Executive Directors

Justin Forsyth (Chief Executive)

Justin was appointed Chief Executive of Save the Children in September 2010. He leads our work to achieve dramatic change for children as we step up our efforts over the next five years to save 5 million more children’s lives a year.

Justin has a formidable track record working to overcome poverty, suffering and injustice around the globe. He spent 15 years at Oxfam, rising through the ranks and in 1995 going out to Washington to set up Oxfam International. In 2004, Justin was recruited to Downing Street where he worked for two Prime Ministers to lead efforts on poverty and climate change. Justin was one of the driving forces behind the 'Make Poverty History' campaign. Watch Justin's interview with The Guardian as he talks about his career and the our work fighting poverty in the UK and overseas.

Rachel Parr (Interim Chief Operating Officer)

 

Rachel joined Save the Children in August 2012 and is responsible for managing organisational change to drive the delivery of Ambition 2015.

Rachel previously worked for Glaxo Smithkline for over twenty years. She spent time in research and development, pharmaceutical and consumer businesses, predominantly in finance but also in operations and IT strategy operations in the UK, US and Geneva. Rachel's proudest achievements are creating the business teams to support six newly created biotech style research units and creating the GSK pulse scheme which annually seconds employees to the non-profit sector.

Rachel is currently a primary school governor and has previously been a non-executive director for Hillingdon Primary Care Trust and a mentor of the West London mission social work committee. Rachel is married to Jonathan, and has two children.

Fergus Drake (Director, Global Programmes)

 

Fergus joined Save the Children as Director of UK Programmes in 2009 and is now the Director of Global Programmes managing humanitarian and development operations across the globe.

Prior to this Fergus worked for the Office of Tony Blair in Rwanda advising President Kagame and his Cabinet in achieving their Millennium Development Goals. Before that he worked for Deloitte Consulting for 5 years in their Strategy & Operations practice during which he was seconded to HM Treasury as a Policy Advisor. Fergus was based in Africa from 1999-2003 working for the international NGO, Tearfund, firstly as Programme Director for their Disaster Response Team in Liberia before developing the South Sudan, Kenya and Somalia programmes as Regional Director for East Africa.

Peter Banks (Chief Financial Officer)

A Chartered Accountant, Peter has a wide range of commercial experience in both multinational and smaller companies.

Much of this experience has been in healthcare-related businesses from pharmaceuticals and consumer healthcare to research and medical device development.

Peter's roles have included planning and strategy, mergers and acquisitions as well as all aspects of financial management, and his expertise will enable us to grow our strong financial base.

He is also responsible for key projects to help build Save the Children as a 21st century organisation, particularly looking at the efficient use of our resources with a focus on technology.

Peter is married with two young daughters who occupy too much of his spare time! Such demands aside he is an avid follower of sport, in particular watching England at Twickenham.

Tanya Steele (Director of Fundraising)

 

Tanya joined Save the Children in 2004. As Director of Supporter Relations and Fundraising she is responsible for significantly growing both the organisation's income and levels of support to deliver dramatic change for children. Prior to Save the Children, Tanya spent more than a decade in the technology sector working through a range of boom and bust cycles. During this time she held a number of senior business, marketing and communications roles at BT, Siemens and Avaya.

Brendan Cox (Director of Policy and Advocacy)

Brendan is responsible for leading Save the Children's advocacy strategy, ensuring the delivery of our ambitious goals to save millions of children’s lives and help millions more fulfil their potential.
 
Brendan began his career focusing on communications and media – these skills were honed at Oxfam where he was the senior press officer.  He then joined Crisis Action as Executive Director. In the years that he led the organisation, he took it from one office in London, to offices in eight capitals on four continents. In 2008 Brendan became special advisor to Gordon Brown, then Prime Minister, where he led a major push to abolish health user fees. Most recently he has been working with the Gates Foundation scoping a possible global campaign.