Meet our staff

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.