Business & Entrepreneurship
Our departmental vision is to support future business leaders, equipping every pupil with the tools necessary to thrive in established businesses and startups. As a department, we are passionate about businesses; how they work, why they fail, and how they change the world we live in.
Department overview
The study of business is hard, but incredibly rewarding. We enjoy looking under the hood of businesses and industries, understanding the people behind business success, acknowledging the context necessary for business growth. We spend time applying a range of management theories to different business types across the world. We are never too far away from the Financial Times or The Economist, ensuring that we all have a foundational understanding of business today, and what business might look like when pupils start their first job.
We are excited about the role business can play in our fight against climate change, and our pursuit of a socially responsible and inclusive business environment. Corporations have it within their grasp to achieve both profit and positive social and environmental outcomes. As a department, we promote those businesses that want to do more than simply make money.
As a department, we think deeply about the importance of entrepreneurial thinking for pupils, teachers and businesses. Pupils of business at Charterhouse will leave with an entrepreneurial mindset, ready to challenge existing structures and industries, willing to ask ‘why?’, when something doesn’t make sense, and benefiting from an entrepreneurial approach to managing their time and careers.
For full details of the curriculum, please use the link below.
Department staff
Members of the Business and Management Department have a wealth and variety of experience spanning both commerce and education. This expertise enables the department to offer rigorous theoretical business analysis allied to a real world context.
Best practice is ensured by holding regular meetings so that pupils benefit from our varied backgrounds and are provided with a stimulating and interesting curriculum. Highly-relevant speaker events and business visits also play a major supportive role to our courses, reinforcing pupils’ appreciation of the relevance and significance of studying this subject.
- Mr Stephen Barnett, MA – Head of Business & Entrepreneurship
- Mr James Hazeldine, BA
- Miss Sophie Lightfoot, BA
- Mr Richard Ninham, MA
Mr Stephen Barnett, MA – Head of Business & Entrepreneurship
Mr Barnett joined Charterhouse as Head of Business and Entrepreneurship having spent the last four years as the CEO of Util, the financial technology business he founded in 2016. In a previous life, Mr Barnett worked in corporate finance for HSBC, with roles taking him to New York and Hong Kong. Teaching has been a constant throughout Mr Barnett's career. After a year teaching Economics at Wellington College, Mr Barnett continued to be involved in education, founding and managing a new school and associated charity in Mozambique. Mr Barnett is a keen long-distance runner, cyclist and sporting jack-of-all-trades, though, by his own admission, master of none!
Mr James Hazeldine, BA
Mr Hazeldine studied Economics and Politics at the University of Sheffield. He then went on to the University of London to study for a PGCE in Economics. He moved to Charterhouse in 2000 having worked at St George’s College, Weybridge and Ashville College in Harrogate. As well as teaching Micro Economics, Mr Hazeldine has held many posts over the years including Head of Careers, eight years as Head of Bodeites and is now Head of Girdlestoneites.
Miss Sophie Lightfoot, BA
Miss Lightfoot joined Charterhouse from global water strategy consultancy, Amane Advisors & Partners, where she grew their Residential & Commercial offering based out of the Oxford and Parisian offices. After graduating from the University of Oxford with a BA (Hons) in Biological Sciences, specialising in cetaceans, coral reef ecology and deep-sea chemosynthetic ecosystems, Miss Lightfoot further pursued these through postgraduate studies in Spain and Belgium with the European Marine Biological Resource Centre. Miss Lightfoot entered consulting with generalist firm, CIL Management Consultants, working from their offices in London and Frome, Somerset. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling, walking her dog, musical theatre and watching documentaries in Spanish.
Mr Richard Ninham, MA
Mr Ninham joined Charterhouse in 2019 from The King’s School, Canterbury, where he taught for twelve years, and was Housemaster for six. He was educated at Denstone College before reading Economic History at Edinburgh University. He worked in expat tax for nine years with Arthur Andersen and PwC before starting teaching at Tonbridge School where he taught both Business and Economics.