President and Trustees

President

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  HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG, GVCO
  President

  The Duke of Gloucester carries out a significant number of public duties, many as Patron, President or Fellow. He is involved in multiple charities related to architecture, construction and conservation. He was elected a corporate member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1972 and is Royal Patron of the British Museum. The Duke is also President of several architectural preservation societies, including the Victorian Society and the National Churches Trust. He is Patron of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, UK National Committee, as well as of the Global Heritage Fund. He was appointed President of the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal Naval College in 2010.

Trustees

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  Sir Stuart Etherington
  Chair

  Sir Stuart Etherington is Chair of The Oversight Trust, an organisation which oversees the distribution of unclaimed assets. He also Chairs the National Centre for Social Research and the board of the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at City University. He was Chief Executive of NCVO from 1994 – 2019. Prior to that he was Chief Executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, a major UK charity.

  He is a former member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, a former Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Patron of the Dickens in the Borough 2012 project, and a member of the Dickens Fellowship and the Nelson Society. Stuart was knighted in 2010 for services to the voluntary sector.
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  Vice-Admiral Sir Adrian Johns KCB CBE DL
  Trustee

  Adrian served for 35 years in the Royal Navy as a helicopter pilot and flying instructor. He commanded five times at sea, ranging from a minesweeper to HMS OCEAN. He was Head of the Fleet Air Arm for five years and retired from the Navy as Second Sea Lord and Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command in 2008. He was is subsequently appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief, Gibraltar 2009-2013. He is a member of the Senior Salaries Review Body and a non-executive member of the Civil Service Pensions Board. He is Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London and is Deputy Chairman of the National Museum of the Royal Navy and Patron of a number of Veterans’ Associations.
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  Andrew Clark
  Trustee

  Andrew is Chairman of Purcell, a practice of architects, designers and heritage leaders. He has spent most of his professional life working on historic buildings and their settings – repairing, conserving, adapting, and extending places of historic significance. He is currently working on some of the most important historic buildings in London, from Battersea Power Station to the Palace of Westminster. He has worked for a range of clients including private individuals, museum and galleries, charitable organisations and Central Government advising on how they can transform the buildings in their care.
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  Samantha L Fay
  Trustee

  Sam has over 25 years of experience marketing high profile entertainment companies including LEGO, Guinness World Records, and Electronic Arts. During her tenure at Guinness World Records, she took the company from a much-loved book to a global multi-faceted digital brand and opened the first USA office as Managing Director.

  She joined Layered Reality – the UK’s leading immersive entertainment business – as their first Chief Marketing Officer and currently directs the marketing, digital and PR programme for Jeff Wayne’s The War of the Worlds Immersive experience and the Gunpowder Plot in association with Historical Royal Palaces and based at UNESCO’s Tower of London.

  Sam is also an experienced keynote speaker and has delivered sessions on marketing all over the world including Cannes Lions, London’s Festival of Marketing, the China International Advertising Festival and the World Economic Forum in Davos.
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  Will Palin
  Trustee

  Will is an architectural historian, writer, campaigner, and heritage expert. He was appointed CEO of Barts Heritage in 2019. He was a curator at Sir John Soane’s Museum until 2007 before becoming director of SAVE Britain’s Heritage. Most recently he worked as Conservation Director at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich where he led the multi-award-winning Painted Hall conservation project. Will has lectured widely on 18th and 19th century art and architecture and is a former columnist for Country Life Magazine. He is a trustee of the Georgian Group and Chair of the Sheerness Dockyard Trust.
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  Eric Reynolds
  Trustee

  Eric Reynolds is Founding Director of Urban Space Management, leading their work at Trinity Buoy Wharf. Eric has been involved in numerous urban regeneration schemes and the creation of visitor attractions since the early 1970’s, many including the practical re-use of historic buildings. He acts as a regeneration advisor across the country, is former Chairman of the London Safer Cities initiative and is a director and member of several other voluntary bodies. He was Chairman of Leeside Regeneration and sat on English Heritage Working Group 5 inputting to the “Power of the Place: the Future of the Historic Environment” review. In 2012 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by Regeneration and Renewal Magazine. He is a trustee of several charitable organisations including the Royal Museums Greenwich, an Honorary Member, RIBA and a Freeman of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen. He is a Chairman of SAVE and a Trustee of Royal Rowbarge Gloriana.
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  Tom Wipperman
  Trustee

  Tom is the Strategic Finance Director at the Ministry of Defence, where he oversees its £50bn per year budget that delivers the government’s defence policy, including support to Ukraine. He has spent most of his 15 year civil service career in HM Treasury, where he held a number of policy roles including in financial services policy, banking reform and legislation, but predominantly in public spending policy covering matters as diverse as defence and intelligence, local government finance and taxation, social care and freeports. He led HM Treasury’s support to local government services during the pandemic. In a previous period in the Ministry of Defence Tom led Defence Nuclear Strategy and Performance. As well as this trusteeship, he is a Lay Advisor to the Forces In Mind Trust, which funds research to support service personnel in their transition to civilian life.
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  Laura Whyte
  Trustee

  Laura’s executive career was spent with John Lewis where she served on the Management Board for over ten years, firstly as Registrar and latterly as HR Director. She also founded and, for a number of years, chaired the John Lewis Foundation and was a Trustee of the Ebony Horse Club. Laura is currently a Non-Executive Director at Macfarlane Group PLC and Capital and Regional PLC and chairs the Remuneration Committees at both organisations.  She is also a Non Executive Director at the British Horse Racing Authority, a member of their Diversity and Inclusivity in Racing Group and Chair of Respect in Racing.
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  Duncan Wilson CBE
  Trustee

  Duncan Wilson OBE has been Chief Executive of Historic England since its formation in 2015. Previously he was CE of Alexandra Palace and Park, and before that CE of the Old Royal Naval College and the Somerset House. He is a chartered accountant and has a post-graduate degree in European Archaeology from the University of Oxford. Earlier in his career he worked at HM Treasury and the then Department of National Heritage. He was awarded an OBE for services to heritage in 2007. His interests include classical singing, and restoring old buildings. He has three children – and two dogs.
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  Liz Young
  Trustee

  Liz has worked in the entertainment and events industry for over 20 years, specialising in large-scale event management and commercial business development within high profile, multi-stakeholder, customer-centric venues.

  Her career started in the theatre world, moving from London drama festivals to managing West End theatres with Live Nation.  She remained within global commercial entertainment companies for 10 years, holding venue and event management roles at Wembley Arena with Live Nation and The O2 Arena with AEG.  Whilst working with Live Nation, Liz also helped manage on-site delivery of large-scale commercial festivals such as Wireless Festival, Hyde Park Calling and Download Festival.

  Liz now works within the heritage sector as Head of Events & Commercial Services for Historic Royal Palaces. She has strategic responsibility for the commercial events business across six royal palaces, working to find ways to continually innovate and maximise commercial opportunities within these unique and sensitive buildings whilst delivering world-class client service.