Board of Trustees

Francesca Barnes – Chair

Francesca Barnes has recently retired from a 27 year career in finance that culminated in her being the Global Head of UBS Private Equity from 2001-2008. She was appointed to the UBS-IB Board in 2004 and chaired the UBS-IB Development Board, a sub-committee of the UBS-IB Board. Francesca had joined Swiss Bank Corporation in 1993 to run the UK loan restructuring business, before moving to Education, to Leveraged Finance and from 1998 - 2001 to the role of Global Loan Portfolio Manager where she oversaw the multi-billion dollar strategic risk reduction of the loan book. Having read Geography at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, Francesca started her financial career at Chase Manhattan Bank in 1980. As a Vice President with Chase, Francesca worked in commodity finance in the US and UK, ran the financial institutions group in London and finally worked in Chase Private Equity. After leaving Chase she took an 18 month leave of absence to travel extensively.

Outside work Francesca has always been involved with charities and education. She is currently Chair of The Bridge Academy, Hackney and Chair of the St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, Development Board. Francesca was Chair and a governor of The Henrietta Barnett School from 1997 - 2005.

Francesca has been a Trustee of Penny Brohn Cancer Care since 1998 and was made Chair of the Trustee Board in 2007.

Rev Dr Victor Barley

Rev Dr Victor Barley is a retired Consultant Oncologist and former Lead Clinician of Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire Cancer Services Network. He is currently an associate priest in Chew Stoke and Nempnett Thrubwell.

Sheila Murison

Sheila Murison is a Bristol-based businesswoman with a long career in retailing. She founded a family business which successfully operated 14 stores in the South West and was also Buying Director for a national chain of specialist toy shops for 8 years. She is currently a Partner in a specialist confectionery business. Sheila had a second career in property development and management, both in the commercial and residential sectors, and is still a Director of two property management companies. She has a deep interest in integrated medicine and is a Church Treasurer.

She has been a Trustee of Penny Brohn since 1999 and is a former Chief Executive of the Centre. Together with her husband Neil, artist and Director of the New Gallery at the Royal West of England Academy, she organised a number of fundraising exhibitions for the charity which have included limited edition lithographs donated by HRH The Prince of Wales.

Pat Pilkington MBE

Penny Brohn and Pat Pilkington founded the Bristol Cancer Help Centre in 1980. It grew out of an existing Christian Healing Centre that Pat ran with her late husband, Canon Christopher Pilkington in a house that they owned in Clifton. An earlier career in drama and radio journalism gave Pat many media contacts which have proved useful over the years in fundraising for the Centre.

Carol Sapsed

Carol has enjoyed three professional careers as well as bringing up four children. On leaving school she trained and worked as a physiotherapist. She then moved into working with offenders in a residential setting before qualifying as a probation officer in 1980. She retired from Avon Probation Service having achieved the rank of Assistant Chief Probationer Officer. She has been a trustee with Penny Brohn since 1998. Her other commitments include being a governor of Wraxall CEVA Primary School and completing an MA with the Open University. Her particular interests at the Centre include personnel and education issues.

Ian Turner

Ian Turner has served as Treasurer on the Board of Trustees and as Director of Finance. He is a Chartered Accountant and was previously a Partner at KPMG, the international accounting services firm. Ian also works with other organisations providing strategic financial support at Board level. Ian recently walked to the North Pole to raise funds for the Centre.

Alex Hamilton-Baily

Alex is a Consultant with Odgers Berndtson, the Global Executive Search firm. He specialises in the recruitment and assessment of Chief Executives and Trustees to the not-for-profit sector and has worked with many of the biggest names in the charity world. Alex worked with PBCC on a number of consultancy projects before being invited to join the Board. Alex is a graduate of University College London, a graduate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and is a trained psychometric assessor.

Fiona Parashar

Fiona is an accredited coach (APECS) and has a Mastery in Coaching diploma through Newfield and an NLP coaching diploma (INLPTA). She is a master practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and is currently studying a master’s degree in Positive Psychology.

Fiona runs an executive coaching company, Leadership Coaching working with busy executives to help them maintain high performance levels whilst creating a positive and healthy work life balance. Fiona’s work has been featured in national press, and on national TV and radio, picking up on her coaching philosophy and programmes as outlined in her book THE BALANCING ACT- Work life solutions for busy people, published by Simon & Schuster (2003).

Alan Holcombe

Alan is a degree educated Engineer and also has a Masters degree in business management from Warwick University, his whole career has been spent working in manufacturing businesses, in a wide range of roles from Operations to Sales & Marketing.

Currently he is the Managing Director of Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Rencol, a highly successful local manufacturing company, whose products are used globally in around 50% of the world’s cars and computer hard disk drives. A recent appointment to the board and in his first role in the charitable sector, Alan is looking forward to working with the established team and bringing some new ideas from a different sector.

Emma Beeston

Emma is an experienced manager who has always worked in the voluntary and community sector including roles with Citizens Advice and Mind.

Currently she is Regional Manager with BBC Children in Need and is
responsible for grant making and fundraising across the South West. A
keen traveller, Emma has spent time in India, East Africa and Central
America. Emma has a Masters degree in Public Policy and is
particularly interested in addressing the needs of disadvantaged
communities.

Stephen Howell

Stephen Howell was appointed as a Trustee in May 2011, having been associated with the Charity for approximately 3 years. Along with his son Peter, they took part in our 2010 Mount Kilimanjaro Trek and raised in excess of £6k.
Stephen is a career banker having spent 28 years with Allied Irish Bank. He began his career in London and moved to Bristol in 1989 and became branch manager of the Bristol branch in 2003. In 2006 he moved to Svenska Handelsbanken a Swedish bank as a Corporate Manager dealing with a wide range of medium sized local businesses.
Stephen has a passion for foreign travel specifically for leisure activities including Scuba Diving and keeping fit by regularly attending the Gym.
Stephen is Hon. Treasurer of his local Village Hall Committee and a board member of a local housing association.