ADD's Trustees
Christopher Gillies (Chair)
Liz Goold
Ravi Narayanan CBE
Agnes Kalibbala
Sebenzile Matsebula
Haji Saghir Alam OBE
Clare Evans MBE
Charlie Massey
Bob Niven
ADD is committed to inclusion and diversity not just as a principle but as practice. At trustee level this is demonstrated by having a target of at least 50% of trustees being disabled people and 50% women. Currently, four of ADD’s nine trustees are disabled people, and four are women and the staff and trustees comprise people representing a community voice from Africa and Asia.
Chris Gillies
Chris is ADD’s longest serving Trustee having joined in 1989, and taking on the role of Chair in 1996. Chris brings to ADD’s board the leadership skills demonstrated in his position as Head of Growth and Strategic Marketing - Zurich Financial Services' Global Life Business. Chris is also Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Zurich Community Trust (UK) and a Board Member of the Global Zurich Foundation.
Chris’s commitment to the empowerment of disabled people living in developing countries was recognised in 2007 with a Lifetime Achievement Award for promoting the Human Rights of disabled people in Africa and Asia from the Royal Association of Disability and Rehabilitation.
Ravi Narayanan
Ravi has immense experience of leading large, international organisations both in the UK and Asia. Ravi retired in 2006 after serving six years as the Chief Executive of WaterAid UK and previous to that was the Asia Director of ActionAid.
Ravi is still involved to ensuring the world’s poorest people are able to access domestic water supply and sanitation services through his work with the United Nations Millennium Task Force on Water and Sanitation.
Clare Evans
Clare’s background is in social work and training and she has a personal commitment to disability as a human rights issue. She has experience of development work with disabled people’s organisations, both in Wiltshire and across the UK, and has written extensively on Independent Living, The Social Model of Disability and Service User Involvement Good Practice. She is currently Head of Service User Support for Leonard Cheshire Disability in the UK.
Agnes Kalibbala
Agnes brings a unique dimension to ADD’s board having once been the Country Director of ADD Uganda. Agnes left in 2002 to take up the position of Ambassador and Deputy High Commissioner of the republic of Uganda to Kenya and has since been appointed as the United Nations Deputy Permanent Representative of Uganda.
Agnes is also a trustee of Water Aid UK and the National Strategy for the Advancement of Rural Women in Uganda.
Liz Goold
Liz brings over 20 years experience as a consultant and facilitator in organisational development, capacity-building, learning and change. Currently Liz is engaged in consultancy with the UK public sector.
Saghir Alam
Saghir is a leading expert in Human Rights issues, advising a number of government departments. Saghir is a lawyer and Commissioner of the Disability Rights Commission leading on partnership and capacity building. In 2007 Saghir was appointed Independent Governor of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy by the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary.
Saghir is the Patron of Include Me Too, a national Black and Minority Ethnic families and children organisation and works with the Ethnic Disabled Children Society.
Charlie Massey
Charlie has extensive experience within the UK government of developing and delivering strategies and of the social model of disability through his work on pensions. Following a three year secondment to the UK’s regulatory agency for pensions, Charlie returned to his position as the Ageing Society Director in the Department for Work and Pensions.
Sebenzile Matsebula
Sebe is Deputy Vice President of Rehabilitation International, Africa. She played a leading role and was instrumental in the development of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which was adopted in 2006.
Sebe is a Paul Harris Fellow, an award presented by Rotary International Award in recognitionof her contribution to the emancipation of disabled people.
Bob Niven
Bob joined ADD's board of Trustees in July 2009. Bob holds several Trusteeships, including among others, being Chair of the Audit Committee and Non-Executive Director at the Office of the Public Guardian (appointed February 2008), Disability Law Service (appointed October 2007) and the Royal Association for the Disabled and Rehabilitation (RADAR, appointed March 2008).
Bob was the Chief Executive of the Disability Rights Commission (December 1999 – September 2007). Before that he held key positions in the UK government civil service, including among others, being Director, Employment Department and Department for Education and Employment; and the Cabinet Office Secretariat.
Costs associated with attending trustee meetings are met by ADD and reasonable out of pocket expenses. Trustees are accommodated in accessible premises and, when required, travel arrangements can be organised on their behalf.