Meet our Trustees

Carole Ayre is currently a Retired Partner at law firm Browne Jacobson and led the development of their new Clinical Negligence team. Her focus has been on promoting the development of health law practice at the firm with a wide range of experience within the NHS sector. Outside her law practice Carole has chaired her local residents’ association and is a regular volunteer for the National Trust.

Nottingham-born Roger is the founder and CEO of Nottingham IT solutions company Jigsaw24, employing over 300 people across the UK, with annual sales of over £150 million. Roger established Jigsaw24 in 1992 and has been a Trustee of the charity since 2016. Roger’s 10 year old daughter Rose Whittle received excellent care from 2011 to 2013 at Nottingham Children’s Hospital in her ultimately unsuccessful fight against cancer.

Laurence was Head of Corporate Finance for Singer & Friedlander Limited, Merchant Bank and was then Executive Director of Singer & Friedlander Group PLC until his retirement. Laurence was a non executive Director of Queen’s Medical Centre University Hospital NHS Trust for 6 years and was Chairman of Nottingham Building Society. Laurence is a council member and past county president of St John’s Ambulance in Nottinghamshire, is a Trustee of Fundays in Nottinghamshire; and is Chairman of Trustees for Amanda Lee Charitable Trust.

Professor Harish Vyas’ medical career spans four decades and includes working at Great Ormond Street. At Nottingham he brought together children’s units from the former City and QMC hospitals to form Nottingham Children’s Hospital, and led the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. Recently retired, Professor Vyas also brings a strong research background with him and recently completed fundraising for new children’s respiratory testing equipment for the Children’s Hospital.

Mark spent 27 years in the Aerospace industry with Rolls-Royce plc in the UK, ultimately becoming President of Aerospace – a division with £8.5 billion of sales, 27,000 employees and global operations. Since leaving Rolls-Royce in 2013 Mark has worked with a number of smaller Venture Capital backed companies providing non-executive and ‘semi-executive’ support. Mark is currently Chairman of three companies - DEA Aviation Ltd, a provider of aerial survey and surveillance services; Bowman Power Group, a high speed electrical machines manufacturer and Alloyed Ltd, a specialist in digital alloy design and additive manufacturing.

Roger joined the Charity as a Trustee in February 2020. He is a chartered accountant and spent 45 years in the accounting profession, 20 of which were as a partner at KPMG. In more recent years Roger has been a director of a local financial advisory business and the director of a family office.

Keith is a consultant in critical care medicine and also is part of the executive team at NUH. Having been at NUH for 30 years, he is well-placed to both support the Charity in making an impact, while being accessible for clinical teams to approach him to discuss how the Charity can help.

Sanjeev joined our Board of Trustees after previously supporting the Charity and raising more than £42,000 through a Mount Snowdon trek, to thank hospital staff for saving his life after he was seriously ill with Covid-19. Sanjeev is a successful and well-respected barrister, based in Nottingham but practising across the country.

Ilana is CEO of local charitable trust Active Partners Trust, which aims to empower everyone in the community to be active. She helped establish the Trust in 2017, setting up all aspects of governance and recruiting a new Board and team.