President

• The Rt Hon Lord Jack Ashley of Stoke CH

Vice Presidents

• Jack Shapiro

  Lady Tumim CBE

Patron

• HRH The Duke of Edinburgh KG, KT

Board of Trustees

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  Gerald Corbett - Chairman

  Gerald Corbett became Chairman of RNID in 2007. After studying history at Cambridge University, where he was a foundation scholar, he attended London and Harvard business schools. He joined Boston Consulting Group, which advises on corporate strategy, in the mid-1970s. In 1982 he joined electrical retailer Dixons, where he became group Financial Controller and Corporate Finance Director. Since then, he has been a director of 10 public companies and Chairman of four - including Woolworths and Britvic. He was Chief Executive of Railtrack from 1997 to 2006.

• 

  Peter Cruttenden - Vice Chairman and Honorary Treasurer

  Peter Cruttenden joined us as honorary treasurer in 2001 and has also been vice chairman since 2005.

  Peter has over 30 years experience within finance and information technology, including some time as director of finance and planning, and a main board member for IBM in the UK. 

  He is chairman of Drum Housing Association, a registered social landlord in East Hampshire and finance director of EB2 International Ltd a developer and supplier of internet booking services to the airline industry.

• 

  The Rt Hon Malcolm Bruce MP - Trustee

  Malcolm has been a Member of Parliament for Gordon since 1983 and is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary group on deafness. He is chairman of the International Development Select Committee and chairman of Globe UK an organisation focussed on climate change issues. 

  Malcolm has been president of the Scottish Liberal Democrats since 2000 and is also honorary vice president of the charity NDCS. 

• 

  Caroline Cousin - Trustee

  Caroline is a senior civil servant within the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, but has also worked for the Ministry of Defence, Royal Mint and the Building Research Establishment. Caroline is an expert in strategic direction on policy, financial management and all matters of governance that are key to the senior civil service.

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  Colin Gowdy - Trustee

  Colin is a solicitor in Northern Ireland and also a deputy county court judge. Colin was a member of the management board of the Ulster Institute for the Deaf before it became part of RNID.

• 

  Matthew Holley - Trustee

  Matthew is Professor of Sensory Physiology and Head of the Department of Biomedical Science at the University of Sheffield. Over the past 20 years his research has focussed on the inner ear. He has served on research funding panels for The Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, RNID and Deafness Research UK and chaired our Medical Advisory Panel for two years to June 2007. He has tinnitus and mild hearing loss.

• 

  Judith Langfield - Trustee

  Recently retired from a medical career, Judith was elected as an RNID Trustee in October 2006.

  Judith studied medicine at London University and qualified in 1969. Her practice was awarded our ‘Louder than Words’ Charter, and Beacon status by the Department of Health, for providing access for patients with hearing loss. Judith has also been involved with a number of medical committees, including the Council of the British Medical Association (BMA). She has chaired a BMA disability working party, the Small Practices Association, and was Secretary of Avon Local Medical Committee.

  Judith has been an examiner for the Royal College of GPs, and a British Red Cross Medical Officer. She has progressive sensorineural hearing loss and tinnitus.

• 

  Malcolm McAlpine - Trustee

  Malcolm has extensive business experience from within the McAlpine construction business. He also sits on the boards of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), other trade associations and some major financial companies. Malcolm is the father of a profoundly deaf son and active in charities for deaf children.

• 

  Jeff McWhinney - Trustee

  Jeff was the Chief Executive Officer of the British Deaf Association (BDA).

  He was involved in gaining UK government recognition of British Sign Language as an official language.

  He left the BDA in 2004 to become Managing Director of Significan't Ltd, which is an international sign language interpreting agency run completely by sign language users. Mr McWhinney established the SignVideo Contact Centre, a centre that provides instant access to sign language interpreting through video conferencing.

• 

  Enid Rowlands - Trustee

  Enid is a director of the management consultancy she set up in 1997 in North Wales. She is also a Member of the Board for S4C Broadcasting Authority. 

  In addition to a long career in training and organisational and economic development, she has held a number of other Board or Advisory appointments including the UK Training Standards Council, British Telecommunications & Equal Opportunities Commission’s Committees for Wales.

  Enid was a member of the Prince’s trust Council in Wales from 1997 to 2001.
  

• 

  HRH The Countess of Wessex - Trustee

  One of the Countess of Wessex's chosen themes for her work is communication issues.  Her Royal Highness works on behalf of a number of charities and organisations which carry out work in this field. She is Patron of a variety of organisations including the Dyslexia Institute, Greater London Fund for the Blind, Mencap, the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, Vision 2020 UK and Royal School for Deaf Children in Margate.

• 

  Vanessa Whitehouse - Trustee

  Vanessa is a vice president of Barclays Global Investors (BGI), responsible for their offshore investment funds in Dublin and Cayman.  She designs and puts into place new products for the Dublin and Cayman fund ranges. Before this she worked at a large Swiss private bank.

  Vanessa is a governor of the Mary Hare School and sits on the diversity committee at BGI.  Vanessa has also founded a disabled work experience scheme to help disabled sixth formers get work experience before deciding on university and a career path.

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RNID Executive Directors

• 

  Jackie Ballard - Chief Executive

  Jackie was born in Scotland and moved to South Wales when she was 10 years old.   She studied social psychology at the London School of Economics and went on to work in Social Work and Further Education from 1974 to1992. She was elected as a Councillor for the South Somerset District Council (1987-1991) and Somerset County Council (1993-1997).

  In 1997 to 2001 Jackie was the elected Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Taunton. She was spokesperson on Women’s Issues and Local Government and Deputy Home Affairs Spokesman with special responsibility for the voluntary sector.
    
  In 2001 to 2002 Jackie spent nine months studying in Iran. She then became Director General of the RSPCA in September 2002 where she stayed for 5 years.  

  She has been Chief Executive of RNID since 22 October 2007.

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  Brian Lamb OBE - Director of Communications

  Brian worked for Scope in a number of roles before joining RNID. He is Chair of the Special Educational Needs Consortium and was a member of the Government’s Disability Rights Task Force. Brian is the author of the "Good Campaigns Guide", published by NCVO (National Council for Voluntary Organisations).

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  Paul Breckell - Director of Finance and Company Secretary

  Paul joined RNID in July 2007 from Church Mission Society where he was Director of Finance and Corporate Services. Previously he worked for Mildmay Mission Hospital and the Audit Commission.  He is a member of the Charted Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy and is also on their Voluntary Sector Panel.  Since 2003 Paul has been Chair of Charity Finance Directors Group.

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  Vicky Hemming - Director of Human Resources

  Vicky joined RNID in 2002 from The Prince's Trust where she was Director of HR. Previously she worked for Granada TV, Arthur Anderson and United Biscuits. She is a fellow of the Charted Institute of Personnel and Development and also a member of the Employment Tribunal Service.

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  Mike Adamson - Director of Services

  Mike has a mix of senior level experience from the public, voluntary and private sectors. Prior to joining RNID as Director of Services, he spent three years as Director of Commissioning for a Primary Care Trust (PCT). Before that he spent 10 years working with the British Red Cross, latterly as Director of Strategy. He has also worked as a management consultant and is on the board of the Nelson Trust, a charity focused on supporting clients recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

• 

  Dr Mark Downs - Director of Technology and Enterprise

  Before joining RNID in 2004, Mark was the UK’s lead policy official for EU business related environmental legislation at the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry). Previously he spent five years at the British Embassy in Tokyo as First Secretary (Trade Policy), following a range of R&D (research and development) and innovation policy related positions.

• 

  Ellie Gray - Director of development

  Ellie joined RNID in January 2007 after ten years at The Prince's Trust where she was Deputy Commercial Director and Managing Director of Prince's Trust Trading. Ellie had four other roles during her time at The Trust. Previous roles include Arts Development Manager at Granada Television, and Manager of the Hacienda / Music Management.

• The Royal National Institute for Deaf People. Registered Office: 19-23 Featherstone Street, London EC1Y 8SL. A company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales No. 454169, Registered Charity Numbers 207720 (England and Wales) and SC038926 (Scotland)