About us

Max Rutherford
Criminal Justice Programme Officer
Max Rutherford is Criminal Justice Programme Officer. His primary responsibilities are the Trust’s criminal justice policy and research work, supporting related grant-making activities, and developing and implementing the work and recommendations of the Transition to Adulthood (T2A) Alliance. Prior to joining the Trust in April 2010, Max was Policy and Strategy Officer for the criminal justice programme at the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health. He has also worked for an MP in the House of Commons.

Sara Llewellin
Chief Executive
Sara Llewellin in Chief Executive and therefore responsible, with the Board of Trustees, for the strategic direction and social justice impact of the Trust. Sara is on the Governing Council of the European Foundation Centre and the Credit Committee of the Charity Bank. Sara was formerly at the City Bridge Trust for a number of years and before that was the Chief Executive of St Giles Trust in South London.
Sara is Vice Chair of the Association of Charitable Foundations (ACF), a member of the Governing Council of the European Foundation Centre and a trustee of Charity Bank.

Madeleine Rooke-Ley
Executive Assistant to Sara Llewellin and HR Officer
Madeleine Rooke-Ley is Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive and Human Resources Officer. Alongside providing executive support to the Trust’s CEO, Sara Llewellin, she provides human resources support and advice to Trust staff. Before joining the Trust, Madeleine worked at Amadeus Capital Partners, a venture capital company focussing on IT innovation as Office Manager and Director of Operations and HR at SustainAbility. Her voluntary sector experience includes working for The Wishing Well Appeal for Great Ormond Street Hospital and the King’s Fund.

Debbie Pippard
Head of Programmes
Debbie Pippard is Head of Programmes, with overall responsibility for both the Trust’s grass-roots grants and policy work and for making sure those two aspects of our work complement each other to improve social justice. Debbie joined the Trust in May 2010, having spent seven years as a grant-maker with the Big Lottery Fund and prior to that holding senior management posts in the voluntary and health sectors.

Asma Aroui
Programme Administrator
Asma Aroui is Programme Administrator joined the Trust in 2008. As well as being the main point of contact for grants enquiries, Asma manages the Trust’s grant database system and supports the programme team for the delivery of the Trust’s programmes. She previously worked for the Central and North West London NHS Mental Health Trust. Asma is also a Trustee for a supplementary school which operates in Westminster and provides positive activities for young people from diverse backgrounds.

Clare Payne
Grants and Outreach Officer
Clare Payne is a Grants and Outreach Officer at the Trust, where her responsibilities include assessing and developing proposals with applicants, monitoring grants and conducting strategic outreach. She also supports grantees with particular areas of development and provides signposting to useful services. Before joining the Trust, Clare was a Development Manager at UnLtd – the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs – where she worked on a range of funding programmes, including UnLtd Sport Relief which supported young people to address challenges in their local community through sport.

Marina David
Grants and Outreach Officer
Marina David is a Grants and Outreach Officer at the Trust, where her responsibilities include assessing and developing proposals with applicants, monitoring grants and conducting strategic outreach. She also supports grantees with particular areas of development and provides signposting to useful services. Before joining the Trust, Marina worked with a Health organisation where she assessed and managed a number of NHS projects, working with a group of consultants. Before that Marina worked with the Big Lottery Fund as Grants Officer for about 9 years.

Ayesha Saran
Migration & Europe Programme Manager
Ayesha Saran is Migration and Europe Programme Manager, managing and actively contributing to the Trust’s research and policy work as well as its grant-making in the UK and internationally. Prior to joining the Trust, Ayesha worked for intergovernmental organisations for eight years, in both the UK and Albania. She also spent some time working as a freelance journalist in London.

Sharon Wellington
Corporate Affairs Manager
Sharon Wellington is Corporate Affairs Manager joined the Barrow Cadbury Trust in March 2004, having previously worked in the private sector, and was the first member of staff at the Trust’s first London office in Tavistock Square. Sharon has held a number of responsibilities, and her current role focuses on the Trust’s governance and supporting the Board of Trustees. This includes facilitating the quarterly cycle of Board and Committee meetings where key strategic decisions are made. Sharon also acts as facilities manager, ensuring the smooth running of the office space and the very many meetings held here.

Kateryna Solomeyina
Finance and Administration Assistant

Mark O’Kelly
Head of Finance and Administration.
Mark is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years experience in the voluntary sector. Before joining the Trust in February 2011 Mark was Finance Director of Childhood First. He also spent a number of years working for organizations supporting the development of programmes for disabled people around the world, including several years working and living in Peru.

Helen Cadbury
Helen has recently returned to the trustee board. She previously served from 1997- 2008, during which time she chaired the Investment Committee and the Inclusive Communities programme, before taking a sabbatical to focus on an MA in Creative Writing. She originally trained as an actor and performed in national touring and young people’s theatre companies. She subsequently became a teacher and has taught at primary, secondary, post-16 and in youth arts and youth theatre settings. She was Education Director for Schools at York Theatre Royal from 2002 to 2004 before becoming freelance. Her consultancy contracts have included: Education Director for Compass Theatre Company, Education Associate at Pilot Theatre, visiting lecturer at Central School of Speech and Drama, and senior trainer at Artswork, the independent youth arts development agency. She runs her own company, Theatrestudy Publications, creating online education resources for theatre companies. For the past three years, she has been writer in residence at HMP Askham Grange and has a keen interest in criminal justice issues.
The legacy of the Trust’s founders was more than a financial endowment; it was a vision of how society could be, if the barriers of poverty and exclusion were removed. It’s a privilege to be able to take that legacy forwards.

Anna Southall
Anna became a Trustee in 1974 and chaired the Trustee Board from 1996 to 2006. She worked for 40 years, largely but not exclusively in the cultural sector, initially in paintings conservation. After 17 years at Tate Gallery, she became Director of the National Museums & Galleries of Wales (1996-2002) and Chief Executive of the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council (2002-2003). Anna has held a range of non-executive roles with government advisory bodies and voluntary sector organizations. These currently include: Vice Chair of the UK Board of the Big Lottery Fund; Member of the Governments Spoliation Advisory Panel; Commissioner, Legacy Trust UK; Member of the Board of the Association of Charitable Foundations.
Anna says: Working with others to overcome the structural barriers to a more just and equal society is what excites me about being a Trustee of Barrow Cadbury.

Erica Cadbury
Erica became a Trustee in 1980. She trained as a teacher and she and her partner John McConnell and their family have lived in Sri Lanka and Thailand. In Sri Lanka Erica and John worked as the representatives of Quaker Peace and Service with various peace oriented NGOs, running workshops in peace and conflict resolution, trying to support individual peacemakers and carrying out small emergency aid projects. In 1998, having studied law as a mature student, Erica started working in Craven Citizens Advice Bureau, a small rural bureau serving the Yorkshire Dales, first as an employment rights specialist and now as its Manager. She is an active member of her Quaker Meeting and Convenor of Trustees of two Quaker property charities.
Erica says: I see my trusteeship as service but also as something which widens my vision and my experience immensely. I feel I have been privileged to meet some extraordinary people through the Trust and am constantly humbled by the vision and energy of the people and organisations we work with.

Gordon Mitchell
Gordon joined the Trustee Board in 2009 as one of the first Trustees who are not members of the Cadbury family. Having worked extensively in the public sector, including serving as a Programme Director in the Cabinet Office and as Chief Executive of Nottingham City Council, Gordon is now Managing Director of Starburst Consulting Ltd.
Gordon says: The Trust has done some great work to support grassroots groups who often are beyond the reach of the mainstream agencies. Helping people to develop their voice is a very powerful aspect of bringing about change in policy locally or nationally and I am excited to be offered the opportunity to help develop that potential impact. The Trust and its work needs to be well connected to the system, but is not part of it and I am excited that we can use this pivotal position to bring lasting change for some of the UK s most vulnerable people.

Harry Serle
Harry became a Trustee in 2009. He is a great-great-grandson of the Trust’s founders, Barrow and Geraldine Cadbury and the son of Anna Southall. Having trained as a secondary school teacher, he now teaches English as a foreign language and is also a musician.
Harry says: I feel very privileged to help ensure a little slice of wealth benefits many rather than few. The Cadbury founders believed in the absolute equality of everyone, irrespective of their history, their nationality, their religion and so do I.

Nicola Cadbury
Nicola was appointed as a Trustee in 1998. She has a background in international development, having worked in fundraising, communications, policy and campaigning. She currently works for ActionAid, coordinating schools’ campaigns on international issues.
Nicola says: I very much enjoy being part of a team using our grants to achieve positive social change. The process of channeling resources into areas of need, taking calculated risks, and drawing out the learning is something that I find very rewarding.

Ruth Cadbury
Ruth has been a Trustee since the 1980s and took over as Chair from Anna Southall in 2006. Ruth has a professional background in community development and town planning, working in both the third sector and in local government. She has been an elected councillor in Hounslow since 1986, taking lead roles at a local and national level on the Environment and on Children and Life-Long Learning.
Ruth says: Our great-grandparents took risks in the organisations they funded, and we are committed to continue that tradition. Their mission was to make an active difference to peoples lives and, in particular, to support people and organisations excluded from mainstream funding. We remain dedicated to that founding ethos. We look for organisations with a clear vision and strong leadership and people who have respect within their community. We also believe that in order to bring about change it is important not just to fund grass-roots organisations but to facilitate them to link with policy-makers to allow their experience to shape policy.

Tamsin Rupprechter
Tamsin was appointed as a Trustee in 2007. She lives in Austria where she started her professional career working as a project manager in the Alpbach conference centre, after taking a degree in tourism. She then worked in the customer service department of a gas engine producer before moving to head up the sales department of a printing cylinder engraver with a worldwide business reach. After nine years at work, Tamsin decided to go back to university. She is currently taking an MA in English and American Studies as well as a BA in Interpretation and Translation, while also working part-time as an accountant for a property manager.
Tamsin says: I feel really honoured to be able to be part of the Barrow Cadbury Trust, especially being an Austrian member of the family. What excites me is, on the one hand, having the opportunity to gain more experience and knowledge of the charitable sector in the UK and on the other, actually meeting grassroots groups, seeing what they achieve and being inspired by their work

Tim Compton
Tim became a Trustee in 2007. He began his career working in animation, producing series for young children before moving to the children’s drama department at the BBC. Tim now works on drama for all ages as Development Executive for the UK’s largest regional production company. His specialism is online drama, including a drama-based 2009 Drink Aware campaign in association with the Home Office.
Tim says: What excites me most about being a Trustee of Barrow Cadbury is the opportunity to visit grassroots organizations and see firsthand the impact made by their passionate commitment and vision whether this impact is evident in their locality, the individuals they serve, or at a policy level.