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.
Duncan Ingram: Vice Chair of Trustee Board
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.
Roni Savage – Vice Chair of Trustee Board & Chair of Development and Assets Committee
Roni is passionate about being a part of YMCA St Paul’s Group because of its focus on addressing issues of diversity and social mobility amongst young people and communities. Roni is proud of leading the Development & Assets Committee through the Wimbledon Development Project which comes to fruition in 2023, and will provide new places to live for around 120 YMCA residents.
As well as being a Trustee for YMCA St Paul’s Group, Roni is a member of the UK Policy Committee for the Federation of Small Businesses, in her capacity as Chair of Construction Policy. She also sits on the Advisory Board for the Mayor’s Fund for London, and other Advisory groups for the UK Government.
Roni, is a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Geologist and SiLC (Specialist in Land Condition). After gaining several years of engineering industry experience, she established Jomas Associates Ltd in 2009, an award-winning engineering and environmental consultancy based in the UK.
In 2018, Roni was named Black British Business Person of the Year and Natwest’s Athena Inspirational Woman. In 2021, Forbes listed Roni as one of their thirty Inspirational Women of the year. Roni is also a regular contributor to a range of media outlets, and has featured in articles for Forbes, the Daily Telegraph, The Times, Property Week and Business Leader as well as appearing on Sky News, BBC News and London Live TV. She received the highly prestigious presidential invitation to Fellowship of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) in 2019. She was also awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2020. In 2022, she was awarded Most Influential Woman in Construction by NFB and CITB, and has received several other awards for her contribution to the Engineering and Construction Sector.
She is a passionate advocate for women in Engineering, Construction and Enterprise in general. She was invited to join advisers to Alan Sugar on The BBC Apprentice 2019, as a result of the link to diversity within the business plan of one of the two finalists. She was featured as a case study in the Alison Rose review on female entrepreneurship.
She lives in Hertfordshire with her husband and three sons.
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.
Graham Beech – Safeguarding Champion
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.
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.
Joelle Jenny
Joelle is passionate about utilising her role of Trustee to support YMCA St Paul’s Group in its work to enable young people to thrive and communities to flourish, building on her skills and experience gained in a career of international diplomacy and conflict prevention.
Joelle started her career in the humanitarian aid sector, working for the International Committee of the Red Cross in various war affected countries. This included organising the distribution of food supplies for nine months in a besieged city in Africa, and a year in Sarajevo negotiating safe passage to reunify family separated by the war. She has since worked in government (UK, Switzerland) and international organisations (EU, UN, NATO) on a range of international peace and security issues.
Over the years she has acquired significant senior leadership and management experience. That includes managing up to £1.3bn of international aid programmes, sitting on a range of governance boards, driving organisation design, designing strategies, leading complex change management processes, and building inclusive, multicultural teams of over 100 staff.
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
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.
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.
