Advisors
Advisory Board
Jackie Ballard
Jackie Ballard was born in Scotland, lived in Wales from the age of 10, and has a degree in social psychology from the London School of Economics. She had careers in Social Work and Further Education from 1974-1992. She was Leader of South Somerset District Council (1987-1991) and Deputy Leader of Somerset County Council (1993-1997). Jackie was the Member of Parliament for Taunton from 1997 to 2001. In Parliament, she was spokesperson on Women’s Issues and on Local Government and Deputy Home Affairs Spokesman with special responsibility for the voluntary sector. After losing her seat, Jackie spent 9 months studying and volunteering in Iran, before becoming Director General of the RSPCA in September 2002 where she stayed for 5 years. She was Chief Executive of Action on Hearing Loss (previously RNID) until September 2012. She was then appointed as Chief Executive of Womankind Worldwide and has been a Board member of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority since its inception in January 2010.
Charles McShane
Charles started his career at Boots The Chemists initially as a Pharmacist, moving into a number of management roles culminating in the appointment as General Manager for Boots Northern Ireland and then Northern England and Scotland. He then pursued his career at Fads and Homestyle before joining Boots Opticians in 2004 as Managing Director. Having retired from Boots four years ago, Charles is a consultant and a Magistrate for the North Durham Bench.
Dr George Noble
Dr George Noble is a consultant physician with special interest in the elderly. Dr Noble trained at the United Medical Schools of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital at the University of London. He was appointed a research fellow at the Hammersmith Hospital before being appointed Lecturer and Honorary Senior Registrar in General and Geriatric Medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical School. Dr Noble was awarded a Kings Fund Travelling Fellowship and worked in Aged Care in Sydney, becoming a lecturer at Sydney University prior to his current role.
Lynn Riviere
Lynn has a wealth of experience in delivering public services including 16 years in the Metropolitan Police Service and three years within Public Health. With Honours Degrees in both Psychology and Occupational Therapy, Lynn has both understanding and experience of the psychological and physical needs of the elderly wishing to remain in their home through her work with York and Selby PCT. Lynn has experience in the provision of adaptive equipment to the elderly and has also been involved in the audit of equipment supplied by Occupational Therapists.
Barbara Stephens
Barbara Stephens has been Chief Executive of the charity Dementia UK since October 1999 and has contributed widely to the field of dementia care in that time. Barbara’s career background is anchored in the voluntary sector: she has worked previously in a range of health and social care charities, specializing in mental health, substance misuse, relationship counselling and older people’s care. Barbara is passionate about empowering service users, carers and citizens, to influence and drive service developments and reforms. She was a driving force behind the establishment of Uniting Carers, a national network of carers committed to using their experiences as carers to raise awareness and improve services.
Sally Taber
Sally Taber is the Director of Independent Healthcare Advisory Services Ltd, (IHAS), which maintains the only impartial network serving the operational needs of the independent healthcare industry. Sally has worked in the independent sector for over 20 years and was the Director of Nursing at the Independent London Bridge Hospital.
Sally qualified as a Registered General Nurse at the Royal Free Hospital in London and is also a qualified midwife from Queen Charlotte’s Hospital, London. After a period working abroad, she specialised in urological and renal nursing, holding senior posts at a number of hospitals. She pioneered the role of Transplant Co-ordinator in the renal field, becoming the Secretary of the European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association. She is now the Chair of the British Kidney Patients Association.
Richard Warren
Richard is Joint CEO of DLKW (Delaney, Lund, Knox and Warren), a top 10 UK advertising agency, whose clients include Morrisons, Halifax, Vauxhall, Burger King and the COI. DLKW produced the highly acclaimed dementia and stroke advertising campaigns. Richard has worked in advertising for over 20 years, both in the UK and the US acting as strategic adviser for some of the biggest and well-known brands. Richard is a Fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and is on the Advisory Board of the Radio Times.
Special Advisors
Daiga Heisters
Daiga has been with Parkinson’s UK for 6 years and is responsible for leading the charities national and local education and professional engagement activity to ensure Parkinson’s meets its strategic goals. Her team are responsible for training and educating care providers, hospitals and social services about the needs of those living with Parkinson’s.
Daiga has a wealth of clinical and management experience in the NHS. Daiga trained as a nurse and moved into discharge management at Northwick Park Hospital where she was part of the team that set up an intermediate care service. In 2002 Daiga moved into clinical education, delivering training programmes for overseas professionals and senior management. In the latter years in the NHS, Daiga was involved in workforce regional planning before moving to the charity sector with Parkinson’s UK in 2006.
Simon Williams
Simon’s career has been spent in the fields of Marketing and Corporate Responsibility. Starting at Bass, then the UK’s largest brewer Simon was responsible for many famous brands, including Carling Black Label, Bass Bitter, and Tennent’s Lager. Simon joined the Co-operative Bank in 1988 where he created the now famous Ethical Policy, a powerful modern demonstration of the co-operative ethos. Simon developed corporate responsibility and communications strategies across all the Co-operative Group’s businesses and now provides consultancy services to a number of clients, including East of England Co-op and Warburtons. He is also a Director of Energy4All, which develops community-owned wind farms, and is a member of the FTSE4Good Policy Committee.