Our Trustees and Governance

Council

PDSA is governed by a Council (composed of Trustees) which approves all policies and major expenditure programmes within the charity.

How PDSA is governed

Council meets every three months to monitor progress, to review the financial position and make any necessary policy decisions.

Council has four standing subcommittees:

• Audit & Risk Committee
• Finance & Investment Committee
• Governance & Remuneration Committee
• Special Purposes Committee

Our Trustees

Council is composed of eminent people from varied backgrounds in business, who give their time and expertise freely.

John Miller

BSc MCIPD AFBPsS

John became a PDSA Trustee in 2010 and was appointed Chair in January 2023.  He is a member of the Governance & Remuneration Committee and an ex-officio member of the Finance & Investment Committee.  He was previously Chair of Whitechapel Associates Limited, which is the Trustee of the PDSA Retirement Benefits Plan.

John’s initial career in education progressed from teacher training to leading major organisational change projects for FE colleges. He grew his consultancy business and specialised in people-led change programmes for a portfolio of clients across the private and public sectors.

In 2001 John was appointed Group Development Director of Brammer plc, an industrial services group. A wide-ranging role, he had responsibility not only for HR, change, people and organisational development, but also marketing, systems, logistics and operations for the company’s emerging markets across Europe. Having retired from corporate life, John now runs his own change consultancy in London.

Gary England

BVetMed PhD DVetMed CertVA DVR DVRep DipECAR DipACT FHEA FRCVS

Gary became a PDSA Trustee in 2014 and is a member of the Audit & Risk Committee.

Professor England is Dean of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham. He graduated from the Royal Veterinary College as a veterinary surgeon and worked there for many years before joining the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and then the University of Nottingham in 2005. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and is recognised as a Specialist in Veterinary Reproduction by the Royal College and the European College of Animal Reproduction. Gary holds the Diploma of Veterinary Reproduction (RCVS) and is a Diplomate of the European College of Animal Reproduction and American College of Theriogenologists.

Gordon Hockey

Gordon became a PDSA Trustee in 2018 and is a member of the Governance & Remuneration Committee.

Gordon is Director, legal for Community Pharmacy England which promotes and supports the interests of NHS community pharmacies in England. He is qualified as a pharmacist and barrister. For just under 17 years he worked for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, first as Assistant Registrar in charge of professional standards and fitness to practise procedures for veterinary surgeons and nurses and then as Registrar of the College.

David Lister

David became a PDSA Trustee in 2018 and is a member of the Finance & Investment Committee.

David Lister was born and educated in Manchester where he originally trained and qualified as a solicitor before moving to London in 1987. Following his move to London David embarked upon a career as a Family Lawyer specialising in the issues arising from the breakdown of relationships of predominantly (ultra) high net worth/international clientele with an emphasis on financial issues. During his career, he has pioneered the use of litigation funding and third-party disclosure, as well as having conduct of the largest court determined matrimonial settlement at the time (£54 million), with proceedings in six jurisdictions. 

David has practised in this field for over three decades with specialist matrimonial firms, currently David is a Senior Partner at Vardags and previously he has been a partner with Sears Tooth, Mishcon De Reya LLP and Rayden Solicitors.

David lectures and broadcasts on his professional work and is a Governor at Large of the International Academy of Family Lawyers.

Outside of his work David is a keen (but not particularly competent) Equestrian and was a co-founder of the London based networking group City Saddles. A keen sailor David is a member of the Wembley Sailing Club and Little Ship Club.

David is married with two adult children. Throughout his life David has been a "brother/father/uncle" to no fewer than eight Labrador dogs.

David Morgan

David became a PDSA Trustee in 2018 and is a member of the Finance & Investment Committee.  He was appointed as Chair of the Governance & Remuneration Committee in January 2023.

David is the owner of More-Gain Solutions, an independent consulting business specialising in growth strategies for digital transformation solutions focused on the retail industry.

David is also a director of Hyperspots Clickable Media, LLC, a start-up software business providing a solution for making videos and images "clickable". He has held executive positions with a number of businesses including IRI (market intelligence and analytics), EDS (IT outsourcing and consulting) and ZBD Solutions (electronic shelf-labels) as well as spending a number of years working for retail operations.

Having been born in England of Welsh and Dutch parents, David now lives on a smallholding in Scotland and acts as an able(ish) assistant to his partner, Jane, who runs a self-funded animal rescue centre for 74 animals ranging from chinchillas, guinea pigs, chickens and rabbits to cats, goats, pigs, donkeys and horses!

Ian Phoenix

Ian became a PDSA Trustee in 2018 and was appointed Chair of Whitechapel Associates Limited, which is the Trustee of the PDSA Retirement Benefits Plan, in January 2023.

In July 2021 he became Director of Intelligence at the Financial Conduct Authority and prior to that was Director of Technology for Citizen Health at NHS Digital. 

He has worked at the Home Office as Delivery Director for Immigration Technology, which was at the forefront of providing digital services and transforming services for staff and customer.  In his time there, they removed the need for significant amounts of paper, streamlined the flow of information and improved the services to their customers - from asylum seekers to highly skilled migrants.

He had an 11 year career in Defence and National Security as well as delivering on a range of other IT and communications projects and programmes.

He was also the Chair of LGBT group at his previous office and by working on Diversity and Inclusion they managed to get their office to No.1 in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index. He is supporting PDSA's Diversity, Equality and Inclusion plans. Prior to this he had a varied career starting in the Royal Navy and continuing in the financial sector with companies such as Visa, American Express and Citibank.

Carole Pomfret

MA ACA

Carole  became a PDSA Trustee in 2014 and is the Chair of the Finance & Investment Committee and a member of the Governance & Remuneration Committee.

After gaining a degree in Physics from Oxford, she qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co (now KPMG) before joining Schroders.

She initially led the development of accounting systems for the Investment Management company before moving on to manage private client investment portfolios. She left Schroders as an Investment Director of Schroders Private Bank before moving to Rathbones as an Investment Consultant. After leaving Rathbones to look after her two children Carole is now Chair of Trustees at a secondary school Academy, which includes overseeing safeguarding, as well as the science and maths departments.

Mary Reilly

BA History

Mary became a PDSA Trustee in 2016.  She Chairs the Audit & Risk Committee and is a member of the Governance & Remuneration Committee.

Mary has over 30 years’ international experience as a chartered accountant and non-executive director working across a variety of sectors including sport, luxury retail, manufacturing, business services and media. Mary’s current Non-Executive Directorships include Ferrexpo plc, Crown Agents Ltd and the Department of Transport.

She has previously held Non-Executive Directorships with the London Development Agency, London 2012 Limited, the Invictus Games. Mary worked with Deloitte LLP from 1974-2013 and was an Audit Partner. She is a Trustee of the Invictus Games Foundation and the Institute of Imagination.

Alison Tattersall

BA (Hons), Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing

Alison became a PDSA Trustee in 2016 and is a member of the Audit and Risk Committee.

Alison is a commercial marketing professional with over 30 years experience working across the Barclays Group, including in Wealth, Corporate, Retail and Barclaycard Payments.

Joining Barclays as a graduate trainee she worked across the Group to develop broad commerical experience before specialising in both consumer and client marketing roles. Prior to leaving Barclays in June 2021 she led the Corporate Banking marketing team, with responsbility for the US, Asia and Europe. 

She is passionate about animal welfare and conservation and has previously provided marketing expertise as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. 

Liz Hutchinson

Liz became a PDSA Trustee in 2022. She is the Director of Communications and Marketing for the UK's national academy for the humanities and social sciences, the British Academy, and has held leadership roles in a range of organisations in Higher Education and public bodies including Goldsmiths, University of London, the General Social Care Council, the Electoral Commission and the Learning Trust.

She is a trustee of Music for Youth and member of the British Library Advisory Board and the Discovery Decade Advisory Board.

More about how PDSA is run