Our Board of Trustees
We're governed by a Board of Non-Executive Directors. They're responsible for the overall strategic direction and oversight of the organisation, ensuring regulatory compliance, monitoring and evaluating risks, and approval of the annual budget and audited accounts.
Mei Sim Lai is managing director of LaiPeters Ltd and founder of LaiPeters & Co, chartered accountants. Since 1991, Mei Sim has held a number of non-executive and other appointments in the private, public, charitable and not- for-profit sectors. She is also involved with international business and women’s groups. Mei Sim, who is of Malaysian origin, is proud to be the first Chinese person in the City of London to become the Master of a City livery Company, taking office as the Master of the Worshipful Company of World Traders in 2011. She is a past winner of the Asian Women of Achievement Awards, was appointed an OBE in 2014 in recognition of her services to equal opportunities and since 2006 she has been one of Her Majesty’s representatives in Greater London with responsibility for Brent. Mei Sim was President of the tve Global Sustainability Film Awards 2016.
Surina Narula, is a businesswoman, philanthropist and an activist. She has worked with woman and children through Plan and consortium for street children and woman and children first. She has co founded the DSC prize for south Asian literature and is a founder of Difficult dialogues. She received Asian of the year award in 2005 and was appointed an MBE in 2008 for her charitable work. For 25 years Surina has organised events to raise money and the profile of street children internationally. In 2012 Surina founded the tve Global Sustainability Film Awards, and in 2016 she founded Difficult Dialogues (www.difficultdialogues.com). Surina has received awards for her contribution to street children charities and in 2003 was highly commended for The Beacon Prize for her outstanding contribution to charitable and social causes. In recognition of her charity work she was presented with the Asian of the Year Award in 2005 and in June 2008 appointed an MBE for charitable work in India.
Richard Creasey is a founder director of Spring Films, an Oscar nominated, Emmy Award winning production company. Previously Richard was Central’s (now ITV) longest serving programme controller. For 14 years he ran the Factual Programme Department and was responsible for the company’s features and documentary output. During this time Richard co-founded tve and the East West Creative Association, the first creative, multi-media joint venture between the Soviet Union and the UK. Richard chaired tve from 2002 – 2015, is now an emeritus chair, and a Life Member of The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). He was also a founder and editor-in-chief at The Digital Village Ltd, which was formed by a group of leading thinkers and doers from the online, television and literary worlds, including the late Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Azad Ayub is a civil engineer with an MSc & Diploma of Imperial College (DIC) from the Imperial College, London. He has worked on and led numerous design and construction projects both within the United Kingdom and overseas. He now focuses more on his property ownership, management and development business, which was established over 40 years ago and has been operating successfully since, catering to the niche student and young professional accommodation market and employing around 20 people, with assets in the UK, USA, Spain and Pakistan. Azad continues to maintain strong associations with well-known local and international professional organisations and regularly supports charities and engages in charitable projects both locally and abroad. Over the years, both Azad and his business have won numerous awards for their continued commitment to green issues, staff training and talent development.
Alistair Clark served as the managing director of the Environment and Sustainability Department at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). He was responsible for providing strategic direction to the EBRD with respect to the implementation of the Bank’s environmental mandate and the incorporation of environmental and social aspects in all sector and country policies and strategies. Prior to this, he was a Senior Vice President of URS Dames & Moore, a multi-national environmental consultancy responsible for major project development, and has also published extensively in the fields of atmospheric chemistry and environmental impact assessment. In addition, Alistair is a member of the UK Export Guarantee Advisory Council, advising on environmental and social issues. He also actively contributes to the Multilateral Financial Institutions Working Group on Environmental and Social Standards and represents the Bank at many international agency meetings.
The Lord St John of Bletso is chairman of merchant bank Strand Hanson. He has supported tve for more than two decades, first as president of the Friends of tve, and now as an emeritus trustee. He was brought up in South Africa where he qualified as a solicitor and completed his Masters at London University in Chinese and maritime law. From 1998 to 2003 he served as managing director and latterly as global business development director for Globix. He has been a director of listed and unlisted companies ranging from oil, telecommunications, IT, renewable energy, financial and marketing services and manufacturing. Anthony took his seat as an Independent Member of the House of Lords in 1978. He was appointed Extra Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen in 1998. He is an executive committee member of the All-Party Parliamentary Africa Group and vice chairman of the All Party Parliamentary South Africa Group.
Denise Parkinson is the Vice President of Client Solutions for Allied Global Marketing. Additionally, Denise Parkinson has had 5 past jobs including Global Entertainment Director at Telegraph Media Group. Also, Marketing Director at the Walt Disney Company, Entertainment Director at Yahoo. Over 25 years experience in film sales, marketing, media sales, PR, Events and promotions. Denise produced an award winning documentary that opened the 2019 Raindance Film Festival called KrowsTransformation. Denise is a Senior member of the Film and TV Charity as well as a veteran member of BAFTA.
With a background in news and a passion for documentary storytelling, Cheryl has produced, directed and written for various international news channels and NPO’s covering human interest stories across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, from Brazil to Rwanda and Afghanistan. Cheryl is also a member of the International Emmy’s.
She has launched three TV channels for MultiChoice Africa in Angola, South Africa and Zambia. Cheryl was the former Director of the MultiChoice Talent Factory Film Academies in Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia, supporting the development of young passionate filmmakers across the African continent.
Cindy Tan is the visionary founder and director of Core Connect Accountants Ltd, a firm based in Central London. Her illustrious career began within the dynamic realms of BBC and ITV, where she was integral to the finance teams across various departments, including Drama, Entertainment, Films, and Children's programming. Cindy's expertise transcends borders, as evidenced by her role as a UK delegate to the prestigious G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, in 2023. Her participation underscored her status as a respected authority in the field of finance and solidified her reputation as a trailblazer in the industry.
A strategic consultant and cross-arts producer with over 30 years’ experience of transforming a small dance academy into to an internationally renowned and award winning production house; putting South Asian dance on the global map by lobbying and influencing on countless committees and boards; and fundraising millions for educational and charity activities.
Transformed the artistic landscape in Britain by bringing dance and performance to the streets and unusual spaces including but not limited to: Furness Abbey, British Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, the Indian President’s House (Rashtrapati Bhavan). Awards: an Order of the British Empire (2007) consistently recognised as the Top 100 Influential people of Indian origin, a Herald Angel Award, BBC Asia Award, Lustrum Award, and Southbank Centre Women of the World (WOW) award.
Nandita Kumar is a new-media artist who works at the intersection art, science, technology and community to creates interactive installations. She explores the elemental process through which human beings construct meaning from their experiences, by creating sensory narratives through the usage of sound, video/ animation and performance, smartphone apps, customized motherboards, solar/microwave sensors. Her interest lies in propelling the human race towards a sustainable development, which not only focuses on environmental protection, but also social development. Her process envisions a desirable future state for human societies in which living conditions and resource-use continue to meet human needs without undermining the “integrity, stability and beauty” of natural biotic systems. She employs technology as though it were a natural element in an extended ecosystem. Her works as a result are hybrids, rooted simultaneously in human nature while a pervasive electronic layer is integrated seamlessly.
Nick (Nicholas) Nuttall is currently the International Strategic Communications Director of EarthDay.org and TV presenter/Communications Director for social climate platform We Don’t Have Time. He is the former Director of Communications and Outreach, Speechwriter and Spokesperson for the UN Environment headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change headquartered in Bonn, Germany. Nick was the official UN spokesperson for the landmark Paris Agreement of 2015. After leaving the UN in 2018, Nick became Director of Communications and Spokesperson for the Global Climate Action Summit (GCAS) which took place in September 2018 as the first step towards increasing climate ambition post Paris. Nick is a member of the advisory board of the environmental arts initiative ArtPort—Making Waves; visiting professor at the University of Tongji in Shanghai, China; a backing vocalist with the German Bernadette La Hengst band and a passionate fan of English premier league football team Burnley.
