Board of Trustees

Our Trustees come from a broad range of backgrounds with diverse skills and experience to support the charity. They all give their time, energy and expertise for free.

Their key responsibilities are to:

• Lead the charity, establish its mission, vision and values and ensure it has a clear purpose and an overall framework of policies and standards.
• Develop overall strategies to achieve the charity’s aims and to ensure there is a clear system to delegate implementation of the strategies to the Chief Executive and employee team.
• Monitor performance of the charity against standards that ensures effective, efficient and economic use of the charity’s resources and assets.
• Ensure compliance with the law and accountability to the charity’s stakeholders and provide transparency in performance of their actions.
• Ensure the Board of Trustees performs effectively, contains people with the skills and experience it needs, and makes plans to ensure the recruitment, induction and development of new trustees.
  
  

Chair: Professor Neil Gittoes

• Graduated from University of Birmingham with honours in medicine (MBChB(Hons)) and anatomical studies (BSc)Hons))
  PhD in molecular endocrinology.
• Awarded the Goulstonian Lectureship at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), London.
• Head, Centre for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Birmingham Health Partners.
• Member of Council of the Society for Endocrinology, Vice-chairman of Specialised Endocrinology Clinical Reference Group, NHS England and West Midlands Clinical Senate member.
• Consultant Endocrinologist and Metabolic Bone Physician at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, and Birmingham Children's Hospital.
• Associate Medical Director for Clinical Partnerships at University Hospitals Birmingham.

Vice Chair: Mr Richard Darch

• Has more than 20 years' experience in healthcare.
• A recognised thought-leader in the area of infrastructure.
• Worked as a research fellow at the University of York's Health Economics Consortium following a Masters in Health Economics.
• Founding partner of SDC Consulting, a niche healthcare consulting group focusing on strategy, operations improvement and investment appraisal.
  Founder of Infracare, a specialist provider and funder of healthcare infrastructure.
• Associate Fellow of the Nuffield Trust.
• Member of the SALUS Global Advisory Board as part of the Congress for European Healthcare Design.

Treasurer: James Abbott

• An experienced charity leader and qualified accountant, specialising in helping charities deliver significant strategic change and transform their reach and impact.
• Builds and leads corporate services and operational teams, ensuring insight and analysis drives strategic decision making at all levels of the organisation.
• Currently Director of Performance and Corporate Services at RNID, with responsibility for Finance, Performance, HR, Governance and our Contact Centre.
• Previously held roles at other disability and health charities, including Scope, Diabetes UK and Guide Dogs.
• Passionate about delivering social change.
• A Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Mr Peter Gotham

• A chartered accountant with more than 30 years' experience providing accountancy, consultancy and corporate recovery services to the not-for-profit sector.
• Former chair of the ICAEW Charity and Voluntary Special Interest Group.
• Former member of the Charity Commission SORP Committee.
• Lecturer and Visiting Fellow at the Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness.
• Provides consultancy support to charities and social enterprises and is an active trustee and honorary adviser to several charities.

Dr Nicky Peel

• A consultant in metabolic bone medicine for more than 20 years.
• Graduated with honours from the University of Nottingham Medical School in 1984.
• Awarded Doctorate of Medicine in 1994 for studies on osteoporosis in steroid-treated rheumatoid arthritis.
• Clinical lead for the Metabolic Bone service at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, instrumental in developing and evaluating innovative models of service delivery.
• Has a long affiliation with the charity with many roles, including previous editor of our journal for healthcare professionals, Osteoporosis Review.

Paul Herbert

• Over 25 years of experience in brand strategy, marketing and corporate communications.
• A Senior Director at BCW, part of WPP (NYSE: WPP), a creative transformation company and 2020 Global Agency of the Year, #1 on the PRovoke Creative Index.
• Over ten years' healthcare industry experience, launching and managing global brands, public health campaigns and public policy advisory for leading companies, including GSK, Pfizer and Sanofi.
• A digital transformation expert with recent experience leading both AdTech and MarTech strategy and PMO for £10m+ technical delivery programmes in the healthcare sector.
• Winner of several national and international prizes, including two Cannes Lions, D& AD Yellow Pencil, Digital Impact Award Gold and DBA Design Effectiveness Gold.

Judith Lyons

• Over thirty years’ experience in HR in the private sector, of which a third has been at Executive level.
• Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
• More than ten years’ experience of being a Charitable Trustee.
• Through my work as Group HR Director of a social care business I see the negative impact that late diagnosis and treatment of conditions, along with lack of access to good quality support services has on the lives of those we care for.
• An advocate of education and prevention for younger adults to enable them to take positive action on the health of their bones.
• As one of the 3.5 million people in the UK living with osteoporosis I have a keen and vested interest in the ongoing development and success of the Society.
• I passionately want future generations to live without osteoporosis.

Teresa Hicks

• Graduated from the University of Brunel with a BSc in Sport Sciences and subsequently went on to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate in Management and Leadership from the University of Sussex.
• Published in the International Journal of Sport Psychology.
• Over 20 years of experience in fundraising and sales both in the private and charity sector.
• Director at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Previously held senior roles at Cancer Research UK.
• Member of the Institute of Fundraising.

Ian Cooper

• A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
• Formerly a partner with Smith & Williamson (now Evelyn Partners) holding a number of senior management roles including head of the Bristol Office Assurance business and a member of their International Audit Committee.
• As a partner had extensive client portfolio, ranging from professional practices, charities and owner managed businesses through to companies listed on the stock market.
• Took early retirement in 2015 and have worked with a number of organisations including Chair of Audit and Risk at the Royal Agricultural University (2017-2021) and Chair of Finance & Estates at Atlantic College (2017 to date).

Dr Gurjit Bhogal

• Graduated from University of Birmingham with Honours in Medicine, MBChB (Hons).
• MSc in Sport and Exercise Medicine with Distinction from The University of Nottingham.
• Consultant in Musculoskeletal, Sport and Exercise Medicine at The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Birmingham.
• Non-Executive Director of The Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust and Great Britain Table Tennis.
• Team doctor for the England Women's Cricket Team and Aston Villa Football Club.
• Chief Medical Officer of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and Chair of the Biosecurity Committee for the 2021 ICC T20 Cricket World Cup.

Dame Barbara Frost

• Barbara currently mentors young leaders and is the Deputy Chair of the Joffe Charitable Trust.
• She was Chief Executive of WaterAid from 2005 to 2017. Previously she led Action on Disability and Development and worked as a Country Director with international NGOs in Mozambique and Malawi.
• She started her career working with the Australian government and in community development in NSW.
• Barbara holds honorary doctorates from Exeter, Bath, Cranfield and the Open University and was appointed a Dame in 2017.
• She lives with osteoporosis, is a passionate gardener and enjoys rural life in Somerset.

Professor Emma Clark

• Graduated from the University of London in medicine (MB.BS) and biomedical science (BSc Hons), and from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in epidemiology (MSc).
• PhD in musculoskeletal epidemiology from the University of Bristol.
• Professor of Clinical Musculoskeletal Epidemiology at the University of Bristol, with a research focus on vertebral fragility fractures.
• Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist seeing patients with inflammatory arthritis, osteoporosis or metabolic bone disease at North Bristol NHS Trust.
• Long standing involvement with the Royal Osteoporosis Society since 2008 including receiving research grants, contributing to the Bone Research Academy, chairing the Conference Organising Committee, active involvement with the Clinical Research Committee, and collaborating to produce patient-facing and healthcare professional-facing literature.