(2 minute read)
Published: 1 April 2025
Written by: Sufina Ahmad, Director
John Ellerman Foundation is pleased to announce the appointment of Geraldine Blake as our new Chair of the Board of Trustees from 1 April 2025. The Foundation has also introduced a new Vice Chair role, and we are pleased to share that Tufyal Choudhury is beginning as our inaugural Vice Chair on 1 April 2025.
Geraldine joined the Foundation in July 2016, following a distinguished career in frontline community work, including as Chief Executive of Community Links, and as founder of social enterprise, GAP Research. Geraldine currently works as Director of Collaboration at the membership body London Funders and is the Co-ordinator of Trust for London’s Citizenship and Integration initiative. Geraldine is also the lead Trustee for our Social Action funding category and supported the Foundation’s transition from the Welfare funding category to Social Action in 2019. Across all of her work, Geraldine’s particular interests are participation and collaboration with a focus on tackling the root causes of inequality and on shifting systems.
Tufyal was appointed to the Trustee Board in May 2018. He is an Associate Professor of Law at Durham University and a Senior Research Fellow on National Security and the Rule of Law at the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law. He has worked with several foundations, including the Open Society Foundation and the Aziz Foundation, in developing their research and grantmaking strategies on the social inclusion of marginalised groups. His research focuses on human rights, integration and counter terrorism law and policy.
Geraldine and Tufyal fulfil a number of Trustee and non-executive roles alongside their roles at the Foundation and are highly experienced at holding leadership roles within Trustee Boards. During their time with the Foundation, they have been instrumental in supporting the design of our current and upcoming strategy. Through their contribution to the Board, including in roles across various Committees and time-limited working groups, they have shown a continued commitment to our aim to advance wellbeing for people, society and the natural world across our investing, grantmaking and wider operations.
The Foundation’s current Chair, Peter Kyle CBE, is due to step down at the end of March 2025, having become Chair in January 2022. Peter joined the Trustee Board in 2014 and has used his extensive experience as an executive and Chair that has worked in a wide range of roles within the arts sector to support and shape the Foundation’s approach to our work in the Arts, as well as our wider grantmaking and investing activities.
Peter Kyle CBE, outgoing Foundation Chair, said “Geraldine will be an excellent Chair of the Foundation. It is an exciting development to introduce a new Vice Chair role and for Tufyal to be in this role. Geraldine and Tufyal will work together positively in service of the Foundation, and they will apply their considerable experience and expertise to support the Foundation’s transition to its next strategy.”
Geraldine Blake and Tufyal Choudhury said “Like many endowed charitable grantmakers, the Foundation is trying to respond as effectively as we can in an age of significant disruption and interconnected global threats. It is a privilege and a responsibility to be leading our Trustee colleagues to support the Foundation's staff and the people we work with, drawing on our collective expertise and diverse perspectives to achieve our aim of advancing wellbeing for people, society and the natural world.”