Sir John S Evans, QPM, DL, LLB
President
Diana Sale
Vice-President
Diana is a retired Chief Nursing Advisor to West Dorset Health Authority and Management Consultant for Pricewaterhouse Coopers. She has run her own successful Management Consultancy business since 1995 and is the author of many books on Quality Assurance, Clinical Governance and health care. Diana was Chairman of Weldmar Hospice Care Trust for 10 years and lead the merger of Joseph Weld & Trimar Hospice and CancerCare Dorset and is currently a Vice President. She is a Board member of the Friends of Blandford Community Hospital and a Governor at Okeford Fitzpaine CE VA Primary School. Diana has witnessed first hand the destruction of many young lives through drug and alcohol abuse. Having recently retired after 10 years as Chairman, she is proud to continue her involvement as Vice President of Life Education Wessex as she believes the programmes equip the children with the knowledge and skills to cope better with the complexities of the world of the 21st Century.
David Foot
Vice-President
Dave retired in 2000 as Chief Executive of Global Marine Systems Ltd, a profitable business with a turnover of £600 million per annum. With his business background and expertise, Dave is a valuable member of our team. He is also past President of Highcliffe Rotary and Chairman of the Trustees of a Museum.
Gary Hepburn
Chair of the Board of Trustees, Responsibility for Health & Safety
Gary has held directorships and senior management positions in public bodies, private companies, pension funds and the government sector. He specialises in community engagement, consumer affairs, health & safety, media and public relations and is Managing Director of Sirius Business Services Ltd, a company that specialises in providing training and consultancy services to GP and Dental Practices and Private Hospitals throughout the south of the UK. Gary has been very active in the health sector being a Non Executive Director of NHS Dorset, Vice Chair of Dorset Community Health Services, Governor of Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust and Special Board advisor to NHS Dorset, Bournemouth & Poole on Urgent and Emergency Care and Community Health Services and was also a Mental Health Act Hospital Manager for many years. He also volunteers for South West Ambulance NHS Trust as an Ambulance First Responder attending emergency calls in his local area as well as co-ordinating the Weymouth team of 16 other volunteer First Responders. Gary is a Churchwarden at his local church, Deputy District Commissioner of Weymouth & Portland Scouts and is Chairman of Weymouth Town Charities.
Tess Drabble
Trustee, Nominations Committee, Responsibility for Safeguarding
Tess started her nursing career in 1975. Over the years she has gained extensive experience in Acute Medicine and Accident & Emergency Nursing. She led from the frontline as Matron and clinical lead for many years and was also a visiting speaker at Bournemouth University. Tess later moved into a managerial role including Deputy Director of Nursing where she was responsible for a number of strategic portfolios, and obtained extensive experience in leading and developing nursing and midwifery services at Dorset County Hospital. In her previous roles she also represented Dorset County hospital as the National Programme lead for "The Emergency Services Collaborative". Prior to her semi retirement in 2014 she was awarded the GEM Chairman award in recognition of her contribution to services at Dorset County Hospital and the wider local health community. Staying true to her nursing roots Tess is passionate about providing quality care and good patient experience, she now works alongside the Nurse Practitioner team at Weymouth Community Hospital on an As and When basis. Tess is married with one daughter, her hobbies include walking, travel writing, cooking and gardening.
Les Christiansen
Trustee, Finance Committee, Educator Link & Responsibility for Data Protection
Les is a former Police Officer in the Nottinghamshire and Devon and Cornwall Constabulary’s. The second half of his 30 year Police career utilised his specialist investigative skills around the use of forensic and fingerprint techniques in the investigative process. Since retirement from the Force, Les has been involved in the not for profit, voluntary and charity sector, supporting the formation of a charity for the rehabilitation of young offenders. Les was until its merger, CEO of the Heart of Devon Enterprise Agency in Exeter which provided start up business advice and development to small businesses, and formerly Chairman of Honeylands Children's Charity in Exeter, a charity for children 0-5 years of age who have developmental conditions including autism, cerebral palsy, Downs syndrome and other mental and physical conditions. Les has been a Rotarian for a number of years and is a former President of Exmouth Raleigh Rotary Club. Currently an ambassador for Citizens Advice (Services) Exeter, he is also Lead Invigilator at Tiverton High School and President of Exe Valley Rotary Club (2017-2018) in Devon.
Peta Dyke
Trustee
Peta started her successful teaching career in 1976 and she was a headteacher for twenty years as well as being an OFSTED school inspector. Peta has always enjoyed serving on a school governing body and has been a governor of many schools over the last 30 years. She is currently a governor of the Royal Masonic School for Girls and serves on both their academic and pastoral committees. Peta has now retired from headship and school inspection and is studying for her doctorate at the University of Bristol. As a result of all of this experience Peta recognises the vital importance of good health, well-being and drugs education in schools and she is proud to be a trustee of such a renowned organisation as Life Education Wessex and Thames Valley.
Phil Harrison
Trustee, Fundraising Link
Phil is a Chartered Building Surveyor and founder member and president of Hedge End Breakfast Rotary Club. He was also a founder member, company secretary and trustee of Life Education Hampshire, which from a cold start raised funds, bought a mobile classroom and Landover and established a healthy presence in Hampshire schools until the merger with Life Education Wessex. Lives in the New Forest, is a keen golfer, likes to get out on his mountain bike and loves gardening.
Felicity Hedger
Trustee, Chair of HR & Remuneration Committee, Nominations Committee
Felicity is a solicitor, practising as a consultant with Humphries Kirk, solicitors who have offices spread across the same geographical area as Life Education. Although Felicity specialises in giving legal advice to elderly clients she has a strong belief in educating children in making healthy choices in a world where there is so much pressure on children. Felicity has been a Trustee for many years and has seen Life Education Wessex grow from providing education to children in Dorset extending to Hampshire, Somerset and Devon.
Andrew Lovell
Trustee, Vice-Chair, Chair of Finance Committee, HR & Remuneration Committee
Andrew’s career commenced with Barclays Bank and, for 27 years which were mainly spent in London, he gained experience in a wide variety of disciplines. These included personal and corporate lending, audit, fraud investigation, HR, sales management and operations. His final role was as Corporate Director for South West England. Following this, he became Practice Director at Michelmores Solicitors and, as a Board member, helped the firm grow significantly from a High Street firm in Exeter to a strong regional player with offices also in Bristol and London, attracting work both nationally and internationally. He stepped down from this role in 2012 but, since then has undertaken a number of part-time roles and projects for the firm and he continues to provide training events in financial management. At a personal level, Andrew has been married to Fiona for 37 years and enjoys spending time with their two daughters and 5 grand-children. Seeing the life challenges his grand-children will face has encouraged Andrew to become involved with LEW and TV. His personal interests include supporting Exeter Chiefs, playing guitar, singing, walking and golf.
Keith Millman
Trustee, Chair of Nominations Committee, HR & Remuneration Committee
Keith spent nearly 40 years working in the City of London, initially for an International Merchant Bank, then for Lloyds Bank International and finally for Lloyds TSB Bank, before retiring in 1997. He became a member of the Rotary Club of Salisbury in October 1998, becoming Club President in 2003/4 and District Governor of Rotary International District 1110 (South Central England, the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands) in 2007/8. As well as leading to his involvement with Life Education, Rotary has enabled Keith to take an interest in Rotary’s Peace Scholars programme and, subsequently, to become involved with PeaceJam - a peace education programme that endeavours to get peace and conflict resolution into the school curriculum. Started by twelve Nobel Peace Laureates, including the Dalai Lama, Bishop Desmond Tutu and Betty Williams, and the idea is for young people to be inspired by and learn from the lives of these Nobel Peace Laureates.
Jacqueline Swift DL
Trustee
Jacqueline is a former High Sheriff of Dorset. She is currently Vice Chair of NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, a mental health act panel member for Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust, executive coach and a lay member for Dorset MAPPA (Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements).
Jo Walker
Trustee
Jo was in education all her career as a teacher, subject coordinator, team leader and senior manager. She recognises the need for the kind of education CLE helps provide. The need for personal and health education for our children is so important. They need the confidence to make safe and healthy decisions for themselves . Jo is very experienced in teaching these life skills to children across the whole primary age range and also knows first hand what teachers need in the classroom, and how resources are utilised on the day with children. Jo retired in 2015 and lives in Falmouth. As a trustee she would like to help facilitate the uptake of the excellent and beneficial CLE resources in Cornwall.