Describe your role as Trustee:
I am the trustee with the responsibility of the role of Treasurer. I work with the Finance Director providing advice and making sure that they have the necessary checks and balances in place for the finance function to operate, as I have a Master’s degree in Business Administration. I also work in IT so I am able to offer advice on that as well. I can call on my experience of governance of the Board of University of Manchester, as I have experience of how other boards work.
How long in the role?
Coming up to 10 years.
What attracted you to the board?
I’ve always been interested in public service, for example, with my work at the university. At the time of joining the BHA board I had been on the board of the University of Manchester. Initially I started as a trustee on the board of BHA helping with IT. The treasurer left the board, so I then assumed that role. The fact that the charity represents the global majority in the UK – as myself I am from that section of society in this country; that was interesting to me, including the fact it was in the area of health. It is worthwhile to be able to raise awareness of subject areas like AIDS and other health issues of disparate communities. It’s also important to be able to reach marginalised people in the community.
What would you like to see for BHA?
I would like the charity to go into policy provision and consultancy provision to companies, in the area of equality and diversity, to show other organisations how to reach, act, and work with marginalised communities. This is a strong area for the charity with high expertise and we should share the knowledge and propagate equality. For that to happen we would require more capacity than we currently have, which is difficult as the current staff are busily employed in their day-to-day roles.
Which achievements are you proud of?
I am proud that we have managed to get out of deficit after a long while. Basically, we’re now breaking even and I’m happy the organisation has achieved that. The geographic expansion is good to see too. We have priorities like diversification of the portfolio, as we’re dependent on a specific type of work and we will continue to look into ways to diversify sources of income for the charity.