Board of Trustees

Chair

René Olivieri CBE

René Olivieri was appointed Chair of the National Trust in February 2022. René moved from the United States to the UK in 1980 to become first editorial director and then chief executive of the international scientific and scholarly publisher, Blackwell.

In 2007 he became Chair of Tubney Charitable Trust, a major grant maker, supporting animal welfare and nature conservation charities. He then served as chair of the Wildlife Trusts for six years, before joining the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2018, where he was initially the senior independent director and subsequently Interim Chair. He was a member of the £2 billion Culture Recovery Fund Board and continues to serve on the government’s Cultural and Heritage Capital Advisory Board. Since becoming Chair of the RSPCA in 2019, he has overseen the modernisation of that organisation’s governance, finances and strategy.

Through his career in publishing, René has extensive experience of scientific research and higher education and has published peer-reviewed articles himself; he was a member of the board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England for many years. René cares deeply about biodiversity and the environment but he is also passionate about our built heritage and feels strongly that the pleasure and benefits of both nature and heritage should be open to everyone.

René is an avid horseman, tennis player, and theatregoer. He and his family live in Worcestershire where they share the extensive gardens of their home with the public and host, jointly with the Royal Shakespeare Company, an annual Tulip Festival.

Deputy Chair

Sandy Nairne CBE FSA

Sandy joined the Board of Trustees in April 2015 and was appointed Deputy Chair in February 2022. He is also an elected member of the Council. Until recently Sandy was Director of the National Portrait Gallery (2002–15) where he led the transformation of a much-loved museum into an even more successful national institution. Among many achievements as Director, Sandy enhanced the creative partnership between the National Portrait Gallery and the National Trust at Beningbrough Hall and Montacute House.

He previously worked as Director of Programmes at the Tate and has served on various advisory groups from the Fourth Plinth Selection Committee to the Maggie's Art Group, supporting Maggie’s cancer care centres, and the Fabric Advisory Committee of St Paul’s Cathedral, which he currently chairs. Sandy is a curator and writer whose recent books include Art Theft and the Case of the Stolen Turners and an edited volume of his father’s writings titled The Coincidence of Novembers. He is currently co-authoring a biography of Lord Desborough.

Over the years Sandy has contributed to the governance of several organisations including Middlesex University, the Royal College of Art and the British School at Rome. In recent years he served as Chair of the Board of the Clore Leadership Programme, developing creative leadership in the cultural and heritage sectors across the UK.

Alongside his enthusiasm and expertise in the arts, architecture and heritage Sandy has a long-standing interest in learning and cultural diversity. Sandy also includes racing-punting, competitive croquet and drawing among his various pursuits.

Trustee

Patrick Figgis

Patrick was appointed to the Board of Trustees in September 2022. His executive career was spent with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he held a number of senior leadership positions in addition to acting as adviser to the boards of numerous leading UK and international organisations.

He was a member of the UK firm’s executive and sat on the board of PwC UK, where he had responsibility for marketing and business development and for the firm’s interactions with its clients and markets. Patrick led PwC’s global pharmaceutical, life sciences and healthcare business, overseeing an expansion of services offered to public and private sector organisations across the world. As a leading industry figure, he helped the development and implementation of PwC’s global strategy and served on the firm’s extended global leadership team.

Patrick has held non-executive appointments for over 20 years, operating across the healthcare, arts and education sectors. He is a member of the Board of Governors of Nuffield Health - the UK’s largest healthcare charity - acting as a non-executive director of the company and a Trustee of this not-for-profit organisation. Patrick is Chair of the Remuneration and Leadership Succession committee as well as serving on its Audit and Risk committee.

He is a former Trustee and Treasurer of Shakespeare’s Globe, the world-renowned theatre, education centre and cultural landmark. He chaired the Globe’s Audit and Risk committee and contributed to the financial oversight of the Globe through the pandemic. Until recently he was also Chair of Bowel Cancer UK, the UK’s leading bowel cancer charity, with its focus on saving lives and improving the quality of life for everyone affected by bowel cancer.

All Patrick’s non-executive appointments have included a focus on extending reach, promoting access for all communities, encouraging greater engagement with customers and supporters and promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. He is a Life Member of the National Trust, has had a lifelong passion for historic homes and the countryside and believes strongly that we must preserve, promote and provide access to the country’s rich heritage for generations to come.

Trustee

Denise Jagger

Denise was appointed to the National Trust’s Board of Trustees in January 2021. She started her career as a corporate finance lawyer with Slaughter and May and is experienced in mergers and acquisitions. She then assumed more commercial, general management roles first on the board of Asda Stores where she was Company Secretary and General Counsel during its rapid transformation and later once part of Walmart. With a retailer’s focus on the customer she then applied this experience in the professional services sector, as a partner leading client development at international law firm Eversheds Sutherland.

Throughout her career Denise has been responsible for a range of functions including legal, regulatory and governance; insurance and risk; public affairs; customer service; remuneration and benefits. A consistent focus wherever she has worked has been on promoting equality, diversity and inclusion for which she has received a number of awards including an honorary doctorate.

Alongside her executive career she has held non-executive appointments as chair and board member in public, private and not-for-profit organisations in a variety of sectors including retail, financial services and reinsurance, housebuilding and real estate, the performing arts and heritage and higher education.

Trustee

Aideen McGinley OBE

Aideen was appointed to the National Trust’s Board of Trustees in September 2019. She is Deputy Chair of Carnegie UK Trust, a member of the DCMS expert Panel for UK City of Culture and a former Trustee of the BBC Trust.

Aideen has over 35 years’ local and central government experience in Northern Ireland. CEO in local government in Fermanagh, she became Permanent Secretary post the Good Friday Agreement in 1999, in the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure and subsequently Department  of Employment and Learning with responsibility for further and higher education, employment and skills. Reflecting her interest in rural and urban regeneration, she was seconded in 2009 as CEO of ILEX, the urban regeneration company for Derry-Londonderry, where she was instrumental in building the symbolic Peace Bridge and securing the inaugural and transformational UK City of Culture 2013 title for the city. She subsequently chaired Galway European Capital of Culture 2020.

Aideen is particularly interested in wellbeing and inclusion and has expertise in whole systems thinking, facilitating in the public and community sectors on Collective Wellbeing, Community Planning, Coproduction and Stakeholder Engagement. She is an Associate of the Future Search Network and holds a number of voluntary positions in local charities  including as trustee and former Chair of Fermanagh Trust and Director of mental Health charity the Aisling Centre.

Aideen was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Millennium honours, holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Ulster and honorary membership of the Royal Society of Ulster Architects. Other awards include the Heart for Habitat for Humanity Award in 2018.

Trustee

Zarin Patel

Zarin was appointed to the National Trust’s Board of Trustees in September 2018. She was the BBC’s Chief Financial Officer and member of its Board from 2004 to 2013 during which time she helped to transform the BBC into a fully digital broadcaster. Zarin led the BBC’s TV Licensing operation responsible for engaging with 26 million UK households. She also led the Digital Switchover Help Scheme which helped older and vulnerable people to convert to digital TV.

Zarin spent 16 years at KPMG working on FTSE quoted conglomerates in a variety of sectors. She is currently a non-executive director at Hays plc as well as Pets at Home Group plc, Anglian Water Services Ltd and HM Treasury where she also chairs each of their Audit & Risk Committees.

Having worked at the BBC, Zarin understands the unique and important role that an institution like the National Trust plays in the nation’s life. And, personally, the National Trust has played a valuable part in helping her family, as first-generation immigrants in the 1970s, to understand and appreciate their adopted home in all its physical beauty and its history.

Trustee

Dr Lisbet Rausing

Lisbet was appointed to the Board of Trustees in 2021.  She did her BA at the University of California Berkeley and her PhD in history at Harvard University, where she was also a lecturer and assistant professor. She has written two academic monographs as well as numerous scholarly articles.

Together with her husband, Professor Peter Baldwin (UCLA and NYU), Lisbet founded Arcadia in 2001.  Arcadia protects endangered culture and nature, promotes open access, and has awarded grants totalling £780 million. Projects range from preserving near-extinct languages and endangered historical archives, to preserving threatened landscapes and the marine environment.

Lisbet and Peter also founded Lund Trust which from 2022 will be funding transformative work that greens people’s lives in the UK. Lisbet also supports operational family companies such as Ingleby Farms & Forests. Her outside boards and committees have included the Harvard Board of Overseers, Yad Hanadiv Advisory Committee and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative Advisory Board.

Trustee

Paul Roberts

Paul was appointed to the National Trust’s Board of Trustees in September 2022. He has been an elected member of Council since November 2015 and served as Senior Member from September 2018 until his appointment as a Trustee.  

He started his career as a strategy consultant at Accenture, and subsequently gained a wide range of commercial and general management experience, including at Cable & Wireless and Tesco.  

With a more recent focus on the world of start-ups, he brings particular expertise in technology-driven transformation and innovation. He is currently CEO of GPDQ, a fast-growing primary healthcare provider, and also sits on the Board of Limalimo Enterprises Ltd, which built and runs an eco-lodge in the Simien Mountains National Park in Ethiopia. A keen hill walker and climber, Paul is passionate about conserving and sharing the enjoyment of our green spaces. 

An academic background in history and archaeology through a degree in Classics from Oxford has also given him a lifelong enthusiasm for our built heritage.

Trustee

Dr Tom Tew DPhil FRSA FRSB MCIEEM

Tom was appointed to the National Trust’s Board of Trustees in May 2019. He is a nature conservationist, currently Chief Executive and co-owner of two private sector companies (NatureSpace Partnership and Environment Bank) that are working with planning authorities to help deliver biodiversity net gain.

After a zoology degree and a DPhil from Oxford in farmland ecology, Tom spent over 20 years in the public sector with English Nature and Natural England, leading teams and programmes at local, regional, national and international scales, and served on numerous Governmental advisory boards. He was a Regional and National Director at English Nature, with operational responsibility for SSSIs; and was Executive Director and Chief Scientist at Natural England until 2011. He has published numerous scientific papers and books.

Tom has been a Trustee of the Heritage Lottery Fund since 2014. He was the non-Executive chairman of the Vincent Wildlife Trust for 15 years, has served as an independent member for his County Council and is a fellow of both the Royal Society for Arts and the Royal Society of Biology.

Tom is a Life Member of the National Trust. He lives in rural Rutland with his wife and spaniel, and relaxes by gardening, carpentry, and looking for orchids and mammals, at home and abroad.

Trustee, Council member

Michael Salter-Church MBE

Michael was elected to the Council in October 2019. He’s also Chair of the Horniman Museum and Gardens in Forest Hill, London, as well as Director of External Affairs, Policy & Sustainability at Openreach Ltd, where he’s the senior sponsor of the Pride employee network.

Michael founded the community interest company (CIC) that organises London’s LGBTQ+ Pride event. He co-chaired and ran the events 2013-2022, turning it into the city’s third largest annual event. He’s received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service on behalf of Pride’s volunteers. He’s also worked on a number of organising, advisory and fundraising committees, including Action for Children, the Terrence Higgins Trust and National Student Pride.
 
Michael previously served as an advisor in 10 Downing Street, including leading on broadcasting and equal marriage legislation. Michael’s professional background is in public affairs and communications. He’s a member of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership alumni network and has been awarded an MBE for public service.

Trustee

Richard Huntington

Richard was appointed to the National Trust’s Board of Trustees in September 2024. He has spent his professional life in the advertising industry and for the last 16 years has been the Chief Strategy Officer of Saatchi & Saatchi, where he is also now the Chair.

Richard specialises in helping large and complex organisations maintain relevance and prepare for the future. Over the past few years, he has worked with EE, BT, The John Lewis Partnership, HSBC, The British Heart Foundation and Direct Line Group, among others.

Alongside his executive career, Richard is a former Trustee of the London International Festival of Theatre and a director of the Welsh social enterprise, Goodwash.

Richard is particularly interested in the challenges of maintaining positive mental health in the workplace, especially since the pandemic.

He is a third-generation National Trust member and while he was brought up in Devon and Somerset in a farming family, he now lives in North London with his family.

Trustee

Alison Phillips

Alison Phillips is a media consultant, journalist and editor who served as Editor-in-Chief of the Mirror from 2018 until 2024, during which time she was responsible for the Daily, Sunday and digital editions. 

During her time as editor, the Mirror was Daily Newspaper of the Year, 2022 and News Media Organisation, 2022, and she was responsible for leading the Mirror through the COVID-19 pandemic. She also led successful campaigns including action on dangerous dogs, changing the law on organ donation and saving rail ticket offices.

Alison has won Columnist of the Year and has appeared frequently on television and radio on shows such as This Morning, Question Time and The Laura Kuenssberg Show. She is Vice President of the Society of Editors and was Chair of Women in Journalism, 2020-2023. She is also a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute for Journalism. 

She began her career as a reporter at the Harlow Star in Essex, and also worked at the Evening Argus in Brighton, Connors Press Agency, Woman magazine and the Sunday People, before joining the Mirror in 2001 as Features Editor. She lives in Essex and has three children.