Appointed due to his considerable experience as a UK and Global partner at accountancy firm EY, Alan was in practice for 39 years, 32 years as a partner until he retired from the partnership in July 2020.

Alan has the benefit of over 30 years’ experience operating at board level in a variety of roles within diverse, challenging and often highly regulated environments. He has served for ten years in total as either a director or elected chairman on two major not-for-profit professional bodies, one UK and one International. He was recently appointed senior independent non-executive director of a large UK private company. He has five years’ experience as the chairman of a school board of governors. He also has 20 years’ experience as a fundraiser and patron for a national spinal injury charity.

Ex CEO, Harding Retail and Flemingo Europe. Harding Retail is a specialist retail and spa operation, operating on many cruise ships around the world. Harold joined the business from the Private Equity industry where he developed a specialism in backing retail and consumer facing businesses.

Harold currently Chairs some commercial organisations as well as his not for profit portfolio where he is on the Board of Jewish Care, Camp Simcha, and the retail advisory group of Mencap.

Gary is the Founder and Managing Director of City and Docklands Property Group. In addition to his role as Grief Encounter trustee, he has been involved with Norwood for many years and held the title of Fundraising Chair from 2006 to 2014. Gary has also overseen many major fundraising events for both Grief Encounter and Norwood including Annual Dinners, Business Breakfasts, Property Lunches and a range of community fundraising and Challenge events.

As a trained social worker (including time at Tavistock Clinic), Pam’s early career was in child and family psychiatry both in Hertfordshire and Oxfordshire, including the world-famous Mulberry Bush School (a therapeutic community for young children). In 1989 she moved to work in palliative care and to teach social work part time at Middlesex University. She started two Childhood Bereavement services, was a member of the Childhood Bereavement Network advisory group and Trustee for Youth Talk in St Albans. Between 2003-11, Pam was a director of European Association of Palliative Care, lecturing throughout Europe. In 2011, she was appointed by the EU to a three year post as a team member developing palliative care in the Republic of Serbia; her links with central and eastern Europe continue. Pam was Programme and Seminar Tutor for a large Counselling Charity covering Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire until January 2021.

Pam is a passionate advocate for family focused palliative care which includes the needs of children and young people and for the need for clinical supervision. She now works as an independent consultant in psychosocial palliative care & clinical supervisor for a large NHS trust in Essex and for several hospices in the South of England. of

Andy Hart is an experienced digital transformation leader who has helped transform companies and industries to the digital age over the last 30 years. He helped bring search engines to Europe before Google, and sold one of the first ever paid for search ads. In the noughties he was a founder inventor of the Daily Mail online platform and was renowned for scaling the transformation of classifieds listings to online marketplaces particularly in jobs, property & motors.

In the teens, he was responsible for huge scaled media businesses such as MSN, Bing, Outlook and Xbox while a senior executive at Microsoft. His final corporate role was global Chief revenue Officer at Hearst Corp. He was a board director of the UK Advertising Association, the IAB, and the IAB Europe: Helping influence the regulation and policy of the digital advertising industry and promoting its benefits.

Sasha Wiggins is the Group Head of Public Policy and Corporate Responsibility, and Group Chief of Staff at Barclays, based in London.  She is a member of the Group Executive Committee.

Sasha leads a multi-disciplined team who support the delivery of the bank’s strategy and are focused on helping Barclays act responsibly for the common good and the long term.  She is responsible for the Public Policy agenda, working closely with governments, regulators, the media and key policymakers to deliver for Barclays customers, clients and stakeholders.  Sasha is also accountable for the overall Sustainability agenda, including the bank’s commitment to aligning all its financing to the goals of the Paris Agreement, on the way to achieving the ambition to be a net zero bank by 2050.

Sasha joined Barclays in 2002, progressing through a number of roles in the Private Bank.  In 2015 she was appointed CEO of Barclays Bank Ireland and subsequently became Head of East and South East for UK Corporate Banking in 2017.  Sasha was appointed Group Chief of Staff in 2018, and assumed her current role in May 2020.

Sasha is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment.  In addition, she is Vice Chair of the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity’s Corporate Partnerships Board and is passionate about diversity.

A seasoned investor, large-cap C-suite Executive and Board Member, Michael Peen currently serves as Executive Director in an investment management firm specialised in direct PE and VC. In parallel Michael is a Senior Expert at Simon-Kucher & Partners, the worlds #1 management consultancy in revenue growth management and pricing.

Michael brings to Grief Encounter a long history of working with charitable and non-for-profit causes, currently serving on the Executive Advisory Board at Prostate Cancer Research UK, focused on funding world-class scientists working towards new breakthrough treatments. In 2012 Michael became a member of the World Economic Forum to support local community projects in Denmark.

A member of Young Presidents Organisation and Michael has earned dual MBA degrees from Kellogg Northwestern and Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, completed INSEAD’s Executive Management Program, in addition to finance studies at Harvard Business School and HEC Paris.

With more than 30 years of experience as a business leader and entrepreneur, having founded the NDL Group and Promotigo Technology Ltd, Nick’s extensive professional knowledge ranges from customer and employee engagement, commercial development, promotions and marketing, to legal and financial experience. He brings a deep commitment to helping others and a strong strategic vision which will help push Grief Encounter into the next phase of its growth.

Nick’s appointment comes after his dedicated service to Grief Encounter as a helpline volunteer since 2021. His frontline experience of supporting grieving young people, plus his own experiences of personal bereavement as a child, has given him a deep understanding of our work and the challenges faced by those who seek our help.

As a member of our Board of Trustees, Nick will play a vital role in shaping the future of the charity, and in ensuring that we continue to provide the highest quality of professional support to the children and families who need our services.

Phanella is a highly experienced Accredited Executive Coach who works with senior and emerging leaders across all sectors in both individual and group settings. She helps them to think, feel and behave more effectively to deliver peak performance and enhanced results. Alongside her coaching work, Phanella founded a direct-to-consumer coaching start-up, which she sold in 2019. Her first book, Step Up: Confidence, Success and Your Stellar Career in 10 Minutes a Day, [Random House] was published in 2016.

Phanella began her career as a corporate lawyer at Slaughter and May and Linklaters and then a European Equities portfolio manager at JPMorgan where she passed all levels of her CFA before requalifying as a coach with a Masters in Organisational Behaviour, Career Management and Counselling.

Phanella’s own bereavement experience as a young teenager alongside her professional experience, make her a passionate advocate of Grief Encounter’s work.

Rupert is a highly experienced Finance Professional. After qualifying with KPMG, Rupert has operated at Board level across a number of Media companies; both Private and Listed.

Most recently, Rupert has been CFO of AgriBriefing throughout its successful Private Equity journey.  AgriBriefing is a leading provider of pricing and other information to the global agricultural industry which, following 11 years – including 3 Private Equity transactions – was finally bought out in early 2023.

Rupert brings with him experience from serving as a Trustee for a number of charities including Vinspired and WIZO UK, as well as personal experience of family bereavement.

Information to follow.