Our Trustees
The Board is currently made up of nine Trustees who were appointed for their passion for the historic environment and for their commitment to the charitable aims of the Foundation.
Fabian Richter
Chair
Fabian Richter is the chair of trustees and the co-founder of Distributor Due Diligence Ltd, a financial services start-up company which enables fund managers and intermediaries to conduct due diligence on the global distributors of their funds. He is a Trustee of the Create Streets Foundation.
Jay Barrymore
Jay Barrymore is a Partner at Kinleith Continuation, an investment holding company specialising in real assets and technology for a low carbon future. An impact-oriented investment professional and entrepreneur, Jay has C-suite experience leading strategy, business development, marketing, operations and capital raising across three continents. He is on the Advisory Board of Clockwork and also a non-executive Chair of Red Barrel Productions.
Peter Beckett
Peter Beckett is a commercial director with a career history of managing and growing businesses across a broad range of sectors, including advertising, horse racing and banking. Having set up project management and building restoration companies he has used this experience to lead the restoration of his home, Combermere Abbey, on the Cheshire-Shropshire border.
Ellen Leslie
Ellen Leslie is a heritage consultant and historian providing a research service for building conservation specialists and other property professionals as well as private homeowners. Ellen is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB) and a member of the Royal Historical Society (RHS)
Sir Laurie Magnus
Sir Laurie Magnus is Chair of Historic England. He is a Senior Adviser at Evercore Partners, the investment banking group, and holds several listed company non-executive directorships within the finance sector. Sir Laurie is also Chair of the Windsor Leadership Trust, and a Trustee of Allchurches Trust and the English Heritage Trust.
Matthew O’Connell
Matthew O’Connell is Head of Investment at BI Wines & Spirits, the largest global fine wine merchant. Matthew was formerly an Executive Director in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs.
Sat Singh
Sat Singh is the Founder and CEO of the Renaissance Foundation, a specialist London charity supporting young people facing educational, social and emotional challenges, such as young carers and young patients suffering from life-long/life-limiting illnesses. Sat established the Foundation in 2006. It received recognition through the Anne Frank Award in 2007 and the Marks and Spencer Business in the Community Sieff Award in 2011.
Sam Swire
Sam Swire is an Executive Director of John Swire and Sons Ltd in London, and Chair of Swire Shipping. He is a Non-Executive Director of Cathay Pacific Airways. He has a degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford. He joined the Swire Group in Hong Kong in 2003 and has worked with the group in Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Sri Lanka, and London.
David Laing
David’s trained as an architect at UCL and worked with Sir Basil Spence before forming a private practice and chairing a quoted housing development company.
He is chair and trustee of major philanthropic charities as well as those supporting heritage, community, culture, the arts and the environment. In contrast he led the development of Adrenaline Alley; Europe’s largest indoor skate/bmx park and home to the GB Olympic medallists. He is Pro-Chancellor of the University of Northampton.
