Governance

The members decide People In Aid's strategy and direction. An Annual General Meeting of members elects a Board of Trustees of up to fifteen individuals, which oversees the organisation on members’ behalf. Our present Board members are listed below. Up to five Trustees can be from non-member organisations (listed below as ‘Independents’) to ensure the necessary diversity of skills, experience and views. Vacancies for Trustees will be advertised here and in selected media, and selection is through competency-based interviews.

Our Memorandum and Articles, updated in 2008, can be found here and members can view minutes of our Board meetings in the box to the right.

Our Trustees

Helen Bloomfield – Amnesty International

The HR Director at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International since March 2006, Helen has over 20 years’ experience in the field gained in a number of sectors. She worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Alcan Jamaica Company Limited, Citizens/Union Bank and the Jamaica Urban Transit Company Ltd. in Jamaica and Barclays in the UK before joining Amnesty. In her current role she has led on developing the HR strategy and a major organisational change process to revise the employment proposition and build and embed a performance and accountability culture in the organisation.

Helen has a MBA with a concentration in Industrial Relations from the Management Centre of the University of Bradford, having pursued her undergraduate studies at the University of the West Indies. She has served as the Vice President of the Jamaica Employers’ Federation, held memberships in SHRM, ASTD and CIPD and is a charter member of the Optimist Club of Mandeville, Jamaica.

Donna Campbell – International Rescue Committee USA

Donna is the IRC’s vice president of human resources, overseeing its human capital issues for over 10,000 employees across the world. Before joining the IRC in 2008, she was the chief operating officer of The Village for Families and Children, a mental health and social service agency that serves Hartford, Connecticut, and surrounding communities. She has more than 30 years of experience in the leadership of non-profit organisations and the management of their human resources groups. Before joining The Village in 2007, she spent three years as president and CEO of Connecticut’s Northwest Center for Family Service and Mental Health. Earlier, she was executive director of the Danbury regional office of Catholic Charities in Fairfield County, Conn., and executive director of the Connecticut Women’s Consortium. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Sweet Briar College and an M.S.W. from the University of Connecticut, and has been an adjunct professor at Western CT State University and a clinical professor at the Yale Child Study Center. She is a licensed clinical social worker and spent 10 years in her own private psychotherapy practice.

Neil Casey – Independent (Chair)

Neil is Director of Wild Goose Consulting, a company providing consultancy support and interim management to not-for-profit organisations for the last three years.  He has nearly 20 years' experience of charity management at either senior management or director level.  His latest consultancy projects have included a governance review for an international development organisation. This has resulted in the Board adopting a new governance manual, a new framework for their strategic plan and a recruitment campaign for new Trustees which sourced three new Trustees. He has particularly strong skills in strategic planning, income generation, financial planning and management, and inter-agency networking nationally and internationally. He has been a Trustee for People In Aid for the last three years and has been Chairman for the last seven months.

Richard Da Costa – Independent

Richard has worked in Human Resource management in industry for 30 years. For the last 15 years of his career he has worked in an international context across all continents. He has experience of the voluntary sector having been Chairman of a UK children's charity between 1987 and 1993. Richard is now working part-time and joined the Board of People In Aid in order to combine his professional experience with a desire to renew his involvement in a voluntary organisation.  

Idrissa Doucouré – WaterAid

Idrissa is the Head of WaterAid's New Initiatives Unit, which was recently set up in WaterAid to manage global projects, promote new dimensions of work, and promote an environment that encourages innovative thinking within the organisation. Before taking this role, Idrissa was WaterAid's Head of West Africa Region for over 6 years. He was responsible for building the region almost from scratch, and over the years the breadth and influence of WaterAid there has grown hugely.

Prior to joining WaterAid, Idrissa has worked for NGOs in 11 African countries for 15 years, much of which has been in a senior management position. He has also worked with multilateral and bilateral organisations including UNICEF and JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency), enabling him to build on his knowledge of both the technical and management elements of the development sector. Idrissa is a chartered engineer and has a Masters degree in Business Administration and a higher diploma in Strategic Planning. He is a trustee of a number of organisations including CREPA (an African centre network specialised in water and sanitation for the poor), and Wetlands International.

Olawale Fajobi – British Red Cross

Ola has been the Corporate Head of Human Resources with the British Red Cross since January 2006. He is responsible for developing and implementing HR strategy and policy in the UK and internationally. He is also responsible through a team of senior managers for setting and delivering HR and volunteering policy, advice and standards through a geographically dispersed team of approximately 70 staff. Prior to his appointment, he was the Deputy Director of Human Resources at the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (CAFCASS) for 5 years including a 1-year stint as HR Director.  CAFCASS is a non-departmental public body responsible for safeguarding the welfare of children involved in family court proceedings across England and Wales.

Ola is a member of the Institute of Fundraising Finance & Resource Committee. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD) and brings several years of senior operational and strategic HR experience from the National Health Service.

Richard Marshall – World Vision (Vice Chair)

Richard has 20 years' experience in Human Resources Development spread between the UK and Asia. His current role is the Director of People and Culture with World Vision UK, and he is also part of the HR Leadership Team for World Vision International. Having started out in a range of HR roles within the Pharmaceutical Industry (AstraZeneca), he moved to Asia in 1995 to work with the United Mission to Nepal as Training & Development Manager, and later as Regional HR Director for World Vision, based in Thailand. He is a Chartered Occupational Psychologist, and is involved in a number of networks for HR and OD professionals in the Charity Sector.

Martin McCann – RedR UK

Martin, a Canadian, has many years' experience in development and humanitarian work as volunteer, staff, consultant and trustee. This has ranged from being a volunteer teacher for two years in a small African village to advising a UK BME group on strategic planning to leading a regional sustainable agriculture program in Asia. He has lived in developing countries both in Asia and Africa for 14 years. Currently, Martin is the Chief Executive of RedR. He has had significant experience working on Boards: as a Trustee of WarChild UK, Chair of the Hope for African Children Initiative, a member of the NGO Committee of UNICEF, and as a Director of Plan Ltd.

Duncan Milroy – Independent (Treasurer)

Duncan’s career has been in financial management, with 20 years in the international oil and gas industry. He moved to the charity sector in 2002, working as Director of Corporate Services for Norwood, a charity providing a wide range of social services in the London area. Pursuing his interest in international development, he moved to take the role of interim Finance Director of World Jewish Relief in 2005, and now works as a consultant with medium-scale charities and social enterprises in the UK, and on international assignments with organisations involved in development and relief. Duncan is a qualified accountant (ACMA), and has experience of managing HR, IT and Internal Audit functions.

Simon Springett – Oxfam GB

Simon is the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Oxfam covering the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. He holds a first degree in geology as well as an MSc in development practice. Simon has worked internationally on humanitarian aid and development programmes for the last 15 years with the United Nations, Red Cross, and international NGOs. His primary experience is rapid onset emergency relief programmes and he has worked in Africa, Europe, South and East Asia, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Simon is also a member of the Steering Committee of The Humanitarian Forum, Steering Group of the Enhancing Learning & Research in Humanitarian Assistance initiative, and a member of the Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference and Exhibition Scientific Advisory Board.

Simon Thompson – Independent

Simon has recently joined Apple as their General Manager EMEA, Online Store. Previously, he worked as the European Managing Director & Chief Marketing Officer of lastminute.com group, having arrived there from Motorola via Honda.

Simon spent several years in the computing industry in numerous roles from programming to corporate sales.  He joined the automotive industry as an Area Sales Manager for Unipart International, and then moved to Honda in 1991 and covered all aspects of the business from sales, product development, franchising, strategy and marketing. From Honda he moved to Motorola Inc in 2006, as the Senior Director of Marketing for Europe.

Sue Turrell – Womankind Worldwide

Sue has been the Executive Director of Womankind Worldwide since January 2007. She caught the development bug in the early 1980s when, at 18, she taught sciences in a remote rural secondary school in Kenya for a year. She lived and worked overseas for eight years, as a teacher, trainer, project manager and researcher in Kenya, Indonesia, Australia, the Gaza Strip and Zambia. After returning to the UK in 1997, she worked for Education Action International and Christian Aid where she managed programmes and teams in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. Sue worked her way up through the development sector gaining skills and experience in programme management; working with and through partner organisations; advocacy and campaigning work; fundraising; financial management; strategic development and leadership; governance and accountability. She has a BA, a Masters in Development and an MBA (Masters in Business Administration).

Willem van Eekelen – Islamic Relief Worldwide

Willem is a sociological economist who worked for a range of UN and other multilateral organisations before joining Islamic Relief (IR) as the Head of Policy and Research. At the time of writing, Willem is wrapping up his secondment as the Head of IR’s Change Programme. In addition to his IR involvement, Willem is an honorary research associate of the International Development Department of the University of Birmingham. He is also a Visiting Lecturer at that department, lecturing in an MSc programme titled Poverty Reduction and Development Management. He is a trustee of Bond, the UK membership body for organisations that work in the field of international development, and co-owns and is actively involved in translation and cultural training company Cultural Bridges and sustainable development and eco-tours company Green Visions. 

Diane H. Willis – ChildFund International

Diane joined ChildFund International in 2005 in a senior role in Asia region, and in
2007 was promoted to the US-based position of Vice President, People and Culture. In this role she is responsible for the development and implementation of a global people strategy and systems. Core priorities are the development of leadership and management skills, building organisational capability, and embedding values and systems to enable the ChildFund global strategy.

With more than 26 years' experience in business including 10 years with global consulting firms, Diane has diverse senior level experience in both for profit and non-profit organisations. Her consulting expertise focused largely on change management, organisational development, executive coaching and leadership development. Diane is an experienced educator having taught at colleges in Cambodia and Australia, and is the founding Director of a small Cambodian NGO. She holds a Masters degree in Education and has undertaken graduate studies in Adult Learning, in Business Management, and in Indonesian Studies. She studied her bachelor’s degree in Criminology at Melbourne University. 
 

Anne Wozencraft – Independent

Anne is a senior manager in the British Council, the UK’s principal cultural relations agency which operates in 109 countries around the world. Until recently, she was the organisation’s global HR Director and is now involved in the design and delivery of the British Council’s global programmes in education, science and research. Previously, Anne was a university lecturer and researcher, leading disease control programmes in Latin America and Africa and working closely with development and humanitarian agencies. She is a chartered Member of the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development and is an active member of HR networks in the public, private and charity sector.