The Trustees
The No Smoking Day Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance and strategic direction of the charity. Recruited from and elected by our membership, the Trustees bring a wide and valuable range of skills and experience.
Dr John Beal MBE - Acting Chair and Treasurer
Dental Public Health consultant and Regional Dental Advisor, North &
Yorkshire.
John was born in North London and remains an Arsenal supporter although
he is now Consultant in Dental Public Health and Regional Dental Officer
in Yorkshire and the Humber. He qualified as a dentist at the Royal Dental
Hospital of London and then moved to the University of Birmingham as Research
Fellow and then Lecturer in Dental Health where he gained his PhD. In 1983
he moved to Yorkshire where he is employed within the NHS and has an honorary
Senior Clinical Lectureship at the University of Leeds. He was awarded an
MBE in 2004 for his contribution to dental health in Yorkshire. He is committed
to improving health generally, not just dental health, and is a Trustee
and former Hon. Treasurer of the UK Public Health Association. When not
working he enjoys being with his family, undertaking history research projects
and gardening. He is currently a member of the Yorkshire and the Humber
Regional Churches Commission and was for 10 years an elected lay member
of the General Synod of the Church of England.
Gerry Mc Elwee
Gerry's background is in teaching (1979-89, Biology and Health Education); he was awarded the Diploma in Advanced Studies in Education (DASE), specialising in Working With Adolescents (Queens' University Belfast, 1992).
He contributes to European Network on Young People and Tobacco meetings and training programmes.
He was awarded an MSc in Health Promotion (University of Ulster, 2002) for his research looking at the role of nurses in smoking cessation.
He has worked with the Ulster Cancer Foundation since 1989, initially in cancer prevention and smoking education programmes for young people. He is currently the Head of Cancer Prevention at the Ulster Cancer Foundation, and is Chair of the No Smoking Day Northern Ireland Coordinating Committee.
Dr Lesley Owen
Public Health Advisor on Smoking, Health Development Agency
Dr Geof Rayner
Geof Rayner was born on Merseyside and went to school in Australia. He has worked in health advocacy for 30 years, being a member of the new community health councils in 1975. He was a community worker (after working some years on building sites) before entering university. In 1984 he left a full time academic job at London University work in local authority health promotion in London. There he chaired task forces on drug and alcohol misuse and HIV prevention and treatment and set up new organisations to counter HIV/AIDS. His work in tobacco prevention in south London was rewarded by an Evening Standard Jak cartoon showing a Hitler-like figure standing on a London bridge stopping smokers crossing to the south. Geof was one of the founders of the Public Health Alliance in 1987, and organised its launch conference. He became the first chair of the UK Public Health Association in 1999. He was elected an honorary member of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine and then a Fellow. He has been a trustee of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations and has worked as a research consultant in health and social care since 1992. He is a founder of the Photofusion Photography Centre, the UK's largest centre for independent photography and a director of a farm in the Midlands. He has written extensively on public health and drug prevention and is currently a consultant to the World Health Organisation. Geof has a PhD in comparative health care systems and is a visiting research fellow at City University.
Amit Aggarwal
Amit Aggarwal is Senior Business Development Manager for the Australian Trade Commission, responsible for marketing Australian exports in the UK.
Previously he was a Valuation and Strategy Manager at financial consultancy PriceWaterhouseCooper, project managing strategic shareholder and business valuations for corporate clients.
Amit holds a first-class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Pembroke College, Oxford, and was admitted to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in 2000.
Deborah Arnott
Deborah Arnott has been the Director of ASH, one of the UK's leading campaigning charities and a member organisation of No Smoking Day, since May 2003.
Previously Head of Consumer Education for the Financial Services Authority (FSA), Deborah set up the FSA's consumer education function and was successful in lobbying to get financial education into the school curriculum.
She has a varied background including being the first female Industrial Relations Officer at Triumph Cars, an MBA from Cranfield and experience as a journalist both in print and in television. As a producer, director and then programme editor she developed and launched a wide range of programmes for Channel 4 and LWT.
Morag Wood
Morag Wood is a communications consultant who now runs her own company, after a career in a number of varied organisations.
She has been employed as Head of Communications for the London Development Agency, the economic development agency for the capital, and Director of Communications at the Millennium Commission, which distributes National Lottery funds to capital projects and individuals.
In other posts Morag has worked with clients including the National Blood Service, NHS Breast and Cervical Screening Programmes and the Audit Commission.
Her current focus is on devising and developing a programme of activities for National Lottery Day, created to celebrate the 10th birthday of the National Lottery in 2004 and the impact it has had on Britain's communities.