Ian Allsop Professor Ian Bruce (Chair) Dorothy Dalton Venu Dhupa Sir Christopher Kelly Dame Jo Williams	Bharat Mehta Maeve Sherlock OBE David Harker Anne-Marie Piper Maggie Semple OBE Dr John Low

Professor Ian Bruce (chair) Professor Ian Bruce became director of the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Cass Business School in 2003, following 20 years as director general of RNIB. Ian is a respected writer on a wide range of management and marketing issues and his book Charity Marketing - Meeting Need Through Customer Focus widely acknowledged as the standard text on the subject. He was the first charity executive to be made a companion of the British Institute of Management. He has also made a major contribution to arts, ageing, volunteering and disability issues through voluntary committee work at national and international levels. As well as Volprof (which became the Centre for Charity Effectiveness), he has founded or co-founded four other influential voluntary sector organisations dealing with the arts, volunteering and campaigning on behalf of people with disabilities. top^^
Dame Jo Williams Dame Jo Williams moved into the voluntary sector nearly four years ago when she joined Mencap as chief executive. She had spent her career until then in the public sector, starting off as a social worker at Shropshire County Council in 1971.  She moved to Cheshire County Council in 1973 and spent the next 19 years in a variety of operational roles, before leaving to join Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council as director of social services in 1992. Five years later, she took up the equivalent role back at Cheshire County Council and remained there until joining Mencap in March 2003. Jo was president of the Association of Directors of Social Services during 1999 and 2000, and was a major contributor to the National Service Framework for Children, Young People and Maternity Services.  As an advocate for partnership working across different agencies and someone who is passionate about involving service users, she has served on several government taskforces.  She is a trustee of the EveryChild Board, and chair of the Research in Practice Partnership Board. She is currently a member of the National Learning Disability Taskforce and co-chaired the Third Sector Taskforce with health minister Ivan Lewis. She received a Damehood in the 2007 New Year Honours for services to learning disability. top^^
Maeve Sherlock OBE Since October 2006, Maeve Sherlock has been a full-time postgraduate student at Durham University.  Until then, she was chief executive of the Refugee Council, the largest charity working with refugees and asylum-seekers.  Before that, Maeve spent three years as a special adviser to Gordon Brown, MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, where her brief included child poverty, welfare reform and the voluntary sector.  Before moving to the Treasury, Maeve was chief executive of the National Council for One Parent Families and, prior to that, director of UKCOSA, a charity focusing on overseas students and international education. She is a former President of the National Union of Students. Maeve is currently chairing an Advisory Panel which is advising ministers on the future role of the Third Sector in economic and social regeneration. She is also a member of the Carnegie Commission of Inquiry into the Future of Civil Society and a trustee of the independent think-tank, Demos. top^^
Maggie Semple OBE Maggie Semple is chief executive and director of The Experience Corps and a Civil Service Commissioner. Before joining The Experience Corps, Maggie was director of The Learning Experience for the New Millennium Experience Company; director of education and training at Arts Council England; director of the National Arts Education for a Multicultural Society Project, an LEA advisor and a teacher. Maggie has served on a number of Government education task groups including those that examined how to widen participation in further education, and examined how to promote online learning to over-16s. Maggie is a non-executive director of McDonald’s Restaurants; chair of the National Research and Development Centre for Adult Learning, the Dana Centre and the National Youth Music Theatre; a trustee of the Balance Foundation of Unclaimed Assets and the Arts Educational School Trust; and a Governor of De Montfort University, London University, Brit School and Sadlers Wells Trust. In 2001 Maggie was awarded an OBE for her services to education in the UK and an Honorary Doctorate from De Montfort University. In 2005 she became a Fellow of the City and Guilds Institute. top^^
Anne-Marie Piper Anne-Marie Piper is a partner at law firm Farrer & Co, where she specialises in charity law.  Her job involves acting for sponsors of new charities, directors, trustees and officers of existing charities and other not-for-profit bodies, as well as individuals and companies wishing to make charitable gifts or do business with charities. She is also well known for her handling of Charity Commission investigations and acting, for and against, Charity Commission-appointed receivers and managers. Founder, former secretary and now chairman of the Charity Law Association, Anne-Marie also lectures and writes regularly on charity law subjects. She trained at Richards Butler and was called to the Bar in 1980.  She joined the private client department at Richards Butler in 1983, then requalified as solicitor and became a partner at Richards Butler in 1989.  She then moved to Paisner & Co to head up its charities group from 1994 to 2001, and joined Farrer & Co in 2001. top^^
Bharat Mehta OBE Bharat joined the City Parochial Foundation as clerk to the trustees in 1998. Prior to this he was chief executive of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship (now renamed RETHINK) one of the largest British mental health charities. He has also worked for the Medical Research Council, Pensioners Link and NCVO. Bharat is a trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a non-executive director of North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust and a patron of the Revolving Doors Agency. He was awarded an OBE in 2000 for services to NSF and the voluntary sector. top^^
Dr John Low John Low is currently Chief Executive of RNID, the largest charity representing the UK’s nine million deaf and hard of hearing people.  He is also Chairman of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO) and the Disability Charities Consortium (DCC), as well as a member of the Court of Bristol University. After completing a PhD in Bio-Medical Physics at the University of Aberdeen specialising in speech and auditory feedback, he then pursued a varied commercial career, working with multinational companies helping to bring technological solutions to developing countries and harsh environments.  John joined RNID in 1999 initially responsible for Research, Technology and Health, is a Chartered Engineer and a fellow of the RSA. top^^
Sir Christopher Kelly KCB Chris Kelly joined the board of the NSPCC in 2001 and became its chair in January 2002. He was appointed chair of Compact Voice, formerly the Compact Working Group, in June 2005. He is also chair of the Financial Ombudsman Service, a board member of the National Consumer Council and an adviser to KPMG.  His previous roles included director of monetary and fiscal policy and director of the budget and public finances at HM Treasury, where he spent 25 years from 1970 to 1995.  After leaving the Treasury he became head of policy at the then Department of Social Security and in 1997 was appointed Permanent Secretary to the Department of Health.  Since leaving the civil service in 2001 he has chaired various reviews, including one on paying for the cost of long-term care for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and another on the arrest to sentence part of the criminal justice system which led to the creation of the Office for Criminal Justice Reform. In 2004 he also chaired the serious case review commissioned by the North East Lincolnshire Area Child Protection Committee into the Ian Huntley case. top^^
David Harker David has been chief executive of Citizens Advice since 1997. Citizens Advice, formerly known as the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux, provides leadership and support to the CAB service, which is probably the largest free advice service in the world. Involved in the voluntary sector since his teens, David was a Community Service Volunteer during his gap year. His first paid job in the sector was with Voluntary Action Lewisham. He was the director of Lady Margaret Hall Settlement, a south London social action centre and managing director of the disability charity Sense. Forays outside the sector include working in the research and press office of a trade union, as a corporate planner for a local authority, and as management consultant. He was one of the first voluntary sector leaders to appreciate the value of an MBA, which he received from London Business School in 1986. He received an OBE for services to the voluntary sector. top^^
Venu Dhupa Leading the development of a new Creative Innovation Unit at the South Bank Centre, Europe’s largest cultural centre.  Former posts include:  Fellowship Director at The UKs National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, Chief Executive at the Nottingham Playhouse, Producer (Mobile Touring) at the Royal National Theatre.  In 1999 she was appointed as the inaugural Chair of the East Midlands Cultural Consortium by the Secretary of State at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport a role she held until 2002.  She has been awarded the prestigious Asian Woman of Achievement Award for her contribution to the Arts and Culture. She is or has been a: Trustee of the Theatres Trust, a Governor of Guildford Conservatoire, a Council Member of Loughborough University, a Member of the Institute of Ideas; a member of Chatham House; a member of the London 2012 Culture and Education Committee and the European Cultural Parliament.  She is a patron of the Asha Foundation and the Minorities of Europe. top^^
Dorothy Dalton Dorothy Dalton is editor of governance: essential information for effective trustees and author of several publications on governance. She advises a number of professionally managed charities on their governance and is the independent chair of the Scope governance working group. She is part-time director of voluntary sector development at accountants Horwath Clark Whitehill and part-time charities consultant to law firm Bircham Dyson Bell. A former headteacher, Dorothy was chief executive of acevo, the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, from 1992 to 2000. From 2000 to 2003 she was a non-executive director of the Inland Revenue. She is trustee of several charities including Marie Curie Cancer Care. She is a governor of International Students House and chairs their Governance Advisory Committee. She is chair of trustees of the JoLt Trust and of Orley Farm School Trust. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Leadership Trust. She founded the JoLt Trust and co-founded Groundbreakers: Voluntary sector women leaders and the Network of Women Chairs. During her spare time, Dorothy organises and leads month-long challenging expeditions for disabled and disadvantaged teenagers to remote corners of the world as well as organising and participating in fundraising expeditions abroad. top^^
Ian Allsop Ian has been editor of Charity Finance magazine since April 2004, and has worked on the publication for five years. He has also edited Association Manager. Prior to stumbling into a career in journalism, he worked for the charity unit at accountants BDO Stoy Hayward in a range of roles including marketing and administration. Ian holds a degree in economics and in the past has volunteered for Oxfam, as well as on a scheme assisting schoolchildren with reading difficulties. top^^