Nicholas Fisher DL - Chairman of Trustees
Nicholas has worked in legal practice in the City of London for over 25 years. He is a solicitor with specific expertise in banking, finance, restructuring and turnaround matters across a number of business sectors. He has advised and worked with clients in the UK and overseas, including on award winning transactions. His legal career has included founding his own law firm and being head of department in an international firm of solicitors. He enjoys the practice of law and is with HCR Legal, an award-winning Top 60 law firm, based in its City office.
Nicholas lives in Kent and is a keen supporter of charities and projects that support underprivileged young people and give them opportunities to succeed. He is also committed to supporting Kent’s many historic churches.
Nicholas is a Freeman of the City of London, a member of the Livery and the Honorary Solicitor to the Worshipful Company of Turners, of which he was a Court Assistant for several years. The Worshipful Company of Turners is one of the oldest Livery Companies in the City of London which takes a leading role in the renaissance of the craft though the provision of lathes, education and long-term training.
In June 2023, Nicholas was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent.
Barbara Long
Barbara was a newspaper, radio and television journalist for over 30 years. She specialised in politics and current affairs and held a number of senior positions. In 1999 she became Director of Parliamentary Broadcasting for the House of Commons and House of Lords, a Speaker's Appointment. Barbara expanded an advisory and regulatory role to promote new policies and develop new technologies to connect Parliament with the public. Among these was a ground-breaking ‘webcast’ service launched in 2002 which made broadcast coverage of all public proceedings available on the internet for the first time. Barbara lives in Kent and supports a number of charities.
Julia Megone
Julia Megone is a chartered accountant who currently works in audit in London, specialising in the not for profit sector. She previously worked at the Department for Education as part of the team which oversees the governance and financial management of academy trusts, and subsequently became a school governor of a primary school in Brixton where she is now chair of the finance and resources committee. Julia spent a year in Makhanda (previously Grahamstown) in South Africa working with various local charities for children and young people; she remains interested in projects in the area as well as a number of charities closer to home, with a particular focus on young people and education.
Ruth Murphy
Ruth's career began in the voluntary sector in 1982, where she worked for Scope for nine years. In 1991 she joined the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) as Executive Director of Charity Services, managing CAF's investment, banking and administration services for charities. In 1999 she moved into the City, joining Newton Investment Management as Director of Charity Business Development and in 2011 she joined Brewin Dolphin, where she is Head of Charities, responsible for the charity investment business. Ruth is also a member of the Stewardship, Corporate Responsibility and Vulnerable Clients Committees and sits on the Finance Committee of a church PCC.
James Thorne
James was a lawyer who practised in London for over 30 years at Farrer & Co, retiring as a consultant in 2015, and in 2018 served as Interim Head of the Legal Services Office at Cambridge University. He was a Governor of the University for the Creative Arts which has campuses in Kent providing further and higher education to many local students. In the last few years he has carried out pro bono governance reviews for a mass membership charity and one involved in autism research, and chaired a committee at the Institute of Cancer Research. He is now the Chair of the UCL Hospitals Charity and a prep school in Kent.
Dr Bhargawa Vasudaven DL
Vasu is a retired GP who has worked in Gravesend for over 25 years. He is a retired Fellow of The Royal Society of Medicine, a former CEO of the Walk in Centre in Northfleet, retired Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and one of the Founder Members of their Pre-Hospital Care Faculty. Vasu has had a parallel career in volunteering over the years, serving as a medical advisor to the Kent Air Ambulance for 15 years, Gravesend RNLI station for 9 years, trustee of Ellenor Hospice for over 5 years and since the Pandemic, the Medical Advisor to Elliott Holmes Memorial Fund involved in suicide prevention and direct access to counselling for young people in Gravesham.
Christopher Buxton
Christopher spent a large part of his childhood in Kent. He is the son of Simon Buxton, who was Sir James Colyer-Fergusson's godson and himself a trustee for several years. Chris has many happy memories of Sir James, particularly around their shared love of travel, trains and model railways. He has always wanted to help those less fortunate than himself, and as a young man he volunteered at underperforming schools in East London, helping with maths and interview skills, and in Harlem, New York, putting bikes together for disadvantaged children.
Chris is currently a Managing Director at Exane BNP Paribas, having previously been an Aerospace research analyst at J.P. Morgan Cazenove. On a day-to-day basis, he performs risk assessments on various investments, as well as investing funds for his clients.
