Our trustees

Ian worked for over 30 years as an IT Consultant to the financial services industry, initially with Andersen Consulting and then leaving to co-found CHP Consulting Limited (now ALFA Financial Systems Limited).  He managed relationships with a number of major UK banks and assumed responsibility for operations in Australia and New Zealand.  He also served as Finance Director.

Since leaving in 2015, he has been working as an investor with a number of start up companies.  He is a governor of a secondary school in Surrey, and works actively with his former school in various roles.

Following a 30 year career in the probation service Paul Hayes was CEO of The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse, an NHS body accountable to ministers and parliament for the funding and delivery of treatment for drug addiction in England, from 2001 to 2013.

He is currently CEO of Collective Voice which speaks on behalf of drug and alcohol charities and is Chair of the Northern Inclusion Consortium, a collaboration of four third sector organisations based in the North East of England providing integrated responses to the causes and consequences of social and economic exclusion.

Dele is a Global Marketing Director at DMG Media, part of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc. He has 13 years’ experience planning and managing high-profile digital marketing campaigns for some of the largest brands in the retail, travel, and financial services sectors. He previously held roles at two of the ‘big five’ largest advertising agencies; Omnicom Media Group and Dentsu, venture capital-backed fashion startup Lyst, and US financial software company Intuit.

Philippe has spent his career in financial services, mainly within the asset management industry, working for Legal & General, Axa and private banking organisations. He has held a variety of sales leadership roles and has wide marketing strategy and institutional client management experience, including within the charity sector.

Philippe co-founded a digital business in 2017 aimed at improving the children’s savings market. He holds various financial planning and investment management qualifications.

Philippe’s interest in charitable causes started when he became founder and president of the RAG society while at university.

Sophy Doyle has over 20 years of experience in senior Human Resources roles with extensive experience in devising and implementing coherent and successful HR strategies. She started her career working in a family-run publishing company specialising in local government publications. From there she moved to retail and spent the next 17 years working on a variety of brands within the LVMH Group across fashion, cosmetics and jewellery. More recently she has left corporate life and established herself as an HR Consultant to work with small businesses who require strategic and operational HR support. This change has allowed her to focus on her own family life and explore new interests related to the area of family and child development.

George is Chief Product Officer at Zellis, a technology business providing payroll, HR and managed services and has also led strategy and transformation at the company. Prior to Zellis, George was a Principal at the London office of Bain & Company advising clients on strategy and transformation issues with a strong focus on acquiring and growing private equity-backed businesses. He has worked across many industries including energy, utilities, consumer goods, retail and financial services. Prior to joining Bain, George spent five years with Allen & Overy LLP as a Corporate Mergers and Acquisition’s lawyer. Outside of work, George has two children which take up a lot of his time but is also interested in travel, the environment and renovating old houses in Scotland.

Dez Holmes is the Director of Research in Practice and Research in Practice for Adults, having previously been the Assistant Director of Research in Practice.  She leads these organisations in championing evidence-informed practice, supporting those working to improve outcomes for children, young people, adults and their families and carers.

Prior to this, Dez was the Programme Manager at C4EO responsible for Capacity Building. She previously worked in local government establishing and managing integrated early intervention services to families and previously managed multi-agency prevention and early intervention programmes (YISPs).

Dez has several years’ experience of training and workforce development. Dez’s practice experience is largely within youth offending services. Her research experience is focussed on Participative Action Research with vulnerable groups. She is particularly interested in adolescence, risk and participatory practice.

BB retired in 2017 after a long 35-year career in Financial Services, the last 27 years of which were with American Express Company. His last position was General Manager of Global Commercial Payments & Chairman, American Express Bank, Russia. During his tenure at American Express, BB has held a variety of different functional roles mostly in Sales & Marketing and is noted for his passionate focus on the customer and cultivating strong relationships.

Since his retirement from full time work, BB has embarked on a portfolio career focussed on giving back to society, whilst remaining partially engaged with some commercial assignments.

His current portfolio includes being an independent Non-Executive Director of a soon-to-be start-up Bank with the aim of regenerating the regions, a community nominated Governor of a local primary school in Surrey and undertaking some advisory projects. As a Trustee of Family Action, he hopes to be able to share some of his transferable commercial experience, enabling the continued progress of Family Action and devoting time volunteering in the field.

BB qualified as a Chartered Insurer and has a post-graduate diploma for Non-Executive Directors.

Robert is a qualified social worker with over 20 years of experience as a practitioner and local authority senior manager. He specialised in services to children and families. Robert moved to the voluntary sector in 1999 when he became chief executive of Family Rights Group, a charity which works with and advises families of children in need to ensure their voices are heard. In 2004 he became chief executive of the Fostering Network, a charity promoting and supporting foster care throughout the UK.

Robert now works as an independent consultant in children’s social care, working with local authorities and charities.

Melanie graduated with a BSc [Hons] in Business Studies and has an MA in Education and Training. Her extensive career has been in education, as a lecturer in a Further Education college, head of department and sixth form in an inner-city secondary school, and the curriculum development manager for a nationwide group of 31 independent schools.

Following more than fifteen years as a teacher and school leader, Melanie joined Pearson 7 years ago as a Subject Advisor supporting teachers. She is now the As Operations Programme Manager for the Pearson Tutoring Programme, which aims to ensure students across England make up for pandemic-related lost learning.

Current voluntary roles include: enterprise advisor, going into schools and speaking to young people about their career aspirations (sponsored by Careers and Enterprise Company via the Mayor of

London and central Government); Learning and Development lead for the peer learning group for women, She Leads Change.

Louise is passionate about the charity sector having over 20 years experience across a number of finance, planning and governance roles. She trained as a chartered accountant with PwC where she specialised in charity audit, before moving to the charity sector where she served as Finance Director for both RNID and Ambitious about Autism, whilst also holding Treasurer roles for Home-Start UK and Children in Crisis.

Louise is currently on a sabbatical to raise her young family although is Co-Chair of Governor at a local primary school and delighted to join the Board of Family Action.

Caroline Walsh is a registered social worker, with significant experience in children’s social care. She is a former SHMI for Ofsted and successfully led inspections of local authorities. Prior to Ofsted, Caroline gained social work experience in a range of local authority and health settings including children’s centres, fostering, adoption, health visiting and school nursing. Caroline has particular expertise in early help, service improvement and the commissioning of family services.

Caroline enjoys the benefits that volunteering brings supporting public bodies and charities. She was a member of the Charnwood Toy Appeal for many years and held a public appointment between 2000 and 2007 working as a non-executive director for University Hospitals Leicester (NHS) Trust.

She is now working independently with local authorities and partners supporting improvement and service redesign.

Charlotte Heiss is an experienced solicitor and over 20 years’ experience advising companies and boards on legal, governance, CSR and risk management. Charlotte is currently the Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at M&G plc and has previously led global teams at The Very Group and RSA Insurance Group. She started her career at Linklaters LLP as a capital markets and corporate transactions lawyer.

In her spare time Charlotte can be found running around after her twin sons.

Katherine is a seasoned professional in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) and Retail industry. Having completed her Executive MBA from Oxford University, Katherine recently joined Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and advises companies on marketing, sales, and pricing strategies. With experience working with entrepreneurial start-ups and corporate enterprises including General Mills and Target, Katherine has worked on a range of strategic corporate initiatives.

Beyond her professional accomplishments, Katherine is driven by a deep commitment to supporting vulnerable communities. Katherine is the founder of Charlie’s Choice, a foundation established in memory of her son, which provides financial assistance to not-for-profit organizations dedicated to addressing fundamental human needs.

Being innately curious and a lover of learning, Jennifer has pursued a twenty year career of working alongside charities and public sector organisations to generate and action learning about supporting families who have been affected by trauma and abuse, mental health, substance use, homelessness and socioeconomic disadvantage. Since the birth of her children, Jennifer’s has become particularly interested in support for expectant and new parents throughout the perinatal period.

As a researcher, evaluator and educator, Jennifer’s focus is typically on increasing access to support as well as the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of intervention/service effectiveness. Her career history includes working for Women’s Aid England, Samaritans, the National Childbirth Trust, King’s College London and she is currently employed as the Research Manager with The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales. Jennifer is also a part-time PhD student in the Section of Women’s Mental Health at King’s College London.