Trustees
At Inspire North we want our Board of Trustees to reflect the diverse communities we serve, and we particularly encourage and welcome Trustee applications from people from diverse backgrounds. For an informal discussion about what would be involved, please contact the CEO Ruth Kettle in the first instance, on 0113 273 9660.
Our Trustees
Claire Vilarrubi - Chair - Inspire North
Claire has more than 20 years’ experience working in criminal justice, first as a forensic psychologist then later as a prison governor. She now teaches on the Psychology programmes at Leeds Trinity University and is currently undertaking a PhD examining the needs of young women identified as being at increased likelihood of contact with the criminal justice system.
Damian Pocknell - Inspire North - Vice Chair
After nearly 20 years working for a variety of specialist providers across the social care field, from the front line through to senior management, Damian now runs his own business providing business development and supported housing development consultancy services to charities and care & support providers. He has been a trustee for various specialist mental health charities since 2003.
Alina Kaur - Inspire North - Co-Production Champion
Alina is our Co-production Trustee and has more than 17 years’ operational and strategic experience in social housing, supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. She established an innovative and award-winning service for victims of domestic abuse. She has led business transformation and improvement through innovation, effective strategic planning, change management, project management and co-production. She has proven experience in bringing external evidence-based approaches and implementing them into best practice.
David Strachan - Inspire North - Compliance Champion
David has been based in Leeds throughout his career as a corporate lawyer. He is currently a partner in Schofield Sweeney, a Yorkshire-based law firm, where he advises organisations and companies on a wide range of business matters. David is particularly interested in the education and development of young people. He is a director of White Rose Academies Trust, which runs four academy schools in Leeds, and a governor of Pocklington School.
Philip Turnpenny - Inspire North - Freedom to Speak Up Champion
Philip spent the vast majority of his career in HR and was the Director of HR at Moores Furniture Group. In addition to his involvement with Inspire North he is a Trustee of two other charities and Chair of Governors at Tadcaster Grammar School.
Jacqueline Hallam - Independent Trustee of Community Links - Employee Wellbeing Champion
Jacqueline worked for 36 years in a variety of HR generalist and specialist roles for Marks & Spencer in the UK, Dublin and Warsaw. She is currently a HR Business Partner for the Co-operative Group. She is a Chartered Member of CIPD.
Cornelle Parker - Independent Trustee of Community Links - Diversity & Inclusion Champion
Cornelle graduated in Medicine from the University of Liverpool and has been practising as a doctor for nearly 30 years. She is a consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology and Deputy Medical Director at an acute hospital trust. She is also a senior examiner for the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. Her professional focus is increasingly on clinical leadership development.
Lisa Bradley - Inspire North - Treasurer
Lisa is a finance professional with over 30 years’ experience in both the commercial and not-for-profit sectors, more recently in supported housing and education. She has led many successful teams across a variety of functions including finance, governance and compliance, HR, IT and property services. In addition to her role as an independent trustee of Foundation, she currently holds the post of Chief Financial Officer at Pennine Academies Yorkshire in Bradford, and has recently joined the Board of Arches Housing in Sheffield.
Dave Roche – Independent Trustee of Foundation – Housing Champion
A graduate in Law from the University of Liverpool David has held senior positions in both the Local Authority and charitable housing association sectors in West Yorkshire during which time he successfully delivered a number of urban renewal estate improvement programmes, and managed decentralised housing management teams.
Following this David then took up a position with national older persons housing charity Anchor Trust during which time he led their regional housing support teams and became Policy Implementation Manager.
In 2014, David began working as a housing consultant providing quality assurance and regulatory compliance advice to providers of general needs and specialist support housing for vulnerable adults with learning disabilities, work that has included the delivery of innovative managed agency partnering, regulatory inspection planning, compliance and safeguarding projects.
David continues to advise clients including specialist providers and developers of supported housing and also undertakes pro-bono advisory and mentoring work in the voluntary and further education sectors.