Andrew Purkis (chair)

Andrew Purkis has been Chair of three UK national charities (Living Streets, The Green Alliance, and The Empty Homes Agency). 

He has been employed in leadership positions at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations; the Council for the Protection of Rural England; the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund (with its major international programmes) and the Tropical Health and Education Trust, which facilitates health partnerships between the UK and the poorest countries. 

He has also been Senior Adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury on his relationships with the world outside the Church. Andrew was a former board member of the Charity Commission for England and Wales and joined the ActionAid UK Board in November 2009. More recently, Andrew has become a member of Parole Board from 2010.

Mike Forrest

Senior Partner at Karis Medical Centre in Inner City Birmingham. A GP Trainer Honorary Clinical Lecturer at Birmingham University and a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Founder and currently Chair of Sport 4 Life UK and a Director of St Martin's Centre for Health and Healing. Formerly a Trustee and Treasurer of Karis Neighbour Scheme. All of the organisations are involved in addressing poverty issues.

He has a special interest in social determinants of health and disease. He joined ActionAid UK in March 2008.

Frank McLoughlin, CBE

Principal of City and Islington College in London - one of the largest general further education colleges in England. The focus of Frank's career in education has been on social justice, developing equal opportunities and widening participation. He has a special interest in global citizenship.

He is a trustee of the Helena Kennedy Foundation and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He joined the ActionAid board in March 2008.

Rosalind Eyben
Trained as a social anthropologist, Rosalind Eyben has had a long and varied career as an international development practitioner and policy analyst.

She worked in different parts of Africa, and then lived in India before being employed by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) where she eventually became its first Chief Social Development Adviser. In 1999 she went back to country level work, heading the DFID office in Bolivia until 2002 when she became a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies in Sussex.

At IDS her research and teaching centres around power and relations in the international aid system. Among other activities, she convenes the global policy programme of an international research consortium, Pathways of Women's Empowerment, and also facilitates reflective dialogue among staff of international non-government organisations about supporting social change.

Tennyson Williams

International Director of ActionAid International (West and Central Africa).

Tennyson has over twelve years' experience in the development sector. As the ActionAid Sierra Leone Country Director, Tennyson helped to position Sierra Leone’s development agenda at national and international levels. Key successes included taking the Aid Effectiveness debate to key donors including the Department for International Development and the EU.

He holds an MSc in Zoology, a BSc in Agriculture, a Diploma in Epidemiology and Control of Human Vector-Borne Diseases and a Certificate in Human Resource and Industrial Relations Management.

Gemma Peters

Executive Director of Fundraising & Supporter Development at King’s Health Partners and King’s College London, Gemma has fifteen years’ experience of managing multi-disciplinary teams across the not-for-profit sector, raising over £250 million for a variety of different causes. Gemma took this role after six years serving as both Director of Development and Head of Fundraising.
 
Prior to joining King’s College, Gemma held senior fundraising with the learning disability charity Mencap and the deaf-blind charity Sense. Gemma brings with her a passion for the not-for-profit sector and proven expertise in developing fundraising income and capacity.