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St Christopher’s is a charity creating brighter futures for children and young people in care. As a leading provider of children's services, we always seek to develop our practice and find new ways of supporting young people.
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All our services have the same goal: to support children and young people to fulfil their potential, grow into independent adults and have happy, successful futures.
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There are many ways you can support St Christopher's work with children and young people. Find out how you can help young people reach their goals.
Our trustees
St Christopher’s Trustees work across our Councils in the UK and Isle of Man. They bring a variety of transferable skills and knowledge to the organisation, and spend time getting to know our young people and staff.
Hanif Barma MBA ACA
Chairman - UK and Isle of Man
Hanif is founder partner of Board Alchemy, a specialist governance consultancy. His work focuses on board and committee effectiveness, and also covers risk, audit, ethics and culture. He is also a member of the Audit & Risk Committee at City, University of London. Hanif has been a Trustee of St Christopher's since 2007 and has served as Honorary Treasurer and chaired the Audit Committee in this time, before becoming Chair in 2015.
Bert O'Donoghue
Vice-Chairman - UK
Bert spent 32 years with the 3M Company. He was Managing Director of the 3M subsidiaries in Hungary and India / Sri Lanka and held Pan-European positions leading the electronics / telecommunications and industrial businesses. Bert retired from 3M in June 2013 and joined St Christopher's as a Trustee in September 2013. He was elected as Vice-Chairman in 2014.
Dinesh Visavadia BSc
Honorary Treasurer - UK
Dinesh is a Director at Independent Trustee Services Ltd. He has previously worked as the Head of Pensions and Benefits at Britvic Soft Drinks Ltd, John Lewis Partnership, Royal Mail and JP Morgan in a career spanning over 30 years. Dinesh joined St Christopher’s Council of Trustees in 2013 and was elected Honorary Treasurer in 2015.
David Brown MA PhD CSci CPhys FIChemE FInstP FRSC
Trustee - UK
David is a consultant working at the interface between universities, business and the public sector with a special interest in educational outcomes for young people. He was formerly Chief Executive of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and also served as Deputy Chairman of the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands and has held board and Trustee positions in several organisations.
Angela Dakin
Trustee - UK
Angela provides independent strategic support and advice to public and voluntary sector clients across both children's and adults' services. She has previously held Assistant Director roles in several local authorities, with responsibility for commissioning, performance management and service improvement. Her voluntary experience includes direct work with young people through the Prince's Trust and in schools, overseas project work and grant making.
Wadham Downing BSc, ACA
Trustee - UK
Wadham is Chief Financial Officer at the Tilney Group. Wadham was previously at Legal & General PLC where he held a number of senior group positions since 2009, including Group M&A and Strategy Director and Group CFO. He has worked in a broad range of financial services companies including Resolution PLC, Britannic PLC and Threadneedle Asset Management.
Geneva Ellis BA (Hons)
Trustee - Isle of Man
Geneva is St Christopher's Director of Corporate Services. She previously worked with young people who were disengaged with education and in adult homeless hostels and has held a number of roles, including setting up and managing two 16+ homes.
Ron Giddens BSC (Hons) MA CQSW DM
Trustee - Isle of Man
Ron is Chief Executive of St Christopher's. He qualified as a social worker in 1981 having previously worked with people with learning disabilities and as a children's residential worker. After qualifying he worked as a social worker and a senior manager responsible for a wide range of services.
Hazel Hannan SRN
Trustee - Isle of Man
Hazel’s background is in nursing. She entered local politics in 1978 and national politics in 1986, when she was elected to the House of Keys and served four terms. She has had an interest in social issues being a member in the Department for Health and Social Security with responsibility for Social Care. Hazel is also a Director of a Manx Mental Health charity and is a member of the Manx Eating Disorders Support Group.
Dan Hobbs BA (Hons)
Trustee - UK and Isle of Man
Dan is a senior civil servant in the Home Office. He joined the civil service from university and has worked in a number of roles in the Home Office, Cabinet Office and Foreign Office, including working for two Prime Ministers on EU Justice and Home Affairs policy. Dan joined St Christopher’s in 2013 as a Trustee and joined the Isle of Man Council of Trustees in 2014.
Peter Killey
Trustee - Isle of Man
Peter is a retired Fire Officer and spent the last seven years of his career in the Community Safety Team, educating children in the community. He worked closely with many Isle of Man Government Departments including the Police, Department of Health and Social Care and the Probation Service. He also worked as a Residential Care Worker for St Christopher’s in the Isle of Man in a number of St Christopher’s homes including the secure unit.
Natasha Mora BA (Hons) LLB (Hons)
Trustee - UK
Natasha is a qualified solicitor with considerable legal and company secretarial experience. In her current role as Head of Legal (Corporate) at Legal & General Group Plc. she is responsible for providing a full range of corporate and commercial law, governance and company secretarial services to the Legal & General Group. Natasha joined St Christopher’s Council of Trustees in 2015.
Sally O'Neill BA (Hons)
Trustee - UK
Sally currently holds the position of Vice-President International at Lewis PR, where she has worked for over 15 years. With a background in International Business, Sally’s specialisms include coordinating international PR campaigns and managing agency networks. Sally joined St Christopher’s as a Trustee in 2013.
Jane Poole-Wilson (MA Oxon)
Trustee - Isle of Man
Jane is a Member of the Legislative Council in the Isle of Man. As well as her parliamentary work, Jane is the Government’s Equality Champion with a remit to promote and support the implementation of the Equality Act 2017. She is a qualified solicitor who specialised in employment law and now works for a specialist consultancy providing HR and employment advice and training for a range of multi-nationals
David Taylor BEng (Hons) MBA
Trustee - UK
David is Managing Partner of a global network of brand strategy coaches, who help companies create brand vision and growth action plans. David has successfully won and delivered major brand strategy projects for clients including Sainsbury's, Vodafone, Costa, SAB Miller and United Biscuits, using a combination of consulting and workshop facilitation.
Thom Wilson
Trustee - UK
Thom has 15 years' experience with commissioning and transformation of adult social care, working within a number of different local authorities. He has been an independent consultant for the past four years. His roles include engineering systems to improve outcomes and developing best practice approaches to commissioning.
I have found it hugely satisfying seeing at first hand the work of our extremely dedicated staff who work very hard to help deliver brighter futures for the many young people we look after. Visiting our services and meeting our staff and young people - and seeing the impact we make - is always what makes it all so worthwhile.
Hanif Barma MBA ACA