Good Governance Matters - Speakers

Debra has worked in the charitable and voluntary sector for nearly 40 years with brief forays into the private sector.

Amongst numerous other roles, she is Co-Chair of the Soldiering on Awards. She is a Trustee of In Kind Direct, one of the Prince's Foundation Charities, a governor of the Berkshire NHS Community Foundation Trust, a Commissioner on the Local News Commission of the Public Interest News Foundation, and just recently stood down as trustee of the Berkshire Community Foundation.

She is also an Africa Advocacy Foundation Ambassador for women and girls at risk of or affected by Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Debra has served as a trustee of several charities including being the co-founder of the Small Charities Coalition and was its first Chair. She served on the Charity Commission's SORP committee for over 7 years and was the Vice-Chair of Governors of Whiteknights primary school for 6 years.

She is a renowned public speaker with many years' experience of training and coaching and is an internationally published author of several books on management and leadership including It's Tough at the Top; The Pleasure and the Pain; It's Murder in Management and It's a Battle on the Board. Debra has a regular monthly column in Third Sector magazine and has appeared on Radio 4's The Moral Maze.

Debra is an alumna of Windsor Leadership having participated on the Strategic Leaders Consultation.

Ben has had several roles since joining DSC in 2003, at various points leading research, policy, training and events.

In his current role as Director of Development and Delivery he oversees the Marketing, Publishing, Funds Online and Development teams.

Ben's favourite thing about DSC is seeing individuals and organisations having a bigger impact because we’ve helped them - whether that’s projects that get funding because someone’s used one of our directories, or amazing people going back to lead their organisations after attending our training courses.

William Butler is chair of DSC’s Board, a regional VCSE Health Alliance and a Patient Partnership Group.

He is trustee of educational and homelessness charities, a former mental health charity director, CEO of a membership disability charity and COO of a substance misuse treatment services provider.

José joined DSC in 2016 and is responsible for creating, development and implementation of marketing plans for publications and funding websites.

José likes being part of creating products that help charities to help their beneficiaries.

Malcolm is the Founder of the UK wide campaign, Action for Trustee Racial Diversity, aimed at addressing the significant under-representation of individuals from Black and Asian
backgrounds on trustee Boards.

He is currently a trustee of three charities; the Association of Chairs, (the membership body for Chairs of charities across the UK), the British American Drama Academy and the Charles Dickens Museum.

He chaired the Young Harrow Foundation and was vice chair of Nacro and Anti-Slavery International. He also sits as an Independent Panel Member of the Ministry of Justice Public Appointments Panel and is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute.

His most recent appointment is as the Panel Chair for a new initiative Charity Hall of Fame https://www.charityhall.org/.

Kamran has worked in the not-for-profit sector for his whole career and, for the last 20 years, led Disabled People’s Organisations (DPO). He worked for the Spinal Injury charity Aspire and as CEO of Action on Disability for 13 years.

In 2017, he joined Disability Rights UK as its CEO. DR UK is the only UK-wide DPO. Kamran contracted polio as a child and is a wheelchair user. His experiences at special and mainstream schools showed him that inclusive education for all children is essential.

He is driven to ensure younger disabled people have better opportunities than he did. He is passionate about creating an inclusive society, one that works for everyone and benefits from the rich diversity of experience that Disabled people bring.

An influential leader in a highly politicised area of disability rights, he has represented the UK disability movement at the United Nations, working with a coalition of civil society organisations.

Kamran serves on the boards of the Lloyds Bank Foundation and is Chair of Wheels for Wellbeing. He is a former chair of Candoco Dance Company and board member of Inclusion London and Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.

He is also a member of the Gatwick Independent Disability Advisory Group and a former member of Transport for London’s Independent Disability Advisory Group.

Kamran is listed in the Shaw Trusts 2018 Power 100 list of Britain’s most influential disabled people and was listed in the top 10 in 2020. He was recognised on Green Park's 2019 BAME 100 Business Leaders, runner-up in the Vodafone Diversity Campaigner Award 2017 and winner of the Celebrating Diversity award from the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in their inaugural Civic Honour Awards 2017. He is a contributor to the Fairness Foundation, an Ambassador for the Design Council and the Digital Poverty Alliance.

Kai joined Green Park in 2011 and founded the inaugural Charities & Social Enterprise practice two years later.

In 2020 he merged their public and voluntary sector teams, setting up the Civil Society & Government (CSG) practice. Working closely with colleagues across the business, he now leads an executive search team of 25 delivering more than 250 senior executive and Board appointments every year.

In line with Green Park’s stated mission, over half these appointments are female, and over a third are of global majority heritage. He and the team have recently partnered with Bayes Business School and the Centre for Charity Effectiveness on a report on the Future Charity Chair.

Caron is Chief Executive of Charity Finance Group. Previously she was Head of the Charity and Voluntary Sector at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW). In addition to supporting a number of small charities and community organisations, Caron has been a member of the NCVO’s National Assembly and the Charities SORP Committee, has sat on a number of government working parties, is a non-executive director of the Lending Standards Board, a member of the Church of England Pension Board’s Audit and Risk Committee, and former chair of the board of the Directory of Social Change. She was also chair of her local hockey club. She was named in the top 30 UK social influencers in Risk, Compliance and Regtech 2017.

Caron is a trained barrister and has a wide array of experience across charity, regulation, law, policy, member support and professional ethics. In 2015 she was named Charity Principal of the Year at the Charity Times Awards. In 2016 she received the Association Excellence Award for Leadership. Caron is an avidly social CEO and has been named in the top 30 social CEOs in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Caron was honoured with an OBE for her services to charity in the New Year’s Honours lists in 2021.

Leesa has over 30 years’ experience in the charity sector, from frontline fundraiser to executive director and trustee.

She began her career in the USA at the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, then the American Cancer Society. Then, after returning to the UK she joined Business in the Community, Save the Children and the Dartington Hall Trust.

In 2009 Leesa joined the RNLI as head of Engagement, going on to become Director of Lifesaving and Fundraising, leading the lifeboat, lifeguard and flood rescue operation as well as the fundraising team.

In 2018 Leesa set up By the Waves, her charity consultancy, where she specialises in strategy development, income generation, governance and compliance. She also coaches sector leaders and is an interim charity CEO (most recently at Jeans for Genes) and Director. Leesa has been a Trustee at the Royal Osteoporosis Society and The Big Issue Foundation. She is currently a Non-Executive Director on the Dorset NHS Integrated Care Board.

Jacqueline has extensive experience working with voluntary sector organisations on aspects of leadership and governance cultures, behaviours and processes. An area of specialism being financial governance including financial management and reporting law and good practice.

Jacqueline reviewed and developed the current edition of the Charity Trustee Handbook (DSC publication). She has an MSc in Corporate Governance and Business Ethics from Birbeck University and is a qualified lawyer (Barrister) with an LLB from London University, in addition to being a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Jack has had several roles at P3 Charity Group since joining in 2019, previously working as a mental health social worker and in the education/youth work sector.

He joined P3’s Governance team in 2022 and has supported the Board of Trustees to introduce several key governance initiatives, such as P3’s adoption of the Charity Governance Code, developing the Board’s internal governance reviews, and a pathway for people we work alongside to join the Board of Trustees. Since January 2024, Jack has been Head of Governance and Company Secretary for P3 Charity and P3 Housing, a Housing Association which specialises in the delivery of supported housing.

Ray Lock joined the Royal Air Force in 1977 and enjoyed a varied career as a fast-jet pilot and instructor, operational commander, and directing staff at the UK Staff College, from where he retired as Commandant in 2012 to join Forces in Mind Trust.

As the founding Chief Executive of Forces in Mind Trust, he led the Trust to forge close relationships with a range of public and private, academic and social sector bodies to establish its current position as the leading research commissioner, and an authority on a wide range of issues affecting the Armed Forces Community.

Ray left the Trust in 2022 to devote more time to voluntary roles (and grandchildren, which is fun but isn’t voluntary at all). As chair of trustees at the Sir Oswald Stoll Foundation, the foremost provider of supported housing for veterans and their families, he has seen the charity sell its main site in Fulham to provide modern and sustainable accommodation nearby. He is also a governor/trustee at a local independent schools foundation, Dean Close.

Ray lives in Cheltenham, where he sits as a Magistrate, and is a keen cyclist and Saracens supporter.