Traidcraft's Boards

Chair: Ram Gidoomal CBE

Ram is a successful businessman, formerly UK Chief Executive of the Inlaks Group (an international food commodity company for whom he worked until 1991), who over the last twenty years has used his business acumen to support the work of numerous public and charitable organisations.

Born into a Hindu family, brought up in the Sikh faith and educated at a Muslim school in Kenya, Ram became a follower of Jesus as a young adult. He was deeply affected by the experience of seeing poverty in India, and this led him to co-found the Christmas Cracker project that mobilised teenagers to raise money for the developing world from 1988-1995.

His other current roles include being Chair of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education, Chair of the South Asian Development Partnership Trust, Chair of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation, and a Board member of the International Justice Mission (USA).

Jenny Borden

Jenny has worked in the international development field since being a VSO teacher in Malawi more than forty years ago. She was Deputy Director and International Director of Christian Aid.

Since 2000 she has worked as an independent consultant, including periods of senior management as Interim Director of ACT International (Action by Churches Together), Interim CEO of Interact Worldwide and Interim Executive Director of the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.

She is a non-executive Director of Crown Agents, Chair of the Fair Trade Advocacy office in Brussels, and a former Chair of Practical Action and BOND. She joined the Board in May 2011.

David Bowman

An accountant by background, David now acts as part-time Finance Director and Company Secretary for a number of organisations as well as doing some project work.

He is an active member of his local church and a keen supporter of the Trade Justice Movement. David was appointed in 2004 and chairs the Traidcraft Audit Committee.

Liz Cotton

Liz became a Non-Executive Director in March 2011. She is currently Director of Rainbow Turtle Just Trading Ltd – a fair trade business and charity based in Paisley.

She has been instrumental in gaining Fairtrade Town status for Paisley and worked closely with the local council to achieve Fairtrade Zone status for Renfrewshire.

Liz is also a director of Just Trading Scotland (a company importing fairly traded goods from Swaziland and Malawi) and is on the board of the Scottish Fair Trade Forum working towards FT Nation status for Scotland. A long-term supporter of Traidcraft, Liz has been a fair trader since 1996.

Jayne Mayled

Jayne is Managing Director of creative agency Jupiter, where she specialises in designing communication for retailers and brands.

Jayne was previously Communications Director for Boots plc (now Alliance Boots) where she led communications across the business and had responsibility for the group’s corporate social responsibility agenda.

Jayne is a Trustee of the Boots Charitable Trust and is also a member of the Remunerations Committee.

Geoff Moore

Geoff joined the Board as the Trustee appointed Non-Executive Director (Foundation Director) in March 2004. He was formerly a Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Board of Shared Interest.

He is Professor of Business Ethics at Durham Business School, Durham University. He lives in Durham and is a member of the Audit Committee.

Margaret Sentamu

Margaret was a Traidcraft Foundation Trustee for almost ten years from 1987. She re-joined the Board in July 2008 and was appointed Non-Executive Director in March/September 2009.

Her background is in recruitment and selection, with a focus on diversity and is currently a freelance recruitment and diversity consultant.

She has a good knowledge of the Church of England and has worked within its structures for a number of years at both national and local level. She brings wide experience gained from appointments to various governing boards and councils. Her interests are mainly in the areas of health, education and poverty, and particularly in empowering women in the Global South.

Alice Ward

Alice is a qualified counsellor with a growing practice. She is on the leadership team of an Anglican 'Fresh Expressions Initiative' on Tyneside.

Alice chaired a board within Home Group from 2002-2007, one of the largest Housing Associations in the UK. She has a long standing interest in fair trade and international issues. Alice joined the Board in September 2003 and is chair of the Remuneration Committee.

Becky Allon-Smith

Becky has worked for Traidcraft for six years. She graduated from Durham University in 2005 with a degree in Theology and joined Traidcraft, initially on a temporary basis, writing resources to support Traidcraft’s speaker network.

In October 2010 she was appointed to her current role of Fair Trader Recruitment and Development Manager. This involves management of the Fair Trader recruitment team and activity, and project work especially supporting Traidcraft’s church engagement.

Paul Chandler, Chief Executive

Paul Chandler joined Traidcraft as Chief Executive in June 2001 having spent nine years as head of the Christian mission agency, book publisher and retailer, SPCK and having previously worked in a range of managerial roles for Barclays Bank. Paul is also chair of the European Fair Trade Association, a director of the William Leech Foundation, a member of the CBI North East Regional Council, a tutor and Fellow of St Chad’s College in Durham University, and a governor of the Choristers School, Durham. In December 2008 he was made a Lay Canon of Durham Cathedral.

Larry Bush, Sales and Marketing Director

Formerly Innovation Manager for Pepsico International - which includes the Pepsi and Walkers Crisps brands - Larry became Traidcraft's Sales and Marketing Director at the beginning of January 2006. Larry has been an active supporter of Traidcraft and passionate about fair trade since his student days.

Simon Grant, Finance Director

Simon is a Chartered Accountant who trained with and worked for Grant Thornton. He joined Traidcraft plc in October 2006 from G4S Plc where he was Finance Director for their subsidiaries in Kenya and Indonesia.

Joe Osman, Sourcing and Producer Support Director

Joe has been with Traidcraft since the early 1980s in various roles including logistics, purchasing and quality management. From the mid 1990s until his appointment to the executive team in 2004 his focus was mainly on the development and growth of Traidcraft's food ranges.

Paul Spray, Director of Policy

Paul Spray started his working life as a teacher in Lesotho and a civil servant in Botswana. He was a policy officer for the Catholic Institute for International Relations, and then Policy and Campaigns Director of Christian Aid. In 1997 he became a civil servant again – working on international debt, heading DFID’s programmes for Nigeria, then for funding research, and finally for Latin America and the Caribbean. He joined Traidcraft as Policy Director in 2010.

Mags Vaughan, PLC Business Director

Mags joined Traidcraft as Director of Operations in 2004 having spent 12 years in various engineering and senior commercial roles within the oil and chemical industry in the North East of England.

Mags holds a masters degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial College, London and an MBA from Durham University. She first became involved in trade justice issues whilst a student, organising fair trade stalls in her University Union building. Mags took up the role of Business Director for Traidcraft plc in January 2008.