Our Trustees

Patrick joined the Board in October 2014. He was appointed as Chair in January 2023. Patrick is a partner at global law firm Linklaters. He has been with Linklaters for over 30 years and during this time spent eight years as Global Head of the Real Estate Department. Patrick also sits on the Board of The British Library and the Council of The Royal College of Art.

John recently retired from full-time work as the Clerk / Chief Executive of the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers, an established City of London Livery Company, which has supported the RSBC for many years providing John with an insight into the Charity.

Prior to that John worked in senior marketing and business development roles in both the commercial and charity sectors, more recently in local government. John has also successfully run entire businesses.

John has a strong record of teamwork, development of new ideas, communicating with different interest groups, prioritising decisions and working within a specific budget and timescale. John has a passion for the work of RSBC, and now has the time to devote his
energy, commitment, people and business skills to help the Charity.

Val has over 30 years’ experience in education the majority in special needs. At 27 she became Deputy Head of Little Heath School in Essex. She later founded the Beth Marie Centre in Sevenoaks while working for Kent Local Education Authority.

When West Heath, the school formerly attended by Diana Princess of Wales, went into receivership in 1997 she campaigned to keep it as a school. This was successful and led to the establishment of The New School at West Heath. Val served as Principal and CEO for 10 years and Ambassador for a further year.

Val joined the Board of RSBC in 2011. She is also a Governor of Dorton College, RSBC’s Further Education College.

Peter is a Managing Director in the Green Investment Group at Macquarie Capital based in the United Kingdom. Prior to the acquisition of UK Green Investment Bank plc by the Macquarie Group in August 2017, Peter was the Chief Financial Officer and Executive Director, having originally joined on the launch in 2012 as the Chief Risk Officer. Prior to that, Peter had held a number of senior roles at Standard Chartered, including Group Treasurer, Consumer Banking Group Chief Risk Officer and Group Head of Operational Risk.

He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte in London and spent the early part of his career with Jardine Fleming in Hong Kong and Tokyo before moving to New York with JPMorgan Chase as CFO for the Global M&A and Investment Banking Coverage groups.

He is an Advisory Board member at the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment at Imperial College Business School and joined the Royal Society for Blind Children as a Trustee in 2017.

Callum Russell has been an RSBC Trustee since February 2022. He is blind since birth and is the founder of CrystalEyes, a bespoke consultancy that helps broaden the horizons of people living with sight loss and other disabilities, allowing them to fulfil their potential in either higher education or employment. Callum previously worked for Sight for Surrey and Surrey Police championing inclusivity. He attended mainstream School before going to the University of Birmingham to read modern languages (French, Italian and Spanish). He has also travelled widely, particularly in South America, and is a keen musician and sports fan.

Callum joined as a trustee of the Royal Society for Blind Children on 24 February 2022.

Lola is an NIHR Clinician Scientist within the Population, Policy and Practice department of UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, and a Consultant Paediatric Ophthalmic surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Her work investigates the determinants of outcome for children with, or at risk of, eye and vision disorders, and how best to translate these findings into changes in practice and policy. Lola is passionate about science communication, and promoting EDI in research.

Lola joined as a trustee of the Royal Society for Blind Children on 24 February 2022.

Helen is an award winning Creative Director with over 20 year’s experience. She’s had an exciting career, working in top London agencies across print, TV, social, gaming and experiential. Most recently, she’s set-up an industry leading, in-house creative agency for Shelter.

Whether it’s directing TV ads for big brands or advising tech start-ups, Helen brings a positive, anything’s possible attitude. She has a track record of building and leading highly creative, effective and; most importantly, happy teams. Together, they create attention-grabbing ideas that make people take action.

Helen joined as a trustee of the Royal Society for Blind Children on 11 April 2022.

Sabira has set up Evolve Sustainability, a consultancy helping businesses in their net-zero journey.

A chartered accountant by training, she has had experience in finance roles focused on investment appraisals, cost management and restructuring programs. Keen about social impact, Sabira has previously mentored with The Girls’ Network and worked with Bridges for Enterprise on a Healthcare system project in Ethiopia.

Sabira was appointed on 25 May 2023.

A Scottish Chartered Accountant, Tom qualified with leading professional services firm KPMG in 1986. He spent the sixteen years from 1989 to 2005 as a Finance Director in the private sector, and has worked in various Senior Management Finance roles in the charity sector since 2005.

Tom stepped down from full time employment in 2020 and, since then, has held various interim Finance Director roles with not-for-profit organisations. In addition to his trustee role with RSBC, he currently holds voluntary Treasurer roles with two other charities. Tom was appointed on 12 February 2024.

Simon is a serial entrepreneur whose passion is the development of technology and innovation. He formed ITG in 2009, and today it is a global business delivering game-changing, award-winning marketing technology and services.

Simon’s success has been achieved through an absolute determination to build environments that people can thrive in and enjoy. His commitment and energy have created industry-recognised culturally aligned teams and built responsible companies.

He is chair to a number of other businesses in addition to his role at ITG and also provides support, mentorship and investment to many small enterprises – often local to him or close to his heart. He joined RSBC as a Trustee in April 2024.