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. 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.
Ngunan Adamu
Trustee
Ngunan Adamu produces and presents BBC Merseyside’s popular ‘Upfront‘ programme. She is also the founder and CEO of iWoman Media – a peer to peer organisation set up by women to empower, entertain, explore and inspire women around the world.
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.
Aaqil Ahmed
Trustee
Aaqil Ahmed is an award-winning Television executive having enjoyed a 25-year career at the BBC and Channel 4, during which time he became the only person to be Head of Religion and Ethics at both broadcasters as well as Head of Multicultural Programming at Channel 4. Today, Aaqil is a Professor of media at the University of Bolton; a public speaker and writer on diversity, media, leadership and religion as well as an advisor to a number of organisations on communication and strategy.
» Read more about Aaqil
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.
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.
Nicola Meyrick
Trustee and Chair of the Awards Group
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 working on a PhD on the subject of Christians in Muslim Spain.
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.
Emily Jeffers
Office Administrator
Emily is the Office Manager for the Sandford St Martin Trust and Administrator for our Sandford St Martin Awards. She ensures the smooth running of the awards and provides administrative support to our chief executive.
Jess Lewis
Events and Content Producer
With a background in museums, Jess has worked in the charity sector for 20 years. She now produces the Trust’s annual awards as well as the outreach events throughout the year.
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”.