Board of Trustees

Helen Taylor Thompson, OBE
Co-Founder & BRDF Trustee, Chair

Since 1952 Helen has been involved with Mildmay Mission Hospital and more recently started a charity Thare Machi (The Starfish Initiative).
As well as being chair person at CAN, Helen is involved with several other charities.

For a full biography, see our Founders page

Robin Pauley
BRDF Trustee & Mezzanine2 Trustee, Chair 

Robin Pauley was BT's President of European Affairs. Robin joined BT as Group Communications Director in November 1999 after a long career with the Financial Times. He was responsible for BT's external and internal communications, public affairs, media relations, brand, and social policy. He is BT's race champion and a member of the Group Equality and Diversity Forum. He is a member of Business in the Community's Race for Opportunity Board in the UK and a Corporate Trustee of the Tate museums.
Previously, Robin worked for five years as Asia Editor for the Financial Times. He became deputy managing editor in 1990 and managing editor in 1994.
In 1998-99 he was instrumental in establishing a new newspaper in Germany, the Financial Times Deutschland, which launched successfully in January 2000.

Tim Curry
BRDF & Mezzanine2 Trustee 

Tim is an accountant and until recently, had worked for Ernst & Young since leaving university and in addition to looking after clients, he has held a number of management positions, including Head Of Human Resources and Global Chief Knowledge Officer.
Tim is also a board member of Kaleidoscope Project and Kaleidoscope (Kingston) Housing Association
He lives in Richmond and is married with two children.

Olu Olasode MSc BSc MBA IPSM FCCA
BRDF & Mezzanine2 Trustee 

Olu is an experienced turnaround and change agent and has delivered on major projects across the public, private and third sectors, and holds a number of ministerial and public appointments. He is a Commissioner and the Chairman of Audit & Risk Committee for the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and Chairman of the Audit Committee for Bromley NHS PCT.
He also serves as non-executive director for Bromley PCT and was previously Chairman of General Performance and Advisory Panel Member with DCLG’s Beacons Panel (formerly ODPM), and former Chair of SLFHA Housing Association.
He is an experienced accountant with a track record of achievement in a number of diverse roles including: chief executive of voluntary organisations and director of finance and performance management for a key independent healthcare provider.

Richard Wicks
Mezzanine2 Trustee

Richard Wicks is Head of Property, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for The Body Shop Ltd, London. Richard's extensive experience in property comes from his previous roles as Real Estate Director for Foot Locker (UK) Ltd for the UK, Scandinavia, Holland and Ireland; Property Director at the easyInternetCafe Ltd; Development Surveyor for Sears Property Developments and Acquisition Surveyor for Lidl UK Ltd.