Meet our trustees
Our trustees play a valuable role and work closely with the team to run the Pilgrim Trust.
Lord Sassoon, Kt
Chair
James Sassoon is Chair of Sir John Soane’s Museum Trust and President of the China-Britain Business Council, and a Non-executive Director of Barco, of Arbuthnot Banking Group and of China Construction Bank. A Chartered Accountant, James was at investment bank S.G. Warburg before joining HM Treasury, latterly as Commercial Secretary to the Treasury, and then at the Jardine Matheson group. James has been Chairman of the ifs School of Finance, Deputy Chair of the British Museum and a Trustee of the National Gallery Trust and of the Gerald Coke Handel Foundation.
Samira Ahmed
Trustee
Samira Ahmed is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and writer, specialising in culture and design. She presents Front Row on Radio 4, Newswatch on BBC1, the vintage TV podcast Through The Square Window, and is the author of a BFI Film Classics book on the Beatles’ first film, A Hard Day’s Night. She is President of the Twentieth Century Society, which campaigns to protect and celebrate modern architecture and design heritage, and sits on the Historic England blue plaques advisory panel. Samira is also a trustee of the Centre for Women’s Justice and an honorary fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
Toby Anstruther
Trustee
Toby Anstruther, who lives in Scotland, has 30 years’ experience managing central London and rural property – much of it Listed – on his own account and as a trustee for a number of private estates. Beyond this he has had wider experience as a trustee of a number of charities, including Foundation Scotland (Scotland’s Community Foundation) and other Community Foundations and charities of place. He also sits on the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster.
His interests have always been focused on Design, Community, Food & Farming.
Dr Anna Keay OBE
Trustee
Anna Keay is a writer, historian and curator, with a special interest in 17th-century British history. She is also the Director of the Landmark Trust and previously worked for Historic Royal Palaces and English Heritage. Anna has also published several books, including The Restless Republic: Britain without a Crown. She has also presented several TV documentaries – notably the six-part Channel 4 series about the Landmark Trust Restoring Britain’s Landmarks. Currently, Anna is a Trustee of the Royal Collection Trust, a Governor of Bedales School, a Non-Executive Director of Big Yellow Group PLC and an Ambassador of the Weald & Downland Living Museum. She is also a Visiting Professor at Birmingham City University and has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Letters by the University of East Anglia.
Alice La Trobe Weston
Trustee
Alice La Trobe Weston has spent over twenty five years working in asset management. She helps manage the endowment at Trinity College, Cambridge, in support of the College’s enduring charitable mission to support education and research. She oversees the sustainability strategy for the endowment, as well as the public and private equity asset allocations. Previous roles include an investment manager role at a multi-asset social impact fund, as well as 15 years at Morgan Stanley as a portfolio manager and research analyst, in London and New York. She has been a pro-bono consultant to leaders of small charities and social enterprises via the Pilotlight network, a school governor and is now a trustee for the charity Water Harvest. She is an alumnus of Pembroke College, Cambridge and the LSE.
Atul Patel MBE
Lead Non-Executive Trustee
Atul Patel’s career has spanned social housing, regeneration and regulation. His roles included Regional Director East Midlands and Director of Regulation at The Housing Corporation; Deputy Director at the Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Unit; and Chief Executive roles at ASRA Greater London Housing Association and LHA-ASRA Group in Leicester. Latterly, he was a Trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund, where his roles included Chair of the Finance Committee and Investment Panel; and Trustee of the Royal College of Nursing Foundation. He was Non-Executive Director of the Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and former Chairman of the Chesterfield Hospital Charitable Funds Committee. Atul was also a Member of the Leicester Cathedral Revealed Project Board during its period of operation. Currently he is Chairman of the Charnwood Forest Landscape Partnership and a Trustee of The Dhrupad Music Society and The Sitar Music Society. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing and Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Matthew Ridley
Trustee
Matthew Ridley is the Chief Investment Officer of SANE Capital, a single family office based in London managing a multi-asset portfolio. Formerly, he was Chief Executive and Chief Investment Officer of Windmill Hill Asset Management, the investment manager of three charitable foundations endowed by the Rothschild family. Previously Matthew was CIO of Consulta Limited, investing in conventional and alternative asset classes on behalf of family offices, small pension funds, private banks and fund products. He was the co-founder of ART19 Inc, a digital media company, since acquired by Amazon. He is the author of ‘How to Invest in Hedge Funds, An Investment Professional’s Guide’.
Simone Spray
Trustee
Simone Spray has been working with children, young people, families and communities for over 30 years driven by a passion for tackling structural inequity and discrimination and championing social justice and community voice and influence. She is currently the Chief Executive at 42nd Street – a pioneering mental health charity supporting 5000+ young people in Greater Manchester each year and Non-Executive Director at Greater Manchester Mental Health. A qualified Psychologist and Youth Worker, Simone cut her teeth leading innovations within Local Authorities in Greater Manchester and then went on to lead the UK Child Poverty Programme at Save the Children and as Deputy CE at Keep Britain Tidy. Simone remains a Trustee at Gorse Hill Studios where she started her own youth and community work journey in the 90’s.
Marie Staunton CBE
Trustee
Marie Staunton has worked in social welfare, human rights, international development and the private sector. She started her career running hostels for addicts, alcoholics and homeless young people and families in England, Belfast, Cork and Dublin. After qualifying as a solicitor, she worked with Mirpuri homeworkers in Birmingham and as a human rights and children’s lawyer. She became legal officer of Liberty, concentrating on privacy, prisons and criminal law. She became Director of Amnesty UK then Vice Chair of its International Executive Committee. After seven years in the commercial sector as a Director of a Pearson company she worked for UNICEF, was CEO of Plan UK and Plan Canada. She has wide Board experience and Chairs or is a Director of several Boards of international development and local organisations, as well as being active in her local community.
Dr Alexander Sturgis CBE
Trustee
Alexander Sturgis is the Director of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. He was previously the Director of the Holburne Museum, Bath from 2005 to 2014. Before that, Dr Sturgis worked at the National Gallery, London, for fifteen years, in various posts including Exhibitions and Programmes Curator from 1999–2005. He is also an alumnus of University College, Oxford and the Courtauld Institute of Art, London.
Cullagh Warnock
Trustee
Cullagh Warnock started her working life in youth work, going on to work for local and national grant-makers. Currently the Trust Manager for Millfield House Foundation, she also works in a freelance capacity with other grant-makers. She has a particular interest in social justice and the women and girls’ sector, bringing experience in relational grant-making, partnership working and policy work. She has lived in Newcastle upon Tyne for over 40 years and is actively involved in local campaign One Million Women and Girls and regional advocacy voice Represent Women. Her most rewarding role is as co-chair of a local domestic abuse service.
Joan Winterkorn MBE
Trustee
Joan Winterkorn is an independent advisor on archives and manuscripts. She worked as an archivist in London and a rare book librarian in America before joining the booksellers Bernard Quaritch Ltd in 1979. There she handled the valuation and sale of a large number of literary, political, scientific, theatrical and historical archives. Currently a member of the Acceptance in Lieu Panel and the National Documents Working Party, she has served on the Council of the Friends of the National Libraries, the Friends of Cambridge University Library, and the Editorial Board of The Book Collector. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and in 2006 was awarded the Royal Society of Literature’s Benson Medal.
“We aim to be flexible, unbureaucratic, collaborative and pioneering.”