Our Leadership
Board of Trustees
Helen Brewer
Chair of Trustee Board
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Helen Brewer
Chair of Trustee Board
Helen is passionate about all the wonderful people and the work they do at YMCA St Paul’s Group in particular, giving hope to those in need. Her involvement with YMCA started at an early age, volunteering as a student at YMCA West London Nursery and at YMCA’s Pavilion of Hope EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Germany. After becoming a trustee of West London YMCA in 2016, Helen was involved in the merger with YMCA St Paul’s Group. She became a Group trustee in 2018 and chaired the Performance Committee for three years. In November 2022, she became Chair of the Group Trustee Board.
Helen’s professional career was initially focused within the private equity and real estate sectors and has included financing, company valuation and improvement, structuring and fundraising. For over 16 years, she worked at HSBC, Barclays and Blackstone. Until 2018, she was principal of The Blackstone Group, a leading global investment business. Moving to Sussex provided her the opportunity to retrain in health coaching, art therapy and study nutrition naturopathy. She is passionate to help people explore wellness, nutrition and self care.
She has served on several other local charity trustee boards and is a mentor and coach.
Graham Beech
Vice Chair of Trustee Board
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Graham Beech
Vice Chair of Trustee Board
Graham is passionate about using his professional experiences to help YMCA St Paul’s Group deliver on its strategic vision and charitable mission through sustained, outstanding results.
Graham has over 30 years’ experience of working on issues relating to marginalised young people, families and communities which has enabled him to develop extensive knowledge of the client group YMCA St Paul’s Group serves. His career has been characterised by seeking to reduce social exclusion in some of the most deprived areas across London and the UK.
Formerly CEO of Action on Addiction, he is now the Director of Communitatis Ltd, which works with boards, senior executive teams and other systems leaders in health, social care and criminal justice environments, supporting them to develop systems, strategies and services for the benefit of the children, families and adults they work with.
Ken Youngman
Chair of Audit and Risk Committee
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Ken Youngman
Chair of Audit and Risk Committee
Ken is passionate about YMCA St Paul’s Group because of the difference the Charity makes to the lives of those who have nowhere to call home.
An experienced accountant, Ken previously has worked as a Finance Director at Family Mosaic, one of the G15 large Housing Associations. During this time, he held several chairing roles including the G15 Finance Directors Group. Ken has also worked for Transport for London as their Finance Director with responsibility for their Commercial and Housing Developments. Ken has recently joined Sovereign Housing Association as their Interim Chief Finance Officer.
Ken’s drive for strong financial performance combined with a commitment to the impact of the charity has helped ensure a robust but compassionate approach to all that the YMCA does. He is Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee.
Duncan Ingram
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Duncan Ingram
Duncan is passionate about YMCA St Paul’s Group quite simply because of the impact the charity has on transforming people’s lives. He is also an Executive Committee member of the World Alliance of YMCAs and has previously been a Vice Chair for YMCA England and Wales.
In addition to his roles at the YMCA Duncan is Chairman at The Children’s Trust, the UK’s largest paediatric brain injury rehabilitation charity. He also served as Non-Executive Director at the Hyde Group housing association for 9 years. Duncan is also Chair of the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts and trustee of Livability, chairing their Strategic Business Committee, as well as being a governor at King’s College School, Wimbledon.
A former Managing Director at BT, Duncan brings a wide range of experience in customer service, strategy, operational and risk management both in the UK and internationally.
Chris Stern
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Chris Stern
Chris is inspired to be a part of YMCA St Paul’s Group as he desires to help young people and see individuals reach their full potential. In addition to being a trustee for YMCA St Paul’s Group, Chris is also on both the England and Wales and West London Board.
A qualified accountant, Chris has enjoyed a successful executive career with British Gas and Centrica, undertaking a variety of roles including CEP BG Insurance, and prior to this Divisional Finance Director for British Gas Services, Centrica Business Services and the Automobile Association. Currently, Chris is the Senior Independent Director for StepChange, the largest UK debt charity, and Pension and Investment Trustee at Centrica PLC.
Chris is also a Licensed Lay Minister within the Church of England.
Ingrid Jack
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Ingrid Jack
Ingrid is excited by the YMCA vision to empower young people and create communities where everyone can flourish. She is keen to support YMCA SPG in successfully delivering the practical, cultural and process and system changes in the strategic plan.
Ingrid is a Change Management Consultant with experience as a leader, manager and consultant working with large and small organisations in a variety of sectors. She currently works as both a freelance consultant and for the TiG Group as their Strategic Integration Lead.
Prior to her current roles, Ingrid worked for Microsoft for nearly 20 years in a variety of roles in the Consulting Services organisation ending as a Digital Transformation Managing Architect, empowering organisations to achieve their digital aspirations.
Ingrid has also worked with a number of charities and not-for-profit organisations over the past 10 years. She has a good understanding of the similarities and differences between corporate, charity and faith-based organisations, and appropriate ways to manage and support change in each of these settings.
Ingrid has previously served as a trustee for east to west, a youth-focussed charity based in Surrey and Berkshire and is currently a Trustee for her church, Equippers Surrey, where she plays an active role, using her professional expertise, to support them as they grow, develop and meet the challenges of the digital world.
Allan Wickham
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Allan Wickham
Allan became a trustee of YMCA St Paul’s Group in 2023, prior to this he was a member of the Development and Assets Committee where he has enjoyed supporting the charity with his experience of property services, compliance and health and safety.
Allan is driven by the desire to deliver a fairer society for all, and he is passionate about the work undertaken at YMCA St Paul’s Group due to its transformational impact on people’s lives. His current professional role is delivering environmental, social and governance (ESG) services within real estate for CBRE’s corporate occupier clients. This includes supporting clients with decarbonisation towards net zero, improving business impact on local communities, and greater engagement and wellbeing.
Prior to this Allan spent over 10 years within the financial services industry and brings broad experience in strategy, operations, risk management and property services. He also Chairs the Owner Occupier Forum of the Better Buildings Partnership.
John Swarbrick
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John Swarbrick
John joined the Board of YMCA St Paul’s Group in September 2023 as a Trustee, having previously been an independent member of the Audit and Risk Committee.
After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant, John worked in a variety of financial roles for multinational companies in the UK, Canada and Belgium. He then consulted on technology enabled business change and associated project and risk management, firstly with Deloitte Consulting and then with Ernst & Young. He joined Nationwide Building Society initially as a Head of Internal Audit, before being appointed a Head of Operational Risk Oversight. Since leaving Nationwide he provided independent programme assurance to the Board of the UK’s largest online mortgage broker.
With a deep knowledge of risk appraisal and project methods, John is pleased to be able to support St Paul’s Group as it continues in its mission to promote wellbeing to young people and communities, especially those who find themselves in need of safe and supportive accommodation.
John is also a Trustee for a charity which provides grants to translate promising developments in sight loss research into patient benefits.
We’re proud to have a diverse board of trustees. They bring expertise and experience from a variety of sectors, contributing a great deal to the leadership of YMCA St Paul’s Group. If you’re interested in becoming a trustee click here for more information.
Executive Team
Richard James, BEng Hons, MA, FRSA
Chief Executive Officer
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Richard James, BEng Hons, MA, FRSA
Chief Executive Officer
After graduating as a Structural Engineer Richard worked in the commercial sector for an international ship supply company. After this, he left to set up a number of youth-focused charities in South Wales before moving to South West London. He was drawn to the YMCA as it brought together the cause driven charitable focus with the need to be commercially astute: “I love the diversity of work, the focus on young people and community as well as the opportunity to build on the story of many great people who have gone before me, helping building an even stronger YMCA for the future.”
Since joining the YMCA over ten years ago, Richard has helped drive the merger work between YMCA East London, YMCA West London, YMCA Slough and YMCA London South West which ended up in the creation of YMCA St Paul’s Group. He also serves as a trustee of the Surbiton Education Health Trust.
“I love the fact we are part of a national and international family that spreads to over 100 people and that all over the world people are committed to make a difference in the community they work in. I would love us to be known to be a bold, pioneering organisation that is delivering work in new and exciting ways and to new young people and communities.”
Fred Angole, MSc, BA, FCCA
Group Finance Director & Deputy Chief Executive
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Fred Angole, MSc, BA, FCCA
Group Finance Director & Deputy Chief Executive
Fred is a qualified accountant with many years’ experience in retail, the civil service and has been a Finance Director of a number of housing associations. Throughout his career, he has had responsibility for finance, IT, business improvement and risk management. In addition to his role at the YMCA, he is also currently a board member for two housing associations (Notting Hill Genesis and Newlon).
Fred joined the YMCA as he was inspired by the work the Charity does in transforming young lives and the commitment of staff; especially as he was previously unaware of the mind, body and spirit dimension of YMCA’s work. He is also inspired by the work of the international YMCA family and the variety of ways in which needy communities are supported.
Looking forward, Fred is driven to implement our Strategic Plan and looks forward to being loving, hopeful, community-focused, people-centric and holistic in delivering the plan.
Jessica Laryea
Group Director of Operations
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Jessica Laryea
Group Director of Operations
Jessica is an experienced senior manager within the charity sector.
She has risen through the ranks in her 20+ years career with the YMCA and has vast experience of managing multi-functional teams and project management.
Jessica is now overseeing the operational service delivery of YMCA St Paul’s Group, including supported housing as well as childcare, youth and health & wellbeing services.
She is passionate about delivering quality homeless and community services and creating YMCA centres where young people thrive and communities flourish.
Julie Finn, BA, CFCIPD
Group Director of People and Culture
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Julie Finn, BA, CFCIPD
Group Director of People and Culture
Initally graduating in Business Studies, Julie developed her career in HR. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a Certified Advanced Clarity Coach and Facilitator, and a Certified Embodiment Coach. Her experience in senior leadership, consulting and coaching is across a wide range of sectors including facilities management.
Julie is responsibile for HR, Learning and Development, and the Chaplaincy Service.
Outside of work, Julie has volunteered with charities working with people living with disabilities, young people at risk and in overseas development.
Julie is excited by the YMCA’s mission to support young people and communities in need, and by its ethos of Mind, Body and Spirit which reflects her personal values and life journey.
Nilavra Mukerji
Group Director of Property and Places
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Nilavra Mukerji
Group Director of Property and Places
Nilavra brings extensive asset and property management experience having spent time working in senior roles for the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Royal Borough of Greenwich and Sutton Housing Partnership.
He is passionate about supporting communities and residents, committed to delivering high-quality safe, affordable, and energy-efficient housing with modern services tailored to people’s needs.