Our people
Our trustees bring specialist knowledge from a range of backgrounds to help the Sandford St Martin Trust achieve its mission. We are grateful to them for the time and energy they freely spend contributing to our work. Read more about each of them here.
The Rt Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Ripon
Chair
Bishop Helen-Ann has been the Bishop of Ripon in the Diocese of Leeds since 2018. At 46 years old she is the youngest bishop in the Church of England and is the first female Church of England priest to have been consecrated as a bishop. She was elected Bishop of Waikato in New Zealand in 2013, nearly a year before a woman was first consecrated as a bishop in the Church of England.
Emyr Afan
Trustee
Emyr is a Bafta award-winning TV producer. He is the co-founder of Avanti Media, one of Wales’ most successful TV production companies.
Bridget Cass
Trustee
Bridget Cass was the Executive for The Jerusalem Trust, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts and a director of Jerusalem Productions since 1991. Previously she worked for Thames Television as its Community Education Officer, and also worked on its adult education programmes. During the 1990s she worked for a number of media groups, including the Campaign for Quality Television, Public Voice and the Media Trust.
» Read more about Bridget
Torin Douglas
Trustee and Chair of the Development and Events Group
Torin is a former BBC media correspondent who speaks and writes about the media and other issues.
Anna Drew
Duncan Irvine
Trustee and Chair of the Finance Group
Duncan is a career banker having worked in a variety of roles in the UK and Canada and currently working for Barclays Bank.
Tom Loxley
Trustee
Tom is a writer, journalist and the executive editor of The Radio Times.
Natasha Maw
Trustee and Chair of the Awards Group
Natasha is a Media and Leadership trainer and coach and co-founder of the Quattrain consultancy. With a background in radio production, she has produced numerous programmes for the BBC including ‘In Our Time’, ‘Start the Week’ and ‘Woman’s Hour’.
Nicola Meyrick
Trustee
Nicola is a former head of Radio Current Affairs at the BBC, where she edited ‘Analysis’ and ‘The Report’ for Radio 4 and was responsible for programmes on subjects including the Vatican (which won a Sandford St Martin Award), female bishops, political Islam and assisted suicide. She is currently writing and studying for an MA.
Joanna Moriarty
Deputy Chair and Chair of the Management Group
After many years in senior leadership roles in publishing, Joanna Moriarty is the Director of the Charities and Social Enterprise Team at Green Park.
Paresh Solanki
Trustee
Paresh works on projects linked to Near Neighbours which encourages religiously and ethnically diverse communities to build better relations and come together to improve their local communities. He’s a member of BAFTA and of the British Psychological Society.
Dr Catherine Wills
Trustee
As daughter of the Trust’s founder Sir David Wills, Catherine plays a vital role on our Board.
Anna McNamee
Executive Director
Anna McNamee is an award-winning Canadian journalist and writer who now leads the work of the Trust to promote excellence in broadcasting about religion, ethics or spirituality.
Rt Rev Nick Baines, Lord Bishop of Leeds
Patron
Nick is the Bishop of Leeds, an experienced broadcaster, writer and blogger Nick will be well known to many from his regular contributions to ‘Pause for Thought’ on Chris Evan’s Radio 2 show and Radio 4’s “Thought for the Day”.