Old name, new purpose: why we’ve gone back to RNID

Our Board of Trustees

Meet the people who govern RNID and direct how the charity is managed and run.

Ewen Stevenson

Ewen joined the Board as Chairman of RNID in June 2022. He is also Chairman of Serendipity Capital, a technology focused venture capital fund.

Ewen previously held various senior executive positions across the banking sector. Most recently he was Group Chief Financial Officer of HSBC Holdings plc from 2019 to 2023. Prior to HSBC Holdings, he was Chief Financial Officer at The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (now NatWest Group) from 2014 to 2018, and he held various senior management positions in Investment Banking at Credit Suisse, where he worked for over 25 years.

Ewen holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration (majoring in Accountancy) and a Bachelor of Law from Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. He has lived with single sided deafness since his mid-40s.


Claire Bailey

Claire Bailey joined the Board of Trustees in 2018 as a co-opted trustee to bring her finance expertise to the work of the Board. She is currently Chair of the Resources Committee.

Claire is a Chartered Accountant and has worked across a number of business sectors with many years of experience in Finance, Strategy and Transformation. She is the CFO for a global Aerospace business and is passionate about inclusion for all within her business.

Claire has had family members with severe hearing loss and lives with tinnitus.


Lindsay Foster

Lindsay is Executive Director of a leading national deaf charity, which is also the lead awarding body for British Sign Language. She is passionate about improving communication between deaf, deafblind and hearing people, and creating better communities in the process.

She says: “I want to make sure that deaf and deafblind people have the same opportunities as everyone else, and the same access to education, employment and services. I am confident I can use my skills and experience in this area of education, diversity and inclusion to progress the aims of RNID.”


Gideon Hoffman

Gideon is an advisor and investor in commercial media and technology ventures. Previously a founding partner in a media business, Gideon oversaw growth to international scale. He also spent a decade advising ministers on policy matters at HM Treasury.

Gideon has severe hearing loss and has worn hearing aids since childhood, as do his son and mother. He is a Fulbright Scholar and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.


Ita Murphy

Ita has worked in the marketing and communications industry for the past 38 years, where she has worked with some of the largest FTSE 100 companies. 

Until recently, Ita was CEO of Syzygy UK -a struggling data and digital agency, where she turned the business around in three years.

Ita mentors women across a broad range of industries.

With a family history of severe hearing loss and tinnitus, Ita is proud to be a trustee of the RNID.


Sally Harris

Sally developed severe hearing loss during her twenties following an infection. Having experienced first hand challenges hearing loss brings within the workplace and socially, Sally is passionate about removing the stigma and raising awareness of deafness, particularly in the workplace.  Sally has spent 20 years in fashion retail as a Finance Director, latterly at Marks and Spencer. She is also a trustee for two other charities.


Nick Waring

Nick is a Chartered Accountant with broad experience in strategic and operational finance in non-profit organisations, both in the UK and Africa. He is currently Director of Finance and Resources at the Disasters Emergency Committee, and has previously held roles at Christian Aid, the Refugee Council and the RAF Benevolent Fund. Nick is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, and holds a masters degree in Charity Management from City University, London.

Nick holds an active interest in the work of RNID as he suffers from partial hearing loss as a result of ear surgery earlier in his life. He wears hearing aids and lives with tinnitus.


Gill Budd

Gill has deep experience as a senior leader in the charity sector, working in the area of legal, governance and risk and through trustee roles in many charities. She has long been committed to charities which seek to challenge disadvantage – in health, education, rights, employment and opportunity – where she seeks to create and embed inclusion. Gill is a solicitor and has led on governance, risk, legal and compliance for various charities, latterly the education charity, Teach First, and including Save the Children UK and Plan International, after a career in private legal practice and the commercial world. She has been a trustee of charities including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Community Links and Blenheim CDP which all worked to address inequalities in some way and is Chair of the charitable foundation, Sharegift.

Gill has personal experience of sudden hearing loss and lives with partial hearing and tinnitus. When her hearing loss happened, it was RNID she turned to so she could better understand her new world and life, as the leading charity to support people like Gill. She also has family experience of deafness and hearing decline.


Julian Meekings

Julian was born profoundly deaf, with progressive binaural hearing loss, and diagnosed at the age of 3. After many years wearing hearing aids, his hearing loss progressed significantly and he underwent a cochlear implant operation. He works at The Medical Research Network, supporting clinical trials as Executive Director, Quality Management where he heads up the Quality Management and Learning Development functions. As part of this role, he has responsibility for driving corporate and cultural change in a rapidly growing organisation, and he has overall accountability for all quality matters across the company as well as building relationships with clients.

In his previous roles, he has worked with many global pharmaceutical companies across Europe, the US, and the UK government, to help them improve processes, define digital strategy, transform operating models and implement governance models for different technical functions in research and development. This experience working with multiple organisations, from large to small, has given him insight into a huge range of cultures and ways of working that enables him to understand different organisations and how best to bring best practices to life. Throughout his career, Julian has promoted awareness and accessibility for all, and has contributed to or sat on boards dedicated to promoting diversity and supporting those with disabilities.

Page last updated: 1 February 2024

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