Our board of experienced trustees come from different sectors and all walks of life. They share responsibility on how Cerebra is governed.

Sean Taggart

Chair of the Trustees

Sean joins the Cerebra board having enjoyed a successful 30-year career in business during which he built up significant commercial experience. This included leading and subsequently selling to his management team his own collection of leisure tourism businesses, sitting on a wide range of boards as a non-executive director and being asked to provide advice to government and ministers on a wide range of business-related issues. For the last ten years he has also chaired the Board of Trustees at Crossroads Care Kent, a large regional charity supporting the needs of both adult and young carers throughout the county. He has a particular passion for developing people and driving performance through great leadership and management and is currently also a director and deputy chair of Investors in People. He remains a director of The Albatross Group, the business that he led for over 20 years and has recently launched The Growth Adviser, his own consultancy aimed at helping owner managers accelerate their growth plans and build stronger businesses. He is a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Institute of Directors amongst others.

David Beattie

A qualified management accountant (CIMA), David has recently become self-employed following 20 years of senior manager roles across IT and financial services sectors. Outside work, most of his time is spent supporting his wife and two children who are immersed in a variety of sports clubs and interests, with any spare time being taken up by golf and his new passion for cycling. David has previously been an active supporter of Bristol charity ‘PROPS’, which raises money to provide opportunities for young people with learning difficulties and special needs, the key focus being inclusion. He is very proud to be a trustee for Cerebra, believing the charity has a unique proposition and is successfully delivering its aims and objectives through the valuable connection between colleagues, supporters and families.

Roland Gooding OBE

Roland Gooding has been involved in special education for 40 years. He has been a headteacher of two special schools and remains the principal of Valence School, Westerham in Kent which caters for children and young people who have physical disabilities and complex medical needs. He has a range of experience working with local authorities and of representing schools on various statutory and non-statutory bodies. His primary interest is in the progress and development of children and young people who have special educational needs and in particular of promoting and enabling their independence. He works closely with families and has supported many to secure the right educational provision for their children. He works proactively with colleagues from health and social care and is keen to promote shared responsibility across agencies for children and young people who have Education Health and Care Plans. In 2014 he played a key role in establishing a Co-operative Trust for 16 special schools in Kent to provide mutual support, collaboration and educational innovation. In the same year he was awarded an OBE for services to education. In July 2017 he was ordained as a permanent Deacon in the Catholic Church. He is married to Esther and has two grown-up children.

Jan Crosby

Jan is a chartered accountant and Fellow of the Securities Institute. He works in corporate finance at KPMG and focuses on capital raising and mergers and acquisitions. He has previously been non-executive at the Land Registry and also leads KPMG’s housing sector where he has led a number of collaborations with the charity Shelter on housing policy.

He has seen the benefits of Cerebra first hand as a parent of premature twins and is delighted to be supporting such an important charity in bridging between the real experiences and needs of children and parents with clinical knowledge to deliver new insight and solutions.

Andrew Cuthbert

Andrew’s career in human genetics spans more than 30 years. After a long period in academic research he moved on in 2003 to study and then train as an NHS genetic counsellor, joining the West Midlands Regional Genetics Service. Recognition of the often untreated or undiagnosed mental health problems of patients and their families, combined with rapid advances in the diagnostic power of genomic technologies fostered Andrew’s desire to understand how genetic and environmental risks interact and influence developmental adjustment and mental health outcomes of children who attend genetics clinics. These interconnected passions inspired his move to Cardiff University in 2014 to work as research genetic counsellor at the School of Medicine and its clinical psychiatry service. He contributed towards improving understanding of mental health in growing numbers children with brain conditions having genetic testing and how services could be improved to benefit patients and their families. Working with clinical academics, community mental health services and geneticists, Andrew co-chaired a multidisciplinary team which developed novel interdisciplinary services for individuals with complex developmental and mental health conditions. He also worked as honorary liaison genetic counsellor for the local mental health board’s autism service. Committed to improving clinical services and empowering parents to make informed choices, Andrew approached Cerebra to co-develop a major new collaborative partnership for sharing knowledge and expertise. Using the best available evidence, the partnership aims enhance the lives and life choices of children with brain conditions and their families. He feels privileged to join Cerebra as a Trustee and believes it underlines Andrew’s commitment to the pursuit of equal status between the mental and physical healthcare provision.