Our Board of Trustees
Our Board of Trustees
Our Board of Trustees oversee all activity here at Worldwide Cancer Research. We have aims and objectives to meet in both fundraising and awarding research grants, and we couldn't do it without their support. Meet the Board:
David Sole OBE
David Sole 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. Here, 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. It was here where he focused on and grew admiration for executive coaching, team development and board facilitation.
In 2011, David co-founded the School for CEOs - a business 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, writing newspaper columns for both daily and Sunday papers. As well as this, he has commented 4 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.
Jane Brydon
Jane is an experienced HR professional and is currently the Human Resources Director at HEINEKEN UK. Having joined the business in early 2014 and sitting on the Management Team, Jane handles the renowned Our People agenda within the company.
Before HEINEKEN UK, Jane was the People and Communications Director at Sainsbury's Bank. Here she was also part of the management team responsible for creating the new bank now owned by Sainsbury's plc.
From 2004 to 2009, Jane was Group Functions HR Director for HBOS. This then led her to Scottish Widows, where she held the role of HR and Communications Director (January 2009 to August 2010). Previous to this, Jane led various oversees programmes and had management roles with the Scottish Qualifications Authority.
Jane is also on the Board of Investors in People Scotland, has a BA (Hons) Economic History and MBA from Strathclyde Business School.
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.
Her consulting roles include providing strategic advice for business starts ups and 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.
Roz Cuschieri
Roz is a commercial professional with three decades of experience. In her career, Roz has worked with some the country’s largest food and drink brands: United Biscuits, Warburtons and Genius. As CEO of Genius for five years, she led the business to become the leading gluten free player in the UK.
Before her commercial career, Roz gained a Pure Science degree in Immunology from Aberdeen University. With a passion for science and research, she knew she wanted to use her experience and knowledge in expanding and growing businesses and brands in her career.
Roz has also held several Non – Exec positions including Marstons Plc and was Chair of Social Bite. She currently serves on the boards of Lightbody Ventures Ltd, Foodease Ltd and the charity, N.C.F.E.
Beverley Brookes
Over the last 25 years, Beverley has been instrumental in helping charity clients to raise public funds via emerging technologies.
Beverley started her career as Managing Director of a leading direct marketing agency in 90's. Then in the 00's, Beverley became Director of her own consultancy business. It was here where 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.
As digital fundraising has become more prominent over the last 10 years, she 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.
Beverley is key in aiding Worldwide Cancer Research in our ambitious fundraising plans. She keeps up with new digital technologies that are set to revolutionise the public fundraising landscape.
Paul Coffer
Paul Coffer graduated from Oxford University in 1988 and started his career as a research scientist at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in London. After completing his PhD in 1992 he relocated to the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, The Netherlands. In 1995 he received tenure and was appointed as Principle Investigator at the University Medical Center Utrecht. He started in the Department of Pulmonology, before moving to the Department of Immunology and becoming a full professor in 2006.
Since 2011 he has been working at the Center for Molecular Medicine at UMC Utrecht. In 2013-2014 he moved to New York, USA, where worked as a visiting scientist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Paul's research is driven by both fundamental and clinical questions in the fields of cancer and immunology. He is also motivated by the molecular mechanisms underpinning cellular communication.
Outside of the lab, Paul sits in the management team at the University, involved in education at both the Masters and PhD program level. This includes being chair of the Utrecht University Regenerative Medicine PhD program.
From 2013-2018 Paul served on the Science Advisory Committee for Worldwide Cancer Research, and has also received funding from the charity.
Kevin Hiom
Kevin Hiom 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 been awarded several grants from Worldwide Cancer Research and has also been a member of their Science Advisory committee.
Sue Hunter
Sue Hunter is a partner at Morton Fraser, Lawyers and has been the head of their Private Client Division for 10 years. She works with individuals, families and trusts, to include charitable trusts. She is qualified as a Scottish lawyer and is a Chartered Financial Planner. She is a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute and the Personal Finance Society. A former member of the Scottish board of the Royal Society of Arts she currently sits as Trustee on a number of grant making charities.
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.
Prior to his time in the CRO sector, and following his accountancy training with Ernst & Young, Chris spent 5 years with Edinburgh based drug discovery business, Ardana PLC, leading the business through numerous private funding rounds and its successful IPO in 2005.
Iain McNeish
Iain McNeish is Chair of Oncology and Head of the Division of Cancer at Imperial College London. He is also Director of the Ovarian Cancer Action Research Centre. He qualified from the University of Oxford in 1992 and obtained his PhD from the University of Birmingham. Since 1998, Iain has combined laboratory research and clinical practice as a medical oncologist.
Both Iain's clinical work and research focus on ovarian cancer. His team are investigating novel therapies for ovarian cancer and how ovarian cancer adapts and evolves over time.
Iain is also a previous member of the Worldwide Cancer Research Scientific Advisory Board, and is the current chair of the Cancer Research UK Clinical Careers Committee.
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 last year she 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.
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