Samantha Whay-Jenkins MBE

Samantha Whay-Jenkins was involved in Corporate Training and Adult Education for over 22 years in Spain before entering the school arena by joining the King’s Educational Group in 2013 and leading the Founding Operations Team which established King’s College Panama.  During her time in Panama, she was also appointed as a Board member for the British Chamber of Commerce, where she served for 7 years including 2 years as their first female Chairperson. Samantha also founded a start-up offering Management and Leadership Training in Panama and, in just 4 years was working with most of the key logistics companies including the Panama Canal Authority, the Panama Railway, and Manzanillo and Bilbao Container Terminals. In recognition of these achievements, in 2018, Samantha was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for Services to Education and Promoting British Business.

After successfully helping to establish King’s College and consolidating over a period of 7 years, the British School of Panama, Samantha took on a new adventure as the Support Services Director setting up Durham School for Girls Doha.  Samantha is also a Governor of the school and was promoted to Executive Director of Operations in 2022. Durham School for Girls Doha is an ambitious project that saw Qatar’s first all-girls, all-female campus British school open its doors in September 2019 in partnership with Durham School UK, one of England’s oldest schools.  The school achieved over 570 girls in its first year, 976 in the second and now has 1250 girls, reaching its five year target at the beginning of the third year. In the fourth year, after successfully completing the BSO Inspection, becoming an HPL World Class school and also passing Qatar’s QNSA Inspection from the MoEHE, the school is going from strength to strength consolidating itself as the number one choice for Qatari girls. As the Executive Director of Operations, Samantha oversees a team of 45 people who provide all the non-academic support to the school.