Trustees
Deafness Research UK (The Hearing Research Trust) is governed by a Board of Trustees (the Management Committee) which meets quarterly.
Trustees (Members of the Trust) are also the Directors of the charitable company. Trustees are appointed by the Board and serve for three years after which period they may put themselves up for re-election at the Annual General Meeting as prescribed in the Articles of Association. Officers are appointed by the Board and elected annually. The Articles provide for a minimum of 6 to a maximum of 30 trustees. At its quarterly meetings, the Board agrees the broad strategy and activities of the charity, considering grant making, information, communications and fundraising activities, investment and reserves policies and risk management.
The Board undertakes a regular skills audit to ensure that the Board has the necessary range of experience and expertise. Currently the Board provides the charity with expertise in hearing research, knowledge of the deaf community and other deafness charities, personal experience and understanding of deafness, knowledge of the media and business, legal and financial experience and expertise. New trustees are identified through appropriate networks such as the scientific and medical communities.
Current trustees
- Jane Ashley
- Professor Jonathan Ashmore
- Robin Anthony Evans
- Richard Farrell
- John Graham FRCS
- Mike Granatt CB
- Piers Hoare-Temple
- David Livermore OBE (Chairman)
- Peter Lord
- Professor David Moore
- Juliet Waller (Secretary)
- Isabel Woodhead (Vice Chairman)
Jane Ashley
Jane is the daughter of the late Pauline Ashley, who founded the charity. She works for the BBC as producer and is also employed as Assistant to the BBC Board of Management. Previously she worked for the Labour Party as policy officer and the Treasury as an economist.
She became a trustee in April 2005.
Professor Jonathan Ashmore
Jonathan is a Bernard Katz Professor of Biophysics at the University College London. He gained a PhD in Theoretical Physics from The Imperial College London in 1971 and an MSc in Physiology from University College London in 1974. From 1983 to 1988 he held the post of Lecturer in Physiology at the University of Bristol and between 1988 and 1993 he read Physiology at the University of Bristol. He was made Professor of Biophysics in 1993.
He has been a trustee of the charity since January 2002 (re-elected 2005) and is Chief Research Adviser.
Robin Anthony Evans
Robin is currently self employed and contracted to the South Hampshire Enterprise Agency offering both counselling to individuals wishing to start micro businesses and general advice to existing “SMEs” with specific business challenges. He spent almost 20 years working for Lloyds TSB, starting as Branch Manager in the yearly 80s and ending as Regional Director in 2001. Robin is Treasurer of the Naval Club, Secretary of the Portsmouth and Southsea Rotary Club and member of the Old Thorns Golf and Country Club.
Robin has been a trustee of the charity since April 2007
Richard Farrell
Richard retired as a Director of an investment management company in 1999, but retains a close interest in financial matters as a trustee of two pension funds. He is a member of both Oxfordshire County Council and the Vale of the White Horse District Council where he is Chairman of the Development Control Committee. He has personal experience of hearing impairment.
Richard has been a trustee of the charity since 1986 and was last re-elected in 2004.
John Graham FRCS
John Graham is a consultant ENT surgeon at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital (RNTNEH) in London. His special interests are: children's ENT problems, including glue ear, otology (ear surgery), hearing problems in adults and children and cochlear implants for children and adults. He is currently Director of the Cochlear Implant Programme at the RNTNEH, President of the European Society of Paediatric Otolaryngology and President of the section of Otology at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.
He also works as a general ENT surgeon, with an interest in voice problems, and at the voice clinic at the RNTNEH. He has considerable experience in Botulinum toxin injection into the vocal cords. He deals with nasal allergy and sinus infections in adults and children and regularly performs endoscopic sinus surgery, as well as treating standard ENT problems such as tonsillitis.
John has been a trustee of the charity since January 2007
Mike Granatt CB
Mike’s distinguished career in public relations includes several years as Director of Public Affairs at New Scotland Yard and as Director of Communication at the Department of the Environment and the Home Office. He spent five years in the Cabinet Office as Director General of the UK Government Information and Communication Service. He is currently a partner in Luther Pendragon specializing in consultancy, facilitation and training for communication strategy, crisis management, risk communication and media handling. His current clients include the BBC Trust, BBC News, the Government of Singapore and the European Commission.
Mike has been a trustee of the charity since January 2007.
Piers Hoare-Temple
Piers is a Barrister-at-law (Middle Temple). He has been a practising barrister for 19 years, before that working as a teacher and a leather salesman. He runs the German family business of warehousing and offices around Frankfurt airport. Piers is also Chairman of Canterbury Leisure Developments Ltd; Chairman of Riverside (Great Stow) Ltd; an equal shareholder of Heritage Restoration Ltd (Jersey) and Chairman of Richmond Legal Advice Service.
A retired Lieutenant-Commander RNR with a RD (Reserve Decoration), Piers is a Councillor and Management Committee member of the Naval Club and a member of the Management Committee of the RNR Officer’s Dining Club.
He has been a trustee of the charity since 1987 and was last re-elected in 2005.
David Livermore OBE (Chairman)
David Livermore joined IBM in 1961 directly from Cambridge University and followed a career in Sales and Marketing, becoming Sales Director and then Director of Corporate Staff.
In 1992, when IBM formed The Computability Centre with the British Computer Society and the University of Birmingham, he was elected as Chairman of the new charity and when TCC merged with the Foundation for Communication for Disabled People (FCD), he became Chairman of the new organisation, AbilityNet.
On leaving IBM he was Group Managing Director of RAC Motoring Services, a non executive Director of Triplex Lloyd and Doncasters and more recently has chaired the Winchester NHS Healthcare Trust. David is also Chairman of the Newbury Spring Festival, a trustee of the Naomi Trust (a hospice for terminally ill children) and the INTECH Science Centre in Winchester
He brings a wide range of business, IT, charity and NHS experience but specifically, having a deaf daughter, David has a passionate interest in deafness, as well as disability in general, and from 1995 to 2002 he was Chairman of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People and has been a long standing governor of the Mary Hare School for the Deaf.
David was appointed Chairman of the Board in May 2003 and re-elected in 2006. He was awarded an OBE for Services to People with Hearing Difficulties in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2008.
Peter Lord
Peter is a retired Lloyds’ Insurance Broker. He has suffered a degree of deafness since childhood. His other charity involvement is as a Trustee of the Fourth Feathers Youth Club for disadvantaged young people in Marylebone and a member of the Friends of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.
Peter has been a trustee of the charity since 1986 and was last re-elected in 2006.
Professor David Moore
Dave is the director of the MRC Institute of Hearing Research. He took up this position in 2002 after working for more than 20 years at Oxford University. He obtained a BSc in Physiology in 1974 and a PhD in Psychology in 1978 from Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He is the founder and Chief Technology Officer of MindWeavers ltd, a spin-out company of the University of Oxford making training products based on leading edge neuroscience.
He has been a trustee of the charity since January 2004.
Juliet Waller (Secretary)
Juliet, who has Ménière’s disease, trained as a barrister in 1975 (Gray’s Inn). She lectured in law at the University of Westminster and at the European Business School, London for 15 years. Qualified as a solicitor in 1995, she is now a partner in Blandfords Solicitors.
Juliet has been a trustee of the charity since 1996 and was last re-elected in 2005.
