Trustees
Trustees
Our Trustees/Directors have a breadth of skills and experiences which they give voluntarily to govern, guide and underpin the success of our charity. We are deeply grateful for the support given by the following Trustees and Board Advisors:
Tim Sinclair
Chair
Formerly a Captain in the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, West Riding of Yorkshire, Tim Sinclair has more than 25 years’ experience in public relations. He established multiple award-winning agency Sinclair Mason in 1986. Tim grew it to become one of the largest integrated corporate marketing communications consultancies in the UK, working with clients including BT and Visa, before its sale to Hunsworth plc.
Tim led on the formation of WOM UK, the UK’s first word of mouth association, where he...
Cath Follin
Vice Chair
Born in Lancashire, Cath grew up in Hertfordshire and north London then moved to Leeds when she was 17 to go to University.
She worked as a teacher for seven years then, after getting an MA in Economics, switched to local government, holding a wide range of roles with Leeds City Council until 2016. Projects she worked on included getting funding to turn a car park into Millennium Square; enhancing the city centre; improving the quality of the River Aire and regenerating the waterfront; creati...
Nicholas Choiniere
Company Secretary
Nicholas is an associate solicitor at Leeds law firm Clarion Solicitors. He specialises in private wealth and trust disputes, with a particular focus on alternative forms of conflict resolution.
He previously worked at a national law firm. Prior to moving to England in 2016, Nicholas worked as judicial law clerk to the Honourable Justices Harrington, Tremblay-Lamer and Beaudry of the Federal Court of Canada and as Assistant Trust Officer for the Quebec Revenue Agency.
Nicholas has always had ...
Gary Wilson-Poe
Treasurer
Gary has a banking background having completed his professional qualifications and spent over 25 years in banking and financial services, working in branches in the North of England and Head Office.
He also undertook a period in Internal Audit. He headed up a key Head Office department handling complaints, fraud, IT service management and business service desk.
He is now a Relationship Director in the Health sector having supported the regulatory set up of the West Yorkshire Commissioning S...
Sally-Anne Greenfield
Trustee
Sally-Anne Greenfield was appointed the founding Chief Executive of the Leeds Community Foundation in 2004, and during her 14 years as Chief Executive it became one of the top performing Community Foundations in the UK.
The community foundation was established to create lasting positive change in Leeds, focusing on the communities of geography and interest that have the greatest needs, and while building a team of 17, raising over £50m in donations and distributing £33m in grants to local com...
Natasha Babar-Evans
Trustee
Natasha Babar-Evans is CEO of Better Connect, a non-for-profit organisation based in North Yorkshire which works with delivery partners to help people in Yorkshire to thrive in life and work. Natasha also worked at Relate Bradford & Leeds helping people to develop and sustain healthy relationships and improve their mental health and wellbeing. She has been an entrepreneur and COO of Wizu Workspace a flexible workspace provider supporting the growth of businesses in Bradford, Leeds and She...
Sarah Blythe
SRG Advisor to the Board
Having the voice of lived experience on the Board is important to ensure that strategic decisions always consider the advice, feedback and thoughts of our self-reliant group members. Sarah was a member of the very first Self-Reliant Group in Leeds, the Glitter Fairies SRG.
With aspirations to set up her own business, she attended the Be Your Own Boss SRG programme and now works part-time on her new business 'Diamond Balloons' as well as for Trust Leeds' on the social media side.
Sarah is also...
Former Trustees
Catherine Mitchell
Former Trustee
Catherine is a senior manager with Arts Council England, based in its Leeds office. She manages a team of specialist relationship managers who work with arts and cultural organisations across the North. Her work includes arts festival and art centre development, culture and health, creative media and capital investment across the north. She regularly sits on decision panels for National Lottery funding programmes and is passionate about getting great art to more people, especially those who m...
Former Trustees
Collin Evans
Former Trustee
Following retirement in 2005 from his role as Director of Business Operations at the Co-operative Bank, Colin was invited by United Kingdom Community Foundations (UKCF) to support their 45 affiliated members to devise policies and processes to identify and secure the transfer of moribund charitable assets (cash and managed investments) maintained by the Trustees of dormant and ineffective charitable trusts.
Working in conjunction with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, over a 12 ye...
Former Trustees
Malcolm Hall
Former Trustee
Malcolm Hall has 34 years of experience with a major commercial bank, the last 13 years of his banking career in a senior management position. Malcolm’s role involved the leadership of teams, management of people, assessment of businesses and project management.
Malcolm served a 1-year secondment with Business in the Community as a Business Connector in South Leeds in 2015-16. This role allowed him to build a detailed knowledge of that community, the issues that are prevalent and how voluntar...