The Impetus board is composed of eight highly experienced trustees, who have backgrounds in the private and voluntary sectors. Trustees include the co-founders of Impetus Trust, Stephen Dawson & Nat Sloane. In addition there are a number of committees that serve the board.
Louis G. Elson, Chairman
Louis G. Elson is the Managing Partner of Palamon Capital
Partners, a private equity firm he co-founded in 1999. He has been
an active member of the European private equity industry for almost
twenty years, previously as a Partner of Warburg Pincus. He is a
member of the Research Advisory Board of the British Venture
Capital Association. He serves on the Development Board of The
Prince's Trust and is a Trustee of the Hobson Foundation for
Classical Studies.
Nat Sloane, Vice Chair
Nat Sloane is the co-founder and Vice Chair of Impetus
Trust. A successful entrepreneur, venture capitalist, management
consultant and social investor, he brings a wealth of experience to
the role. Prior to Impetus, Nat was a partner in Accenture, where
he also chaired their UK charitable foundation, and was vice
chairman of Crime Concern. He is currently the England Committee
Chair of the Big Lottery Fund, an independent member of the Bridges
Social Enterprise Fund investment Committee and a member of the
Social Finance Social Impact Advisory Board. Nat has
established three private businesses in the UK and the US.
Stephen Dawson OBE
One of the first venture capitalists in the UK with 30
years' board level experience as chairman, chief executive and
director, Stephen has been involved for 25 years with ECI, a
venture capital company specialising in mid-market buy-outs, where
he is now non-executive chairman. He was until recently
chairman of Ovum PLC. Stephen co-founded Impetus and was a
founder trustee of the European Venture Philanthropy Association
(EVPA). He is co-founder and chairman of Jacana Venture Partnership
which aims to tackle poverty in Africa by helping build a venture
capital industry. Stephen was named the Personality of the Year at
the Private Equity Awards in April 2007. Stephen was awarded
an OBE "for services to the Voluntary Sector" in 2010.
Craig Dearden-Phillips MBE
Craig is the Founding CEO of Stepping Out, a new venture
helping public services to become a social enterprise.
A serial social entrepreneur, Craig is the Founding Chair of the UK
disability social enterprise Speaking Up (now VoiceAbility) and is
co-founder of five smaller civil society organisations. Craig
is the author of a best-selling business book for social
entrepreneurs and is a regularly columnist for The
Guardian and Third Sector magazine. Craig
has an MBA and is a Fellow of the Centre for Welfare Reform and a
Visiting Fellow of Ashcroft International Business School. He
is also a School Governor, a Committee member of Communitybuilders
and a Founding Trustee of the new Southgate Partnership Development
Trust in his community. An elected Councillor, Craig serves as the
Liberal Democrat Spokesman for Communities on Suffolk County
Council.
Amelia Fitzalan Howard
Amelia Fitzalan Howard spent the first part of her career in the
art world at Christie's where she worked for nine years.
She then left Christie's to move to the voluntary sector and
started work with School-Home Support in 1995, becoming CEO in
1998. In 2005, Amelia moved to The Henry Smith Charity, a UK
grant maker which distributes c £25m per annum, where she is Head
of Grants. Amelia also sits as a Magistrate in East London and is a
Trustee of Andrews Charitable Trust.
Andy Hinton
Andy is co-founder of Ailsa3 Ventures Ltd, a small privately
funded, private equity investment vehicle set up in 2003. He led
the management buy-in of White Rose Environmental Ltd and prior to
that Andy held a variety of senior corporate roles in the
environment sector, including Board Director of Yorkshire Water.
Andy is the Chairman of the Impetus - Sutton Early Years Initiative
Steering Group.
Ian Meakins
Ian Meakins is Group Chief Executive of Wolseley. Prior to
this he was Chief Executive Officer at Travelex and before
this Chief Executive Officer of Alliance UniChem plc until its
merger with Boots in July 2006. He was previously President,
European Major Markets and Global Supply for Diageo plc.
Chris Underhill MBE
Chris is Founding Director of the charity BasicNeeds, which works
with mentally ill people in eight countries in the third world.
Prior to this he founded and directed two other charities, Thrive
(formerly Horticulture Therapy) and Action on Disability and
Development (ADD). In 2000 he was awarded an MBE for his work in
disability.
Our thanks go to past Impetus trustees for their contributions: Adrian Beecroft, Nicholas Colloff, Guy Dawson, Stephen Lambert, Chris Mathias, Julia Middleton, Doug Miller, Shaks Ghosh and Michael Webber.
Read more about the Impetus committees.
Harriet Lamb
Executive Director, Fairtrade Foundation