Our staff

Our Leadership Team

• 

  Matthew Mees
  Chief Executive

  Matthew is a senior business leader and finance professional with over twenty-five years’ experience gained with a range of commercial businesses and not-for-profit organisations in different sectors. In his career he has worked with enterprises that predominately focus on the use of real estate, including iconic buildings and estates in London.

  Joining the Greenwich Foundation in February 2019 as Director of Finance & IT, he was appointed Interim Chief Executive in October 2019 before taking on the role permanently in March 2020.

  Before joining the Old Royal Naval College, he was Director of Finance, HR and Legal for a private-equity backed start-up business in the real estate and flexible office provider sectors. Prior to that he was Finance Director of a privately-owned, non-branded, multi-site business that owned and managed over 20 venues including heritage pubs, contemporary bars and boutique hotels.

  He has also been Finance Director for the Covent Garden property portfolio of a FTSE250 company and Group Finance Director for two central London Exhibition Centres. He also worked as Chief Financial Officer of a private hospital in Chelsea, Group Accountant for a luxury London department story and also for a luxury goods groups working both in London and New York.
• 

  Kate Miners
  Director of Public Engagement & Commercial

  Kate joined the Old Royal Naval College team in April 2020.

  Prior to this Kate worked as Head of Operations at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where she oversaw Front of House, Box Office, Venue Hire, Events and Operations as well as project managing several major high profile fundraising events.

  She brings over ten years of experience working in the arts and events sector and has worked in a number of theatres and arts venues in London and America, where she lived for 5 years.
• 

  Mark Hosea
  Director of Estates and Conservation

  Before joining the Old Royal Naval College in February 2023, Mark Hosea held Project Director roles for The Canterbury Journey at Canterbury Cathedral and for York Minster Revealed at York Minster, both of which developed and then delivered projects at internationally significant cultural heritage attractions that are commercially successful, with a key focus on creating engaging places that people from all backgrounds want to visit and enjoy.

  Prior to these projects Mark worked in the private sector advising multiple clients across England. Mark is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Planning and Development) with an MSc in Urban Regeneration.
• 

  Maria Menicou
  Head of Development

  Maria joined the Old Royal Naval College team in November 2023 to oversee the organisation’s fundraising strategy and implementation.

  Prior to joining the Old Royal Naval College, Maria spent her career raising major gifts within the Higher Education sector. Most recently Maria held a senior role at London Business School, where she led philanthropic strategy for North America and secured over £1m in support from HNWIs, corporates and charitable foundations. Maria is also a Governor of Perrymount Primary School in the London Borough of Lewisham.
• 

  Veronica Guthrie
  Head of HR

  Veronica Guthrie brings with her a wealth of experience from working with several other charities, including MENCAP, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and more lately YMCA England and Wales.

  She has proactively guided and supported managers/CEOs and Trustees in dealing with employee relations issues across several organisations, and has introduced a variety of people related initiatives and processes.

  Veronica is a Chartered Member of CIPD and a member of the Charities HR Network, as well as being IOSH accredited.
• 

  Holly Kreider
  Financial Controller

  Holly joined as Financial Controller in 2014.  She has over twenty years’ experience of charity finance and oversees the production of financial reports and the preparation and audit of year-end statutory accounts for the Foundation.

  Holly’s previous roles were as Head of Finance at The Fairtrade Foundation, deputy Finance Director at Global Action Plan and Head of Resources at Book Aid International.

Our President and Chair

• 

  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.
• 

  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.

Chapel Staff

• 

  Reverend Dr Robert Tobin
  Chaplain

  Prior to taking up the role of Chaplain at the Greenwich Foundation in September 2022, Robert served as both a university chaplain and parish priest.

  Raised in the United States, he first came to the UK to pursue doctoral studies in history at Oxford.  He subsequently trained at Cambridge for ordained ministry in the Church of England and completed his curacy in the Beaconsfield Team Ministry in Buckinghamshire.

  After serving as the Episcopal/Anglican chaplain at Harvard University, Robert went on to spend seven years as chaplain and tutor at Oriel College Oxford.  He was then appointed vicar of the Church of St Mary and St John the Divine, Balham, in southwest London, where he remained until the summer of 2021.

  In addition to his role at the Old Royal Naval College, Robert is also licensed as Honorary Curate at St Alfege Church in Greenwich.
• 

  Reverend Faith Wakeling
  Assistant Chaplain

  Faith assists and supports the Chaplain and is also Assistant Priest at St Alfege Church, Greenwich.

  She was previously the Associate Priest in the Parish of the Divine Compassion, Plaistow in East London. Her title post was served at St John the Baptist Loughton, Essex.

  Prior to ordination, Faith had a long career in the Civil Service, in various departments in Central London.

  Faith is professed in the Third Order of the Franciscans (TSSF).
• 

  Ralph Allwood
  Director of Chapel Music

  Ralph became the Director of Chapel Music at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in 2012, with responsibility for music at the Chapel.

  Ralph left Eton College in 2011, where he had been Precentor and Director of Music for 26 years, to pursue his freelance activities. He founded Inner Voices, a choir for forty young people from ten Inner London state schools. Ralph is a judge for the Llangollen International Eisteddfod and is a regular visitor to several Welsh choirs, including the National Youth Choir of Wales. He also founded the Eton Choral Courses, Cheltenham College’s Junior Choral Course, the Rodolfus Choir, and leads choral courses and workshops all over the world.

  In 2002 he was made Honorary Fellow of the Royal School of Church Music. In 2003 he was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music and received an MBE in the 2012 New Years’ Honours.
• 

  Jonathan P. Eyre
  Chapel Organist

  Jonathan P. Eyre is well-known as an inspiring and colourful liturgical organist, with a fresh and dynamic approach to church music. He is a prize-winning graduate of the University of Sheffield and holds the Fellowship and Choir Directing diplomas from the Royal College of Organists and Trinity College London.

  Jonathan was Assistant Director of Music at Bradford Cathedral for four years, where he recorded a series of CDs of the music of J. S. Bach, and several other solo and choral music discs.

  He combines his work at the Old Royal Naval College with a full-time role within the funeral profession.