Jane Barry, Chair of Trustees Expand Jane Barry has spent over two decades within the civil service and has two teenage children, one who has moderate permanent hearing loss. It was Auditory Verbal UK's aspirations for deaf children and the hugely positive affect the programme has on the whole family and society in general which inspired Jane to take up the role which she did in March 2020. Her current job on secondment to the Metropolitan Police as Director of Change, focusses on ensuring cross-UK capabilities are ready for the challenges ahead and planning for change.
Paul Clifford, Treasurer Expand Paul is a former Company Director. An Oxford graduate, he spent most of his working life in publishing, the last 15 years as MD of Lion Hudson plc, the UK’s largest independent Christian publisher. He also had a spell of 8 years, mid-career, working for Oxfam in marketing and general management and promoting fair trade. In addition, he has been a lay minister in the Church of England for more than 25 years. Now retired, he is vice-chair of the board of governors of his local primary school. He is married with two adult daughters and two grandchildren. Paul joined the board as the Treasurer in October 2016.
Eleanor Conroy, Trustee Expand Eleanor joined the Board of Trustees in 2020. She is a seasoned communications professional and now director of communications and marketing for Publicis Groupe UK. Eleanor has more than two decades’ communications experience across a wide variety of sectors including media, entertainment, travel, consumer goods and retail, for iconic brands such as Holiday Inn, Starbucks Coca-Cola, Microsoft, P&G and Asda. Eleanor’s daughter was born in 2018 with profound hearing loss. Shoshana started auditory verbal therapy prior to cochlear implant surgery in 2019 and has been on the programme since then.
Liz Delaney, Trustee Expand Liz is the mother of two young sons. She attended the University of Manchester from where she has a degree in Genetics. After graduating she attended MMU Law School and subsequently qualified as a lawyer. She has been working in corporate law since 2003. Her background in corporate and commercial law has involved advising a wide range of clients from tech start-ups to SMEs and listed plcs, at all points of their life cycles, and includes advising charities and schools on governance and strategic planning. Before the birth of her older son Liz spent 9 years volunteering with a national telephone helpline service, including a period of branch committee membership and a role in the training and supervision of other volunteers. Since 2011 has organized annual collections of toys and Christmas gifts for a Manchester children’s charity from the parents of other children at her sons’ nursery school. Liz became a trustee of AVUK in March 2014.
Milly Ehren, Trustee Expand Milly joined the Board of Trustees in 2021. Milly is an experienced strategy professional, with a passion for creating social value and lasting impact. She is currently working at the City of London Corporation as Strategic Project Lead for Bridge House Estates (an ancient charitable trust). Milly brings her skills in articulating organisation-wide thinking on strategic issues and implementing transformational projects to support AVUK as it embarks on its major investment programme. Milly will act as Board lead for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and will support AVUK to further develop and implement its DEI policies and plans. Milly is a strong advocate for people with disabilities and brings her personal experience of living with a chronic invisible illness. Milly’s lived experience affords her a natural insight and empathy that will help support families in their journeys through Auditory Verbal therapy.
Frances Owen, Trustee Expand After studying modern languages at university, Frances trained and then worked as a technical translator. She held a range of administrative and managerial roles at the universities of Loughborough, City and Hull where she was University Registrar and Secretary for ten years, taking the lead on governance and compliance, quality assurance, educational partnerships and the student experience. Frances has served as Quality Champion at South East European University, North Macedonia, and as Vice-Chair of the Board of Bishop Burton College of Further and Higher Education. Frances will act as Board lead for the quality assurance, development and enhancement of AVUK’s postgraduate and continuing education programmes. She will also support AVUK in business improvement and enhancing accountability.
Vinay Purwaha, Trustee Expand Vinay is an accomplished programme manager specialist with over a decade of successful experience in delivering global projects on time and within budget. His experience is spread across various industries such as retail, biopharmaceutical, public sector (NHS and local government) and premium fashion retail. He has extensive experience in introducing global customer-centric initiatives, implementing cutting-edge strategies and managing change within large global organisations. Auditory Verbal UK's aspirations to provide children with hearing loss the opportunity to lead enriched lives inspired Vinay to become a Trustee in September 2021. He is passionate about contributing to a worthwhile cause and to support AVUK’s growth plans. He is keen to promote diversity and inclusion in his role, which is in keeping with his well roundedness as an individual. He holds a bachelors in mathematics and he received his MBA from Warwick Business School. Vinay is a service user of AVUK and has two young children. Outside of work, he is also a Member at a local academy school, enjoys road cycling and can sometimes be found binge watching documentaries on Netflix.
Jorge Villon, Trustee Expand Jorge is the father of a 5-year-old girl who has now graduated from the AVUK programme after being bilaterally implanted at the age of 8-months. Jorge understands the impact that AVT can have on children that are born with hearing loss. Jorge spent most of his career in financial markets, including roles as CEO of MKM Longboat and Polygon Investment Partners, before retiring in 2012. His interest is now mostly in philanthropy, specifically as founder of Rwanda Hope Foundation, a social impact organisation working in Rwanda and Grace Saves, which supports wildlife conservation projects. He joined the AVUK board in October 2018.
Amanda Wilkinson, Trustee Expand Amanda is lending her fundraising skills to AVUK to help to support the charity to build voluntary income to reach its organisational ambitions in the longer term. Amanda brings with her over 19 years’ experience of successful fundraising and of leading target-driven fundraising teams for national and international children’s and disability charities, including Sense, EveryChild and ChildLine. Amanda became CEO of Motivation in January 2017. Amanda became a trustee in January 2015.