The Prince's Trust Council

The Prince’s Trust Council is accountable in law for the work of The Trust. It sets the strategy and agrees The Trust’s business plan and budget and has authority to take all decisions and to set all policy.

Chairman: Charles Dunstone

Charles joined The Council in 2000 and became Chairman of Prince's Trust in June 2009. At age 25, he set up The Carphone Warehouse with an investment of £6,000 and has since built it into Europe's largest independent retailer of mobile communications.

He has been key to the development of many fundraising activities and events including Fashion Rocks and The Prince's Trust’s 30th Birthday concert at the Tower of London in 2006. Charles is also Chairman of The Prince's Trust Enterprise Fellowship.

Patrick Passley

Patrick joined The Council in 2001 and is Managing Director of the Paralegal Charity. He is the former National Amateur Boxing Super-heavyweight Champion and represented Great Britain at the Commonwealth Games. He served as Commissioner for Racial Equality (1999-2003), Special Adviser to the Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality (2003-2004).

Heather Hancock

Heather joined The Trust in 2000 as Chairman of our Council for Yorkshire and The Humber and joined The Council in October 2001. Now a partner at Deloitte, she was the first Chief Executive of The Millennium Commission and Chief Executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority.

Michael Marks CBE

Michael is founding partner of NewSmith Capital Partners LLP. He joined the Council in early 2004 after retiring as Chairman of Merrill Lynch Investment Managers. Michael started his career with Smith Bros in 1958 and was appointed a director there in 1975. He became Chief Executive of Smith New Court in 1987 and Executive Chairman 1995.

Diane Louise Jordan

Diane is a television and radio presenter and is a director of Chronicle21, a corporate motivational company. For Chronicle21, her clients have included Microsoft, Marks and Spencer plc and The Royal Bank of Scotland Group. Diane has many charitable commitments. Among these, she is a Vice President of NCH and a trustee of BBC Children in Need.

Simon Fuller

Simon is best known as the manager of The Spice Girls, S Club 7 and David Beckham, as well as being the creator of the Pop Idol series. He remains Chief Executive of 19 Entertainment, a company he established in the mid 1980s, following a career with Chrysalis. Simon has been an active supporter of The Trust for some years.

Lloyd Dorfman CBE

Lloyd is the Founder and Chairman of the Travelex Group, the world’s largest foreign exchange and business payments specialist.

In 2001 Lloyd Dorfman was the winner of the Consumer Business Category in the UK “Entrepreneur of the Year” awards sponsored by Ernst & Young, Citibank and The Times. In 2002 he received the British American Chamber of Commerce’s UK Entrepreneurial Award, and the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Free Enterprise Award. He is a Non-Executive Director of M & C Saatchi plc, Deputy Chairman of Quest Ltd, a Governor of St Paul’s School, London, Chairman of The Roundhouse, a Director of the Royal National Theatre, and an Honorary Fellow of St Peter’s College, Oxford.

Ajaz Ahmed

Ajaz is the Chairman of AKQA, a company that provides integrated e-business systems, digital products. Ajaz has won the Forbes Media Innovator of the Year award, is a Reviewer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Sloan School of Management, an International Advisor for China Advertising  and co-authored the book ‘Made in AKQA: Ideas Volume 1’. He received an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University and was a mentor for Said Business School, University of Oxford. He has been appointed to the Council of the Institute of Contemporary Arts and was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce. Ajaz is an Enterprise Fellow of The Prince’s Trust.

Sir Ken Knight CBE QFSM DL

Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser (October 2007)

Sir Ken Knight  has been a key player in the UK Fire and Rescue Service for many years, leading the service through significant change. He was the national principal adviser on Fire and Rescue Service matters to the Local Government Association (LGA) and a Board member of the Chief Fire Officers' Association (CFOA) Sir Ken was awarded the Queen's Fire Service Medal in 1991, the CBE in 2001, the Order of St John in 2005 and was appointed one of Her Majesty's Deputy Lieutenants of Greater London in May 2006. Sir Ken was knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours the same year in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the fire and rescue service. Sir Ken is the first Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser following the creation of the office in October 2007.

Martin Pilgrim

Martin retired from the London Councils in the spring of 2007, after nearly 10 years as Chief Executive and after more than 38 years in local government service. He joined the Association of London Government in 1997 and managed the merger of a number of London-wide borough bodies to form the London Councils. He is currently the Chairman of the London Sustainability Exchange, a director of Film London and Honorary Treasurer and a trustee of the Daycare Trust. He also undertakes consultancy work and in the past year has worked with public affairs companies, financial services and the security industry. Martin chairs the London Regional Council of The Prince’s Trust.

Peter Cruddas

Peter established CMC Markets in 1989, a company now considered a global leader in online financial trading. Originally focusing on Foreign Exchange, the company now handles around six million trades annually with an average value of $2 billion per business day across its full CFD product range (including Foreign Exchange and Financial Spread Betting). With offices in London, New York, Frankfurt, Sydney, Toronto, Beijing and Hong Kong, CMC Markets supports clients from over 100 countries.

Steve Thomas

Steve has been Chief Executive of the Welsh Local Government since March 2004, after being Head of Policy, Best Value & Central Service at Caerphilly CBC and a career in local government. He is Joint Secretary of the statutory Partnership Council between the National Assembly for Wales and the Welsh Local Government Association and sits on a range of national bodies including the Wales Resilience Forum, the Consultative Forum on Finance, and the Public Services Board for Wales. Steve also chairs new boards for the National Service Frameworks for Children and Older People and is Company Secretary of the Local Government Data Unit Wales Board.

Sir Nigel Hamilton KCB

Sir Nigel was formerly Head of the NI Civil Service prior to his retirement in June 2008. He joined the Civil Service in 1970 and worked in the former Department of the Environment (DOE), on roads, transport, water, housing and local authority policies. In 1987 he transferred to Central Secretariat where he became the first Director of "Making Belfast Work" and was also involved in the development of community relations policies. He became Permanent Secretary in the Department of Education on 6 July 1998 and in July 2001 moved to become Permanent Secretary at the Department for Regional Development. He was appointed Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service in 1 October 2002.

In this role he led 29,000 civil servants and was the most senior adviser to the First and the Deputy First Ministers.

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