Alastair Irvine is Chairman of the Board of Trustees and is a stockbroker with more than 20 years experience. He was the top rated equity research analyst in Europe in his specialist industrial sector. He is now a member of Triple Point Investment Management LLP, a boutique investment management house in the West End of London. He contracted meningitis as a child and was left completely deaf in one ear and with impairment to his hearing in the other. Alastair joined the Trustee Board in July 2009.

Stephen Gazard is Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees. With an entrepreneurial background Stephen moved into financial services joining the Prudential Corporation in the early 1990’s establishing a client bank of mostly Business Owners and Senior Executives before moving into the Independent sector.

In addition to detailed work with his own clients Stephen took on the co-ordination and leadership of the Head Office support staff as Operations Manager before being appointed to the Board.  Following the successful private placing of the main holding company and needed a new challenge he took the opportunity to work alongside some industry leading figures by joining Falcon Group PLC as Commercial Director.  Following the subsequent merger of Sumus PLC and Lighthouse Group PLC he was appointed Managing Director of Falcon before being appointed as Managing Director of the enlarged merged regulatory business.

In 2010 Stephen’s 14 month old daughter was struck down with meningitis and spent time in an induced coma before going on to a make a full recovery.  Following this he sought to join the Board of Trustees at Meningitis UK based on their mission of eradicating meningitis with his firm belief remaining that given the timescales involved in contracting the disease prevention was the only solution.

Mitchell Wolfe is Treasurer. He has extensive experience in the business world, holding a number of senior finance roles and as Managing Director of a manufacturing company. His experience ranges from managing MBOs to factory relocation and he now runs his own consultancy providing business coaching services for small and medium sized business and personal development training. He is a family man based in Cheltenham.

Anna Freeman has worked within direct marketing for over 20 years, her career started with American Express and then Readers Digest. In 1990 she moved agency side to be part of the team at WWAV Rapp Collins (at that time the largest direct marketing agency in the UK) where she worked predominantly with financial services clients such as Legal & General, Sun Alliance & AA Financial Services.

In 2004 Anna co-founded Freestyle Marketing which works predominantly within the not for profit sector helping charities with their fundraising strategies. Anna became a trustee of Meningitis UK in the summer of 2011.

Gill Noble CB  is a retired senior civil servant who spent most of her career in the Treasury, she had meningitis in her early 40s which left her with a number of after-effects. Gill became a Trustee in 1995.

 Michelle Harvey-Jones FCIPD is an experienced HR generalist, who has spent the last 20 years working in HR departments; she now specialises in change project management and runs her own consultancy business.  She was the Head of Human Resources and Corporate Services with responsibility for all aspects of HR, Marketing, Communications, Press, IT, Facilities and Secretariat at the Learning and Skills Council, previously she worked within the public and private sector and has experience of working with charities, manufacturing organisations, banks and the NHS.  Michelle has been a school governor and a non-executive director to a small financial services company she brings knowledge of corporate governance as well as people & change management. She is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.   She balances her career with family life and enjoys riding her motorbike and scuba diving in her spare time.

Richard Gillett is a Founder Trustee of Meningitis UK, becoming Chairman soon after its launch as Spencer Dayman Meningitis Laboratories in 1999.  An abiding memory is that he met baby Spencer Dayman just one week before Spencer's sudden and tragic death through meningitis in 1982.  After a career in banking - latterly in branch managements and as a Senior Inspector in Group Audit - Richard retired early and became a self-employed management consultant/facilitator, working generally within the SME sector. His focus now is as - in function, if not title - the financial director of a long established Coach hire business in Gloucestershire.

He resides in South Gloucestershire. Outside his family, which includes young grandchildren in Spain and Lincolnshire, his other interests are mainly a variety of voluntary causes and support to Youth via the Scout Movement.

Richard Greenhalgh is a marketing specialist and COO of an internet-based lifestyle and financial planning company.  He has many years experience in the marketing sector including as MD of a marketing database business as well as running his own consultancy for four years. He is married with three children. Richard became a Trustee in 2008.