Our Board of Trustees handles our overall direction and management. Our members select 50% of our Trustees and the Board nominate the other 50% for their skills and experience.
Our Hft Trustees come from diverse backgrounds. They’re chosen for what they can bring to our delivery of support and services. Many have an excellent understanding of the issues that affect learning disabled people. Some have family members with learning disabilities. Some are carers or friends of learning disabled people. And some have skills in policy development or specific skills that can help us run effectively.
Our Trustees and executive team share a common goal. To make sure we deliver the best support possible so that people we support have every opportunity to live their lives their way.
Dr Mairi McLean – Chair of Trustees
Mairi has over 35 years’ leadership experience across health, social care, housing and government. She’s currently Chief Executive of Manage Europe Ltd, where she advises boards on governance, organisational performance and leadership.
Mairi is also a qualified social worker and brings commercial sector experience together with her extensive health, housing and social care experience.
Previously, Mairi has held Chief Executive roles at Northampton Borough Council and Waveney District Council. She’s also served as Non-Executive Director, Vice Chair, Interim Chair and Chair of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust. There, she led governance reset and performance improvement during regulatory scrutiny.
Outside of work, Mairi would describe herself as a happy person with a lot of energy. This is the outlook that she’s taken into her work and everyday life. As Chairwoman, she wants to make sure our Board of Trustees sets a high standard and builds on our values and commitment to enabling learning disabled people and their families to live the best lives possible.
Abdi Mohamed
Abdi is a governance professional with over 20 years’ experience supporting boards. He’s worked across regulated housing, charitable and community organisations.
Abdi is currently Company Secretary at ACH, an organisation helping refugees and migrants rebuild their lives in the UK. There, he leads governance for the Board and its committees.
Outside of work, Abdi holds Trustee positions at Black South West Network and Treasurer roles at Wellspring organisations, alongside Directorship of The Bristol Cable. He’s passionate about mentoring young people in Bristol and supporting initiatives that promote equity, inclusion and community empowerment.
Abdi is also a qualified mediator and brings a calm, collaborative and balanced approach to board discussions.
Andrew Manning
Andrew started his career as a civil servant and has worked for over 30 years advising on the development of risk, governance and business transformation solutions. He then moved to one of the big-four consulting firms and spent 14 years working with a wide range of government, non-profit and charitable institutions providing innovative solutions.
Andrew then worked for a number of mid-tier professional service firms building risk advisory practices, operating at senior equity Partner level. He’s worked and advised executives, non-executives and Trustees on technology, governance, risk and solutions.
He’s worked with a wide range of charities and non-profits during his career. He also has a lot of experience of providing governance and transformation services to learning and disability support services. Andrew’s experience encompasses working in highly regulated sectors and he’s advised on legal and regulatory compliance across these industries and sectors.
Gillian Bryant
Gillian is a Chief Executive with over 30 years’ experience across health and social care, including learning disability and autism. She’s also worked in homeless services, mental health and children and young people’s services. Since 2024, Gillian has been CEO of EveryStory, a London based charity that supports learning disabled and autistic people.
Gillian has a special interest in safeguarding practice. She used to be a safeguarding trainer, has sat on safeguarding boards, and been a designated safeguarding lead for over 15 years.
She’s passionate about inclusion and making sure the people we support are seen, heard and part of their communities.
Jane Brightman
Jane has over 30 years’ experience across the adult social care sector including frontline care, leadership, education, digital transformation and national policy.
She is currently Director of Workforce Development at Skills for Care. There, she’s led development of the Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy for England.
Her career includes senior roles at NHS England leading digital and workforce transformation programmes, and leadership of a specialist training organisation delivering large-scale workforce development.
In her spare time, she facilitates an online network of leaders in social care with around 9000 members. In 2022 she was very proud to be awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Arden University for services to social care.
Jonathan Laredo
Over the past 40+ years, Jonathan has had a varied career, mostly in finance and property. He became an investment banker (post big bang) in his thirties. After 10 years, with two friends, he founded an investment management firm until it was sold in 2012.
In 2014, Jonathan set up a commercial property company in Ireland, which was floated on the Irish and UK stock exchanges in 2018. He remained as Chief Executive until 2022 when it was bought by a Canadian private equity firm. After a short transition period, Jonathan retired in December of that year.
Now that he’s retired, Jonathan would like to repay some of the luck he’s had in both his career and life with a positive social contribution. He’s using his skills and experience to make a positive contribution to the lives of the people we support.
Dr Julian Fleming
Julian is a healthcare executive and medical doctor. He has experience leading digital transformation across public and private health systems internationally. He’s held executive and board-level roles including Chief Digital and Information Officer at Sirona Care and Health and Group Executive for Digital Transformation at Mediclinic International.
He currently consults to healthcare organisations in Digital Transformation, specifically around people-centred approaches to technology with a focus on automation and AI.
Julian’s youngest son has multiple, profound disabilities, and he’s seen the benefits that having a well-coordinated, caring team has had on his son’s wellbeing and independence. He’s since become an advocate for change in the social care sector and a more holistic approach to long-term support for families.
Katie Summers
Katie is a senior health and care leader with over 20 years’ experience across the NHS, local government and the voluntary sector. She’s progressed from a registered nurse to executive director roles. Across all her roles, her focus has been on improving outcomes, strengthening services, and ensuring people receive compassionate, person-centred support.
Katie has held senior positions including Director of Health and Care at Plymouth City Council and executive roles within Integrated Care Systems and Clinical Commissioning Groups. Her experience includes managing large-scale programmes, driving service redesign and aligning governance, performance and delivery across multi-agency environments.
Lee Bennett
Lee hsd over 20 years’ experience leading social care organisations supporting people with complex needs. He is currently CEO of The Meath Epilepsy Charity, where he leads the delivery of residential, supported living and social enterprise services for people with complex epilepsy.
His career includes CEO roles across multiple charities, alongside extensive governance experience as Chair, Trustee and Non-Executive Director. He’s led organisational recovery, financial stabilisation and strategic reset, working closely with commissioners and system partners to secure sustainable, high-quality provision.
Lee strongly believes in co-production and in enabling people to be agents of change rather than passive recipients of services.
Mark Knight
Mark is a former Chief Executive with over 25 years’ experience leading a national professional body within the health and social care sector. Most recently, he was Chief Executive of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, where he led the organisation from a small membership base to a nationally influential body supporting NHS finance and governance professionals.
Mark spent almost all of his career working with the public and not-for-profit sectors. His specialisms are in human resources, marketing and commercial development. Having now stepped down from full time work, his priorities are to give back to areas of interest using his skillset.
In his spare time, Mark has a variety of interests, including watching his beloved Aston Villa.
Paul Morgan
Paul has spent over 30 years working in the charity sector. His experience is in international, national, regional and local charities with turnovers ranging from the hundreds of millions to a few tens of thousands of pounds per year.
Paul has done most types of fundraising, from traditional community fundraising through to major gift, lottery, statutory and charity retail work. He also has a lot of experience organising events from challenge events to Royal Gala functions.
When Paul was a teenager, his mother taught young learning disabled adults at a local college. Paul helped out with a community group she ran every Wednesday for two years and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Now he wants to use his professional experience to give back to learning disabled people.
Paul is married with two teenage children. In his spare time, he’s also a treasurer for his local church and a small charity that supports young people in Central London. He’s also a Chair of the South Central Committee of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising.
Paul Wood
Paul is a qualified accountant and former Executive Director. He has over 35 years’ experience across health, social care, local government, social enterprise and consultancy.
Paul brings extensive experience in financial stewardship, governance and commissioning, with a particular focus on learning disability services and supported living models.
As well as his professional experience, Paul has previously volunteered in the social care sector, which has given him a real appreciation of what people can achieve with the right support.
Paul lives in North Cheshire and has three daughters and four very lively grandchildren.
Robert Whetton
Robert is a chartered management accountant who worked in the charity sector for 24 years and before that for various manufacturing businesses.
He was Director of Finance and then Director of Operations for an organisation that developed and operated care homes and supported living services for older people. During this time, Robert helped establish five retirement villages in and around Bristol that provide care and support to older people with a range of health and support needs.
Robert is originally from Derbyshire and has lived in Bristol for more than 40 years. He’s married to Ange and has two children. He enjoys playing and being involved in cricket and is a qualified umpire and committee member of an exceptionally large cricket club. Robert and his family often visit the Peak District, Lake District and Wales to walk up hills and recently began a quest to explore as many Plus Beaux Villages de France as they can.
Stephanie Wood
Stephanie is an Executive Director with over 25 years’ experience across supported housing, social care and regulated social housing environments.
She is currently Director of Operations at Ability Housing Association. There, she leads asset management, property services, housing management and customer engagement. She works at Board level to deliver regulatory assurance, financial performance and service quality.
Stephanie’s career includes senior roles at United Response and Sovereign Network Homes. She’s had responsibility for large housing portfolios, supported living services and transformation programmes across multiple local authority areas.