Our Governance Team
The Family Holiday Charity is governed by a Board of Trustees, led by the Chair, Philippa Harris.
The board make sure the charity is delivering its mission, goals and strategy – to support families facing tough times to have a holiday. They help ensure we are managing risk and are adhering to policies, procedures, and regulations.
- Philippa has been our Chair since June 2018.
- She’s had lots of experience working across the travel and tourism sector, with some well-known names like First Choice Holidays and Eurotunnel. This means she understands the context in which we offer holidays, manage the processes and approach, and can help us to meet people who could help support our work.
- Philippa is a Board member and Chair of the Communications Group at the Tourism Society.
- Favourite ice cream flavour: ‘salted caramel, with some vanilla’.
- Jackie has been involved with the charity for more than 10 years, firstly as a star fundraiser (she’s run, baked and sailed!), ambassador, and then as a trustee since July 2019 and Vice Chair since March 2021.
- Her background is with London-based PR agency Flagship Consulting. She’s helped lots of businesses to build and protect reputations – her special areas are branding and brand building, and issue management as businesses prepare for crises. Her experience means she can help us with crisis planning, branding and communications, as well as Chairing the Nominations and Remuneration Committee.
- Favourite ice cream flavour: ‘chocolate, and pistachio’
- Mark has been our Treasurer since March 2018.
- He’s had lots of experience in retail banking and in consultancy. His expertise includes the systems, processes, and ways of working across the banking sector, helping them manage risks and meet regulatory requirements. This experience – and his love of spreadsheets – helps the charity remain financially stable and manage our risks.
- Favourite ice cream flavour: ‘pear and chocolate’
John Appleby
- John has been our trustee since March 2016.
- His career has been in the Law, firstly as a solicitor, and then as a Judge. His specialist area is in family law, and he has lots of experience with complex care cases. John has been actively involved with the Council of the Law Society, chairing a number of committees. His experience is invaluable in helping us make sure we are doing the right things, in the right ways, for the families we are here for.
- Favourite ice cream flavour: ‘salted caramel’
- Julia joined the Board in June 2022 and is one of the UK Travel Industry’s pre-eminent leaders having led the Advantage Travel Partnership Group as CEO since April 2018. During this time, she has transformed the £4.5bn business with vigor and energy to it becoming the UK’s leading commercial membership organisation for travel intermediaries who operate in both the leisure and global business travel environment.
- Julia’s unique position brings considerable value to the Board across our holiday and customer delivery and in supporting partnership development.
- As the UK media’s go-to on all subjects travel-related, Julia is one of the UK Travel industry’s most vocal and high-profile leaders, and has been recognised with many industry awards. Most recently she was named The Travel Legend Award at The UK Travel Industry Awards in recognition of her part in leading the travel industry’s recovery, driving change and representing the Outbound Travel sector tirelessly through the Covid 19 pandemic
- Favourite ice cream flavour – Pistachio
- Julie has been a trustee since July 2019, but through her work has known about us for many years.
- Her background is in social work. She has worked with KIDS, a charity delivering services to disabled children for more than 20 years. She’s experienced in meeting and improving outcomes for children, short break services for disabled children and development of specialist adventure playgrounds among other things. Julie is also on the board of Governors for the Thomas Coram nursery. Her expertise is invaluable in helping us to safely deliver holidays that make a real difference for families, and she helps us with Safeguarding, taking the lead Board role in this area.
- Davinia Batley is Director of Fundraising & Communications for wish granting charity, Rays of Sunshine and has spent over 20 years developing and delivering successful income and engagement strategies for several charities
- Outside of work, Davinia enjoys travelling and a good film
- Favourite ice cream flavour – Pistachio
Leadership
The Family Holiday Charity employs a small team of staff to deliver the mission of the charity. Roles cover income and engagement, experiences and impact and finance and business resources – the things needed to raise money and deliver holidays for families facing tough times. This small staff team is led by a Leadership Team who have responsibilities for key areas of activity.
Kat Lee, Chief Executive
- Kat joined the charity in January 2020.
- Kat has worked across the public and charity sector throughout her career, including time with the Science Museum, Parliament’s Education Service and Girlguiding. She’s been a charity trustee and Chair of Governors for a local primary school. Her experiences across these roles mean she is able to work with lots of different types of people in different roles and build great teams. She leads difficult and complex projects that mean things change for the better.
- Outside of work, Kat is a novice gardener who likes playing games with her daughter.
- Favourite ice cream flavour: ‘you can’t go wrong with chocolate’
Kate Harris, Director Finance and Business Support
- Kate joined the charity in October 2021.
- She has worked in finance and accountancy roles across the public and private sector, latterly also looking after business and memberships services too. This experience means she’s able to help us to work across all our key internal service areas, managing our finances and ensuring our systems and process for key areas like technology and people are in shape too.
Mags Rivett, Director Income and Engagement
- Mags joined the charity in January 2021
- She has worked in the non-profit sector for more than 20 years in fundraising, marketing, and communications roles. She has also spent time as a consultant, helping charities to use technology more effectively in delivering fundraising and communications plans. This experience means she can help us plan and build a fundraising strategy that will bring more supporters to the charity, which means we can offer more holidays to families facing tough times.
- Outside of work Mags collects travel writing stories from adventurous female travellers, goes on lots of trips and likes wine.
- Favourite ice cream flavour: Cherry (or Salted Caramel)
Jax Shaw, Director Experiences and Impact
- Jax joined the charity in November 2020
- She has worked in key roles across the travel industry for most of her career, as well as enjoying some time in event management. This means she has all the right skills and experience to take care of all the different elements that go into planning holidays at scale, and to make sure that families have a great experience while they are away. She also looks after the feedback and research that makes sure we are delivering breaks that make a real, long-term, long-lasting impact, too.
- Jax is a trustee of the Thomas Cook Children’s Charity.
- Favourite ice cream flavour: ‘a triple scoop, please – vanilla, chocolate and mint choc chip’.
You may also be interested in:
Our annual review and accounts
Our annual review and accounts (published annually in the summer) shares more about our financial performance and other factors that are important to the charity.