Meet our staff

Directors

Our Chief Executive team leads over 1,500 full time, part time, and bank staff to support more than 800 people, ensuring the charity remains strong and committed to its values.

Anna Galliford

Chief Executive

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Anna Galliford

Chief Executive

Anna Galliford discovered her fascination with commerce whilst growing up in a family business environment in Ireland. Determined to enter the business world she studied a Bachelor degree in Commerce and was accepted onto a graduate training scheme at Ford Motor Company. With blue chip experience and the full range of accountancy qualifications she quickly rose up to take on senior financial positions in Diageo, and held director and board level positions with Avis and Travis Perkins. After five years as Finance Director at FitzRoy, Anna was appointed Chief Executive in August 2008. With an exemplary track record in financial planning and strategy she has overseen growth at FitzRoy from an £8m turnover to a £33m turnover. Driven by a desire to help people with learning disabilities live a full and independent life, both at home and in the community, Anna has developed a high quality and sustainable model that supports a range of services that benefits all who FitzRoy support. Anna is an active member of VODG and has held several Trustee roles in the voluntary sector.

Alison Heustice

Director of Finance

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Alison Heustice

Director of Finance

Alison is a CIMA qualified accountant with a background in manufacturing, and over 20 years of experience working in both large and small organisations such as Vauxhall, BAE, Johnson Tiles, MCI, and EMS Industries. Since then she took a step into the charity sector, where she now has 7 years of experience.

Marianne Radcliffe

Director of Transformation

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Marianne Radcliffe

Director of Transformation

Marianne has worked in the not-for-profit sector for over 25 years, and held senior roles in Christian Aid, NSPCC and Shelter. She is passionate about leading change in complex organisations, delivering commercially ambitious strategies and positively uniting people, vision, and impact to bring about lasting change for people and communities who are systemically marginalised. Marianne’s creative, person-centric approach has helped to accelerate our award-winning transformation programme and put innovation, impact and engagement at the heart of FitzRoy. As Director of Transformation, she leads transformation, impact, communications and fundraising.

Robbie Wheeler

Director of HR

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Robbie Wheeler

Director of HR

Robbie Wheeler joined us as director of HR from NHSPS where she was responsible for Human Resources for around 6,000 employees across England delivering property and facilities management to the NHS. Robbie has over 30 years experience in HR across a number of companies and sectors including retail, food services, production, facilities and front line services. Robbie lives in Headley Down in Hampshire with her husband Jeff and had one daughter Charlotte. Robbie loves sport and took up figure skating at the age of 42, she continues to actively compete and judge around the world.

Angela Murphy

Director of Operations and Business Development

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Angela Murphy

Director of Operations and Business Development

Angela Murphy has over 20 years senior management experience in health and social care. Before joining FitzRoy, Angela had spent seven years working for the NHS. Prior to that Angela worked within local government and for the voluntary sector. Angela is qualified with a Masters in Business Administration and is passionate about providing the best possible services for people. Angela is a strong believer in the value of trusted networks and partnership working and has led on national and international programmes of work. In 2011, Angela led a delegation of head teachers to ZhengZhou in China for a Connecting Classrooms programme in partnership with the British Council. Angela lives in Hampshire and enjoys going to the gym and using her Calm app for meditation and relaxation.

Trustees

To ensure that FitzRoy has strategic direction and a clear vision, we have a Board of 11 Trustees who all bring their own skills, knowledge and passion to FitzRoy.

Martin Kyndt

Chair of Trustees

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Martin Kyndt

Chair of Trustees

Martin joined the Board of Trustees in September 2018 having recently retired from a senior executive position at Christian Aid. He has an MBA from Bradford and over 35 years experience working in the charity sector in international development. He has held a range of senior management positions overseeing strategy, organisational development, funding, advocacy, programme development and campaigning and has significant leadership experience at Board level. Empowering and enabling people to have equality of opportunity to transform their own lives has been a driving passion of his throughout his career.

Matthew Moth

Matthew Moth

Vice Chair

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Matthew Moth

Matthew Moth

Vice Chair

Matthew joined the Board of Trustees in 2018. Founding Partner at strategic communications consultancy Madano, Matthew successfully developed and grew the business, before overseeing its acquisition by an international communications group, Avenir Global, headquartered in Canada.

He has held a variety of senior corporate communications roles, including Group Director of Communications at a FTSE 150 company in the housing and construction sector, and started his working life as a journalist. Matthew is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Practitioners, and Vice-President of the Canada UK Chamber of Commerce.

Dawn Jacobs

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Dawn Jacobs

Dawn joined our Board of Trustees in June 2019 and is currently Client Acquisition Director and Head of Healthcare at Barclays International.

All of Dawn’s career has been spent in banking in London and the South East working in the Corporate arena, including roles in structured finance, credit, recovery, and relationship banking. She is FCIB qualified and holds a Cert.Ed from the University of Southampton.

Mark Sanderson

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Mark Sanderson

Mark joined the Board of Trustees in 2019. Mark is a strategic leader, influencer and trusted adviser and has been a corporate solicitor for nearly 30 years, first in private practice and now in industry with Severfield plc.

He has a broad experience of governance and risk management matters. In the not-for-profit sector, Mark is a trustee of the Severfield Foundation and a side-by-side volunteer with the Alzheimer’s Society.

Derrick McCourt

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Derrick McCourt

Derrick joined the board of trustees in 2017. Since joining Microsoft, Derrick has held leadership roles including General Manager for the UK Public Sector Business and General Manager of the Customer Success Unit. Over the last 16 years he has set up operations, teams and segments in various parts of the Microsoft business. He played a key part in driving the digital first agenda across public services with the introduction of new productivity tools and cloud platforms, allowing public sector bodies to modernise. Derrick has a passion for the transformative power of digital.

Transforming the lives of people with learning disabilities is very personal to Derrick. As an enthusiastic runner and fundraiser he ran the 2018 London Marathon as part of the National Autistic Society Team.

Saad Sayeed

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Saad Sayeed

Saad joined the Board of Trustees in 2022. He has over 10 years’ experience in the finance sector, including roles across banking, asset management, private debt and private equity. He has also been heavily involved in volunteering with disadvantaged and minority communities, particularly in the education space. Saad is extremely passionate about social inclusion and has a strong personal affinity for the mission of FitzRoy.

Neil Blackley

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Neil Blackley

Neil joined the Board of Trustees in 2020. He is the chairman of Simplestream, a leading videostreaming technology platform, chairman of Ingenious Estate Planning, an investment fund specialising in property and infrastructure, and director of Supadu, providing digital platforms for publishers. Neil has previously worked in private equity with Apax Partners, and for over 20 years as a media analyst with James Capel, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch.

Neil is a governor at Rachel Madocks, a school for children with severe and profound multiple learning disabilities in Hampshire, and a volunteer for Age Concern in Petersfield. He has been deeply involved with disability charities for many years, taking part in fundraisers such as a disability triathlon, climbing Kilimanjaro, a sky dive and Arianne Walks through the Hindhead tunnel.

Sarah Nicholson

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Sarah Nicholson

Sarah joined the Board of Trustees in 2020. She worked in the NHS as a child and adolescent psychiatrist for 25 years. She has special interest in autism and learning disabilities and strongly believes every individual should have the opportunity to live an enriched and fulfilling life.

Andrew Gore

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Andrew Gore

Andrew joined the Board of Trustees in 2020 and is currently Chief Executive Officer at St Vincent’s Private Hospital in Dublin. He splits his time between the UK and Dublin. He has over 25 years experience at senior executive level in leadership positions within the private acute healthcare sector across a number of leading companies – BUPA, Spire Healthcare, HCA Healthcare UK and St Vincent’s Healthcare Group. Throughout his career Andrew has been driven by the desire to provide high quality and very safe patient care striving to improve and enrich the quality of all patient’s lives together with the support of teams of like minded colleagues.

David Evans

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David Evans

David joined the Board of Trustees in 2016. Formerly a Managing Director in Accenture, David has a wealth of experience in HR and people matters.  He runs his own company providing HR consulting / workplace mediation and also runs a social enterprise, The Diversity & Innovation Company which sends business leaders on experiences with UK charities and Indian schools to broaden their diversity of thought. David is a magistrate and an accredited mediator.

Julie Whetton

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Julie Whetton

Julie has worked in the commercial property sector in UK and international roles for over 25 years, within the public and private sectors, and is a Chartered Surveyor. She is currently National Property Management Director for NHS Property Services and helps look after over 3000 properties, ranging from GP clinics, to care homes, and community hospitals to NHS offices. Within the NHS she is keen to ensure all properties are used in the best possible way to support clinicians and provide quality patient care.

Outside of work, Julie is a keen hockey player, occasional runner and has a post graduate qualification in building conservation.

Gail Bedding

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Gail Bedding

Gail has previously worked in the communications industry in Manchester, Liverpool and London and has carried the skills acquired into a new world. Since the birth of her son, she is passionate about making a difference to the lives of families on the journey that they never expected to be on.

Joining up services, co-production and person-centred planning is key to her work with Council for Disabled Children, contacting, supporting and training families transitioning into adulthood and understanding complex health services.

She is a Lay member on the Health Education England Patient Advisory Forum, Disabled Children’s Partnership Board and an active Trustee for Disability Challengers.

In the little spare time she has Gail loves to spend time walking and playing golf.

Sarju Mistry

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Sarju Mistry

Sarju joined the Board of Trustees in 2023. He has over 15 years experience in IT Change Management from the financial services, public sector and telecommunications industries, implementing new technologies to deliver customer and business value, growth and efficiencies and cultural change.

He is always striving for better for all people, regardless of their background or situation and believes that keeping an open mind and growth mindset is the key to a better world.  Sarju is also a trustee of a small charity called Comfort U Bags which provides backpacks with essential items for children going into care in the Wiltshire area.

Patrons

We are very grateful for the long-term commitment and support by our FitzRoy patrons. Their significant and lasting contributions - raising money and awareness - have helped us sustain our services, build a vision, and deliver more.

HRH Princess Alexandra KG, GCVO

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HRH Princess Alexandra KG, GCVO

Princess Alexandra enjoys supporting FitzRoy and was delighted to officially open our new care home in Grayshott, Donec Mews, in October 2012. She has attended many FitzRoy events, and chose the charity’s Christmas card for her personal use in our 50th anniversary year.

Countess of Euston

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Countess of Euston

Clare has been involved with FitzRoy from its early days and has led many appeal committees, as well as actively supporting our fundraising events.

Dame Virginia McKenna

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Dame Virginia McKenna

Virginia has been a long-term patron and supporter of FitzRoy, and opened our care home in Liss, Whitegates View.

Lord and Lady Tanlaw

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Lord and Lady Tanlaw

Lord and Lady Tanlaw have been generous supporters of FitzRoy for many years, and have contributed to several life-changing projects.

Edward Thornton-Firkin

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Edward Thornton-Firkin

Edward lives in Cheshire and joined the Board of Trustees in 2001, becoming Chair in 2008. As a retired senior partner at Thornton-Firkin, a practice of chartered surveyors and construction consultants, he enjoys having the chance to transform lives for people with learning disabilities. He retired as Trustee in 2013, and became an Ambassador, then Patron in 2016.

Andrew Grant

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Andrew Grant

Andrew Grant, Deputy Lieutenant of Worcestershire, served as a Trustee on the FitzRoy Board before coming a Patron. During his time on the Board, Andrew make a significant contribution to our fundraising, and continues to be an active supporter. Andrew is Principle of Andrew Grant LLP Estate Agents.

Margaret Marshall, Patron

Margaret Marshall

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Margaret Marshall, Patron

Margaret Marshall

Margaret Marshall became involved with FitzRoy when raising funds for the first brick for our Silver Birches home. She was a FitzRoy Trustee for nearly 20 years, including eight as chair. She has held many charitable posts and is currently chair of property Richmond Charities and Vice-Chair of Kew Community Trust. She continues to manage the family property company.

Georgina Hovey, Patron

Georgina Hovey

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Georgina Hovey, Patron

Georgina Hovey

Georgina became involved with FitzRoy in 1990 joining our fundraising committee in Sussex and she became a Trustee in 2001. On retiring in 2016 she continues to Chair the Sussex Fundraising Committee.

Nigel Atkinson

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Nigel Atkinson

Nigel Atkinson is Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire and a Patron of a number of charities across the county. He served in the Royal Green Jackets before pursuing a successful career in the brewing industry and now holds a number of national non-executive positions.