market. Having joined several of his former colleagues from EFG at Capital Union Bank in 2018, he is currently a director of the London operation in Bedford Square.

His experience of the theatre ranges from presenting BBC Radio 4's Week Ending on the Edinburgh Fringe in 1979, which transferred to The King's Head in Islington and won a Fringe First the following year to founding The Fletcher Theatre Company in 1982 which presented rescripted excerpts from Shakespeare to young people studying the texts. He was a director of The Theatre Royal Windsor for ten years from 1987 to 1997. He has been a member of Equity since 1979, ticking the nil earnings box each year.


Sarah Sayeed

Sarah is a musician, composer, sound designer and writer with over 15 years of experience working collaboratively with a range of artists and organisations.

As a musical artist, her practice focuses on contemporary works that are influenced by a plethora of styles and musical traditions. Sarah has created compositions and sound designs across Western classical choral works, Indian and Bengali classical vocals, instrumental pieces and her first love: contemporary jazz, soul and hip hop. Sarah plays instruments tanpura and shruti,and is the lead vocalist in international duet Myth of Her with violin and electronic artist Anne Eltard (Copenhagen, Denmark). Sarah is currently training in classical vocals with leading Classical Indian Music maestro Swati Natekar and was the successful recipient of the Portfolio Composers Scheme in partnership with Sound and Music and Kuljit Bhamra.

Sarah’s credits include Composer and Sound Designer for Santi and Naz (The Thelmas), Composer and Sound Designer for We Are Shadows (Tamasha), Principle Musician in Richard 2nd at Shakespeare's Globe (2019, Composer & Musical Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company adaption of Moliere's Tartuffe (2019/2018) and Sound Designer for Contact Theatre's production on Suffragette Movement, She Bangs The Drums (2018). She worked on Intention, directed by Kash Arshad (co-production with Graeae and Tamasha) and wrote the music and designed the sound for A Merchant of Venice with Shakespeare in Italy, directed by Bill Alexander in autumn 2021.

Sarah is creative director of Phakama Project at Queen Mary University, Mile End, East London.

Jeremy Peckham

I have been happily retired from the world of accountancy – mainly working in large corporations - for many years.

My first contact with Shakespeare, as with many of us, was at school. I have to admit that there was much of it that I didn’t understand at the time but there was something about the plays and the sonnets that left a lasting impression. A formative experience was joining a junior theatre company formed by our wonderful English teacher just after leaving school and taking part in a performance of Romeo and Juliet at the Nuffield theatre Southampton. 
My earliest memory of seeing a Shakespeare production in London was Hamlet at the National with Peter O’Toole in the title role – awesome!

Retirement has provided the opportunity to pursue Shakespeare activities in a number of ways. I am a Friend of Shakespeare’s Globe and worked there for a number of years as a volunteer steward. I try to attend as many of their marvellous workshops, study days and performances as possible andenjoy the innovative (and sometimes controversial!) approaches to the productions by the various Artistic Directors. I support a local theatre company in Reading, Rabble, who do great outreach work in the community including junior and adult drama classes as well as putting on high quality productions including Shakespeare.
I joined Shakespeare in Italy three years ago on the recommendation of a friend and really enjoyed first the many Zoom sessions during lockdown, then the summer schools in London in 2021 and in Cagli last year. It was very special receiving guidance from the fantastic course leaders and most rewarding working with the other participants.
I am delighted to be asked to be a Trustee and will do my best to contribute to this great organisation.