Our Trustees

The National Youth Agency is supported by a board of trustees who are drawn from a wide range of professions and volunteer their time to guide and challenge the organisation to achieve its objectives.

Biographies

 

Becky Holloway - Vice Chair

Becky is in her final year at the University of York reading Applied Social Science – Children and Young People, and works for the City of York Council’s youth service helping to run the young inspector programme, youth council and other youth projects.

Originally from the South West, Becky was involved in local, regional and national youth democracy activities as a teenager. She went on to work for Wiltshire County Council youth service in 2007, setting up and running a green youth group and environmental award scheme for youth organisations. Alongside this she worked as a community development assistant at Wiltshire’s Rural Community Council, supporting parish councils to set up youth forums, and promoting youth engagement in local decision making processes.

Michael Bracey 

Michael is an Assistant Director of Children and Young People's Services at Milton Keynes Council with responsibility for the delivery of the education capital programme, school place planning, admissions, transport, communications, performance, the development of strategic partnerships and policy, commissioning and the setting of the annual schools budget. He has several years experience working for Ofsted, initially as an additional inspector and more recently as the reporting inspector, and has contributed to national policy development most significantly during a one year secondment to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (now the Department for Education) working on the targeted youth support reforms.

For many years he was a regular columnist for Children and Young People Now/Youth Work Now and enjoys writing for other publications when he gets the time.

In 2007 Michael was appointed as a trustee of Stonewall Equality Limited, the leading lesbian and gay equality charity. Michael has an honours degree in youth work.

Vanessa Johnson-Burgess  

Vanessa is a Senior HR Business partner for the private Global firm Hilti. Previous roles have included Head of HR for Make Your Mark Campaign, overseeing a period of rapid expansion for the organisation, whose goal was to unlock the enterprise potential of young people throughout the UK with events such as Enterprise Week and Enterprising Young Brits.  Further to that senior management roles over eight years in both private and public retail.

She also works in a local youth arts club and with two cultural centres, and runs the local church youth group.

Mike Counsell OBE 

Mike was the Head of the Gloucestershire Youth Service, until he retired in August 2006, following a youth work career of over 35 years in Cambridgeshire, Somerset and Buckinghamshire. He received an OBE in the 2004 Queen’s New Year Honours for ‘services to young people’.

Mike now undertakes a range of consultative and charitable work. He is the Chair of the Education and Standards Committee of The National Youth Agency; the Committee responsible for the validation of professional and pre-professional qualifications in youth work in England.

Councillor Apu Bagchi

Apu Bagchi was first elected to the Bedford Borough Council in 1990. During 22 years as a Councillor he has served on many committees. He was the Civic Mayor in 1996-7 and was the Dy. Executive Mayor for two years under the Directly Elected Mayoral system in 2009. He is currently the Deputy Independent Group Leader and Dy. Chair of the Children & Young Peoples Board at the LGA.

Apu has many other interests and is currently involved as a school governor, trustee of Retirement Education Centre and President of Bedford MENCAP. He has served as a Magistrate for 23 years and has been a former Chair of Bedford Race Equality Council, former Chair of a Housing Association and former Chair of the Art Gallery in Bedford.

In his professional life, Apu was a lecturer in further and higher education sector for more than 35 years. He is actively involved in promoting international relations through cultural, educational and sporting exchanges. He likes cricket, Indian and European classical music and cooking. Apu enjoys travelling and loves spending time with his family and especially his three grandsons.

Cllr Ken Meeson

Ken represents the Local Government Association, is Leader of Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council and a Director of Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership.  He has a long history of involvement with Young People, having served for many years as Cabinet Member for Education, Children and Young People.

He was a Director and Audit Chair of Birmingham and Solihull Connexions and remains a Director of its successor company BXL Services. He is a Safeguarding Co-ordinator for the Scout Association having previously served as a Venture Scout Leader, County Commissioner and County Chairman. He also chairs the Advisory Committee for his local Youth Centre and sits on the Children and Young People Board of the LGA and Member Forum of the National Children’s Bureau.

His other activities are as an NHS Non-executive Director for Solihull PCT and a Lay Hospital Manager under the Mental Health Act for Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. He is also a Director of the National Exhibition Centre Group and Trustee of the Sir Josiah Mason Educational Charity.

Paul Miller  

Paul was educated in London and at Manchester University. He joined LUCAS/CAV in 1978 as Systems Analyst. A qualified Chartered Management Accountant, in 1980 he moved to Cinema International Corporation (a joint ventu

re of Paramount Pictures and Universal Studios) as Finance Director. There he fulfilled a range of increasingly senior roles in the UK, Germany, Japan, Korea and across Europe, in sales and marketing and general management, culminating in appointment as President and Chief Executive in 1994.

Paul held Chief Executive roles at technology and communications companies between 2000 and 2006, before moving to Oxfordshire County Council as Assistant Chief Executive (Change). Paul joined WCL in 2008.

Charles Mills  

Charles is Managing Director of Twofour Knowledge, a division of the leading international TV and interactive media company Twofour. His work involves running innovative communications channels for major commercial brands, Government agencies and third sector bodies, and he is a recognised thought leader in the way that people and organisations consume media today.

He has been a board member for eight years of the International Visual Communications Association and a school governor in Devon. Charles was previously Marketing Director of the Royal Horticultural Society and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Hasan Salman 

Hasan has been involved in youth work since the age of 17 and at 20 undertook an apprenticeship with the Junior Youth Inclusion Programme, subsequently taking a role to support referred young people to reduce offending behaviour, engage in full-time education and become involved in positive activities. He went on to work for Raising Achievement in Looked After Children, improving the educational achievement of young people in the care system.

He has been on the Committee of Build Community Development, a local charity and youth organisation since it began in 2005. Aside from being a committee member, he has served as the Project Coordinator and volunteers regularly. Hasan has also regularly carried out holiday Playwork for the LAYA Centre which he attended as a child himself. He has also been a volunteer for the Youth Offending Service since 2004 which is a passion of his, and something he hopes to progress after completing his final year reading Social Work at DMU. Hasan is also a volunteer at Leicester Royal Infirmary and also hopes to extend his voluntary roles to the Prison service.

Mark Scoular

 

A former Royal Marine, Mark serves as a Chief Inspector within the Metropolitan Police Service. Mark has developed and managed an award winning youth inclusion project within the London Borough of Southwark.

He has served in South Africa working on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advising and writing policy for the South African Police Service on Youth and Community issues.

Working alongside Lord Newby at Live Consulting, he gained extensive experience in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and event management within the private sector. He then moved to the voluntary sector on a secondment from the ‘Met’ working for Catch 22 as a Senior Policy Advisor.

On completion of his time with Catch 22 and after completing a short 5 month assignment to SCD1 (Homicide Command) heading a research team looking at the financial and social implications of Young Person Knife Related Homicide, Mark returned to fully to operational policing.

He has a private consultancy and has been working alongside O2 developing their CSR/Sustainability proposition now known as ‘Think Big’.

Mark also runs a charitable arm of the Royal Marines Association, bringing together former Royal Marines who now serve with the Police, Fire or Ambulance service across the UK to fundraise for war injured servicemen and their families (www.commando999.com)  

Helen Thomson

I was a youth and community worker for 13 years, moving into managing third sector organizations, on a local, regional and national level in the UK.  For the last 10 years, I have had senior management roles involved in economic regeneration activity, putting communities at the heart of planning our towns and cities and how we grow businesses including social enterprises, particularly in the North of England. Held responsibility for developing investments across skills, employment, housing and equalities. Managing multi million pound contracts, but always wanting to ensure we understand the impact on individuals, young people and their communities.

More recently working to make the links to support businesses reducing their energy costs and how we can realize a better low carbon future.

Tony Gallagher HMI – Ofsted Observer

National Adviser for Youth Support in Ofsted’s strategy division.  His previous work includes the management Ofsted’s national programme of inspections of local authority youth services, leadership of Joint Area Review (JARS) of Children’s Services, as well as inspections of FE, adult and community education, Connexions, youth work, the voluntary and community sector and 14-19 provision.  

He has also been engaged in national surveys covering areas such as citizenship education, extended services, children’s centres, alternative education, information advice and guidance and integrated youth support. Tony has published seven national survey reports for Oftsed the most recent in 2010 ‘Supporting Young People- an evaluation of recent reforms of youth support services in eleven local areas’ and in 2011 ‘Approaches to commissioning young peoples services’.