We share the same Trustees and directors as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. New Trustees are appointed alternately by the Trustees themselves and by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Trustees

Directors and senior managers

Biographies

Ann was appointed a Trustee in 2001. Educated in Reading and at Girton College, Cambridge, Ann had a distinguished career with the Civil Service. She worked with the National Assistance Board, Ministry of Social Security, the Department of Health, as First Civil Service Commissioner and with the Department of Social Security as Permanent Secretary from 1995 to 1999. Ann is the Chair of the Poverty Strategy Group;Chair of the Public Interest in Poverty Issues advisory group and a member of the JRHT Board, Derwenthorpe Partnership Advisory Committee and Nominations Committee.

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Susan was appointed as a Trustee in 1998. Educated at The Mount School in York, Manchester University and Gray's Inn, Susan Hartshorne worked as a Chair of Social Security Tribunals and was active in NHS management from 1971 to 1999. She was Vice-Chair of Manchester Central Health Authority and Chair of Manchester Infertility Services and Ethical Committee. She was also the Chair of Mosscare Housing Association in Manchester. She is currently Chair of YACRO (York Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders). She now lives in the Foundation's continuing care retirement community, Hartrigg Oaks.

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Dr Ashok Jashapara Dr Ashok Jashapara

Ashok was appointed a Trustee in 2004. Educated at Christ College Grammar School in London, City University and Henley Management College, he started his career as a bridge designer and builder and then moved into academia and taught a variety of subjects from structural engineering to strategic management. Subsequently, he has led a large academic department and the largest disability consultancy in the UK, JMU Access Partnership. Ashok Jashapara is currently an internationally recognised expert in the field of knowledge management and until recently was chair of the Knowledge Management Research Group at Loughborough University. He is a Hindu Quaker and a Member of the Committee for Racial Equality of the Religious Society of Friends.

Ashok is the Chair of the Empowerment Strategy Group.

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Bharat Mehta OBE Bharat Mehta OBE

Bharat was appointed as a Trustee in 2003. He is Chief Executive of the City Parochial Foundation. Before taking up this post, he was Chief Executive of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship (NSF, recently renamed RETHINK), one of the largest British mental health charities working with severely mentally ill people, their carers and relatives. He joined NSF as Director of Development in 1989 and became its Chief Executive in 1993. Prior to joining NSF, he was a Principal Officer in the Social Services Department of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. He has also worked as a Research Assistant for the Medical Research Council (MRC), as a Community Development Officer for a London based charity called Pensioners Link, and as a Policy Officer for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO)

Bharat is a non-executive director and vice chair of the North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (2005-present) and a founder member and currently, a patron, of the Revolving Doors Agency (1996 - present). From 1999 to 2004 he was the chair of governors of Bowes Primary School, a local state school.

Bharat is Chair of the Investment Committee.

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Nigel Naish Nigel Naish

Nigel was appointed a Trustee in 1983. Educated at Bootham School, York, and the College of Estate Management, Nigel Naish is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Beginning his career with Jackson, Stops and Staff in 1961, he formed his own company in York in 1974. He is the Foundation's Senior Trustee for York. He is also Director of Cober Hill, a Quaker conference centre near Scarborough, and served as Chair of the Governors of the Retreat Hospital, York. He is Chair of the Mount and Bootham Schools Joint Committee as well as co-Director (with his wife Diana) of Naish Hotels and Catering Ltd.

Nigel is Chair of the JRHT Board and a member of the Derwenthorpe Partnership Advisory Committee, Clifton Estates, Finance and Personnel Committee, Remuneration Committee, York Committee, Empowerment Strategy Group and the Programme Advisory Group on Alcohol.

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Tony Stoller Tony Stoller CBE

Tony was appointed a Trustee in 2004 and has been Deputy Chair of the JRF and JRHT since October 2006.

A Quaker, his background lies in broadcasting, regulation and retailing. He was Chief Executive of The Radio Authority from 1995 - 2003, and then helped set up the new communications regulator, Ofcom, prior to his retirement at the end of 2005. Between 1986 and 1995 he was a Principal Director in the John Lewis Partnership. His earlier career was in newspapers and radio.

In 2001 he published "Wrestling with the Angel" about the position of Quakers and others in commercial and public life. He is currently working on a history of independent radio in the UK.

Tony is Chair of the Finance and Personnel Committee and a member of the Place Strategy Group, Investment Committee, Clifton Estates, Audit Committee and the Nominations Committee.

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Debby Ounsted Debby Ounsted - Chair

Debby Ounsted has been a Trustee since 2002 and was appointed Chair of the Foundation and the Housing Trust in 2006. Educated at Girton College, Cambridge and with a postgraduate diploma in publishing from Oxford Brookes, Debby worked in housing and local government until 2001. During that time she was chief executive of Habinteg Housing Association, which is especially concerned with housing people with disabilities. She was also CE of Octavia Hill Housing Trust, a long established community-based association with a particular interest in the care and support of older people. She has served on a number of housing association and voluntary sector boards including six years as chair of KIDS, the charity concerned with children with disabilities and their families.

Now a freelance management consultant and writer she specialises in governance, strategic development and inspection. Debby is a member of the Housing and Almshouses Committee of the Mercers livery company.

Debby chairs the Bradford Strategy Group, and the Nominations Committee. She is a member of the Poverty Strategy Group, Finance and Personnel Committee, Derwenthorpe Partnership Advisory Committee and the Remuneration Committee.


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Dame Mavis McDonald Dame Mavis McDonald

Mavis was appointed a Trustee in 2006. She was a career civil servant for 39 years. She worked largely on housing, regeneration, community development, social exclusion and local government finance, structure and performance in the Department for Environment and its successors. She was Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office from 2000 - 2002 and retired as Permanent Secretary at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in October 2005.

She is Chair of the Public Sector Construction Clients Forum, and an honorary member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Mavis is the Chair of the Place Strategy Group, a member of Clifton Estates, the Finance and Personnel Committee and the Audit Committee.

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Don Brand Don Brand MBE

Don is a consultant working with the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), government departments, the devolved Administrations and national social care organisations. He has helped SCIE and other bodies develop participation strategies with organisations of people using services and carers. He has worked on a range of policy, implementation and workforce topics,including the reviews of social work roles and tasks in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, commissioning and personalisation developments, and workforce development strategies to support new policies for children and adults, as well as assisting the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Social Care Group.

Following 20 years in Oxford and Kent Social Services Departments, Don was for 7 years Deputy Chief Inspector in the Social Services Inspectorate at the Department of Health. Moving in 1996 to the former National Institute for Social Work (NISW), he was involved with setting up the four UK Social Care Councils, the Topss England National Training Organisation, and SCIE. He is a Trustee of the Residential Forum, and a past Board member of NCH Action for Children, the older people's charity MHA Care Group, and MCCH, which provides community services for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities. Don was awarded an MBE for his services to social care in 2005.

Don chairs the Remuneration Committee as well as the Alcohol Programme Advisory Group. He is a member of the Empowerment Strategy Group.

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Content imageSteven Burkeman

For 19 years, until 2001, Steven was the Trust Secretary of the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Before then, he worked as a teacher; in the non-profit sector; in local government; and as a consumer advocate in the National Health Service. Since 2001, he has worked as an independent consultant, mainly with grant making trusts and human rights NGOs.

Steven has written and lectured widely in the UK and internationally on issues relating to philanthropy. He has served on various boards, including the Community Fund (now part of the Big Lottery Fund), and the board for the Legal Complaints Service.

He founded and chairs the Rowntree Society, which seeks to ensure that a new generation understands the contemporary significance of the work and ideas of the Rowntree family. He also sits on the board of Jessie's Fund a small York-based charity working nationally to help children who are ill or disabled to communicate through music.

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Chief Executive and Directors

Julia Unwin - Chief Executive
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Julia Unwin was appointed Chief Executive of the Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust in January 2007.

She was a member of the Housing Corporation Board for 10 years and a Charity Commissioner from 1998-2003. Julia was also Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency and worked as an independent consultant operating within government and the voluntary and corporate sectors. In that role, she focused on the development of services and in particular the governance and funding of voluntary organisations. Julia has researched and written extensively on the role, governance and funding of the voluntary sector.

She previously held a position as chair of the Refugee Council from 1995 until 1998, and is now a trustee of York Museums and Gallery Trust, and (from August 2009) a member of the University of York's Council. She is also a Governor of the Pensions Policy Institute.

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John Hocking - Executive Director of JRHT

John HockingJohn started work in the housing industry in 1979 when he started out as a Housing trainee and Estate officer in Southwark. Previously he has held positions as Chief Officer for Leeds North West Homes, Assistant Director of Housing Services for City of York and Head of Tenant Services at York City Council.

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Nigel Ingram - Director of Development and Property Services

Nigel IngramBefore joining the Foundation, Nigel Ingram was Director of Emblem Homes, the private sale subsidiary of the Places for People Group. Nigel already had an understanding of the Foundation, starting his career as an apprentice joiner at the estate department when it was in Station Avenue in New Earswick. Before joining Emblem Homes he held various positions within the voluntary housing sector, including the Notting Hill Housing Group, and private building sector and has particular experience in procurement and social housing grant.
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Paul Dack - Director of Finance

Paul Dack Paul Dack is a chartered accountant who joined the Foundation from Thomson Mclintock (now part of KPMG) in 1986 initially as Chief Accountant. He became the Trusts Director of Finance in 1997. Paul is a main board member and Chair of the Care and Support Board at St Pancras and Humanist Housing Association in London. He has also been treasurer of a number of local voluntary organisations including York Council for Voluntary Services and York Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders.

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John Kennedy - Director of Care Services

John Kennedy - Director of Care Services
John Kennedy attended Archbishop Holgate's School in York before entering Manchester University where he gained a degree in economics. He has worked in a nursing home near York and briefly ran his own company selling computer systems to small businesses. He then became general manager at Londesborough Healthcare Ltd in East Yorkshire before joining the Foundation in June 2001 as Deputy Director of Care Services. He became Director of Care Services on 1 January 2004.

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Jacquie Dale- Director of Housing and Community Services

Jacquie Dale

Jacquie has been working at the Foundation since 1997 when she was appointed as a Community Development Officer. She joined the Foundation from the National Association of Council for Voluntary Service in Sheffield. Previously she worked with Agewell: a national programme of health activities for older people (also in Sheffield), developed health projects that met the needs of Asian women and produced the first Women's Health Handbook for Leicester City Council. Holding a degree in Youth and Community Work Jacquie manages the housing and community Services teams, The Garth, parks and gardens department and early years provision.


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