Executive Board and trustees

Trustee since 2015. Member of the Policy Committee. Chair of the Board of Trustees since October 2019.

Member of the Finance Committee, Nominations and Governance Committee, and the Remuneration Committee.

Neil has supported the NSPCC for over 15 years including seven as a Trustee. He returned as a Trustee and Chair elect in October 2018 and appointed as Chair in October 2019. He is also chairman of the Guardian Media Group. His career spans a range of sectors and geographies in both the consumer and enterprise facing businesses with an emphasis on managing significant change. He was Chief Executive of the NASDAQ listed Virgin Media where he oversaw the successful turnaround of the UK cable company. He then led the sale of the company to Liberty Global in June 2013.

Neil has also served on the boards of the Sage Group PLC, the Bank of Queensland and Virgin Unite along with many subsidiaries of the companies he worked for during his executive career. His previous roles included senior positions at Lloyds Banking Group, Prudential Assurance, St George Bank in Australia, Citibank, East West Airlines and ICL Australia.

Trustee since October 2022.

Honorary Treasurer, Chair of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Remuneration Committee.

Mark Corbidge, Managing Director, joined Sun European in 2019 and leads the firm’s European investment strategies from the London office. Mark has over 20 years' experience in the financial sector, having transacted in business services, industrials, TMT and consumer across Europe.

Prior to joining Sun European, Mark served as a Partner at TPG Capital where he was responsible for the industrials group in Europe. Previously he was Senior Principal for Direct Private Equity at CPPIB, and Co-Head of Private Equity at Doughty-Hanson. Mark has been an active fundraiser for the NSPCC over the past 20 years.

Mark speaks French and German fluently as well as intermediate Dutch and Italian. Mark was awarded his Bachelor of Arts (BA) (Hons) from Middlesex University and from Groupe ESC Reims, France. Mark is a driven dealmaker who enjoys a challenge.

Trustee since 2015.

Member of the Policy Committee.

Jo Begent works as a paediatrician with the multidisciplinary team looking after children and young people who have experienced sexual assault at the Lighthouse. Jo studied medicine at Oxford and St Mary's before training as a paediatrician at several London hospitals including the Royal London and Great Ormond Street where she did two years research into children with cancer.

Since becoming a consultant paediatrician at University College, London Hospital in 2007 Jo has been the lead paediatrician for child protection and developed a special interest in child safeguarding. As well as providing acute paediatric care, her clinical work focuses on teenagers, dealing particularly with young people with medically unexplained symptoms. She thrives on working in a multidisciplinary team and in her safeguarding role has participated in numerous multi professional meetings and peer reviews. She sits on the local safeguarding children's board.

Through her role as governor of the GOSH / UCLH hospital school, Jo has become passionate about the value of education in health and safeguarding.

Trustee since October 2022.

Peter is a three time CEO and two time President. He has helped to grow many companies from nothing and has helped to create four 'Unicorns'. Executive teams he has been a part of or led, have made many mistakes along the way, as well as getting a lot of things right. He currently enjoys helping scale-ups avoid the stuff that kills companies and do more of the stuff that creates successful outcomes.

Peter was CEO of ForeSee, President for Netsuite, the CEO of ClairMail prior to and during its acquisition by Monitise, served as Chairman and CEO of Purisma (acquired by Dun & Bradstreet), EVP Crystal Decisions (acquired by Silver Lake) and held various leadership positions at Vitria Technology (IPO).

Peter currently serves on a number of Boards as well as working as an Operating Partner for PeakSpan Capital, and Octopus Ventures.

Eithne was appointed to the Board as trustee for Northern Ireland in October 2020.

Trustee since October 2018.

Pippa Gough MA, MSc, PGCEA, RN, RM, HV, FQNI, FRSA, Trustee
Trustee. Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees. Chair of the Policy Committee.

Pippa has a varied career as a nurse, health visitor, senior manager and development consultant in both the public and voluntary sectors at local and national levels. She was Director of Policy at the Royal College of Nursing and latterly Senior Fellow at the King’s Fund in both the Policy and Leadership Development Directorates.

She has experience of being an elected Trustee in a leading charity, the Alzheimer’s Society, for 6 years (two terms of office) from 2011-2017. For the last two years of office Pippa held the position of Vice Chair.

In her work as a Health Visitor, Pippa’s practice was mainly with families in adversity and where child protection was a major concern.

Pippa is an experienced coach, both with individuals and teams. She is also experienced in designing, commissioning and delivering innovative leadership and organisational development programmes within the health service and other parts of the public sector.

She is the author and editor of a number of books on nursing and policy and numerous articles and other publications on leadership, change, development and health workforce.

In her personal life, Pippa is married and lives in London and Herne Bay where she and her husband are restoring a Georgian house by the sea. She is also an award winning fiction writer and has had short stories published by both Virago and Fish Publications.

Ife was appointed to the Board as a young trustee in October 2020.

Trustee since 2021.

Trustee for Wales.

Albert Heaney is the Chief Social Care Officer for Wales and has substantial experience leading children’s services and delivering excellent social work. Albert previously worked for the NSPCC, as well as working as a therapeutic social worker within a health setting in CAMHS.

Working in high level positions such as the President of the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) Cymru, Albert made significant contributions to national as the ADSS Cymru lead Children’s Policy Director and lead Policy Direction for Safeguarding and Prevention.

As a member of the England and Wales Family Justice Board, Albert has made a significant contribution to improving the family justice network in Wales. Now Albert is bringing his passion for bettering children’s services, sharing good practice, and commitment to promoting equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practice to his role as an NSPCC Trustee for Wales.

Trustee since October 2018.

Andrew joined the City of Edinburgh Council as Chief Executive Officer in July 2015. He began his local government career with Falkirk District Council. His 35-year public sector career has since included a career in leisure where he became the Director of Leisure and Culture at Birmingham City Council and President of The Institute of Leisure Management and he has been CEO at four major local authorities in North Tyneside, Wiltshire, Cornwall and his dream job in Edinburgh.

He has delivered a £900m joint venture in waste management and has led transformation programmes in his last four authorities worth more that £200m. Andrew led the UKs first rural devolution deal in Cornwall worth £1.8bn and has now delivered the successful Edinburgh and South-East Scotland City Deal worth £1.2bn.

He is now leading a £147m Transformation Programme for the council and is at the heart of Edinburgh’s Launch of its City Vision initiative 2050.

Andrew is also a medal winning 400m runner and represented Great Britain and Scotland at international level.

Trustee since December 2014.

Member of the Income Generation Committee.

Tarek has been a passionate supporter and patron of the NSPCC since 2006, joining and then chairing the Rebuilding Childhoods Board as well as the National Volunteer Board. He is co-founder and Group CEO at Crossbridge Capital, a leading wealth management advisory firm. As Group CEO, and from offices in London, Singapore, Monaco and Malta, Tarek leads the businesses that serve the needs of high net worth families and entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets. Prior to launching Crossbridge Capital, he was a Managing Director at Credit Suisse and a Vice-President at JP Morgan. Tarek has also worked for several leading media companies, including CNN and Fox TV.

Tarek received his BA degree in Economics from Georgetown University and his MBA degree from Harvard Business School.

Divisional Trustee, London, East of England and South East.

Trustee volunteer link for London, East of England and the South East. Member of the Finance Committee, the Service Delivery Committee and the Volunteer Engagement Committee.

Derrick has been a volunteer for the NSPCC's Schools Service since 2013, delivering assemblies and workshops across Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Bedfordshire. He is involved in recruiting, training and supporting new volunteers, a role he particularly enjoys. He has also been a Sessional Volunteer Co-ordinator with the NSPCC, supporting the Area Co-ordinator in the administrative work associated with school bookings and ordering resources.

Derrick worked in the local NHS for over 20 years and was involved in planning, commissioning and ensuring the delivery of services in both rural and urban settings. This included acute and community-based services for children, minority ethnic communities and 'hard-to-reach' groups.

Sheanna was appointed to the Board as a young trustee in October 2020.

Trustee Volunteer Link for the Midlands, South West and Channel Islands.

Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees. Chair of the Volunteer Engagement Committee, Member of the Service Delivery Committee, Nominations and Governance Committee and the Remuneration Committee.

Sarah is a fully qualified teacher and has worked in senior roles in the Education sector for over 25 years. As a Head of Student Services and Assistant Principal in an inner city Sixth Form College she was responsible for students’ pastoral care and progression. As an Operational Director for a national charity she led a consortium of public and private sector partners to deliver large scale, complex, multi million pound Government education and teacher training contracts.

Sarah currently works as a founding Director of a software development business specialising in educational management and appraisal systems. Volunteering as an NSPCC Childline Counsellor for eight years with a regular evening shift at the Nottingham base has reinforced a belief in the need for and importance of the NSPCC as a vital service, support and a voice for all children facing adversity and abuse.

Trustee since 2018.

Member of the Income Generation Committee.

A portfolio director, investor and adviser, focused in technology, media and the arts. Tom is a founder investor and Chair of three start-ups, Tagsmart, Fusebox Games and TVbeat. He has worked in the media and entertainment industry since 1983, spending the first 18 years within advertising sales at ITV, Eurosport and Emap. He made the transition into TV and film programme distribution in 2001 leading Disney’s European business. In 2009 he was appointed Chief Commercial Officer of Endemol Worldwide. He was Head of Partnerships EMEA for Yahoo and prior to that, CEO of Mecom Group. In July 2018 he was appointed as an External Director to the Executive Board of the Performing Rights Society.

Tom is also Chairman and Founder of the Childline Board and a member of the charity's National Volunteer Board. The Childline Board has raised over £13m since it was founded in 2005. Tom’s wife Helen is a volunteer Childline Counsellor. He was awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2015 for services to Children. In 2016 he was appointed Visiting Professor at London South Bank University and in 2017 awarded an Honorary Fellowship from London South Bank University.

Tom is a public speaker, sharing his work/life experiences and encouraging young people to explore careers in the world of media and entertainment. He supports Speakers for Schools & LSBU.

Trustee since July 2021.

Emma began her volunteering career with us 25 years ago, working as a treasurer and later Chair of Bowden NSPCC fundraising group. She went on to become a regional forum member, central taskforce member for the North West and, more recently, took on the role as Divisional Vice President.

With a professional background in marketing and business, Emma has also acted as a voluntary business advisor to small arts organisations, as well as being a non-executive director to a successful music and literary festival. 

Trustee since November 2023.

Gaby’s early career was spent in marketing and public relations, where she was Managing Director of Freud Communications, one of the UK’s leading PR firms, and co-founder of Freud Inside, with advertising group The&Partnership.

After having children, she moved from a full-time role in communications into the education sector. She consulted for Treehouse School, a school for autistic children, and continues to sit on the Expert Advisory Committee for Ambitious About Autism. Most recently, she was a Director and Deputy Chair of Governors at Notting Hill Prep, an independent school in West London and Safeguarding Governor at their sister nursery school, the Acorn. During this time she worked closely with the Board of Trustees of the NHP Foundation, the charity arm of the school, supporting its bursary and local outreach programme.

Gaby has been a volunteer Childline counsellor for over six years, with additional roles as a mentor and a co-trainer for Childline workshops. Last year, she received her purple award for 700 hours of counselling.

Trustee since November 2023.

Chanelle is currently Director of Clinical Services at Havens Hospices in Essex which provide care for children and adults at the end of their lives. Chanelle has extensive knowledge and experience across the statutory and voluntary sector including children’s centres, women’s refuges, crisis outreach settings and child protection services. She has a Master’s degree in Understanding Domestic Abuse.

Chanelle had a somewhat challenging upbringing spending time in both women’s refuges and as a looked after child. She had her daughter at 19 and her mum sadly died just a year later. Chanelle has dedicated her career to making a difference to children and families because of her own experiences and a drive to make sure that her children have the best of opportunities too.