About The Forum

Our Trustees   

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Bruce Gordon OBE, Chairman

Until 2008, Bruce was a senior audit partner with Deloitte & Touche LLP and was a member of the Board of Partners and Partner in charge of the Southern Region.  Bruce’s clients included a number of FTSE 100 companies as well as some of Deloitte’s largest global clients. Prior to Deloitte, Bruce was a partner with Arthur Andersen, where he managed the UK Regional Practice.

 

 

Bruce now runs Thames Valley Capital Limited which advises a venture capital fund and several high growth companies.

 

In the 2024 New Year’s Honours List, Bruce was awarded an OBE for his service to Charity.

 

In 2022 Bruce was appointed a Trustee of National Centre for Social Research, one of the leaders in Social Research.  He was recently appointed Chairman of the Finance and Risk Committee.

 

In 1997, Bruce became a Trustee of The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association.  He was appointed as Honorary Treasurer in 1998 and served until 2011.  Bruce retired from Guide Dogs in 2011 at the end of his third term

Lamont

Heather Lamont

Heather is a client investment director at CCLA. She trained originally as a chartered accountant and has worked in charity finance since qualifying in 1992. Before working full time in investment management, her roles included that of finance director at the British Lung Foundation, editor of Charity Finance magazine, and audit manager at Kingston Smith LLP. She joined CCLA in July 2008 from the charity investment team at HSBC Global Asset Management.
Heather has wide experience as a charity trustee and honorary treasurer. In addition to her role with the Honorary Treasurers Forum she is a trustee of CABA, the chartered accountants’ benevolent association. Heather also serves on the investment committee and audit committees of the Robertson Trust, Scotland’s largest independent grantmaker. As well as chartered accountancy, her qualifications include the Diploma of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment; the ICAEW’s Diploma in Charity Accounting; and an MBA from Manchester Business School.
Palmer

Professor Paul Palmer

Paul Palmer DL PhD PFHEA FCIS FIIA FRSPH is a Professor at Bayes Business School and has extensive knowledge of charity financial, management and governance issues. He established the first MSc in Charity Accounting in 1992. He was a member of the Charity Commission SORP committee and continues to act as an academic advisor to the Commission most recently contributing to the updated CC14 Guidance on Investment in 2023. 

He has appeared on television and radio, speaking on charity issues, and has also written ‘practitioner’ how to guides on charity finance for books and websites.

Paul has had extensive charity trusteeship, Honorary Treasurer and Non-Executive Directorship experience in over fifty charity, commercial and professional organisations.. This has included international organisations serving as Senior Vice President on the Non-profit and academic Centres Council, the Global Donors Forum and the UN PRME advisory Board. He is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Greater London and serves on the Heritage Council.

David Rowe OBE

David Rowe gained an Army Scholarship in 1974 whilst at Clifton College in Bristol. He read Economics at Exeter University and then served in the Royal Artillery before joining Schroders in 1986.

 

He spent 17 years at Schroders where he worked as a fund manager and, amongst other things, concentrated on the charity market. In 1999 he became Managing Director of Schroders UK private client business.

 

After leaving Schroders in 2002 he spent 17 years at UBS where he had responsibility for many different businesses including charities and philanthropy. During his time at UBS, he created the UBS UK Donor-Advised Foundation (DAF).

 

He is a Visiting Fellow at the Bayes Business School teaching investment management for the voluntary sector.  In 2022 he undertook a research project for the Charity Commission on social investment in the context of their guidance on investing charity money (CC14).

 

He is SSAFA’s Honorary Treasurer, a trustee of Army Sport, National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) Transatlantic, NPT UK and the Honorary Treasurers Forum.

 

He was awarded an OBE in the King’s first birthday honours in 2024

David has been married for 32 years and has a daughter and son. Amongst his interests are golf and gardening during the daytime and bridge in the evening.

Nicola Silverleaf

Nicola is a Chartered Accountant and after qualifying spent most of her career working with small businesses, including two spells with PwC. She recently retired as Finance Director of an IT Consultancy and is moving to a portfolio career working with, and as, a Trustee of Charities and non-profits. She is an experienced charity trustee, has chaired audit and finance committees and acted as an independent examiner.
She is currently Honorary Treasurer of three charities, including the Forum itself, and two others, both working in education in Africa. She holds an MSc in Charity Finance and Governance from Cass Business School’s Centre for Charity Effectiveness, and is a PRINCE II practitioner. She sat as a Magistrate in the Criminal and Family Courts for over 20 years.
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