Supporting Voluntary and Community Action
Albert is a committed community activist, leader and Social, Emotional, Mental Health practitioner. He brings experience in education and community engagement. As part of his professional role, Albert relocated to Bristol and joins the Voscur Board of trustees with a wealth of knowledge in governance having chaired the Gloucester Law Centre, acted as Secretary for the Gloucestershire Association for Voluntary and Community Action, Trustee and Company Secretary for Gloucestershire Race Equality Council, and currently serves as Chair of Governors at a local primary school, and as an Academy Governor, and Trustee at GL Communities.
Phil is a qualified Chartered Accountant with over 25 years experience in finance and accounting. This includes almost 10 years in Bristol as a partner in Hollingdale Pooley specialising in the charitable sector. More recently Phil acquired new experiences in London working on a variety of outcomes based social investment contracts, both as Finance Director and as an external financial contractor for Bridges Fund Management, one of the world leaders in the field.
Ellie Collier is Chief Executive of Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust. Working with a range of heritage and cultural charities Ellie has developed wide ranging skills in community development, fundraising, strategy and governance. She is a Personal and Executive Coach and a Clore Fellow. Ellie is also a Trustee of the Cornwall Museums Partnership and believes passionately in the value and importance of the VCSE sector.
Chris is the Executive Director for Strategy, Innovation and Enterprise for the United Bible Societies, a global NGO with operations in over 150 countries. Before this role, he worked as a strategy consultant working mainly with well-known high street retailers. He has 10 years of trusteeship experience (recently with Send a Cow, a development charity that operates across Africa but was founded here in the West Country) and has a good breadth of understanding of the charity and social enterprise sectors.
Sally is an experienced leader with a proven history of effective people and change management. With over 19 years in the public sector she has successfully managed multi-agency partnerships and cultivated positive working relationships across a spectrum of business sectors. Sally has a collaborative work ethic, valuing individuals and utilising the skills and expertise of the collective to effectively achieve goals and improve services for all.
Lan is a PhD scholar in Accounting and Finance at the University of Bristol, now stepping into the role of Trustee at Voscur. With a keen focus on Management Accounting and a passion for supporting mission-driven organisations, her research delves into optimising operations through effective communication of corporate values. Lan's dedication to bridging academic insights with real-world challenges positions her as a valuable asset to furthering Voscur's mission.
Ed is the Chief Executive of the Bristol charity, Lifecycle UK and has a strong business development and financial planning skillset and extensive experience of successful fundraising. Ed sits on the board of the Nationwide Foundation's Southwest Community Board, is an alumni of Common Purpose and is a fellow of Clore Social Leadership. Ed passionately believes that the sector is stronger when working together.
Hayley has worked at the City of Bristol College in the HR team since 2010, and is a member of the College Senior Leadership Team. Hayley is passionate about the Further Education sector and the opportunities and positive career paths that many of the college students move on to. Hayley hopes that her work as a trustee at Voscur will foster lasting relationships between communities and students served by City of Bristol College and surrounding areas involved with the VCSE Sector work undertaken by Voscur.
With over twenty years’ experience in the public sector, Karin first specialised in recruitment before using her facilitative and evaluative skills to lead the business planning cycle in the Audit Commission. She then managed projects before returning to supporting organisations in developing robust strategies and plans and in evaluating performance/service delivery. She lead the development of annual reports for the Audit Commission, The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and the Planning Inspectorate. She joined the Civil Service in 2019 to lead on Strategy and Corporate Governance. She is currently working with the Government Legal Department to lead their business planning cycle and improve corporate reporting on strategic effectiveness. This is her first Trustee role and she hopes her strategic thinking skills will offer useful insight.
Vita has over ten years' experience in the voluntary sector in various capacities such as: a trustee of a medium-sized charity in Bristol, the Voluntary Sector Studies Network, and as an employee and researcher. From completing a PhD on organisational behaviour in refugee voluntary sector organisations, she has expertise on diversity and integration, the community and voluntary sector, cross-sector service provision, and leadership. As Principal Researcher at the Institute for Voluntary Action Research (IVAR), she brings knowledge on partnership working and collaboration (across sectors and fields); charitable trust foundations and responsible grant making; facilitating challenging and difficult conversations; and adopting a systems approach to problem-solving and strategic thinking.