We are governed by a board of trustees, which consists of nine elected trustees and up to eight co-opted trustees. The elected trustees are elected from the British Red Cross' volunteers by a National Electoral College made up of two senior volunteers from each Territory.
Our co-opted trustees come from various backgrounds, such as business, the diplomatic service and the health sector, to lend their skills to the board.
Elected trustees
Sue Brown
Sue trained in ballet, then continued to Farnham School of Art and became a sculptor. Having married and had two daughters, she then spent the following years working with exhibitions, costume and graphic design and various marketing projects.
As a councillor for the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Sue was chair of the main grant-giving committee. She joined the local Red Cross in 1998 on moving to Milborne Port, where she volunteered as a centre organiser. She has since taken on various roles, culminating in her election to the board of trustees in 2007.
Stella Cummings
Stella joined the Red Cross in 1998 and is currently the volunteer council chair for Northern Ireland. In her local area, she has delivered meals on wheels across the barricades for more than 40 years and held a number of posts ranging from welfare advisor, deputy president, Branch president and council member. She has some experience of our care in the home services. Stella is currently a non-executive director with the Western Health and Social Care Trust.
Stan Fitches
Stan joined the Red Cross as a first aider in 1964 while working in the NHS as an internal auditor. He joined the staff of the Red Cross as regional liaison officer, acting as the link between national headquarters and the Northern Branches. He went on to become regional director and then UK director for the North. When he retired from that post in 2003, he was appointed volunteer representation and governance adviser to help steer through changes in the constitution.He retired in October 2006 and was elected as one of the two trustees for Northern Territory. Stan is the first Red Cross member to have been a volunteer, a member of the senior management team and then a trustee.
Amy Foan
©InfoAmy is currently a trainee barrister and has a master's in international humanitarian law and human rights. She currently volunteers for the British Red Cross in humanitarian education, refugee services, fundraising and emergency response.Amy also completed an internship for the British Red Cross in Devon, where she authored and co-designed the Red Cross handbook for young volunteers, which was published in August 2008. Amy joined the board of trustees in 2010.
Chris Hedges
Chris is a career civil servant who has worked in the Home Office since 1968. Most recently he has been involved in developing the UK’s migrant integration policies where initiatives have included the introduction of legislation requiring new citizens to have language skills and knowledge of life in the UK, and developing specialised language and citizenship courses. Chris has been a member of the British Red Cross since 1975, focusing on emergency response and training. He has helped at a number of major incidents, including the London bombings of 7 July 2005. Between 1997 and 2003 Chris was an active member of the London Branch Council, deputising for the London Branch president at a number of engagements.
Beryl Hutchinson MBE
Beryl has been a member of the Red Cross since 1965, as both employee and volunteer. Between 1954 and 1989 she worked in general hospitals in nursing and management. Having held the posts of branch nursing officer and training officer within the British Red Cross, she was director of Lincolnshire Branch from 1991 to1998, and of Derbyshire Branch from 1998 to 1999. A trustee since 2004, Beryl is currently a member of the care homes sub-group while her particular interests also include our disaster schemes.
Lady Lamport
©InfoFollowing an earlier career in the Foreign Office, including a number of overseas postings, Angela became a school governor and later a teacher of English as a foreign language, working in that capacity with Bosnian refugees and a wide range of international students.
She joined the Red Cross in 2003 as president for Surrey. She has been a successful local fundraiser and organiser of high profile events and first aid training events. She has been accepted on the Foreign & Commonwealth Office psycho-social support team. Angela has a keen interest in our refugee services and work with young people.
Vicky Peterkin
Vicky Peterkin is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has worked in both the public and voluntary sector. Much of her work has been with homeless people and vulnerable clients. She has been on the management committee of a number of housing associations and a governor of two schools.
She originally volunteered for the Red Cross in 1973. She joined the Tayside Branch Council in 2001 and was elected chair of the first Tayside volunteers council in 2003. She is both a fundraiser and a retail volunteer. Since 2004, she has worked in her local Red Cross shop in Kirriemuir, Angus. She became a trustee in 2007.
Dr Kay Richmond
Kay joined the British Red Cross as a first aid cadet when she was 11, and later became section leader. School examinations and medical school, followed by marriage, family and a career as a GP and in public health, took precedence for some years but Kay began delivering first aid lectures in 1979, later becoming Branch medical officer (representative on Council (1994-7), Branch vice-chairman and a member of the volunteers council in South Wales until 2007. Kay spent a year in the South Caucasus as regional health co-ordinator for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, followed by work for the Red Cross in Serbia-Montenegro, for Merlin in Sierra Leone, Nagorno-Karabakh and Georgia/Abkhazia/South Ossetia, and for Dolen Cymru in Lesotho.
Co-opted trustees
James Cochrane
James has spent his professional career in the pharmaceutical industry. Having been a member of the main board of Wellcome PLC, he joined the board of Glaxo Wellcome PLC in 1995. After retiring in 2001, James became chair of the South West London Strategic Health Authority, a post he held until mid-2006. James's experience in the voluntary sector is extensive. He is currently a trustee of the youth development charity Raleigh International and a board member of the Medicines for Malaria Venture and of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. James joined the British Red Cross as chairman in 2007. He is married to a GP and has four daughters.
Michael Herriot MBE
©InfoMichael is currently the general manager (chief ambulance officer) for the Scottish Ambulance Service Board, where he has overall responsibility for policy development and strategic direction of emergency planning. Previously, he has been the course director for the Home Office Emergency Planning College, becoming involved in policy across the UK. Michael joined the board of trustees in 2010, bringing his expertise in emergency planning.
Terrence Collis
Terrence has worked in the communications business for some 30 years with positions including director of group corporate communications at Lloyds TSB Group plc and, currently, for the Food Standards Agency.
He has also been involved with the Samaritans for more than 25 years. He is a member of the British Red Cross ethical review panel and has been involved in the development of our new communications strategy and in the vulnerability project.
Mohammed Afzal Khan CBE
©InfoFor more than 25 years, Afzal has been involved with interfaith and charitable work, including helping set up the Muslim Council of Britain. Afzal is a qualified solicitor and since 2000 has been a councillor of Manchester City Council, taking on a number of roles including lead member for race equality. In 2005 – 2006 he was the Lord Mayor of Manchester and won the Co-Operative Bank Mayor of the Year Award. Afzal joined the board of trustees in 2009 as a diversity trustee, bringing his expertise in interfaith and intercommunity work to the Red Cross.
David Fall CMG
David has served in the diplomatic service for more than 30 years. He is a former HM Ambassador to Vietnam, Thailand and Laos. He retired from the diplomatic service in October 2007. David's operational experience includes development and poverty reduction (working with DfID, NGOs and international development agencies in Vietnam, Laos and Thailand); disaster management (he led an embassy team for immediate response to the December 2004 Asian tsunami in Thailand, working closely with British Red Cross); and disaster recovery (working with Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum and British charities).
Dr Lise Llewellyn
©InfoLise is currently the chief executive of Berkshire Primary Care Trust. She entered the NHS through general practice before taking a master's in healthcare management and moving into senior management roles in the NHS. Previously, she has been chief executive of Brent Primary Care Trust and South Peterborough Primary Care Trust, as well as being involved in a number of specialist panels and government thinking groups. Lise joined the board of trustees in 2010, bringing her expertise in health and social care work to the Red Cross.
Graham Stegmann CBE
Graham is currently the special adviser to the president of the African Development Bank. He spent most of his career in London and overseas with the Department for International Development (DfID), most recently as Director for Africa 2000-2004 and then covering the UK Presidency of the G8 up to Gleneagles, Commission for Africa and the Millennium Summit. He joined the board of the British Red Cross in 2007 as an international trustee. He has a particular interest in the Red Cross’ work overseas and its relationships with international organisations.
Russell Walls
Retired BAA executive Russell Walls was appointed treasurer of the British Red Cross in July 2007 and is set to serve an initial three-year term. His position means he will also chair the finance committee, the investment advisory panel and the internal audit advisory panel.
Russell worked for Coats Patons, mainly overseas, for more than 20 years from 1966. He then moved to London in 1987 as personal assistant to the (now) Coats Viyella group chief executive, and became group finance director in 1990.
Since retiring, Russell has held a number of non-executive director roles with corporations such as the Stage Coach Group and Signet Group.
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