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Pauline Broomhead
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Pauline Broomhead is co-founder and CEO of the FSI (The Foundation for Social Improvement), a not-for-profit organisation that provides free support and training to small charities. Pauline’s unwavering belief in the power for charities to transform communities means she is often called upon to give advice to philanthropists and private companies on how best to support charities. National Campaign Manager of the NSPCC Full Stop Appeal, Pauline is a committed and inspirational leader, successfully steering her team to raise more than £57 million. Every day, Pauline Broomhead inspires individuals and organisations to make a positive impact on the lives of others. Her unwavering passion and skills have placed the FSI at the heart of the small charity sector. Pauline tirelessly champions the work of the smaller charities to funders, the media and the public. The FSI now delivers a full calendar of free events and training sessions covering all aspects of fundraising and operations. |
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Alison Cobb
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Alison has worked tirelessly in the field of mental health for almost 30 years. Recognised as a preeminent policy expert, her commitment has helped improve the lives of countless people who have suffered from mental distress and had to access mental health services. When research came to light that antidepressant Seroxat could lead to increased risk of suicide and self-harm in children, Alison campaigned against well-resourced pharmaceutical lobbies to restrict use in under-18s. Senior Policy and Campaigns Officer at Mind, Alison has spent 10 years lobbying to improve The Mental Health Act. Alison was invited to chair the Mental Health Alliance and worked on secondment at the Department of Health. Alison remains committed to improving mental health services and is inspirational to those who work with her and the wider community. |
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Fiona Dawe
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 Chief Executive of YouthNet since 2000, Fiona has developed a thriving organisation which now reaches hundreds of thousands of young people online. YouthNet’s services, TheSite.org and Lifetracks.com, provide advice, guidance and emotional support to young people. Through Do-it the charity provides them with a fast and easy route to volunteering. Fiona has been a champion for young people and volunteering since she joined Community Service Volunteers (CSV) in 1979. There she spearheaded the Independent Living Scheme which allows people with disabilities to live independently. She has also held senior management positions at Volunteering England and OUTSET, a charity providing IT training and employment for disabled people. Fiona is currently a trustee of the Charity Technology Trust, an advisor to the Young Achievers Trust and a mentor for Leaders Together. Previously she was chair of Kensington and Chelsea Volunteer Centre and served on the boards of the Guidance Council, the Home Office Active Community Directorate, and v. |
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Brian Eversham
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Brian is Chief Executive for the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough. A leading wildlife expert, he works tirelessly to encourage others to get involved in conserving local wildlife. Brian is responsible for nature reserves, wider countryside conservation and wildlife training and has been a pioneer of working practices and habitat conservation. In 2007, Brian was seconded to the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts (RSWT) as acting head of conservation, and now chairs the national team guiding RSWT’s Living Landscapes initiative to create larger and more resilient wildlife habitats. Previously, Brian was Head of Zoology and Research Co-ordinator at the national Biological Records Centre. Brian is a sought-after wildlife commentator and has written articles on all aspects of British wildlife. He is author of the Atlas of the Dragonflies of Britain and Ireland, editor of the Ordnance Survey Nature Atlas, and has written over 200 scientific papers. |
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Gary Foxcroft
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Gary founded the charity Stepping Stones Nigeria to provide shelter, education, literacy, healthcare, food and hope to thousands of vulnerable children of the Niger Delta. Gary campaigns internationally, nationally and locally on behalf of children who are accused of witchcraft and subsequently abused. Gary has established partnerships with the United Nations, governments, churches and the Nollywood film industry and has created a number of sister organisations. Working in extremely challenging circumstances, his advocacy, fundraising and grassroots work has lead to the rehabilitation of over 200 children as well as improved conditions for many street children. The school he runs is one of the best in Akwa Ibom, providing scholarships to hundreds of poor children without access to education. He fights corruption and puts his life at risk when he visits the Niger Delta, threatened with kidnap by local militia and intimidation from those who profit from accusing children of witchcraft. |
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Claire Hicks
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Claire Hicks is one of the founders of IMPACT Foundation, an international charity working to prevent people becoming needlessly disabled through disease, lack of knowledge or medical services. Claire worked with her father (who was blinded in an accident as a child) to establish IMPACT in 1984, drawing attention to World Health Organisation findings showing one in ten of the world’s population is disabled. Of these, 80% live in developing countries and a third are children. Through IMPACT’s work, sight, hearing or movement has been restored to over 850, 000 individuals, and disability prevented for thousands more. IMPACT Foundations and partners have facilitated over 20 million interventions in 33 countries. Highlights of the programme Claire helped to develop include the floating hospital in Bangladesh, Lifeline Express hospital train in India and a low-cost solar-powered hearing aid and battery recharger. Following her retirement, Claire continues as ambassador for IMPACT, expanding projects in Africa and Asia. |
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Judy Ledger
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Judy Ledger is Chief Executive of Baby Lifeline, a national charity that offers loving care and support to pregnant mothers and newborn babies across the UK. Judy started the charity in 1981 after tragically losing three premature babies, determined to improve hospital equipment and help others in similar situations. Her dogged determination has raised more than £8 million for the charity, equipping neonatal units across the UK with essentials including incubators and scanners, and providing training and education programmes for doctors, midwives and other health professionals. Despite advances to medical science, more than 8,500 babies still die at or around the time of birth in the UK, a figure Baby Lifeline aims to decrease. Attracting the support of Sir Ben Kingsley, Sir Richard Branson and Dame Judy Dench, Judy has also travelled to the Middle East, including Kuwait and Iraq and much of Europe, training thousands of health professionals. |
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Virginia McKenna
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Virginia McKenna was one of the UK's foremost actresses in the 1950s-60s, with films including A Town Like Alice and Born Free. Her experience making Born Free with late husband Bill Travers proved life-changing, and in 1984 she co-founded the Born Free Foundation (formerly Zoo Check) with Bill and her eldest son Will. A committed campaigner, Virginia is best known for her passionate work to help animals in captivity and conserve wildlife in the wild, in 1992 she helped release the last three dolphins from UK captivity into the wild and has been involved in numerous wild animal rescues from lions, tigers and leopards to moon bears. She is currently campaigning to end UK circuses using wild animals. As well as her work with animals, Virginia also actively supports humanitarian causes, including Children of the Andes, WaterAid and Plan International, and recently highlighted challenges facing elderly people in care institutions. In 2005, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Genesis Awards in Hollywood and in 2008 was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen. |
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Peter Ryan
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Peter Ryan empowers women in rural Malawi, Namibia and Zambia to work their way out of extreme poverty through the MicroLoan Foundation (MLF). Quitting his job as manager of a French food company, Peter started MLF in 2002 with £25,000 of his own money, recognising a need for microfinance services in sub-Saharan Africa and wanting to put his business start-up experience across EMEA to better use. MLF has helped over 40,000 women start small, sustainable businesses, positively impacting more than 200,000 children. MLF provides women with small loans, typically £50 - £150, to start their businesses, providing business training, ongoing mentoring, and savings and financial planning. Independent studies show the vast majority of women who borrow from MLF can now afford healthcare and to educate their children, and no longer suffer food shortages. MLF won Highly Commended in the International Aid and Development category at the 2010 Charity Awards. |
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Sophi Tranchell
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Sophi Tranchell has been Managing Director of mainstream Fairtrade chocolate company Divine Chocolate since the year after it launched in 1998. Despite running Divine in a market dominated by global companies, Sophi has grown the pioneering and innovative company, which is 45% owned by cocoa farmers in Ghana. Her influence has seen even Cadbury's convert some of its business to Fairtrade. Divine is sold in major supermarkets nationwide, buys more than 1600 tonnes of cocoa per year, and has made net profits of more than £2 million, proving ethical business can be successful on a commercial scale. The company's success has also ensured 45,000 Ghanaian cocoa farmers get the benefit of sustainable incomes and can invest in better amenities, health and education in their communities, as well as the major share of the profit, and the dignity, respect, empowerment and voice in the industry that owning their own company gives them. Sophi is also Social Enterprise Ambassador, co-chair of Social Enterprise London and chaired the steering committee of Make London a Fairtrade City, which succeeded in 2008. |
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Robert Wilson
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At 26, Robert Wilson is Founding Director of READ International, a charity providing East African schools with much-needed books and educational resources. Inspired by a friend’s gap year teaching in Tanzania, Rob and some university mates started collecting and shipping relevant school books to East Africa. After running the charity from his university halls and then his father’s kitchen table, READ is now a truly international charity involving over 1,000 student volunteers, within 45 university-based projects. Rob has led hundreds of UK volunteers to travel and distribute books in East Africa. They have shipped 850,000 textbooks, educating 385,000 East African students, whilst saving 720 tonnes of books from UK landfill. Any books collected which aren’t relevant to be sent are sold, given away or recycled in the UK. READ also renovates East African school libraries and their UK school workshop programme reaches more than 35,000 school children. Rob is also founding director of NoPC, a non-profit innovative computing solution designed specifically for developing countries, which is being piloted in Grenada and Tanzania. |
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