Oxfam's Trustees
The trustees of Oxfam have ultimate responsibility in law for the charity, its assets and activities.
They form the Council of Trustees, which is the governing body of the Association of Oxfam (a not-for-profit limited-liability company). They are appointed because of their commitment to Oxfam and their experience and skills which enable them to undertake the responsibilities of trusteeship of a large and complex charity.
John Gaventa, Chair
John is an academic and activist with over 25 years experience of research, training and practice in participation and development in various parts of the world, including in both north and south. Currently he is a professor at the Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex) where he is a member of the Participation, Power and Social Change team and Director of the Development Research Centre on Citizenship, Participation and Accountability. He has written widely on issues of power, participatory development and governance, civil society and social change. He was previously director of the Highlander Centre, an NGO with over seven decades of experience in working on poverty and social justice issues in poor regions of the United States. He holds a doctorate in political sociology from Oxford University. John has been an Oxfam Trustee since 2004.
Gareth Davies, Hon. Treasurer
Gareth is Managing Director for Local Government, Housing and Community Safety at the Audit Commission. He was previously the Commission’s regional director for the north of England. His professional background is in public sector audit including appointments as the external auditor to major local authorities and NHS bodies. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.
Angela Sealey, Vice Chair
Became a Trustee in 2000. Member of Winchester Oxfam Group since the 1960s. Her career was in University social work education and practice development. She also worked in local authority social services management. She had a range of responsibilities in the NHS; where she represented the interests of patients and was later Chair of several Health Authorities. She has been a board member of a major special needs housing association. Currently, she is a trustee of several local charities and works as a volunteer befriender of asylum seekers.
Maureen Connelly
Retired in 2002 from UNHCR after a 21 year career covering a wide range of assignments, some Geneva-based, and others in Tanzania, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Zambia. Prior to that, she worked for 8 years with the Refugee Unit of the UK Immigrants Advisory Service in London. In all, she has spent 29 years working with refugees and asylum seekers.
Susannah Cox
Susannah has a broad range of knowledge and experience in the international development sector, spanning media and communications, government relations, advocacy, policy and voluntary sector management. Most recently she was Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for International Development. Susannah's previous employment includes Head of Press at Actionaid and the Refugee Council. She was also a Policy Officer (Amnesty International) and a Policy and Parliamentary Officer (Legal Action Group). Susannah has also worked overseas, notably in Afghanistan implementing a UNHCR/NGO shelter programme for returning refugees. Susannah is currently studying for an MSc in International Development Management.
Sandra Dawson
Sandra is KPMG Professorship of Management Studies, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge and Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge and a Non-Executive Director of Barclays Bank plc, Chair, Executive Steering Committee of Advanced Institute of Management, a member of the Fire and Rescue Service Ministerial Sounding Board, The UK-India Round Table and the External Advisory Committee of the Ruskin School of Fine Art, University of Oxford.
Previously, she was Director of Judge Business School from 1995–2006, and Chairman of Riverside Mental Health NHS Trust as well as several other bodies. She also held academic posts in Imperial College, London.
In 2004 she was invested as a Dame Commander of the British Empire as part of the UK national honours system in recognition of her contribution to higher education and management research. In 2006 she was inducted into the International Women’s Forum (IWF) Hall of Fame in recognition of her position as the first woman to be elected Master of one of the Cambridge Colleges founded originally for men, and her achievements in guiding the development of Judge Business School.
Andy Friend
Andy has recently taken up the position of Commercial Adviser to the UK Department For Transport. Between 1999 and 2006 he was successively Managing Director of Investments and then Chief Executive of John Laing plc where he has had a key role in restructuring the company as the UK's leading listed infrastructure investor and developer; this included investment projects in health, police, local government services, roads and rail sectors.
Prior to that he was a public sector Chief Executive who played a leading role in public service reform and improvement in Australia, where he lived between 1985 and 1997. He has advised and worked with governments and international bodies at all levels, and has also had experience of inner city policy and housing issues while working as a policy adviser to the Greater London Council. His early career was spent working with tenants groups, housing charities and community legal services.
Jackie Gunn
Jackie became a Trustee in 2001 and is lead Trustee for Oxfam Shop operations, a member of the Trustee Audit and Finance Group and the Pensions Committee. She has been shop volunteer since March 1998 and latterly volunteer manager of the Oxfam Shop in Wantage. Prior to taking early retirement was Personnel Director at Newbury District Council in Berkshire.
Vanessa Godfrey
Vanessa is an experienced Managing Director, Finance Director and agent of major change. Most of her career has been spent at the Post Office, now the Royal Mail Group plc,in a number of very different roles including Programme Director, General Manager , Regional Finance Director, and Managing Director of Parcelforce Worldwide (2001-06).
Currently she is working in the Royal Mail Strategy Unit on medium term projects and is also leading the Pensions Reform Programme. She has completed a number of change management assignments and is a regular public speaker, with experience also in radio, TV and press interviews. In her working life Vanessa has played an important role in promoting gender and diversity, and has a strong commitment to social justice.
She shares Oxfam’s values and is keen to apply her skills and experience in the charitable sector
Adebayo Olukoshi
Adebayo joined Council in 2004 and is currently living in Senegal where he is Executive Secretary of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). He has previously worked in Geneva developing the South Centre's Africa Programmes, in Sweden at the Nordic Africa Institute where he led the research programme on the political and social context of structural adjustment in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Lagos at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs where he was a senior researcher.
He holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Leeds and a BSc in International Studies from the Ahmadu Bello University. His recent publications include works on higher education in Africa, constitutionalism and the politics of opposition, the state, social movements and democratisation, youth and urban identities, and the challenges of overcoming the maladjustment of African economies. He has advised Oxfam on an informal basis on Pan African and West African programmes.
Richard Taylor
Richard became a trustee in 2003. He is a Software Development Manager for Data Connection Ltd. He has been a volunteer campaigner and lobbyist for Oxfam in the community since 1997. From November 1999 to March 2001, he also spent one day a week in Oxfam's London Campaigns office, supporting other local volunteers in visits to their MPs.
Stan Thekaekara
Stan started political work as an Indian student in the sixties. He spent a year with young people in Taize, France in 1973, then moved to Bihar to work with adivasis and students. In 1977, he helped with emergency and disaster relief after the tidal wave and cyclone hit Andhra Pradesh. He co-founded ACCORD(which works with tribal communities in the Nilgiri Hills of South India) in 1986 and now works as an adviser.
He currently works as Director of Just Change, an international co-operative of consumers and producers, which he founded in 2003. Just Change presently links groups in the UK, Germany and India. Stan has been involved with Oxfam in various capacities since 1977 and more recently as an adviser to the UK Poverty Programme. He is a Visiting Fellow, Skoll Centre, Said Business School, Oxford University.
