Board of Trustees

Colin Gage – Chair

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Chairman of the Trustee Board and Co-chair of Remuneration Committee and provides advice and support on CAD financial strategy. Member of the Officers and F&GP committees, Director of DCVS(Trading) Limited. 

PERSONAL PROFILE
Retired Bank Executive with over 35 years Financial Services experience in the City of London. Much involved in Charity sector. Former Treasurer of The Hospice of St Francis and currently Trustee on the Diocesan Board of Finance of St Albans Diocese of the Church of England. Has lived in Leverstock Green for over 30 years and is a life-long Spurs fan. 

Doug Root – Vice Chair

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Vice Chairman of the Trustee Board and Trustee Lead on Diversity and Repair Shed projects. Member of the Officers and F&GP committees. Co-chairs the Remuneration sub-committee and is Chair of the Communities Committee.

PERSONAL PROFILE
As Chair of the Repair Sheds steering group, Doug oversees the progress and development of this project. Doug held senior positions in a large multi-national company primarily in the fields of Human Resources and Business Development. He has a keen interest in the charity sector and has been a trustee of various local charities. He is married and much involved with his grandchildren of various ages. They live in Boxmoor, where Doug still tries to maintain a reasonable golf handicap! 

Margaret Griffiths – Vice Chair

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Vice Chairman of the Trustee Board and Chair of the Employability Committee.   Margaret sits on the Executive, Finance and General Purposes, and Officers Committees.   Margaret is the trustee with lead responsibility for Safeguarding. 

PERSONAL PROFILE
Married to Michael with a son and daughter who have both flown the nest.  She has lived in Hemel Hempstead since 1983, originally from Watford.  Margaret was a Customer Services Manager and was a Dacorum Borough Councillor for 32 years, 24 of which she was Deputy Leader of the council.  She is also a Trustee of Leverstock Green Village Association and Treasurer of 4^th Boxmoor Scout Group. 

James Lowe – Honorary Treasurer

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Honorary Treasurer and member of the Executive, Finance and General Purposes, and Officers committees.

PERSONAL PROFILE
CFO with substantial commercial experience, operating at board level, my roles have included: responsibility for organisational strategy, change management and systems, in international companies within the business services, consumer products and commodities sectors. Experienced in not-for-profit sector including a variety of charity Trustee positions. 

William Allen

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Member of the Executive and Finance and General Purposes committees. 

PERSONAL PROFILE
William has been a trustee since 2022 and currently sits on the Communities Committee.  In William’s career supporting disadvantaged young people in many roles in the voluntary and public sectors he has at various times been an employee, tenant and partner of CAD.  He currently teaches history at a local Special School and is a Borough Councillor representing Boxmoor ward.  As well as currently being Mayor, he has sat on the Health in Dacorum committee for several years and is Dacorum Borough Council’s representative on Dacorum Heritage Trust.  He is also active in the local community serving on the committee of Boxmoor Good Neighbours, supporting local cricket clubs and running the monthly charity quiz at the Post Office Arms in Boxmoor. 

Peter Ashman

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Member of the Executive and Finance and General Purposes committees. 

PERSONAL PROFILE
Peter became a Trustee in December 2022. He is a highly experienced Trustee having served both as Board member and Chair of several charitable and not for profit organisations.  

Peter’s previous career was in scholarly publishing, and he was CEO of the multi-national healthcare information and education company BMJ which publishes the flagship British Medical Journal. 

Peter lives in Tring and is married to Jane who is an osteopath – they enjoy travelling and walking. Every Sunday morning, Peter can be heard on CAD’s very own Radio Dacorum, presenting The Golden Oldies Show. 

John Bernie

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
John joined the Trustee Board in 2016 and is a member of the Executive and Finance and General Purposes committees.  John also sits on the Communities Committee.

PERSONAL PROFILE
With a background in university research and teaching, he subsequently served at board level with an airline, IT and financial services companies. After retirement, he served as Chairman of Hemel Hempstead Town cricket club for ten years. As a local Councillor he is a past Mayor of Dacorum and chairman of the Strategic Planning and the Environment committee. He is still a member of that committee and also of the Council’s audit committee. He enjoys playing pool and gardening.

Chris Dove

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Member of the Executive, Finance and General Purposes committees, and Officers’ Group.  Chris is a member of the Wellbeing Committee and is a Director of our independent trading company DCVS(Trading) Ltd. 

PERSONAL PROFILE
Worked for the UK subsidiary of a large international company and was for some years Finance Director of a European Business Unit.  He joined CAD as a Trustee in March 2016. Lives in Aldbury and enjoys golf. 

Richard Roberts

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Member of the Executive, Finance and General Purposes committees, and Officers’ Group. 

PERSONAL PROFILE
Richard is Leader of Hertfordshire County Council.  Prior to this, Richard has served as the portfolio holder for adult social care and health, was executive lead for Children and their services and before that took the lead on Partnerships and Performance. CAD works with the Parish, Borough and County Councils and it is in that context Richard is involved most closely. 

Before becoming involved in local politics Richard worked in the oil industry, is married and has two daughters 

Sally Symington

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Sally joined the board of Community Action Dacorum in December 2022. She is a member of the Executive; the Finance and General Purposes Committee; and the Wellbeing Committee. 

PERSONAL PROFILE
Sally is a politician and Board Member with a background in Investment Management. She has lived in Dacorum since 1997. A mother of four, she enjoys walking her dog and horse riding in her spare time. 

Roger Taylor

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Member of the Executive and Finance and General Purposes committees.  Roger sits on the Communities Committee and is the Trustee with lead responsibility for Health and Safety.

PERSONAL PROFILE
After 34 years with Lloyds Bank and retiring from Corporate Banking Roger accepted an introduction to Community Action Dacorum.  As a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers and a wide spread of financial experience, he was able to put those skills to its benefit.  Roger has enjoyed being part of the group of Trustees supporting the evolution of the Charity, not least when I made Community Action Dacorum his Mayoral Charity during his term as Mayor of the Borough. 

Helen Young

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Member of the Executive and Finance and General Purposes committees.  Helen sits on the Employability Committee and the HR Group. She is also a member of the Connect Dacorum steering committee.

PERSONAL PROFILE

Helen is a solicitor specialising in civil litigation. She hails from the East Midlands but has lived in Dacorum for a number of years with her family and enjoys giving back to the local community. Helen was appointed as a trustee of CAD in December 2021 and has previously been a governor of a local secondary school.

Helen enjoys spending time outside with her family and exploring new places.

Richard Milnes

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES

Member of the Executive and Finance and General Purposes Committees. Richard became a Trustee in December 2023.He worked in the Film & Television Industry for just over 45 years, holding senior positions in Companies such as Warner Bros. International TV {Managing Director & Vice President}, Channel 5 International {CEO}, Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment {Director of International Sales}, Weintraub Entertainment {Senior Vice President &Managing Director} United Artists, Granada, & others.

PERSONAL PROFILE

Since retiring, Richard has been very involved in one of his great passions–rugby…President of Old Albanian Rugby Club for the past eleven years {Chairman for three years from 2003-2006}, & Chairman of Hertfordshire Rugby Football Union 2012-2017. He is currently a Trustee of Old Albanian Sports Association. Other leisure activities include golf & skiing. Richard has two Sons & three Grandchildren

Terry Douris

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Terry is an independent Director of DCVS(Trading) Limited. 

PERSONAL PROFILE
Terry is an independent Director of DCVS(Trading) Limited. He has previously represented the Hire Industry as it’s Association Chairman. He has had significant experience in Education as the Chair of Governors of 2 Hemel Hempstead schools and was the Cabinet Member for Education and Libraries at Hertfordshire County Council where he is now Chairman of the Council having previously been the Mayor of Dacorum for 2 years. He is a director of an Audio-Visual Company in Hemel Hempstead. 

Tup Dutta

TRUSTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
Tup is an independent Director of DCVS(Trading) Limited. 

PERSONAL PROFILE
Tup was appointed to the HITS Board as Non-Executive Director in 2020 where his experience of working 40 years in the NHS was of value to the Board as the Charity worked so closely with the NHS. His management experience stems from being Vice Chairman of the Advisory Medical Board to West Hertfordshire Health Authority which oversaw delivery of NHS services across the West Herts district.  Tup is married with 3 children; he retired as a local Apsley GP and still play competitive tennis at Leverstock Green as well as work regularly at the local library run entirely by volunteers.