Meet our Team
Senior Leadership
Emma Revie
Chief Executive
Matthew van Duyvenbode
Chief Strategy Officer
Samantha Stapley
Chief Operations
and People Officer
Garry Lemon
Director of Strategic
Engagement
Lynda Battarbee
Director of Operations
Tina Higgs
Director of Corporate Services
Danni Malone
Director of Network Programmes & Innovation
Helen Barnard
Director of Policy, Research and Impact
Nahida Ahmed
Director of People and Inclusion
Emma Roberts
Director of Strategic Communications
Sophie Carre
Director of Public Engagement
Our Trustees
Stephen Hicks
Chair of the Board of Trustees
With over 25 yrs in the City with 3 US broking houses and risk consulting firms, Stephen made a career change in 2015 to pursue his charitable interests.
He has served as the regional chair for the Samaritans, also on the board of Mind and the Citizens Advice. He also led the start up of Caritas in his Diocese. His particular focus is on finance, strategy, risk and governance. He has served the Trussell board since September 2018.
He is married with 2 grown up children, 1 at university and 1 in school. He enjoys sport, especially trail running and golf. He is also a qualified skipper and Crisis at Christmas volunteer.
Revd Bev Thomas
Bev Thomas was born in Birmingham to Jamaican parents and moved to London in 1995, then back to the Midlands in August 2008. Bev studied theology at the Ebenezer Bible Institute (1978-81) and religious studies at the Birmingham Bible Institute (1986-89). Bev is an ordained ecumenical minister and has an honorary MA in Divinity (2014).
She has worked for the last 25+ years in the UK and internationally as a trainer/speaker on social justice and race issues. She is also an experienced administrator, team leader, projects and events manager. She speaks on numerous issues, which include the following; diversity awareness, youth work, sexuality, singleness and politics.
Bev currently works as a freelance consultant, project manager, speaker and lecturer. Previous to this Bev was the p/t Administrator for Amott Baptist Church while they were interregnum for four years, Project Development Officer for Churches’ Commission for Racial Justice (two year contract) and the Director of Evangelical Christians for Racial Justice for four years. Other employers have included secondments to Evangelical Alliance and Christian Socialist Movement, Youth for Christ, Oasis Trust and W&T Avery Ltd Senior Banking Clerk/Accounts Clerk for seven years.
Bev enjoys genealogy research, keeping fit and singing for recreation.
Robert Lanyon
Robert Lanyon became a trustee at in January 2017. In early 2022 he retired from his day job as regional public affairs director for the energy company ExxonMobil. During his 25 years with the company, he worked in the UK, Brussels, and the USA in a range of management roles, from corporate and government communications to corporate social responsibility and crisis management. This included managing the company’s substantial global charitable giving programme.
A modern languages graduate and keen traveller, Robert lives in Bentley, Hampshire. He is married to Harriet, who is the Project Manager of the Farnham Foodbank and wrote the first ever Alpha Course cookbook for Holy Trinity Brompton. They have three daughters and are active members of the local church, where they have hosted the Marriage Course.
Louise Hickman
Louise Hickman is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Ethics at Newman University, Birmingham. She researches and teaches philosophy and ethics, with a focus on the history of philosophy, science and religion, and the philosophy of religion. She is a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion.
Louise is deeply concerned about social justice, and wanted to join the board so she could be part of the Trussell Trust’s work to actively challenge the structural causes of poverty. As a teacher of ethics, she’s looking forward to putting that into practice as the charity works towards ending the need for food banks.
Following her first trustee meeting, Louise is really warmed by the commitment and energy of the team and looking forward to being part of an organisation that’s working to change things for the better.
Paul Morrison
Paul works as a policy advisor to the Baptist, Methodist, and United Reformed Churches, and the Church of Scotland, on issues of poverty and inequality. His current focus is on the benefits system and ensuring that those who experience poverty are included in every aspect of its design and development.
Previously Paul was a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College focusing on viral infection and vaccine design. He also held roles in political parties both in his native Northern Ireland and later in Great Britain, working on policy and campaigns around peacebuilding and poverty reduction.
He is married to Nicola, a Methodist minister, and they have two wonderful primary school-aged children.
David Gordon
David is the Senior Minister at the Baptist church in Kirkintilloch, which he developed to become a leading organisation in community transformation: the church was also responsible for establishing the East Dunbartonshire Foodbank. David’s ministry has included work in the Isle of Man and in Belfast, time as a prison chaplain, and being part of the wider Baptist leadership in Scotland.
Sasha Morgan
Sasha is currently Director of the Social Mobility Commission. Having worked in central government for 15 years she has a breadth of leadership and strategic planning experience across a range of roles. Sasha’s first public policy role was for the Department for Education where she worked for over four years on the original Academies Programme. She subsequently worked as an adviser to No. 10 on international development and trade issues, held roles as a senior adviser for the Department of Communities and Local Government, and was the founding Chief Operating Officer of the National Infrastructure Commission.
Sasha is passionate about the arts and creative models of education and believes that the arts are an important tool to allow young people to unlock their potential. Sasha has held a number of roles in the cultural sector, she developed the education programme at Bold Tendencies which she ran for 6 years. She is currently a trustee of the Chisenhale Gallery in East London and sits on the board of the London Inter-Disciplinary School one of the UK’s newest and most innovative universities. Sasha’s most important role is a solo mama and local authority foster carer for a rambunctious two-year old.
Sarah Vibert
Sarah is CEO at the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the membership body for charities and volunteering in England. She joined NCVO in 2020, initially as director of public policy and volunteering, before becoming CEO. She has held a number of leadership roles in the voluntary sector, most recently as chief executive of the brain and spine umbrella charity, The Neurological Alliance.
Sarah also spent time in her senior management roles at Epilepsy Society, In Kind Direct and working in the (then) Prince of Wales’ charities office. She started her career in local government management, including working for the Mayor of London.
Sarah volunteers for the Parent Teacher Association at her son’s primary school and as the under 6s rugby coach at Tring Rugby Club. Sarah has previously been a trustee of National Voices and The Brain and Spine Foundation.
Suresh Ariaratnam
Suresh Ariaratnam is the founder of Sprung Sultan, a literary and talent agency representing authors from Black and Asian communities predominantly, including the TS Eliot Prize recipient Roger Robinson, the Ted Hughes Award recipient Jay Bernard, and the PEN Pinter Prize recipient Linton Kwesi Johnson. In 2022, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature for significantly contributing to the advancement of literature.
An advisory council member of the British Library, and a trustee for Bath Festivals, Theatre Royal Bath, and Literature Works South West, he specialises in assisting organisations broaden understanding of who their stakeholders are and how best to meet their needs.
A non-executive director at NHS Dorset HealthCare and at NHS Somerset, where he chairs the Primary Care Commissioning Committee, he has a longstanding interest in preventative and proactive modalities. He is also the health lead for the Somerset Food Resilience Group.
His primary driver across channels is to address the structural and social determinants which give rise to inequality and create negative outcomes for people from marginalised communities, inhibiting engagement and participation in society.
Tom Gibbs
Tom is a chartered accountant, having qualified with PwC, where he spent 8 years working with large charities and public bodies. He has held a number of Director roles in the charity sector, firstly at Barnardo’s, the UK’s largest children’s charity and more recently, the National Trust, Europe’s largest conservation charity. He has operated at senior levels across a range of disciplines, including risk, strategy & change, finance and technology. He joined the Trussell board in May 2023.
Tom lives in Derbyshire with his wife and two boys. In his free time he enjoys anything outdoors; sports (watching and playing), walking, gardening.
Duncan Shrubsole
Duncan is Director of Policy, Communications and Research at Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales – an independent charitable Foundation funded by the profits of Lloyds Banking Group. Duncan leads the Foundation’s programmes and work to influence policy and practice around the role, value and challenges facing small and local charities and the root causes and consequences of key social issues affecting charities and those they serve, including improving the social security system.
Before the Foundation Duncan worked for nearly nine years at Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, leading their campaigning, policy, research, comms and best practice work where he secured a number of changes in policy and practice, including securing changes to some of the worst cuts to Housing Benefit and new funding for homelessness services. He has also been a civil servant developing policy around transport and local government and has worked for a local authority.
Duncan is Chair of Trustees at Switchback, a charity supporting young men leaving prison to build stable and rewarding lives and move into employment. He has previously been a Trustee of a local Citizens Advice, a Board member of a Housing Association and a School Governor.
Claire Leeper
Company Secretary
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Meaningful diversity and inclusion work is core to our mission of ending the need for food banks.