Good Governance Matters - Speakers

Debra has worked in the charitable and voluntary sector for over 30 years. She is a Trustee of In Kind Direct, one of the Prince's Foundation Charities, and a 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). She 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 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.

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.

Caron joined CFG in 2010 from the ICAEW where she was Head of the Charity and Voluntary Sector.

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 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 (and her local hockey club).

She was named in the top 30 UK social influences in Risk, Compliance and Regtech 2017. Caron was honoured with an OBE for 'services to charity' in the New Year's Honours list 2021.

Teresa Tideman is a Senior Associate of Quarto Advisors, an international retail consultancy.

Teresa was formerly CEO of Style Group Brands, one of the leading British Fashion Houses. Prior to that she held a number of senior roles at the Walt Disney Company including Senior Vice President and Managing Director of The Disney Store and Managing Director of the Consumer Products division for EMEA. Teresa spent time working in Australia as Fashion Director for David Jones Ltd and is also a former Executive of Arcadia having spent 13 years with the Group working across a number of the fascias.

Teresa is actively involved in a number of charities in the UK and has been a Trustee of In Kind Direct since 2010 and Chair since 2017.

Charlie is a Respiratory Consultant at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and works across hospital and community settings in Gloucestershire.

He works closely with the CCG in developing new pathways and is particularly interested in embedding the voluntary and community sector into the evolving Integrated Care System in Gloucestershire.

He is completing an MBA through the Senior Leaders programme supported by the hospital trust.

Charlie has been involved with Community Foundations for more than 10 years, initially in Bristol and now in Gloucestershire and has always viewed the role of effective and evidence based philanthropy as central to supporting communities.

His free time is divided between wrangling young sons and running long distances.

Radojka Miljevic is the independent chair of the Charity Governance Code steering group.

Radojka has served on different types of boards and has many years of governance, management and research experience across a variety of sectors.

She is currently a partner at management consultancy Campbell Tickell, leading on governance and strategy work.

Penny has helped numerous charities to develop their boards and is a leading advocate in making trusteeship more accessible. Penny has always worked or volunteered in the charity sector. She started her career at the Association of Charity Shops (now the Charity Retail Association) and Barnet Voluntary Service Council, where she gained an understanding of and a passion for the unsung impact of smaller charities.

She was Head of Community Affairs at the University of Cambridge for several years, establishing partnerships with Cambridge charities, overseeing large community events and promoting volunteering by university students and staff. She was then Director of Partnerships at The Brilliant Club, and CEO of Styleability, before she became CEO of Getting on Board. Penny has been a trustee of several charities and is currently a trustee of the National Migraine Centre.

Malcolm John is the founder of Action for Trustee Racial Diversity. He has been a trustee of nine charitable organisations, and was until recently Chair of the Young Harrow Foundation. Malcolm is a trustee of the Association of Chairs, an independent member for the Ministry of Justice Public Appointments Panel and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is also a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute.

Hans Dibobe is the Chair of Detention Action, and a long-time and experienced member of their Board. Hans' is a father and works for British Rail, he lives in Manchester with his family and is originally from Cameroon.

Hans gained refugee status in the UK in 2008, and has lived experience of immigration detention and is committed to fighting for better treatment of refugees and the abolition of indefinite immigration detention.

Isobel was elected as a Trustee of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising (CIOF) in July 2017 and served two terms to September 2023. She has over thirty years’ experience in fundraising in the UK and Australia, working within charities and as a consultant specialising in philanthropic fundraising, capital projects, evaluation and capacity building for smaller organisations. She is also a Trustee of First Steps (Bath) and Dog Assistance in Disability. Isobel was Secretary of the Institute of Fundraising South West Regional Group for twenty years and became a Fellow of the IoF in 2009. She was also a member of the Victoria Executive for the Fundraising Institute of Australia for three years, managing the Mentoring Programme.

Sam works closely with charities on upcoming policy and regulatory challenges for the sector. He oversees the full range of guidance that the Commission provides for charity trustees to support good governance and is also responsible for the Commission’s annual research programmes, which look at both public and trustee understanding of charity governance, levels of public trust in charity and at perceptions of the regulatory system.

Sam joined the Commission in 2021, following a career in regulatory and government policy development over the previous decade, and is based in Liverpool.

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.

Jonathan leads the Commission’s communication and engagement activity, overseeing teams responsible for media, stakeholder and trustee interactions. Building awareness of the Commission’s role and regulatory oversight is a key part of his work, as is building and delivering research-led campaigns to grow trustee knowledge and understanding of their legal responsibilities and of the Commission’s guidance to support this.



Before joining the Charity Commission he built his career in politics and campaigning, in the public sector (including two years in 10 Downing Street) and in the private sector, advising international governments and NGOs on reputational and communications challenges