Our Board of Trustees

Charles has twenty years of experience as an investor in medium and large sized companies. This includes, since 2013, leading the European private equity business of the global alternative investment firm, Ares Management.

Charles also lived and worked in the Middle East from 2010 to 2012 when he served as an Adviser at the Office of The Quartet Representative, which focuses on economic and institutional development in the West Bank and Gaza.

Charles serves as the Chairman of Farrow & Ball, and he used to serve on the Council of Governors of the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and on the Board of Governors of Park Walk Primary School.​

Charles has a BA in history from the University of Cambridge.

Gareth is a partner at the international accountancy and advisory firm Mazars, where he leads on audit and advisory work for UK public services.

He was previously Managing Director of the Audit Commission's Audit Practice, and held several senior posts at the Commission before that. Gareth has combined a long career in public audit with an interest in international development and humanitarian work. He was a trustee and the Honorary Treasurer of Oxfam GB from 2005 to 2011 and then a trustee at Merlin, the international health charity, from 2011 to 2014.

Arabella Duffield has a PhD in Public Health Nutrition from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She worked extensively in Africa and Asia for ten years for the UN and non-governmental organisations including Save the Children. She completed the Sloan Programme at London Business School in 2008.

Arabella is currently a trustee of Save the Children, the AD Charitable Trust, Access for Inspiration, the Clore Social Leadership Programme, the Clore Israel Foundation and the Weizmann Institute (International & UK).

Naomi is an expert in UK child poverty issues, with senior governance and management experience and a wide network across key decision-makers in the area.

Currently Senior Research Fellow, Education Department, and Fellow of St Hilda's College, University of Oxford, her career has included director roles at the Department of Education’s Sure Start and the Cabinet Office’s Social Exclusion Task Force. As a former Save the Children staff member, Naomi has a strong engagement with our organisation and commitment to our ambitious UK growth targets.

Anne is Non Executive Director and Chair of Audit Committee at Interserve, SThree and Nyrstar. Until 2015 Anne was CFO of BP’s Aviation Fuels business. During her 27 years at BP Anne gained extensive experience of global business, developing markets, risk management, internal control, compliance and strategy development in BP’s aviation, petrochemicals, trading and retail sectors.

Anne is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, having worked at KPMG in Ireland and Australia prior to joining BP in 1988.

Sebastian James was appointed Group Chief Executive of Dixons Carphone on 6^th August 2014 following the merger of Dixons Retail Group with Carphone Warehouse.  He joined Dixons in April 2008 and held various roles, including Group Operations Director prior to his appointment as Group Chief Executive in February 2012.

Before joining Dixons Retail, Sebastian was CEO of Synergy Insurance Services Limited and gained wide retail experience as strategy director responsible for developing and implementing the turnaround strategy at Mothercare. He started his career at The Boston Consulting Group having completed an MBA at INSEAD and an MA at Oxford University.

Sebastian is also a Non-Executive Director of Direct Line Insurance Group plc.

Sophie has considerable experience of volunteers and volunteering with Save the Children and other organisations, and has managed and worked with volunteers in a range of contexts and activities.

She is a chartered biologist who has taught in schools and universities, led an educational research and development team at King’s College, London, and worked with organisations including the World Bank and the BBC as an educational consultant.

Sophie has sat on the Council of the Zoological Society of London and was a trustee of London Zoo and Whipsnade Wildlife Park. Sophie is currently a governor of The Lady Eleanor Holles School.

Dianna is a former British High Commissioner to Tanzania and Ambassador to Cuba. She has worked in international development for most of her career, focusing on policy change to tackle poverty and injustice. As Oxfam GB's first Policy Director, she played a key role in building Oxfam's policy and international advocacy work.

At the Department for International Development (DFID) she was head of International Trade and developed the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative - a multi-stakeholder initiative, bringing together governments, industry and civil society to create greater transparency in the management of natural resources.

Dianna led the UK's Foreign & Commonwealth Office's Policy Planning department, providing challenge and innovative policy thinking on political, security and economic issues for ministers and the Policy Advisory Board. She is a trustee of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) an independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues.

David Ripert is CEO and Co-Founder of Poplar, an Augmented Reality online agile studio incubated within Founders Factory in London. Prior to this he was Head of YouTube Spaces for Europe, the Middle East & Africa, with a global team focused on super-charging creators, identifying new and rising talent, and driving online video ecosystem innovation through programs, technology and building state-of-the-art studios.

David was previously VP of content at Dailymotion, and before this he was at Netflix. He began his career with Intermedia Film, in the production financing and distribution of feature films. He sits on the Board of Sadler’s Wells.

David received his MBA from Loyola Marymount University and his Master's degree from EDHEC in France, where he studied business adminstration, international marketing and entrepreneurship.

Lisa is the Chief Compliance Officer at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the EBRD), a multilateral development bank. Lisa is member of the Senior Leadership Group and represents the EBRD at various international fora, such as the FATF, the B20 Anti-Corruption Forum, OECD Anti-Corruption Network and Transparency International’s Steering Committee on the Business Principles for Countering Corruption.

Prior to joining the EBRD, Lisa was Group Head of Compliance, Public Affairs and Regulatory Change Management at the global clearing house, LCH.Clearnet. She has over 20 years of legal and compliance experience in the USA and the UK. Previous positions include Global Head of Regulatory Affairs at Barclays Capital and Head of Litigation and Contentious Regulatory Affairs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

Lisa has a BA from Vanderbilt University and a MSc from the London School of Economics. She received her Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law and is qualified to practice law in the US and the UK.

Babatunde is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Helios Investment Partners.

Prior to forming Helios, he was a Principal at TPG Capital in London, responsible for telecommunications and media investments across Europe.

He has previously served as an Executive Consultant to Actis West Africa, on the Board of Directors of Nigeria’s Privatisation Share Purchase Loan Scheme, and as Director of Guaranty Trust Bank. Babatunde currently serves on the Board of Directors of Interswitch.

He is also a member of the LSE-University of Oxford Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, chaired by former UK Prime Minister David Cameron. Babatunde received a BEng in Engineering and an MBA from the University of London (Kings & Imperial College). He is a fluent Yoruba speaker.

Mark is a Managing Director in Group Finance at Swiss Re, a leading wholesale provider of reinsurance, insurance and other insurance-based forms of risk transfer. He has held a range of Finance leadership roles at Swiss Re, including Chief Financial Officer Reinsurance EMEA, Co-Head of Finance Operations/CFO Property & Casualty and Group Chief Accounting Officer.

Prior to this, Mark trained as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in the UK, followed by audit and advisory roles in France and Switzerland.