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.
Amanda Bunce – Chair of Trustees
Amanda has worked in the customer services industry and operations management for the whole of her career. For the last thirteen years of her career, she worked for IBM Global Business Services as one of their Vice Presidents in the UK and Ireland. Amanda ran some of IBM’s business sectors in the UK, and also specialised in leading large transformation projects for IT and system change programmes. This has given her the opportunity to work with many different customers and organisations in both the private and the public sectors.
Amanda decided to become a Trustee for Hft when she retired from IBM in 2017. Her favourite moment of being a Hft Trustee so far has been being part of Voices to be Heard. It’s a communication forum for people we support that helps them express their views and have a voice within Hft. Representatives from each of the regional groups attend regular meetings which Amanda co-chairs with one of the people we support. It’s a powerful forum and demonstrates outcommitment to collaboration and transparency.
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.
Annemarie Strong
Annemarie joined our Board of Trustees in 2023. She’s a qualified barrister and practising solicitor, and has worked with local authorities since 2017. She specialises in advising the adult social care sector.
Since 2019, Annemarie has worked as a senior solicitor at a local authority. In her work, she develops policies and strategies to help those entitled to care and support. She also makes sure that the local authority follows the law and its own rules properly. And she works to strengthen those rules so that anyone who deals with the council is treated fairly.
Annemarie has also worked in private practice, and has helped to resolve non-criminal disputes on a freelance basis.
She first encountered Hft during her involvement in a commissioning exercise as part of her current public sector role. Annemarie is also godmother to a friend’s daughter, who has a learning disability. She works hard to make sure that everyone, no matter how old they are, or what disability they have, can access every opportunity for a fulfilled life.
John Devapriam
John has over 20 years’ experience working in the National Health Service, 15 of which have been in services for learning disabled people. He’s currently the Executive Medical Director at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust. He’s also a Medical Member of the First Tier Tribunal for Mental Health. And John is the Project Executive and Lead Editor for online resources on learning disability and mental health at MindEd, Royal College of Psychiatry.
Previously, John was the National Professional Advisor for Learning Disability at the Care Quality Commission and Chaired the Quality Network. He was also Academic Secretary for the Faculty of Learning Disability at the Royal College of Psychiatry.
His interest areas are in systems leadership, mentoring and population health management. John is also a clinician researcher and have contributed to a few book chapters, peer reviewed publications and national reports.
Having worked in the NHS for his whole career, John found the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of learning disabled people and their families very appealing – especially from a community care perspective.
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.
Paul Morgan
Paul has spent over 20 years working in the charity sector. His experience is in international, national, regional and local charities with turnovers ranging from the £100s 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 fundraising and charity retail work. He also has a lot of experience organising events including challenge events and Royal Gala functions.
Paul is married with two young children. In his spare time, he’s a treasurer for his local church and a small charity that supports young people in Central London. He’s also a member of a Hampshire group of professional fundraisers. He was pleased to accept the nomination for the post of inaugural Chair for the Central South group of the Institute of Fundraising in July 2018.
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 a couple of years and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. So when he was invited to become a Trustee at Hft, he was pleased to accept the opportunity. He now makes use of his fundraising and income generation knowledge to contribute to Hft as a Trustee.
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 we can.
Tim Tamblyn
Tim is a chartered accountant with over 40 years experience. He’s retired from professional work and now applies his knowledge and experience to the non-profit sector. He has a personal interest in aiding organisations who care for and safeguard the most vulnerable people in our society.
Tim worked for an international accountancy practice which meant a lot of overseas travel. On retirement, he wanted to put something back into the community by way of a ‘thank you’ and gets a lot of pleasure from doing it.