Executive Board and trustees

Trustee since 2015. Member of the Policy Committee. Chair of the Board of Trustees since October 2019.

Member of the Finance Committee, Nominations and Governance Committee, and the Remuneration Committee.

Neil has supported the NSPCC for over 15 years including seven as a Trustee. He returned as a Trustee and Chair elect in October 2018 and appointed as Chair in October 2019. He is also chairman of the Guardian Media Group. His career spans a range of sectors and geographies in both the consumer and enterprise facing businesses with an emphasis on managing significant change. He was Chief Executive of the NASDAQ listed Virgin Media where he oversaw the successful turnaround of the UK cable company. He then led the sale of the company to Liberty Global in June 2013.

Neil has also served on the boards of the Sage Group PLC, the Bank of Queensland and Virgin Unite along with many subsidiaries of the companies he worked for during his executive career. His previous roles included senior positions at Lloyds Banking Group, Prudential Assurance, St George Bank in Australia, Citibank, East West Airlines and ICL Australia.

Trustee since October 2022.

Honorary Treasurer, Chair of the Finance, Audit and Risk Committee and a member of the Remuneration Committee.

Mark Corbidge, Managing Director, joined Sun European in 2019 and leads the firm’s European investment strategies from the London office. Mark has over 20 years' experience in the financial sector, having transacted in business services, industrials, TMT and consumer across Europe.

Prior to joining Sun European, Mark served as a Partner at TPG Capital where he was responsible for the industrials group in Europe. Previously he was Senior Principal for Direct Private Equity at CPPIB, and Co-Head of Private Equity at Doughty-Hanson. Mark has been an active fundraiser for the NSPCC over the past 20 years.

Mark speaks French and German fluently as well as intermediate Dutch and Italian. Mark was awarded his Bachelor of Arts (BA) (Hons) from Middlesex University and from Groupe ESC Reims, France. Mark is a driven dealmaker who enjoys a challenge.

Trustee since October 2022.

Peter is a three time CEO and two time President. He has helped to grow many companies from nothing and has helped to create four 'Unicorns'. Executive teams he has been a part of or led, have made many mistakes along the way, as well as getting a lot of things right. He currently enjoys helping scale-ups avoid the stuff that kills companies and do more of the stuff that creates successful outcomes.

Peter was CEO of ForeSee, President for Netsuite, the CEO of ClairMail prior to and during its acquisition by Monitise, served as Chairman and CEO of Purisma (acquired by Dun & Bradstreet), EVP Crystal Decisions (acquired by Silver Lake) and held various leadership positions at Vitria Technology (IPO).

Peter currently serves on a number of Boards as well as working as an Operating Partner for PeakSpan Capital, and Octopus Ventures.

Eithne was appointed to the Board as trustee for Northern Ireland in October 2020.

Trustee since October 2018.

Pippa Gough MA, MSc, PGCEA, RN, RM, HV, FQNI, FRSA, Trustee
Trustee. Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees. Chair of the Policy Committee.

Pippa has a varied career as a nurse, health visitor, senior manager and development consultant in both the public and voluntary sectors at local and national levels. She was Director of Policy at the Royal College of Nursing and latterly Senior Fellow at the King’s Fund in both the Policy and Leadership Development Directorates.

She has experience of being an elected Trustee in a leading charity, the Alzheimer’s Society, for 6 years (two terms of office) from 2011-2017. For the last two years of office Pippa held the position of Vice Chair.

In her work as a Health Visitor, Pippa’s practice was mainly with families in adversity and where child protection was a major concern.

Pippa is an experienced coach, both with individuals and teams. She is also experienced in designing, commissioning and delivering innovative leadership and organisational development programmes within the health service and other parts of the public sector.

She is the author and editor of a number of books on nursing and policy and numerous articles and other publications on leadership, change, development and health workforce.

In her personal life, Pippa is married and lives in London and Herne Bay where she and her husband are restoring a Georgian house by the sea. She is also an award winning fiction writer and has had short stories published by both Virago and Fish Publications.

Ife was appointed to the Board as a young trustee in October 2020.

Trustee since 2021.

Trustee for Wales.

Albert Heaney is the Chief Social Care Officer for Wales and has substantial experience leading children’s services and delivering excellent social work. Albert previously worked for the NSPCC, as well as working as a therapeutic social worker within a health setting in CAMHS.

Working in high level positions such as the President of the Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) Cymru, Albert made significant contributions to national as the ADSS Cymru lead Children’s Policy Director and lead Policy Direction for Safeguarding and Prevention.

As a member of the England and Wales Family Justice Board, Albert has made a significant contribution to improving the family justice network in Wales. Now Albert is bringing his passion for bettering children’s services, sharing good practice, and commitment to promoting equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory practice to his role as an NSPCC Trustee for Wales.

Trustee since October 2018.

Andrew joined the City of Edinburgh Council as Chief Executive Officer in July 2015. He began his local government career with Falkirk District Council. His 35-year public sector career has since included a career in leisure where he became the Director of Leisure and Culture at Birmingham City Council and President of The Institute of Leisure Management and he has been CEO at four major local authorities in North Tyneside, Wiltshire, Cornwall and his dream job in Edinburgh.

He has delivered a £900m joint venture in waste management and has led transformation programmes in his last four authorities worth more that £200m. Andrew led the UKs first rural devolution deal in Cornwall worth £1.8bn and has now delivered the successful Edinburgh and South-East Scotland City Deal worth £1.2bn.

He is now leading a £147m Transformation Programme for the council and is at the heart of Edinburgh’s Launch of its City Vision initiative 2050.

Andrew is also a medal winning 400m runner and represented Great Britain and Scotland at international level.

Sheanna was appointed to the Board as a young trustee in October 2020.

Trustee since October 2024.

Ryan is a hybrid commercial and technology leader who has helped global organisations like Dyson leverage data and AI for significant operational impact. After cutting his teeth at the University of Oxford and Google, he has applied his expertise as Chief Data Officer, Chief Ecommerce Officer, and Chief Strategy Officer for major corporations. He is concerned about the widening gap between digital technology’s disruptive potential and the limited benefits many organisations are realising—not to mention its negative societal impacts. When not addressing these challenges, Ryan enjoys long-distance running and building Duplo architecture with his two young children.

Trustee since October 2024.

Kathleen has over 30 year's experience within the media and advertising industry. She is a qualified, accredited, and practicing psychotherapist and a registered member of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). She sees patients in both London and New York city, and is a regular board advisor and executive coach. She has authored two books on Psychological abuse and Narcissism and is a guest columnist for several consumer magazines in the mental health space. Katheen was made a Fellow of The Marketing Society in 2023, remains a member of UK’s WACL, NYC’s Influencers and is a regular mentor for Speakers for Schools.

Trustee since July 2021.

Emma began her volunteering career with us 25 years ago, working as a treasurer and later Chair of Bowden NSPCC fundraising group. She went on to become a regional forum member, central taskforce member for the North West and, more recently, took on the role as Divisional Vice President.

With a professional background in marketing and business, Emma has also acted as a voluntary business advisor to small arts organisations, as well as being a non-executive director to a successful music and literary festival. 

Trustee since November 2023.

Chanelle is currently Director of Clinical Services at Havens Hospices in Essex which provide care for children and adults at the end of their lives. Chanelle has extensive knowledge and experience across the statutory and voluntary sector including children’s centres, women’s refuges, crisis outreach settings and child protection services. She has a Master’s degree in Understanding Domestic Abuse.

Chanelle had a somewhat challenging upbringing spending time in both women’s refuges and as a looked after child. She had her daughter at 19 and her mum sadly died just a year later. Chanelle has dedicated her career to making a difference to children and families because of her own experiences and a drive to make sure that her children have the best of opportunities too.

Trustee since November 2023.

Gaby’s early career was spent in marketing and public relations, where she was Managing Director of Freud Communications, one of the UK’s leading PR firms, and co-founder of Freud Inside, with advertising group The&Partnership.

After having children, she moved from a full-time role in communications into the education sector. She consulted for Treehouse School, a school for autistic children, and continues to sit on the Expert Advisory Committee for Ambitious About Autism. Most recently, she was a Director and Deputy Chair of Governors at Notting Hill Prep, an independent school in West London and Safeguarding Governor at their sister nursery school, the Acorn. During this time she worked closely with the Board of Trustees of the NHP Foundation, the charity arm of the school, supporting its bursary and local outreach programme.

Gaby has been a volunteer Childline counsellor for over six years, with additional roles as a mentor and a co-trainer for Childline workshops. Last year, she received her purple award for 700 hours of counselling.