Board of Trustees
Our Board of Trustees ensures that assets and resources are only used for the strategic purposes of the Charity and that the Charity is run in accordance with its constitution, charity law and other applicable laws and regulations. We are fortunate to have a Board with a broad range of skills including healthcare and business.
Philip Leonard
Chair of the Board
Phil Leonard has worked as a management consultant in healthcare for 30 years with KPMG, Atos Origin and EY (formerly Ernst & Young).
He has spent his career working with the NHS, in the UK independent sector and with healthcare clients around the world. Latterly he was the Vice President and international leader at Philips Healthcare responsible for healthcare transformation which incorporated consulting, healthcare facility design and patient experience.
He holds an MBA from Durham Business School, a BA (Hons) in Arabic from Durham University and is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health and Member of the British Psychological Society.
Pam Sissons
Deputy Chair of the Board
Pam began a career in insurance and risk management working with clients in a variety of sectors. Originally from Yorkshire, she moved to Gloucestershire 25 years ago and completed a degree in business management and HR. She joined engineering conglomerate, Glynwed International plc and served as company secretary of Aga Rangemaster Group plc in 2004 to 2016. She has strong governance, financial and commercial experience. Pam is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administrators and a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute. Pam is currently a council member at the University of Gloucestershire and chairs the Audit and Risk Committee; a trustee director of the Aga Rangemaster defined benefit pensions scheme; a trustee of Winchcombe School and chairs the Resources Committee. She is also treasurer of the National Garden Scheme in Gloucestershire.
Pam lives in Cheltenham with her husband and two dogs. She enjoys most sports and exploring the great outdoors.
Ruth Goddard
A Chartered Accountant having trained with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ruth has 30 years of strategic, commercial and finance experience. Originally from Cheltenham, Ruth moved to London to pursue a finance career initially with BBC Worldwide and advertising agency, TBWA, before holding Finance Director roles at branding consultancy Identica and architecture and planning practice tp bennett. Ruth is Finance Director for property consultancy Ridge and Partners LLP based in Oxfordshire where she lives with her husband and two dogs.
Dr Janet Ropner
Janet Ropner trained in Medicine at University College Hospital, London. This was followed by Haematology training in Oxford. She was a Consultant Haematologist at Gloucestershire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust from 1984 until 2008. During this time she held several managerial posts including Clinical Director for Medicine and Associate Medical Director.
She continued as Associate Medical Director part-time from 2008 until 2018 when she retired. Her particular interest was patient safety.
Janet is also a trained Mentor, Executive Coach and Mediator. She lives in Cheltenham.
Matt Jones
Matt brings over 25 years of experience in developing and managing cloud-based software and technology operations, with a dedication to fostering growth and delivering enhanced service quality and value to customers.
Matt was most recently the Group Chief Operating Officer at ParentPay, a leading provider of payments and MIS solutions for schools in the UK and Europe. During his tenure, he held responsibility for Product Management, Software Engineering, IT, Service Operations, Customer Implementation, and Customer Support, pre and post-merger integration of acquired businesses, HR, remote development operations, Procurement, Business Systems, PMO, and ESG.
Before ParentPay, Matt COO at IRIS Software and spent six years as SVP of DevOps at NewVoiceMedia (acquired by Vonage). He also held previous technology leadership roles at Mimecast and MessageLabs (Acquired by Symantec).
Claire Morris
Claire Morris is a solicitor with over 25 years business experience working at Board and Executive levels in a variety of financial services organisations including insurance, building societies, tech start-up and banks. Claire has a broad range of expertise in legal and governance matters and has also been responsible for procurement, data protection and IT functions. Claire has always been based in and around Cheltenham and currently works for a specialist lender where she is General Counsel and Company Secretary.
Dr. Felicity Jenkins
Felicity Jenkins trained in Medicine at St Andrews University and in Cardiff.
Specialist Radiology training was in Stoke on Trent.
Felicity has worked as a Consultant Radiologist in Worcestershire since 1986, initially as a General Radiologist but increasingly specialising in Breast Imaging.
She was Clinical Director of the Hereford and Worcester Breast Screening Programme and the Worcester Acute Hospitals Symptomatic Breast Imaging Service 2008-2016.
From March 2016 Felicity has worked as a part time Breast Radiologist and during the last few years has also worked as a Senior Academic Tutor in the Worcester Acute Hospitals Undergraduate Academy working with third year medical students from Birmingham Medical School.
Dr. Valerie Udale
Valerie began her career as a scientist and has a DPhil in Developmental Neurobiology. She then pursued a variety of roles in corporate finance and management consultancy and later trained as a mathematics teacher. She currently enjoys a range of professional interests in financial modelling and delivering corporate finance training.
Valerie is a member of Council at Cheltenham Ladies College and is currently Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, and a member of the Land and Buildings Committee. She is also a trustee of Winchcombe School.
Valerie has lived in the Cheltenham area with her family for 25 years and enjoys long walks and tennis.
Gordon Wilcock DM, FRCP, (Hon) DSc
Gordon Wilcock is Emeritus Professor of Geratology at the University of Oxford.
He was Founder Chairman of the UK Alzheimer’s Society from 1979 to 1986, for whom he is currently a Vice-President. In 1987 he was also Founder Chairman of BRACE, a charity which now supports mainly dementia research in the Southwest of England and Wales.
Gordon Wilcock is a Trustee/Director of several charities involved in supporting medical research, including the UK Alzheimer’s Brain Bank of which he was formerly Chairman; chairs the Trial Steering Committee of an important Parkinson’s disease clinical trial, and is an active VP for the Alzheimer’s Society, especially in the research context.
