We value our relationships with grantholders. Our trustees are involved at every stage of an application, and we always visit or meet an applicant before a grant is made.
Sufina Ahmad MBE
Director
Sufina became Director in January 2020. She works closely with Trustees, the team and stakeholders, including grantees, to ensure all aspects of the Foundation’s strategy, governance and grantmaking work are delivered effectively. In 2022, Sufina finished a two-year Executive MBA programme, with a specialism in Strategic Leadership, at Warwick Business School.
Before joining the Foundation, Sufina worked in corporate strategy and performance at the City of London Corporation. She has also worked for the National Lottery Community Fund and City Bridge Trust in grantmaking, strategy and policy roles. Sufina started her career in service delivery and business development roles for charities working with adults with learning disabilities and older people.
Sufina holds trusteeships with Just for Kids Law, We Belong, The Charterhouse and the Association of Charitable Foundations. Sufina is an honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, having chaired their Expert Panel on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. She is also an RSA fellow. Sufina was awarded an MBE for charitable services in 2020.

Matthew Whittell
Head of Finance & Resources
Matthew joined the Foundation in January 2016. He works with trustees to oversee and implement the investment strategy for the Foundation’s endowment and ensure the Foundation’s sound financial management, accounting and reporting.
Before joining the Foundation, he was Chief Financial Officer for Aggregated Micro Power and Climate Exchange plc, both companies working in the broad sector of climate change mitigation. Previously, Matthew was a Director at Schroders and Citigroup, where he specialised in raising finance for companies in the public and private capital markets.
He is a trustee of Global Village Energy Partnership, a small charity which seeks to provide energy access, chiefly in sub-Saharan Africa. He is also a governor at Sherborne School. These roles are an expression of Matthew’s interests in the environment, energy and education.

Dorothée Irving
Head of Grants
Dorothée joined the Foundation at the end of 2015. Working closely with the Director and Trustees her role is to oversee the Foundation’s grant-making operation by managing the assessment and monitoring process.
From 2010 until 2015 she was part of the grants team at the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, most recently as Grants Manager, with a particular focus on widening access and participation in the arts. During the previous six years she worked at the Rothschild Foundation Europe, where she looked after their Archives, Libraries and Museums Programmes. Prior to that, Dorothée worked as a freelance editor and translator of Jewish literature.

Gareth Clayton
Grants Manager
Gareth joined the Foundation in March 2020. His role assists with all aspects of the Foundation’s grant making, as well as providing administrative and strategic support to the Director, Head of Grants, as well as other colleagues and the Trustees. Before joining the Foundation, Gareth worked as Programmes Manager at UK Community Foundations and a Monitoring and Evaluation Manager at the SHINE Trust. Prior to entering the third sector he completed an MA in Art History in Canada and worked as a Gallery Manager at a commercial art gallery in London.

Rian Trim
Office Manager & Executive Assistant
Rian joined the Foundation in March 2020. Her role oversees the smooth running of the Foundation’s office, administrative processes and governance; as well as providing executive support to the Director, and organisational support to colleagues and the Trustees. Before joining the Foundation Rian worked as Office Manager at the Clore Duffield Foundation, and prior to that as Administrator at the Royal Academy of Arts. Rian has a BA in Photographic Arts and a keen interest in environmental and social action issues, volunteering with UK and international charities working in these respective areas.

Peter Kyle OBE
Chair
Peter was appointed to the Trustee Board in March 2014, following a career in the arts and cultural sector spanning theatre, dance, arts management and education.
His former roles include Chair and Pro Chancellor of the University of Westminster, Chair of the Magic Circle Foundation, Director-General of The English Speaking Union, Chief Executive of The Scottish Ballet, Chair of the Centre for Contemporary Arts, Dean of the Arts Educational Schools and Chief Executive of Shakespeare’s Globe.
Peter is currently Chair of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Trustee of Noel Coward Foundation, Governor of English National Ballet School, Honorary President of Tavaziva Dance Company, and a Member of Council of Shakespeare’s Globe. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Westminster and is an Honorary Fellow of South Bank University.

Gary Steinberg
Trustee
Gary was appointed to the Trustee Board in July 2016 and as of January 2017, he was appointed the Chairman of the Finance and Investment Committee. Gary is an independent non-executive director at the asset management firm Sarasin and Partners, and serves on investment committees at Gresham House Asset Management, and the Nuffield Foundation. He is also Chairman of a small biotechnology company, Cambridge Science in the USA. Gary has over 35 years' experience working in the investment industry. This includes high profile positions as Chief of the Investment Unit at the International Monetary Fund in Washington D.C., Chief Investment Officer of Wellcome Trust, the world's largest endowed medical research charity, and Chief Executive of British Petroleum's UK pension plan.
Gary also held non-executive positions with SVG Capital, a leading UK private equity company, and was Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. He served on the Investment Committees of the University of Cambridge Endowment (2002-2006) and The Kings Fund (2006-2009).

Geraldine Blake
Trustee
Geraldine was appointed to the Trustee Board in July 2016. Geraldine’s career has been in frontline community work, including as Chief Executive of Community Links, a social action charity working alongside local people to tackle inequality in east London. She also founded a social enterprise, GAP Research, which supported residents in highly diverse communities to undertake their own research and to work with public agencies to design effective solutions to long standing problems.
Bringing that experience into the funding sector, Geraldine is now the Director of Collaboration at London Funders, and the Co-ordinator of the Trust for London's Citizenship and Integration Initiative.

Keith Shepherd
Trustee
Keith was appointed to the Trustee Board in January 2018. He is a qualified accountant who has spent most of his career in investment management for large institutions. This has involved roles with organisations in the public, private and charitable sectors, including Investment Strategist with the BP Pension Fund and Chief Investment Officer with the Railways Industry Pension Schemes.
Keith is also a trustee of the Dunhill Medical Trust.

Tufyal Choudhury
Trustee
Tufyal Choudhury was appointed to the Trustee Board in May 2018. He is an Associate Professor of Law at Durham University; a Senior Research Fellow on National Security and the Rule of Law at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law and Society, and a fellow of the German Marshall Fund Trans-Atlantic Forum on Migration and Integration. His research focuses on human rights, integration and counter terrorism law and policy. He is also a trustee of the Democratic Audit, and Director of MFest (Festival of Muslim Cultures and Ideas).

Annika Small OBE
Trustee
Annika was appointed to the Trustee Board in June 2018. A social entrepreneur, she is co-founder of CAST, a charity that works to build a more resilient and responsive social sector using digital technology. Prior to CAST, Annika was CEO of Nominet Trust, which, under her leadership, invested more than £40m in early-stage ventures that deploy technology for social innovation. Previous roles include founding Generation Global, which brings together young people from different cultures to learn from one another, and CEO of Futurelab, which uses digital means to open up education to some of the most disadvantaged young people around the world.
Annika is Chair of the University of Chichester and a non-executive director of Wey Education plc. She was awarded an OBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours for services to social innovation and digital technology.

Becca Bunce
Trustee
Becca was appointed to the Trustee Board in September 2018. She brings experience of working in the charity sector in policy, campaigns and public affairs. In her spare time, she is co-director of the award-winning IC Change campaign, which aims to end violence against women. She has a strong interest in enabling people with lived-experience to participate in and lead social change, developed through her employment, academic interests and personal experience as a disabled woman. Becca’s work has been recognised through the Gender Campaigner of the Year award from Sheila McKechnie Foundation, acknowledgment by President Obama and inclusion on the University of London’s 150 ‘Leading Women’ list.

Jonny Hughes
Trustee
Jonny was appointed to the Trustee Board in March 2021. He is currently WCMC Chief Executive Officer at the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), and chair elect of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and nine leading internationally focused nature conservation organisations.
Since 2012, Jonny has served as an elected Council member for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), where he also chaired the Council’s policy and programme committee for four years. In addition, Jonny is non-executive director of Corrour Estate, a large upland estate in Scotland; chair of the Ecological Advisory Board of Ardtornish Estate, and trustee of the Postcode Trusts, which disburse funds from the People’s Postcode Lottery.
Jonny holds a BA (Hons.) and an MsC (Hons.). He is an honorary fellow of the University of Edinburgh, an Ambassador for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, and an honorary fellow of Scottish Environment Link.
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About Us
The Foundation was set up as a generalist grantmaking trust in 1971. We continue with the broad philanthropic interests of our benefactor Sir John Ellerman, while reflecting changing times.
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What matters to us
Our values reflect how we work. We are a responsive funder, listening and responding to what applicants judge is important.
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Our story
The Foundation was created from the wealth and generosity of a father and son. The first Sir John Ellerman was a trained accountant who went on to become the richest man in Britain.
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Finance and investments
We exist to make grants to charities and wish to do so for the long term. Investing our endowment provides us with greater capacity to make grants to charities into the future.
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