National Lottery Charities Board East Midlands

East Midlands Regional Awards Committee

Biographies of Committee Members

Joe Allen - Chair

Joseph came to England in 1959 and was educated in London. In the interim years he became a trained Mechanical Engineering Technician (Wellingborough College) and a trained Youth and Community Development Officer (Leicester University).

In 1987 he became the first African-Caribbean to be elected to Leicester City Council. Currently he is a member of the (Home Office) East Midlands Black and Ethnic Minority Forum and works as Co-ordinator for the Development and Empowerment of African-Caribbeans in Leicester(shire).

He is passionate about sports and likes music and politics.

Represents Leicestershire.

Parvin Ali - Leicester

Member of the Executive Boards of Voluntary Action Leicester and the Federation of Muslim Organisations. Chair of the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Oadby & Wigston Town Centre Initiative. A member of the African and Asian Women's Steering Group and member of the Management Committee of Women's Roof (Leicester) she also sits on award panels for the Lord Mayor's Citizen of the Year Award and Business in the Community.

Geoff Birch - Derbyshire

Geoff was formally a practising Civil Engineer with extensive design, financial and project management experience in the construction industry. Over four years ago he was seconded to his local authority leisure department to devise a pilot scheme to assist community groups, voluntary organisations and in-house staff. He now manages the Partnership Funding Unit which provides financial, technical and professional expertise to the voluntary sector and his local authority in the delivery of projects by accessing lottery and other funding. He also works with local authority colleges through the Derbyshire Lottery Officers Forum. His interests include sport and the arts, and he works with the local youth sector in developing skills in contemporary popular music.

Marion Forsyth - Northampton

Marion was a teacher for nearly twenty years with qualifications in teaching, psychology and special educational needs. She has been a school governor for the past twelve years and liases specifically with the Special Educational Needs Dept and the Science Faculty. Marion's other interests include Action Aid and MOSPA and she has recently became a befriender to a mentally ill person.

Craig Kershaw - Lincolnshire

Following involvement in a number of voluntary youth projects, Craig trained as a Youth and Community Worker in Birmingham. He then moved to London and undertook a number of full time posts working with young people around issues of substance misuse and sexual health, before moving into the NHS to establish an HIV/Aids project. Craig still works in the NHS as a Training and Organisation Development Manager. His spare time is spent with his family of four young children and supporting the local village community.

Basil Ludford-Thomas - Northamptonshire

Previously a career Youth Officer with Northamptonshire County Council Education department, Basil is also JP and Bench Chair of Northampton bench and Committee member of the Territorial Auxiliary and Voluntary Reserve Association for the East Midlands. He has also worked as County Award Officer for the Duke of Edinburgh's Awards Scheme and Applications Secretary for the Prince's Trust in Northamptonshire.

Amarjit Raju - Derbyshire

Amarjit Raju (aged 32 and also known as Amo) is the Chief Executive of Derby City's "Disability Direct" Information and Advice Service. Amo has lived in Derby all his life (apart from a brief spell in Nottingham) and is married with three children. Working for Disability Direct since 1994, he started as a volunteer, then Information Officer, Services Manager and has now dealt with over 14,000 enquiries. Amo has been instrumental in the provision of services to all disabled people including minority ethnic groups.

Amo sits on Derby City Council's Disabled Peoples Advisory Committee and is also the recipient of a Millennium Award which enables him to support a local group of young people with cerebral palsy. Amo is also a partner in his wife's Beauty Salon.

His hobbies include: the creation of music, cinema and life's smaller challenges.

Ros Rowley - representing Rutland

Ros started her career working in Media and Research for J Walter Thompson, the Advertising Agency. 5 years later in 1975, she joined Donovan Data Systems, a computer bureau offering online systems to advertising agencies. Her role here was to build the Client Service Department to handle the rapidly growing client base. She assisted in the growth of the company into Europe. After 13 years, she established her own Telephone Marketing Company. Her interests include travel, food and hunting.

Sandra Sellers - Lincolnshire

Sandra currently works as a Pensions Director. She has 25 years experience in financial services with senior positions since 1989. Her voluntary sector involvement includes holding management committee positions in several groups linked to pensions and pensioners.

Joan Yarnell - Nottinghamshire

Following an 18 year career as a nurse, both in the hospital environment and the community, Joan became a wheelchair user in 1990. As a voluntary administrator and Management Committee Member of the Disabilities Living Centre; the access advisor for the Break Free Walks project, which provides information leaflets of accessible walks in the Nottinghamshire countryside, and a Member of the Notts County Council, Service Standards Inspection Advisory Panel - she is committed to disability equality and empowering disabled people. One morning a week, Joan answers telephone enquiries for BBC Radio Nottingham Actionline and 96 Trent FM Careline. Her leisure activities include reading, gardening, the Internet, writing poetry and enjoying life.