Our Board of Trustees / Directors
In 2024 we successfully agreed and adopted new Articles of Association and our planned new governance arrangements came into effect on 29 October 2024.
Our new governance arrangements preserve the valued involvement of sector and student organisations while continuing to safeguard our independence and ensuring our governance arrangements have the confidence of all our stakeholders. It is important that our governance reflects both the current context and that it is flexible enough to adapt to future changes in the higher education sector.
Under the revised arrangements, all new Trustees are appointed through an open recruitment process within a framework that sets out the skills, experience and diverse perspectives required, including student perspectives and English sector and Welsh sector perspectives, in an appropriately balanced way. We have also kept in mind the growing expectations for highly effective governance of charities, including in relation to Board size, and expectations of us as an ombuds scheme.
Board members are not involved in the review of individual complaints. The Board’s responsibilities include:
- preserving the independence of the Scheme and the role of the Independent Adjudicator
- oversight of the performance and effectiveness of the Independent Adjudicator, the Chief Executive and the OIA Scheme
- setting the budget for the OIA and the level of subscriptions payable by providers each year
- approving the Rules of the Scheme.
During 2024 we said goodbye to five trustees who had served on the Board for significant periods of time, Jon Renyard, William Callaway, Alistair Fitt, Orla Tarn and Chloe Field. We thank them all for their exceptional contribution to the Board and the OIA.
Trustees/Directors
Trustees/Directors are appointed by the Board of Trustees. They are normally appointed for a term of three years and serve up to two terms. The Board may decide to extend a Trustee’s period of service up to a maximum of nine consecutive years.
The Trustees of the charity and Directors of the charitable company, who served throughout 2024 unless otherwise stated and were members of the Board on 31 December 2024, were as follows:
Lay Trustees/Directors
- Chair - Sim Scavazza
- Deputy Chair - Martin Kirke
- Andrew Chandler
- Nicola Flint
- Jonathan Rees
Trustees/Directors with a sector perspective
- Professor Alistair Fitt - English sector
- Dr Wendy Finlay - English sector
- Dr Kevin Mundy - Welsh sector
Trustees/Directors with a student perspective
- Adesewa Adebisi
- Alex Stanley (from July 2024)
- Sophie Williams
Trustees/Directors who served part year under previous governance
- Jon Renyard (until June 2024) - Nominated Director
- Orla Tarn (until May 2024) - Nominated Director
- Chloe Field (until June 2024) - Alternate Director
- William Callaway (until June 2024) - Nominated Director