Guide Dogs Trustees

Richard became Guide Dogs’ Chief Executive in April 2010. He has previously worked in the Royal Navy and left as a Rear Admiral, most recently working as Deputy Chief of Staff in a NATO strategic headquarters in America. He was awarded an OBE in 1994 for disaster relief services after Hurricane Andrew and was recently appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath for his leadership whilst developing and implementing NATO's new maritime strategy.

Tony Aston joined Council in 2003 and became Chairman in February 2007. He is an ex officio member of all committees (except audit), and takes a particular interest in campaigning activities.

Tony Aston lives in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, with his wife Jane and three year old guide dog Harvey.  He became a Trustee of Guide Dogs in 2003.

Tony has worked with blind and partially sighted people and the organisations that serve their interests in a range of capacities at local, national and international level for over 45 years. From 1997 to 2007 he was chairman of the European Blind Union Commission on the Rights of Blind and Partially Sighted People.  He was a member of the World Blind Union team that worked to ensure that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was drafted to take account of the requirements of blind and partially sighted people. Tony has served on a number of UK government working groups and committees concerned with the public transport and environmental requirements of disabled people.

Tony worked as an aircraft designer and subsequently for the Royal National Institute of Blind People after the loss of his sight.  He held a series of posts in employment services and management prior to his appointment as a Divisional Director in 1985. He was Director of Community Services when he retired in 1997.

Tony enjoys walking, reading and family activities. He is totally blind and travelled with a long cane before training with his first guide dog in 1987.

David Anderson is a co-opted Member of Council and a member of the Research Committee.

He is a veterinary surgeon with over thirty years experience in practice, academia and government service.  He worked in a University teaching environment where he developed an interest and expertise in veterinary reproduction. In recent years, he has been a government advisor on the welfare and care of animals, and has been involved in the development of improved practices in welfare, accommodation and care of animals in UK and Europe.

He has served on the Council of Regional and Specialist Veterinary Divisions of the British Veterinary Association and has attended and chaired Working Groups within the Council of Europe and European Union on various aspects of animal welfare and care.

He lives in Monifieth, near Dundee and enjoys golf, curling and dog walking with his family.  He is Chairman of the local Residents’ Association and is a long-standing Council Officer at the Golf Club.

He first worked with Guide Dogs providing veterinary care within general practice and has long admired the work of the organisation

David, 55, is a graduate of Lancaster University and qualified in 1981 as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) - where he also holds the ICAEW Corporate Finance qualification and is an Associate Member of the Securities Institute.

David has spent his career in professional services and finance, specialising in corporate finance, commercial and investment banking and private equity. He was for eight years a high profile corporate finance partner with business advisers Ernst & Young and latterly with Baker Tilly, advising clients on acquisitions and mergers, fundraising and business disposals. He was previously a corporate director at Barclays Bank with joint responsibility for the bank’s large corporate team in Yorkshire. He is now a non-executive director/investor with a wide portfolio of business interests including directorship of Finance Yorkshire, a £90 million venture capital fund.

David and his wife, Caroline, have two daughters, Hannah and Rachel, and live in Sheffield. They have been active supporters and puppy walkers for Guide Dogs for 14 years, having puppy walked 12 dogs (and counting) and fostered many more.

Roy Benjamin joined Council in 2003 and is currently Chairman of its Audit Committee and a member of the Governance Task Force and the Remuneration Committee.

His qualifications include Social Welfare Officer of the Blind, Diploma in Social Work, and a Masters in Social Services Management and his work experience includes:-7 years' front line social work in the voluntary and statutory sectors;2 years in a practice teaching unit training students undertaking professional qualifications;9 years developing and managing a community based social work agency in the voluntary sector, which in 1987 had a budget of £750,000;6 years' as training and staff development manager in a social services department employing 1,500 staff; and finally, 3 years as director of social work training programme in further education.

Roy has been a Birmingham City Councillor for 16 years serving on a number of committees. His main interests were personnel and equal opportunities. Roy has chaired personnel appeal panels and the Equal Opportunities Committee for 4 years plus, latterly, the Equalities Scrutiny Committee.

From 1997 to 2004, Roy chaired Birmingham Focus, the local voluntary association for the blind which employs 120 staff with an annual budget of £2.5 million. In the 1970s he was a Guide Dogs speaker and a member of the Southwest Birmingham Fundraising Committee until his work commitments became too onerous.  Since moving to London in 2003, Roy managed a local Carer’s Centre.

Rodney Buse spent much of his commercial career with a major retail and distribution company. He headed up the finance function of the group and was CEO of two significant operating companies and led a change management programme as Group Personnel Director.

During this time Rodney developed a strong commitment to the charity and community sector. He served as a trustee and subsequently became chair of ActionAid, and chaired the Executive Committee of the Industrial Society. This experience has provided a passion to support work that enables people to fulfil their potential. He has served on a number of boards as chair or trustee including, NCVO, CAF, ICAN, CES, The Guidance Council and Charity Trustee Networks.

Rodney’s interest in good governance has enabled him to lead the work of the Quality Standards Task Group and to develop the case and business plan for the self regulation of charity fundraising. Rodney continues to undertake a limited number of governance assignments with a focus on the structures and behaviours that drive organisational effectiveness.

Appointments outside of the charity sector have included, Board member of the DTI Fair Markets Board, The Small Business Service, Council Member of the Assoc of Chartered Certified Accountants and Chair of the CBI Training Policy Panel.

Rodney has been appointed as Chairman Designate and will take over as the new Chairman of Guide Dogs’ trustees in 2012.

John Hilbourne joined Council in 2005 and is Chairman of its Research Committee.

John was educated at RNIB Worcester and read sociology at the London School of Economics, graduating in 1964.  He has taught in various universities, has been one of Her Majesty’s Inspectors for further and higher education and an Assistant Director of the Higher Education Quality Council (now the QAA).  Recently he has chaired reviews of university subjects including engineering, management, medicine and social work for the QAA.  He has been chairman of a Community Health Council and a member of a Health Authority and also a former Director of the Birmingham Royal National Institute for the Blind.  He has been Chairman of the Birmingham Vision Services Committee

Now retired, John is Chairman of the Board of Governors for Queen Alexandra College for the Blind and a magistrate.  He is a guide dog owner, a Rotarian and is married with one daughter.  His interests include reading, music, walking and travel.

Elizabeth Hubbick joined Council in 2003 and is currently Deputy Chair.  She is a member of the Governance Task Force, Honorary Officers, Nominations and Remuneration committees.  Elizabeth is also a director for GDBA (Pension Fund Trustee) Limited.

She is a retired human resources consultant.  Her professional life was spent first within a corporate environment and latterly as an adviser to large companies on all aspects of remuneration and benefits. She specialised in two areas: employee participation through share ownership and corporate governance issues relating to senior executive remuneration. She has fulfilled trustee roles in relation to pensions and share ownership arrangements and advised trustees in a professional capacity on their duties and the exercise of their discretion.

During her working life she was an active member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, with particular involvement in its restructuring during a merger of two professional bodies. She was the professional adviser to the University of Westminster for its MA in Personnel & Development. She is a long-serving magistrate where her work covers the usual range of court work, together with membership of committees involved in the training and development of colleagues.

Elizabeth has been actively involved in fundraising activities for the Association for over 25 years, having held the positions of Treasurer and Chairman in an active London branch of the Association. She and her husband now live in Topsham, Devon, and continue their interest in supporting their local branch.

Norma Johnston joined Council in 2006.  Norma is a communications professional with 20 years’ experience in commercial public relations, magazine journalism and charity/NGO communications.

Since 1990, Norma has held senior management posts in the UK/ international charity sector including Communications Director for Amnesty International UK. The latter included appearing on national television and radio and extensive public speaking.

As global Communications Director for Plan, an international children’s development agency, she devised Plan’s first global advocacy campaign on Universal Birth Registration (UBR) with a successful launch at the UN New York supported by Kofi Annan and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Norma has been running her own communications consultancy since January 2006 and she now works with UN agency teams as well as large and small charities in the fields as diverse as mental health, charity reputation management and overseas development.

Rowena Lusty joined Council in 2007 and currently serves on the Audit, Nominations, Property, and National Client Representatives Committees and is a director of GDUK Limited. She has a particular interest in legacy funding.

She is a qualified solicitor with over twenty years’ experience in various aspects of commercial property practice in London.  Whilst in practice she wrote articles for “Property Week”.  Subsequently she lectured in law at City University, London, attaining the position of Deputy Course Director. She is also a qualified primary school teacher.  Today she teaches property law part-time at Thames Valley University to a very ethnically mixed range of students and runs her own business as a notary public in west London.

Rowena has been involved in other charitable and voluntary organisations. From 2003 – 2006 she was an elected trustee of the Covent Garden Area Trust which is a registered charity set up to conserve the historic architecture and environment in central Covent Garden. She has been a member of the Independent Monitoring Board at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, and since 2005 has volunteered as a steward during the summer at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.

Alan Park joined Council in 2007.  He is Chairman of the Property Committee and a director of GDUK Limited.

Alan is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor (FRICS) and a Chartered Builder (MCIOB) with a post- graduate MBA degree specialising in property, construction and finance.  Retiring after 15 years as Finance and Management Services Director of a plc architects’ practice, he owns and manages a project management and safety consultancy.

Alan has a long connection with Guide Dogs enjoying three re-homed dogs from the Association over the last 20 years.  He has also been active in the dog club movement, including participating as a class trainer working with beginner dogs and handlers.  Alan is married with two adult daughters and a son-in-law, and lives in Bristol.

Martyn Smith joined Council in 2010 and has held the position of Honorary Treasurer since September 2010  He serves on the Audit Committee and Investment Committee and is a director of GDBA (Pension Fund Trustee) Limited and The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (Trading Company) Limited.

His career started, on leaving school as a trainee and then buyer at an engineering group.  He then discovered an interest in finance through a HND Business Studies and switched to a traineeship with the same employer, going through a rotation of the accounting areas, whist studying part-time. Martyn then moved to Rothmans International, initially in management accounting, then the treasury area and then to financial development and control - which is still the main core of his working life.  He qualified as ACCA during this period.

After some ten years, Martyn joined Inchcape plc, the distribution group.  There he covered several international assignments and became Group Financial Controller, responsible for management reporting, statutory accounting and tax.  During this time he also undertook a part-time Masters in Finance at London Business School.  In 1999, Martyn became Finance Director for John Menzies plc, living in Edinburgh, and was heavily involved in a strategic change programme, moving the group into a focussed support services business.  After three years in the role, he moved back to London having been appointed Finance Director of Avis Europe plc, the car rental company.  He still holds this role, being responsible for the wider aspects of finance, including funding, City relations, audit, company secretarial and legal functions.

Martyn has been active through much of this period in a voluntary capacity with several charities and has been a Guide Dogs supporter for a number of years.

Pat is a marketing professional with over 20 years’ experience in marketing, branding and communications. She has managed several well known brands, and has been responsible for many major initiatives in branding, direct marketing, product launch and service development. She has also worked as a strategic consultant, advising at Board level on brand and organisational strategy and culture. She is particularly passionate about customer service and can be relied on to understand and champion customer needs.

Pat’s previous roles include Group Marketing Director of the BUPA Group, Head of Brands management at British Airways PLC, and Managing Director of Corporate Positioning Services. She has a wealth of Board level experience, having managed a portfolio of roles since 2000. This includes Non Executive Director of HMRC, Governor at Luton University, and Regional Board Member at The Princes Trust. Pat’s current portfolio includes serving as a Non Executive Director at The Financial Ombudsman Service, and as Chairman of her local parish. She is also involved with two charities: New Leaf and Young Enterprise, mentoring ex offenders and advising in a local sixth form college.

Pat has been actively involved with Guide Dogs for many years, initially through boarding working guide dogs. She is now a brood bitch holder and hopes to provide a fourth litter of puppies to Guide Dogs this summer. She lives in Buckinghamshire with her husband and three children, and enjoys travelling, gardening and maintaining her interest in English Literature which she studied at degree level.

Miles Stanford joined Council in 2003 and is a member of the Nominations and Research committees.

Miles is currently Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology in the GKT Medical School and is based mainly at St Thomas' Hospital. He divides his time between his clinical role as a consultant ophthalmologist and as a researcher into the causes of ocular inflammation.

For the last 10 years Miles has actively pursued a research programme into the causes, diagnosis and management of ocular inflammatory diseases and has published more than 170 peer-reviewed articles on this subject. His principal research interests at the moment include the pathogenesis and treatment of toxoplasmosis as it affects the eye, the immunogenetics of disorders causing intraocular inflammation, the immunology of the blood retinal barrier and the evaluation of new treatments for the amelioration of these blinding diseases.

As part of his role as a Professor, Miles has a substantial role as a teacher and regularly participates in both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching both locally at GKT, the largest medical school in Europe, and nationally in the UK as a whole. Miles serves a number of roles in National ophthalmology. He currently sits on the Examinations Committee of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, the medical advisory panel of the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society and British Council for the Prevention of Blindness and is the founder and Chair of the British Ophthalmological Surveillance Unit.

Miles brings his scientific knowledge and skills to advise the Association on ophthalmological topics as well as on the research that the Association funds ensuring that it is relevant to the aims of the Association and of the highest standards.

Mike Townsend joined Council in 2003 and currently serves on its Research and Audit Committees.

Mike’s main work is as a technical consultant specialising in access technology. He works all over the world in countries ranging from New Zealand to Nigeria. As lead portfolio trustee for ICT and technology, it has been very rewarding to help the Association develop fresh approaches in this area. Mike has served on a number of trusts, some in a chairing role, including The British Computer Association of the Blind, Leicester Centre for Integrated Living, Royal National Institute of Blind People, and the Torch Trust for the Blind. He has sat on the Social Services Committee of Leicestershire County Council, and advises national government on a range of issues. Mike has a degree in economics and accounting, and his postgraduate work was in computing.

Mike lives with his wife Edith, and daughter Christine, in Fleckney where he is an active member of the local church. He has been totally blind since the age of 8 and got his first guide dog in January 1967. Tom, his fifth dog, is an excellent all rounder. He has travelled to several European countries and worked to an incredibly high standard during the London bus bomb experience.

A highlight of Mike’s life is running a summer camp each year for blind orphaned and abandoned children in Romania

Amos Miller joined Council in 2008.  Amos is blind, a guide dog owner, married and a father to a young daughter.  He holds a B.Sc. in computer science and an MBA from London Business School.

Amos works for Microsoft in the strategy consulting practice, guiding executives on business innovation and value creation with technology.  Prior to that, he managed major IT transformation programmes in the telecommunications industry for BT, O2 and Orange.  In his earlier days as a software developer Amos also took part in the development of Hebrew text to speech screen reading software for the blind in Israel.

Amos is passionate for technology and enjoys working with people and businesses to reach their full potential through the use of technology.  In addition, he plays the guitar, enjoys down-hill skiing and practices Tai Chi, time and weather permitting.

As a Board level Group Human Resources Director, John’s career spans commercial,
operational and HRD responsibilities.

He has worked with leading brand names in Financial Services to support business growth,brand development and performance improvement.

As Group HRD for Nationwide Building Society, John has led the HR agenda for a multi-brand business of 18,000 people across 1000 retail and administration sites.

He has driven major changes in the way people are rewarded, optimised learning and development for a multi-disciplined and geographically diverse workforce, creating an agile and flexible business.

Over the last few years John has been engaged in significant Merger and Acquisition activity with four major transactions in the last five years – total value of in excess of £30 billion - involving the transfer of 4,000 employees. He led the people integration and subsequent transformation which delivered headcount and cost reduction, culture alignment and enhancement of organisational performance through people processes and systems.

John has gained a reputation for harnessing employee engagement as a driver of business performance in a highly consumer centric business. Under his guidance, Nationwide people practices have been rated “best in class” and have been voted, by its employees, as “Best large company to work for” by the Sunday Times. Nationwide is an IIP Champion organisation and an ambassador for effective HR practice.

John has a BSc (Honours) degree in Business Administration and an MA in Employment Law and
Relations. He is a regular commentator within the press and presents at conferences on leadership, employee engagement and talent. He has been voted as one of the top 40 Power Players by Personnel Today and appears in the HR Magazine list of influential HR practitioners.

John has recently been appointed a Trustee for The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (the charity employs 1000 professional staff in the UK supported by 10,000 volunteers).

John is married with a young family based in Gloucestershire.