Trustees
The Trust is managed by a board of Trustees, appointed in accordance with its constitution. The Trustees meet four times a year in addition to an away day with staff.
Giles Charrington, Chair of the Trustees, is a management consultant, a coach for prison governors, and a zen meditator.
Dr Jamie Bennett is Governor of HMPs Grendon and Springhill.
Penny Boreham is a radio producer and craniosacral therapist.
Jo Child is a yoga teacher and runs a series of high-quality yoga workshops with guest teachers in Oxford. She is a former staff member of the PPT.
Nicholas Colloff OBE was Oxfam’s Director of Strategy and Innovation and is now Executive Director of the Ardigius Foundation. He is a PPT co-founder.
John Dring OBE is a management consultant, former prison governor, Prison Area Manager and RAF pilot.
Stephen Eeley, is a magistrate, former senior administrator at Oxford University and a zen meditator.
Peter Stevenson, Treasurer, is a Chartered Accountant and offers his time for a number of charitable organisations.
Patrons
We are deeply grateful to our Patrons who support and publicise our work and offer us encouragement:
Dr Kiran Bedi, former Inspector General of Prisons, Tihar Jail, and former Deputy Chief of Police in India
Shirley du Boulay, author and biographer of world-renowned spiritual leaders, including Father Bede Griffiths and St Theresa of Avila
Dr Sheila Cassidy, doctor and former nun, who drew attention to human rights abuses in Chile by publishing her own history as a torture survivor
Sandy Chubb is Zen Teacher at the Oxford Zendo and former Director of the PPT. She has been involved with the PPT since its inception and taught yoga and meditation in prisons for over 20 years.
Father Laurence Freeman OSB, Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation
Jeremy Irons, Golden Globe, Tony and Academy Award-winning film and stage actor
Erwin James, Guardian journalist, Editor in Chief of Inside Time and former prisoner
Sister Elaine MacInnes OC OLM, former PPT Director, zen teacher and co-author of two of the Trust’s books
Sir Mark Tully, acclaimed broadcaster and journalist and former Bureau Chief of BBC, Delhi
Dr Benjamin Zephaniah, best-selling poet, broadcaster and human rights activist
Consultants
We are indebted to these consultants for their help and advice:
Rachel Holmes is an independent charity law consultant and researcher. She also practises meditation
Imam Monawar Hussain DL, MBE, founder of The Oxford Foundation and member of Oxford University Hospitals chaplaincy team
Prof. Alison Liebling, Director, Cambridge Institute of Criminology Prisons Research Centre
Luke Serjeant, Deputy Director Custody, Women’s Estate, HMPPS
Rev’d George Coppen, Anglican priest and former prison psychotherapist at HMP Grendon