Our trustees

Deborah has worked as a manager and Chief Executive in the NHS for 35 years. She was Primary Care Trust Chief Executive in Bristol, working closely with the City Council with many third sector organisations. Within the last five years, Deborah was Managing Director of the West of England Academic Health Science Network, an NHS funded body whose role is to stimulate innovation in the NHS and to spread best practice in care. She has personal experience of dementia care and has a direct connection with Brunelcare services through her father who lives in one of our care homes. Deborah was appointed at Chair of Trustees in January 2019.

Nick has spent most of his career in local government, but has also worked in the voluntary and private sectors. His background is in housing development and in the nearly 30 years he spent with Bristol City Council – the last 12 as Director of Housing Solutions – he developed expertise in homelessness, private housing renewal, commissioning, strategy and policy development as well as organisational development.

Phil is a partner in Hope Consultancy and Training that works with health and social care organisations to help them navigate the changing landscape of the health and care landscape; and to develop excellent and sustainable care services for older people.  He is also visiting professor at the Institute for Global Health Innovation at Imperial College, London and chaired the Imperial College report ‘Creating Sustainable Health and Care Systems in Ageing Societies’. Phil is a former Member of Parliament (1997-2010) and served in a number of Ministerial roles with responsibilities for local government, skills, charities, social enterprise and social finance. As Minister of State for Care Services his work included development of the White Paper ‘Building a National Care Service’, the National Dementia Strategy, the National Mental Health Strategy ‘New Horizons’, and the National Autism Strategy.  

Tony, an octogenarian great grandfather, became a tenant of Brunelcare in 2013 after caring for his sister. His background includes engineering safety and risk management in rail, aerospace and defence. He also ran a recruitment agency, followed by practice as a counsellor and group facilitator. Tony is a director of Driving and Mobility West of England, and has served as trustee, mentor and community visitor with several Bristol organisations. You might see him around, walking, bussing or biking, do wave or speak.

Harry has been on the boards of numerous companies and organisations for 25 years. His experience spans the NHS, the charity sector, national and local government, academia, regulation and the music industry. He has travelled extensively with his work, leading large-scale transformation, restructuring, merger, acquisition, closure and change programmes. He has specialist experience in HR and organisation design and development.

Kate has worked in social housing for around 15 years. Her career has covered rent and service charge management for small and medium housing associations in London and Bath. Kate has carried out previous trustee roles with Bristol based housing associations and so has a good understanding of what the role requires.

Anthony is a Chartered Surveyor and leading expert in the care home and retirement living property markets having worked in the UK healthcare market for over 15 years. Anthony is a Director at Jones Lang LaSalle with particular responsibility for facilitating investment into the extra care and care home markets through new sites, forward funding opportunities, disposals, and acquisitions of operational healthcare assets and real estate backed businesses.

Alison, a native Bristolian, has combined a 30 year senior local authority career in the city, with an artistic life as co-artistic director of Theatre West. Having started life as a social worker in the city, Alison has managed social care services and been the Director of Adult Social Services. She has also managed housing, community safety, safeguarding and was a Non Exec Director for The National Treatment Agency for 6 years. She was awarded an MBE in 2011 for Services to Local Government for her work in tackling substance misuse in Bristol.

Andy is the Director of Financial Services for LiveWest and has over 15 years of housing experience in associations of various sizes. Professionally qualified as a chartered accountant and corporate treasurer, he has experience of leading both finance and procurement teams and has worked extensively on aligning culture and working practices for finance teams and the wider organisation following several mergers. He has detailed knowledge of asset management reviews, including options for improvement, regeneration or disposal, the insourcing and outsourcing of maintenance services and fleet services.