our trustees

Martin McEnery - Progressio Chair

Martin has worked for twenty years in management consultancy in UK, Europe, Africa and India, with organisations and projects in the commercial, public and voluntary sectors. This has included work both for and with DFID in a number of countries. Previously he trained and qualified in law, and has worked as a lawyer and taught law in UK and Africa. He has a degree in theology from Heythrop College.

He has been a founding director of two innovative companies providing training, finance and premises for new businesses in disadvantaged inner-city sectors, and a co-founder of a housing co-operative providing tenant-managed accommodation in inner London.

His work has always been dedicated to enabling the people he works with to grow in self-help, in personal effectiveness and in the ownership of the issues that concern them.

Martin has been on the Board since 2006 and in 2008 he was appointed as Chair of the Board. Find out what motivates Martin to dedicate time and energy to Progressio.

Dennis Sewell - Vice Chair

In the late 1980s Dennis Sewell was working on East Timor and came across CIIR*. He kept in touch, becoming a member in 1988. He has worked for BBC News and Current Affairs since 1986 and is currently the presenter of BBC Radio 4's Talking Politics and In the Think Tanks.

He is an award winning documentary maker and has previously worked for the Today programme and World Tonight. He also spent eight years in the press gallery of the House of Commons. He has a lot of experience of Boards and will bring communications expertise to Progressio's Board of Trustees.

Dennis joined the Board in 2002.

Chris Smith

Phil King - Progressio Treasurer

Currently Head of Strategic Finance at Ecotricity, and a non-executive director of a number of ethical and Fairtrade businesses, I was previously Finance Director at Cafedirect plc where I managed their successful public share issue. My earlier career was mainly spent in the healthcare sector, including MD of a company providing prosthetic services to the UK NHS, developing a similar business in India, and founding a company to manufacture and market a seating system for people with severe disabilities. Born in Liverpool, I graduated in Mathematics from Manchester University and spent 18 months in Lesotho as a volunteer teacher and on a UN food distribution project before qualifying as a Chartered Accountant.

Phil has been on the Board since 1999 and during that time he has visited Progressio's programmes in Yemen, Peru, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Honduras to carry out internal audits of the country offices.  Phil became Treasurer in 2005, after a number of years' service on the Finance and Audit Committee.

Tim Livesey

Tim has nearly 20 years' experience working for the Foreign Office, including a two year secondment as an adviser to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster. He is now adviser in public affairs and communications to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. 
 
Tim has lived overseas in Morocco, France and Nigeria where he ran the DFID (then ODA) office in the early 90s.  His interest in development, particularly human development, stems from this time, and his admiration for the work of CIIR* from long before that. Tim finds particular inspiration in Progressio's faith in the essential dignity of the human person and in the power of partnership to change lives. Tim joined the Progressio Board in 2007.

Cornelius Murombedzi

Gillian Paterson

Gillian Paterson is an independent consultant and writer on development issues, specialising in HIV and AIDS.  She worked for Christian Aid for many years, then for the Churches' Commission on Mission, and more recently, in a freelance capacity, for the World Council of Churches, the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, and for church or faith-related organisations in India, the USA, Norway and in various African countries. 

She has written articles and books on health, on women and on AIDS, all in the context of the global Church.  She is currently completing a doctorate, at Heythrop College London, on the theological implications of AIDS-related stigma.  She is a Catholic, lives in North London and has three grandchildren.

Carolyn Williams

Carolyn is a consultant and academic on development issues, specifically relating to gender and sexuality.  She previously spent 8 years as the head of the Latin America/Caribbean team at Christian Aid, after working in Peru for 6 years as Progressio's Country Representative.

In 2009 Carolyn completed her doctorate on sexuality and development with the Gender Institute at the London School of Economics and has taught at undergraduate and MSc level. She is currently working as a part time researcher with the LSE's Centre for the Study of Global Governance and is also a freelance consultant with UNIFEM's Gender Equality Fund.

Carolyn joined the Progressio board in 2008.