Our Board of Trustees

David Sole OBE

David played International rugby for Scotland from 1986 to 1992 and received an OBE for his services to the sport in 1993. David was captain a record 25 times, including the famous victory over England in 1990 to win Scotland’s third Grand Slam. He also played for the British Lions in 1989 and the Barbarians. 

David then spent 11 years working for United Distillers and Diageo in global operations where he was responsible for the procurement of commodities and neutral spirit across the globe.   

After this, David spent six and a half years with the Change Partnership and Whitehead Mann. While here he focused on, and grew admiration for, executive coaching, team development and board facilitation. 

In 2011, David co-founded the School for CEOs - for aspiring business leaders - with Patrick Macdonald. 

David too has a wealth of Board experience: he served on the Board of Sport Scotland for 8 years as well as the Board of Quality Meat Scotland. In the past he has also been one of three external trustees of the HBOS Foundation; a trustee of the charity Missing People; Chairman of the Board of Governors of Cargilfield School; has chaired committees of the Prince’s Trust – Action; and has been a non-executive director of the Kilchoman Distillery Company.  

David has regularly worked with the media and written newspaper columns for both daily and Sunday papers, as well as commentated on four Rugby World Cups with broadcast giants BBC, ITV, BSkyB and Eurosport. 

Outside of work, David has a number of other interests, including being a Roving Brand Ambassador for The Balvenie Malt Whisky. 

Julia Porter

Julia Porter is an experienced leader, advisor, mentor and board director. Her non-executive career includes sitting on the Boards of DMA, Origin Housing and Freeview - the UK’s largest free to air digital TV platform.

In her consulting roles she provides strategic advice for business starts ups, as well as marketing, CRM and data strategy consulting and GDPR advice. 

Her executive experience includes stints at Guardian News & Media, Getty Images, ITV and IPC Magazines. Julia also holds an MBA from London Business School.

Beverley Brookes

For 25 years Beverley has been instrumental in helping charities to raise public funds via emerging technologies. In the 1990s she was Managing Director of a leading direct marketing agency before becoming Director of her own consultancy in the 2000s. Here she managed a wide variety of inbound TV and radio telephony campaigns for many high-profile clients. These included Carlton Television, the BBC, the DEC, Help for Heroes and the World Wildlife Fund.  

With the growth of digital fundraising, Beverley has also managed campaigns on behalf of Global Radio (Global’s Make Some Noise), Help for Heroes and Channel 5.  

Beverley then became Client Services Director at IMImobile where she recruited and managed the Customer Success team. Here she handled a book of contracts in the enterprise, media and charity sectors worth over £6million. Having been instrumental in retaining the social engagement business for BBC Radio, Beverley also managed Radio 2’s competitions on behalf of Children in Need. 

More recently at Spoke Interactive, she pioneered the introduction of new digital fundraising mechanics on behalf of UK publishers and the British Red Cross. In December 2018, she managed a project to raise funds for five well-known animal charities on behalf of Channel 5's broadcast telethon 'Help the Animals at Christmas', raising funds via live calls, IVR (interactive voice response), online and Premium SMS messaging. More than £600k was raised on the night of the appeal and it went on to raise more than £750k before it closed in January 2019.  

Kevin Hiom

Kevin is Professor of Cancer Biology and Head of the Division of Cellular Medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of Dundee. 

He graduated from the University of Liverpool before gaining his PhD at the Medical Research Council National Institute for Medical Research in London. Kevin then went onto post-doctoral positions at the Cancer Research UK laboratories in South Mimms and the National Institutes for Health in Bethesda, USA. 

After this, Kevin started his own laboratory at the Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge and moved to the University of Dundee in 2009. Kevin’s research focuses on how cells repair damage to their genetic material, DNA, and how when this goes wrong, it can lead to cancer. He also looks at how these defects in DNA repair can be exploited to kill cancer cells as treatments for cancer patients. 

Since 1999 Kevin has received several project grants and he has also been a member of the charity’s Science Advisory Committee.

Chris Clark

Chris is an experienced finance professional having spent the past 10 years in senior finance roles within the Clinical Research Organisation (CRO) sector, with a specific focus in Oncology research. He currently serves as Chief Financial Officer at Medsource, a global full service CRO headquartered in Houston, Texas.

Prior to MedSource, Chris served as Finance Director with Nexus Oncology in Edinburgh, successfully stewarding the sale of the business to Ockham Oncology in 2012, and latterly Chiltern International where he served as CFO for North America until 2016. During this time, Chris and his family lived in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Before moving into the CRO sector, and following his accountancy training with Ernst & Young, Chris spent five years with Edinburgh-based drug discovery business, Ardana PLC, leading the business through numerous private funding rounds and its successful IPO in 2005.

Sarah Miskell

Sarah is an experienced commercial leader, mentor and executive coach. Her corporate career included 20 years at Director level in the UK and Europe with leading FMCG brands such as Coca-Cola, Müller and Warburtons. Her commercial experience spans sales, brand marketing, category development and shopper marketing.

As the inaugural CSR Director for Warburtons, Sarah led the strategic development of the Warburtons CSR policy, managing all issues, risks and public affairs for which she was awarded the Business in the Community Game Changer Award.

In 2018, Sarah co-founded Catology Consulting Limited, a bespoke management consultancy specialising in building strategy and capability for UK and Global consumer goods and retail businesses.

Outside of Catology Sarah chairs an industry ‘think tank’ of Commercial and Category Directors and also sits on the ECR Global Steering Group and Sheffield Hallam University Advisory Committee. As an executive coach and Strengthscope®️ practitioner, Sarah is passionate about helping others to reach their potential and has a specific interest in championing women in industry.

When not working, Sarah can be found on hill walks with her dogs and is a keen artist.

Gavin Maggs

Gavin is Director of Development and Alumni Relations at the University of Birmingham, leading the Birmingham In Action campaign that aims to raise £600m and harness 1.25m volunteer hours, both in support of the University’s strategic goals.

It was while studying Classics at Oxford that he began his fundraising career as a student telethon caller and went on to work with donors at the universities of Oxford, Warwick and Bath to maximise their impact, create lasting relationships and effect significant change. At Birmingham, the office has a bold ambition to double its annual fundraising income to tackle five key challenges that face our generation and the next.

His weekends are dedicated to family and sport, in particular Oldfield RFC, where he coaches the U18s Colts having joined them at U9s; a decade well-spent teaching young men the values that rugby embodies.

Chief Executive - Dr Helen Rippon

Helen was appointed CEO of Worldwide Cancer Research in 2016 after four years as Director of Research, overseeing the strategic delivery of the charity’s multi-million-pound global programme of pioneering cancer research.

Awarded a PhD in 2002 for research into prostate cancer, Helen started her career as a postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College London, working in the new and blossoming field of tissue engineering. There she authored some of the earliest scientific papers on the potential of embryonic stem cells for lung regeneration.

Moving to the third sector in 2008, Helen ran the medical research programmes of Age UK and Prostate Cancer UK, developing expertise in research funding strategy and policy, the evaluation of research impact, science communication and public engagement.

As CEO of Worldwide Cancer Research, Helen leads a small charity with immense ambition – to end cancer by starting new cures worldwide. This is only possible thanks to the Curestarter community of supporters who donate so kindly and generously.

In her spare time, Helen is a keen veg-grower, avid Yorkshire Tea drinker and took up watercolour painting during lockdown. At weekends she can be found running up and down hills, and previously raced two marathons in a week to raise funds for Worldwide Cancer Research.

Dr Rippon tweets @drhelenrippon.

Honorary Vice-Presidents

The Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, Lord Steel of Aikwood and Mrs Maureen Thomson.

Patron

The Earl of St. Andrews.