Board

Chair

Dame Julia is a passionate and practical campaigner who has gained an international reputation for “connecting the unconnected”, inspiring individuals and organisations to work together for the common good. During her extensive career, she has consistently championed long-term cross-sector collaboration in the poorest communities, supporting community leaders, encouraging young people’s engagement and building local capacity and a more robust civil society which values diversity, sustainability and contextual local solutions.

Dame Julia has previously chaired Teach First, the National Literacy Trust and Place Matters – all charities working to tackle inequality in those communities who experience the greatest poverty, disadvantage and discrimination. She chairs the National Statistician’s Committee on Inclusive Data and sits on the EMCCA Inclusive Growth Commission. She is Co-founder of the #iwill movement supporting young people into social action through volunteering, campaigning and advocacy. Dame Julia has served as Board Trustee for the Fair Education Alliance, The Careers and Enterprise Company, the Youth Futures Foundation, Teach for All and as Patron of Right to Succeed. She began her career with The Industrial Society and served as Chief Executive of Business in the Community for seventeen years before working for the then Prince of Wales as his Special Adviser to the Prince’s Charities.

Emma Boggis has spent over twenty five years working in the public and not for profit sector.

Her early career started in the British Army where she had operational tours in Northern Ireland and Kosovo. After a brief spell in Management Consultancy she joined the Civil Service and worked at the Office for Standards in Education and had two spells in the Cabinet Office including as head of the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Unit, set up after London 2012 to support Lord Coe as the Prime Minister’s Legacy Ambassador. Prior to that she was also seconded to the Foreign Office as Deputy Head of Mission in the British Embassy in Madrid and served as Private Secretary to the Prime Minister. Emma then moved into sports administration and was Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance which is the umbrella organisation for the governing and representative bodies of sport and recreation from 2014 to 2019.

Alongside her executive roles Emma was the Senior Independent Director on the Board of the British Paralympic Association and a Trustee of the National Paralympic Heritage Trust, as well as a member of the NCVO’s Advisory Council. In 2019 Emma moved to a portfolio of Non Executive roles. Alongside her role as Senior Independent Director at the National Lottery Community Fund she is also the Senior Independent Director at the UK Sports Institute, a member of the Board of The Royal Yorkshire Regiment and a member of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body.

Emma is a keen sportswoman – with a number of marathons and triathlons under her belt along and she also enjoys cooking, reading and traveling, often, including to Board meetings, under pedal power.

Richard Collier-Keywood is the Chair of the Welsh Rugby Union, Chair of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, the Chair of Fair4All Finance (the UK financial inclusion organisation funded by dormant assets), the Chair of New Forest Care (a company that provides bespoke care and education to children with complex needs). Richard is on the Board and chairs the finance committee of Women of the World Foundation, he is on the Board and chairs the Audit and Risk Committee of The National Lottery Community Fund, he is on the Board and chairs the finance committee of St George’s House based in Windsor Castle, he is on the Board of CoGo, a social enterprise tech start-up based in New Zealand, Australia and the UK, focussed on empowering consumers in their climate choices and finally, he is a non-executive director on the international Board of Eversheds Sutherland.

Previously Richard was a senior adviser to DCMS (2017 to 2021) and Global Vice-Chairman of PwC from November 2011 to February 2017 and served as Managing Partner of PwC UK from 2008 to 2011. Richard is a barrister and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

Dr Lowthe-Thomas is CEO of Severn-Wye Energy Agency – a sustainable energy charity working in Wales and the border counties. Before becoming CEO, she held multiple roles in the organisation, including Director for Wales and Head of Community Energy. She is also Vice-President for Energy Efficiency and Fuel Poverty at Federene (European Federation of Energy Agencies). She gained her PhD at Cardiff University, studying Energy Crops and Biomass.

Dr Lowthe-Thomas was a founding board member at Community Energy Wales and spent ten years at Cardiff University as a Research associate.

John Mothersole has held senior local government posts in UK cities including London, most recently as Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council. Since standing down from that post in December 2019 after 11 years, John has taken on a series of non-executive roles which now include Chair of The Sheffield College, trustee of a community care charity and advisory roles with companies involved in regeneration and environment. He was also an assessor for the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry, a role that concluded with the publication of the final report in September 2024. Prior to being selected as Chair of the National Lottery Community Fund England Committee John was a member of that committee.

John has been heavily involved in the policy agenda for UK cities through the Core Cities network, the Northern Powerhouse initiative and with Government in securing city and city region devolution deals and participating in trade missions.

His early career was in the arts, primarily in London and the North-East, and he sees a highlight of that part of his career being the reopening of the Roundhouse in London which enabled its subsequent redevelopment.

John lives in Sheffield although his roots are in the North-West. When he stood down from being Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council he said that he was working out what his hobbies are. That is sill the case!

Dame Helen Stephenson is a Non-Executive Director and former Chief Executive of the Charity Commission for England and Wales. The Commission is a non-ministerial government department which employs around 400 staff and is responsible regulating over 169,000 charities. She joined the Commission from the Department for Education where she was Director of Early Years and Child Care. Helen previously worked in the Cabinet Office where she was Director of the Office for Civil Society and Government Innovation Group.

Helen joined the Civil Service from the Big Lottery Fund where she was Head of Strategic Policy and Partnerships. She has worked for a large national charity as a development manager and as a researcher and consultant in the statutory and voluntary sector. Helen has a PhD from Bristol University.

Helen is a Non-Executive Board member of the National Lottery Community Fund and Chair of the People Committee. She is a Board member of the ECB Regulatory Board and on the People and Governance Committee at the Royal Academy of Dance. Previously, Helen was on the Board of the Big Society Trust and was Chair of NCT until her appointment at the Charity Commission.

Helen was awarded the CBE in 2014 and was awarded a DBE in the Birthday Honours list 2024 for services to charity and regulation.

Peter Stewart LVO is an Executive Director at The Eden Project, with the responsibility for Eden’s charitable mission. Peter’s career started in advertising agencies in London working on major behavioural campaigns including for The Guardian, Knorr, National Dairy Council, Courage (Fosters, Courage Best and John Smiths), Proctor and Gamble, Philip Morris and Nestle. Agencies included JWT, Leo Burnett and BMP DDB. In the 1990s, Peter embarked on a new venture to run community public houses in Cornwall. A Cornishman, being immersed in the issues of local communities, this is where he started a family, marrying his wife Jane and having two children. Working with local businesses, Peter joined The Eden Project in 2003, after supplying products to the Project since its opening.

Since joining he has held many roles including Joint CEO from 2013 - 2014. He leads the biggest outreach programme, The Big Lunch, which is accredited with building social capital on a mass scale. Peter was appointed to the main Eden Board in March 2012. In the same year, he was also appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) by her Majesty The Queen and then promoted to Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order (LVO) in 2022 for the community work driven through the respective Jubilee celebrations.

Kate is currently conducting the Independent Review of Community Learning and Development across Scotland on behalf of the Scottish Government. She was a Board member of ERSA for many years, Chair of Employment Support Scotland and a Fellow of the Institute of Employability. Kate started her career as a teacher after completing an MA (Hons) in Politics at Glasgow University.

She has over 25 years of relevant experience in delivery of education, apprenticeships, skills, employability and community enterprise and regeneration programmes across multiple sectors, including 15+ years in the Charity sector. Kate has a passionate desire to make a difference coupled with the drive to achieve impact on issues of poverty, equality and diversity and social justice. Kate has held strategic leadership roles at EU and UK levels including Management of EU aid programmes to Central and Eastern Europe. A former Board Member of Strathclyde European Partnership, she completed her MPhil in European Policy research at Strathclyde University in 2011.

Kate has held Director roles previously with the Prince’s Trust, Rathbone and Wise Group.

Paul has a wealth of experience working in the voluntary, community and public sectors in Northern Ireland.

From 1987 to 1994 he was the Director of the Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust, which supported community-based self-help initiatives.

He joined the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) in 1994, initially on secondment, as an adviser on community development and reconciliation. Throughout his subsequent career in the NICS he held a number of senior positions including Deputy Secretary in the Office of the First and deputy First Minister, Permanent Secretary in the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure and Permanent Secretary in the Department of Education.

Since retiring from the NICS in 2017 Paul has undertaken a trustee role in a number of not-for-profit organisations involved in regeneration, culture and young people.

On 1 June 2021, Paul was appointed Chair of The National Lottery Community Fund's Northern Ireland Funding Committee.

Danielle is the founding Director of Friends Provident Foundation. Friends Provident Foundation is an independent charity, endowed by Friends Provident plc after the de-mutalisation of Friends Provident Life Office. Under her leadership, the Foundation has an international reputation for innovative funding and investment practice and is at the forefront of rethinking the role of philanthropic resources in the UK. The mission of the Foundation is to create a fair and sustainable economy.

Danielle has had senior policy and research roles throughout the non-governmental sector such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Law Society of England and Wales. She has served as in advisory roles to HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the Financial Services Authority.

She is currently a board member of the National Lottery Community Fund, the Innovation Unit, a Trustee of Britain Yearly Meeting (Quakers) and advisory roles related to the Church of England, and the University of York, the School of Business and Society and the Oversight Trust.