our trustees

Progressio is governed by a Board of Trustees, which is responsible for our overall vision and values. Read more about the of role of trustees.

Helena Molyneux -  Chair of Trustees Chair of the Board of Trustees since October 2001, Helena is a management consultant specialising in human resource management and strategic change. She was previously human resources director of British Council, human resources director for Europe and Middle East for Bankers Trust Company, and non-executive director and vice-chair of Traidcraft plc. Find out what motivates Helena to dedicate time and energy to Progressio. Helena has been on the Board since 1996.

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.

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.

Rick Davies Rick Davies was a CIIR* development worker in Mogadishu, Somalia, from 1985 to 1988, researching urban poverty. He has extensive experience of developing countries, including many in which Progressio works, and a wide knowledge of non-governmental organisations and donors. He is currently a social development consultant with a specialism in monitoring and evaluation. Among his clients are the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and UK non-governmental organisations. An Australian, he has been living in the UK since 1989 when he began his doctorate on organisational learning in NGOs, at the Centre for Development Studies in Swansea, where he is an Associate Research Fellow. Rick manages a website called Monitoring and Evaluation News and has been on the Progressio Board since 2001.

Brenda Lipson Brenda joined Progressio in 1980, when she went to Ecuador as a Development Worker for two years and stayed for seven. In 1987 she went on to open a new country office for CIIR in the Dominican Republic and Haiti and continued to cover these countries plus Nicaragua from the London office until 1995. Brenda then joined Oxfam as their Regional Manager for South America until 2000, when she joined INTRAC (International NGO Training and Research Centre) and remained with them as Deputy Executive Director until December 2007.   Brenda's focus is on civil society strengthening and organisational development, and she is now a freelance consultant working internationally on these areas. She has been on the Progressio Board since 2001.   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.

Martin McEnery I have worked for twenty years in management consultancy with organisations and projects in UK, Europe, Africa and India. This has included work both for and with DFID. Previously I trained and qualified in law, and have worked as a lawyer and taught law in UK and Africa, and I have a degree in theology from Heythrop College. I have 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. My work has always been dedicated to enabling the people I work with to grow in self-help, ability and ownership of the issues that concern them.

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.

Rosemary Read 'I am a mother with two sons, two daughters and eight grandchildren.  I have worked in the field of justiceand peace for over 20 years and now work in a parish on catechetics. I taught in Kenya in the 1960s and visited Central America, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Peru in the 1990s.  I also worked for 3 months in Palestine as part of the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in 2004. 'I am a trustee because of my ongoing interest in trying to make sense of the Gospel in the light of my life and the world in general.  Hard work but inspiring!' Rosemary has been on the Progressio Board since October 2001.

Alberta Stevens Alberta Stevens is currently a training consultant and co-founder of Southern Narrative, a development education and professional development training consultancy. She has had over seven years' experience working in project management, governance and capacity building within the voluntary sector in the UK. Her experience within the public and private sectors extends to marketing, policy and research. Alberta also lectures part time in human rights and politics at the London Metropolitan University where she is also developing her research interests in global citizenship, human rights and development in Sierra Leone. "I am a Trustee on the Board of Progressio because I strongly believe in the vision and values of the organisation both from a spiritual and social point of view." Alberta was co-opted onto the Board in March and elected a full Trustee at the AGM in October 2005.

* Please note: CIIR changed its name to Progressio in January 2006.