Ian Brady - Chair of Trustees Ian Brady Expand Ian has been a Trustee since 2008, and Chair of Trustees since 2010. He was the Chief Executive of Depaul International until July 2020, a charity for the homeless working across Europe and the USA and he is currently working as an advisor to the Government programme to resettle rough sleepers housed in hotels during the Covid-19 lockdown. Prior to this he was a Civil Servant for 18 years, following 14 years working for the UK youth homelessness charity, Centrepoint. Having completed his degree, Ian went out to RTU as a volunteer in 1981 just as the mobile health clinics to remote villages were started. He stayed for two years working with Brother James and doing whatever was needed including driving the new ambulance, organising sports activities for the orphaned boys and managing the leprosy patients’ batik workshop. On visiting Brother James again 25 years later, Ian couldn’t believe what had been achieved since then and accepted Brother James’ suggestion that he joined the UK Board.
Ami Anderson - Trustee Ami Anderson Expand Ami has been a Trustee since 2016. Having previously been a Lasallian Projects volunteer herself and having many friends who have been involved with Reaching the Unreached, she knew about the work before joining the Board. She has been able to bring her experience in television and the media, and currently works for STV’s Children’s Appeal. Ami has helped tell the story of RTU by filming case studies with some of the staff and young people who have been supported.
Margaret Davies - Trustee Margaret Davies Expand Margaret is a secondary school teacher and has been a Trustee since 2017. As a niece of Brother James, Margaret grew up knowing about RTU and has many memories of the early letters that he sent to her parents describing the plight of the children who were brought into his care. Margaret met Brother James when visiting the charity in February 2017 and had the opportunity to see the work for herself. She was overwhelmed to see such a wide variety of programmes in action, Margaret realised the importance of continuing to provide capacity building and financial support from the UK to help the work continue.
John Deeney - Trustee John Deeney Expand John has been a De La Salle Brother for over 50 years and was therefore familiar with the work of Brother James and RTU before joining the Board. John was a teacher in a secondary school for many years and for more than 30 years has been involved with support for building education in the developing world and managing Lasallian Projects, which now takes up most of his time and involves many visits to Africa and some to Asia. John has visited RTU three times, his first visit being in 1998 and his most recent to help with the house construction in 2017. Projects organises overseas volunteering opportunities every year for groups of young people from the UK post-A Level.
Andy Moore - Trustee Andy Moore Expand Andy became a Trustee of RTU in 2018, having been a Trustee of the Miriam Dean Fund since 2005. The Fund supports a number of partners NGOs in South India and it was through the Fund that Andy came to know about RTU. Miriam Dean was a close friend of Brother James and provided capital funding for many of his early projects.Andy is a chartered engineer and worked in the Ministry of Defence until his retirement in 2015 where he held a number of different posts, most latterly in nuclear safety regulation and defence safety policy.
Max Philbrick - Treasurer Max Philbrick Expand Max has been a Trustee since 2012 and is currently the Treasurer. His interest in what used to be called ‘the third world’ goes back to the 1960’s with an Oxfam campaign at his school and church involvement with Tearfund. In the 1970’s Max and his wife became volunteers with Traidcraft which at that time imported items made in workshops set up by RTU. In 1983 Max left his Government job in traffic research and moved north where he and his wife worked for Traidcraft on Tyneside. After gaining a computing Master’s Degree in the late 1990’s, Max worked on various freelance projects and from 2005 until he retired in 2012 he ran the UK office of the charity from his home on a part-time basis. Max and his wife have led two supporter trips to RTU in G.Kallupatti.
James Playfair - Trustee James Playfair Expand James, a retired GP, made his first trip to India in 2006. Returning soon after to visit several projects including an HIV/AIDs hospice, James heard about Brother James and RTU and his next trip was a short sabbatical at one of the Children’s Villages. As he was a doctor, Brother James found plenty for James to do! Since then James has made frequent visits to RTU to attend meetings and to see and hear about new developments. Now recently retired from a career in general practice in Bath, he continues to be inspired by the work and looks forward to many more visits to G.Kallupatti.
Scott Preston - Trustee and Safeguarding Lead Scott Preston Expand Scott has been a Trustee since 2012 and is the Board’s Safeguarding Lead. He graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University with a Masters in Social Business and Microfinance, having previously studied an MSc in International Development at the University of Glasgow. He has worked on large scale research projects in India for the University of Glasgow and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore and currently works for the Scottish Refugee Council. Prior to that, he worked for Scottish Love in Action, an Edinburgh-based charity that also supports work in India. Scott first visited RTU in the summer of 2006 as a Lasallian Projects volunteer and returned there in 2009 spending six months creating a digital archive with thousands of documents and photographs collected since the 1970’s.
Thomas Williams - Vice Chair Thomas Williams Expand Thomas has been a Trustee since 2007. He is a paediatrician, currently working as a researcher at the University of Edinburgh. His family lived in South India when Thomas was a small child, and he remembers Brother James visiting his parents. Thomas has been back to India several times and since joining the Board has witnessed the clear commitment of those who work for RTU and has been impressed by the simplicity and clarity of their vision: to help those who need it the most.
Mo Houlden - UK Co-ordinator and Company Secretary Mo Houlden Expand Mo has been contracted to manage and administer the UK charity on a part-time basis on behalf of the Trustees since 2012. Her role is varied and includes managing the grant-making cycle, due diligence and monitoring of partner agencies in India, as well as liaising with many UK groups and individual supporters who continued to be inspired by the work in India and donate to RTU. Mo has had various fundraising and management roles in both national and local charities in the UK, working in the fields of homelessness, learning disability, mental health, bereavement and capacity building. She is currently working on a project to boost in-country donations to RTU in India and works with the Trustees to provide a wide variety of management support.