Debra Allcock Tyler (Chair)
Since 2001, Debra has been the Chief Executive of the Directory of Social Change, which works towards an independent voluntary sector at the heart of social change. DSC has contact with some 30,000 voluntary and community organisations every year, through its training, information and publishing programmes and earns over 85% of its revenue enabling it to speak with a truly independent voice.
She is a Trustee of MedicAlert® which is the only non-profit making, registered charity providing a life-saving identification system for individuals with hidden medical conditions and allergies. She is also a member of Liberty, the human rights organisation and was the first female Programme Director of the Runge Effective Leadership programme, one of the UK’s leading programmes for senior managers. Debra is an internationally published author of several books covering topics such as leadership; management; communication skills; personal development and time management.
Debra has spent many years working with the media, doing TV, radio, newspaper, magazine and internet features and interviews. TV & radio examples include GMTV; Newsnight, the Eleventh Hour; You & Yours and Women’s Hour for Radio 4. She was a regular columnist for a major national newspaper on work-based issues. She writes a regular column for Third Sector magazine.
She is a member of the Charity Commission’s SORP Committee. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (FRSA). She was a Licensed Practitioner of NLP. She is a Special Ambassador for the Guides Association (now Girlguiding UK) and a member of the Advisory Panel for the MSc in Voluntary Sector Management at Cass Business School, City University. She was a member of the Buse Commission for self-regulation in fundraising.
Murtaza Jessa (Treasurer)
After qualifying as Chartered Accountant in 1986, Jessa joined KPMG at their London office where, in addition to carrying out audit and special assignments such as mergers, management buyouts and due diligence, he was in charge of the tax work in the department. In January 1990, Jessa left KPMG to start Trustient. Over the years, Trustient, under the leadership of Jessa gained excellent reputation of auditing and advising clients in the not for profit sector and Jessa headed up the division. With effect form 24 July 2006, Trustient merged with haymacintyre and Jessa is now a partner at haysmacintyre.
As well as audit and accounting support, Jessa has been involved in all aspects of advising charities including Charity Commission review visits, advice on mergers, structure and set up of trading subsidiaries, trustee training, risk assessment, business plan facilitation, set up of affiliated overseas charities, overseas branch offices and advice on internal controls.
Between 1999 and 2004 Jessa was Treasurer of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, a charity based in London with more than 20 field offices and affiliated charities in the USA and South Africa. Jessa is also one of the founding trustees of Health, Education and resources for Tomorrow (HEART), a newly incorporated charity working with young children in Africa and India providing grants for schooling and welfare to needy families.
Jessa is a regular contributor to charity publications and speaks at sector conferences. He uses much of his spare time working for voluntary organisations and socialising.
Henny Braund
Henny Braund has 20 years experience of management in the voluntary sector (Richmond Fellowship, Shelter) and has been Resources Director at Shelter for the last 10 years, leading IT, HR, Planning & Project Management, Property & Facilities and up to the recent past, Finance.
As an HR Professional, Henny has extensive experience in managing change and driving up performance across the organisation. Henny was the Trustee and then the Chair of the Health and Housing Charity, a Trustee for Thamesreach and is currently a member of the Board of Shelter Trading Ltd, which oversees the management of 80 shops for Shelter. She was also a Samaritan for many years.
She has two children and lists gardening, cinema and Italy amongst her interests.
Richard Davidson
Richard has been Cancer Research UK's Director of Policy and Public Affairs since November 2004. Cancer Research UK is the UK's biggest charity and the largest independent cancer research organisation in the world. Richard oversees the organisation's policy formulation, external affairs, public campaigning and tobacco control work.
He joined the Cancer Research Campaign in 1998 and following the charity's merger with Imperial Cancer Research Fund (to form Cancer Research UK) Richard was appointed the charity's first Public Affairs Manager. The team is now 25-strong and has won a range of parliamentary, campaigning and public affairs awards.
He is also a trustee of the Association of Medical Research Charities.
Richard left the University of Essex in 1996 after gaining a BA and MA in American Government and spent two years as a fundraiser at the Charities Advisory Trust in London.
Caroline Diehl
Caroline Diehl is Chief Executive of Media Trust, the charity that brings the media industry and charities together. Caroline set up Media Trust 14 years ago. Media Trust runs a range of services including communications training, film production, matching of media industry volunteers with charities, the Community Newswire, media campaigns, Youth Media team and Community Channel, the UK-wide digital television channel for the Third Sector. Community Channel broadcasts 24 hours a day on Sky 539 and Virgin Media 233 as well as 3 hours a day on Freeview 87. Community Channel is uniquely supported by all the UK’s broadcasters, who provide programming, bandwidth and cross-promotion.
In 2004 Caroline was awarded an MBE for services to the media industry and also received the Ernst & Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year award for London. She is also on the Advisory Board of INSEAD’s Social Entrepreneurship Programme.
Caroline has played a major part in ensuring that the voluntary sector’s voice is heard in the ongoing debates around communications and media policy. She is a founder member of Public Voice, the voluntary sector body that campaigns for citizens’ interest in communications.
Diana le Clercq
Diana le Clercq had a successful career in the IT industry for more than 25 years in senior management roles covering Finance, Marketing and Relationship Management at IBM and Hitachi Data Systems. After a career break in 2002, she joined the Third Sector and has worked at SignHealth and most recently as Chief Executive of Alexandra Rose Day.
Her experience working with small and local charities made her a strong supporter of the SCC and eager to see the vision become reality.
Diana lives in Stoke Poges and enjoys theatre and reading when time allows.
Rosamund McCarthy
Rosamund McCarthy is a Partner at Bates Wells & Braithwaite London LLP. She advises on all aspects of charity law including registrations, fundraising, governance as well as campaigning. Rosamund is co-author of the Fundraiser’s Guide to the Law and contributor to Jordans Charities Administration Manual.
Rosamund spent some time living in Cornwall and was a Trustee of Cornwall Voluntary Sector Forum and Company Secretary of Cornwall Neighbourhoods for Change. Rosamund was a member of the Advisory Group on Campaigning and the Voluntary Sector chaired by Baroness Helena Kennedy QC to which Bates Wells & Braithwaite provided secretariat services.
She is also a member of the NCVO Campaigning Effectiveness Advisory Group. She was founder and first Chair of Poet in the City and is a member of the Steering Committee of National Poetry Day (2008).
D'Arcy Myers
D’Arcy Myers has been Chief Executive of Wessex Heartbeat - the regional medical charity that supports the work of the Wessex Cardiac Centre - since January 2008. Prior to this appointment D'Arcy had been at the helm of Dreams Come True, a national children's charity which aims to make the most treasured dreams come true for terminally and seriously ill children. D’Arcy initially trained in agriculture and spent much of his early career in marketing and business development.
An opportunity to volunteer with VSO enabled D’Arcy to combine his agricultural training with his business skills and he spent two years establishing a marketing department for the Ministry of Agriculture in the Kingdom of Tonga.
Over the next decade he developed a career in international development, spending time working in Asia, Africa and the former Soviet Union on a variety of projects ranging from setting up farmer and community cooperatives to Government backed export initiatives.
D’Arcy takes a prominent role in working closely with companies to understand their overall PR and marketing objectives which will ultimately see added value by working closely with a charity such as Dreams Come True.
Having experienced the agonies and worries that small charities go through he was delighted to be part of setting up the Coalition - a system that will both support small charities and encourage larger ones to share knowledge and experience. He feels this has been too long in coming to an industry that prides itself on supporting others.
Sophia Nicholls
Sophia Nicholls is the Hon. Sec / Trustee and co founder of the Adventist Special Needs Association (ASNA). ASNA supports people living with special needs and disabilities by providing access to resources, advice, information, training, respite and leisure. It is a small charity managed and supported by volunteers. As the main contact for the charity, Sophia has overall responsibility for securing and managing its resources as well as developing and implementing its services.
Sophia lives in Oxfordshire where she volunteers as a trustee for the South and Vale Carers Centre. She is a member of the Carers Strategy Steering group in Oxfordshire, advisor to the Oxfordshire Carers Forum and is the Oxfordshire volunteer parent rep. for Contact a Family.
She has volunteered as a fundraiser for the RNIB, Oxfordshire Association for the Blind, National Blind Children’s Society and MAC (charity for children born without eyes).
Prior to her current voluntary work, Sophia completed her first degree in Podiatry in 1989 followed by an MSc in Physiology and MA in Education. She worked for 3 years in health as a Senior Podiatrist in central London then in education for 10 years as a senior lecturer, admissions director and external examiner for the Universities of Brighton, Reading and Oxford Brookes. She currently has a private practice in Oxfordshire.
Sophia is married with two boys. The eldest is 12 years old with severe learning and physical disabilities and was the inspiration behind the development of ASNA charity.
Lynne Rawlings
Lynne Rawlings has been volunteering since she was seven years old when she first helped out at the local cub group. She has since gone on to become a serial volunteer!
In 1981 she moved to the Middle East and took up a wide variety of volunteering roles from being a Librarian in the British Community Library to being the Production Assistant for the Jeddah News to being the Secretary and Community Liaison Officer for the British Women's Group.
Lynne's Middle Eastern experiences gave her the confidence to return to education and she completed her degree in Applied Social Science, specialising in Welfare studies at the age of thirty-nine.
Lynne has a wealth of experience, both paid and unpaid in small charities and has worked for Cambridge Aids Helpline and Dyslexia Association of London as well as being a Trustee of the local Volunteer Bureaux. She has also been involved with the WRVS for many years as an employee, volunteer, has sat on the Vice-Chairman's Committee and is now a Trustee of the WRVS Benevolent Trust.