The Board of Trustees is our governing body, overseeing all areas of The King’s Foundation.

Dame Ann Limb is a former Further Education College Principal and senior civil servant. Since 2005, she has held Chair and NED roles in business, economic development, housing, and arts & culture, and regeneration.

Dame Ann is currently Pro Chancellor of the University of Surrey, and Chair of the Lloyds Bank Foundation, the City & Guilds of London Institute, and the Lifelong Education Institute. In 1998, she founded the social change charity, the Helena Kennedy Foundation, where she is Vice President.

Federico Marchetti is a tech entrepreneur and a sustainable fashion pioneer: he founded YOOX – the world’s first lifestyle e-commerce destination – in 2000 and in 2015, he led the merger of YOOX and NET-A-PORTER to create the world leader in online luxury fashion, which was acquired by Richemont in 2018.

Federico has used his entrepreneurial experience to advance the sustainable and socially responsible practices within the wider fashion industry.  In 2017 Federico was recognized by the President of the Italian Republic who knighted him as a Cavaliere. In 2019 Federico was honoured with the amfAR Award of Courage.

In addition to his role at The King’s Foundation, Federico is Chair of His Majesty’s Sustainable Markets Initiative Task Force on Fashion and a Board Member of Giorgio Armani.

Sarah de Gay joined international law firm Slaughter and May in 1996 as a Corporate/M&A lawyer and established its Compliance Department in 2008. She was appointed as Slaughter and May’s first General Counsel in 2015. Sarah stepped down as Slaughter and May’s General Counsel at the end of 2020 to focus on a portfolio of roles connected with values, standards, and ethics.

Sarah is currently a Visiting Professor of UCL’s Faculty of Laws (where she supports its teaching and research on professional ethics), an Independent Lay Member of the Editors’ Code of Practice Committee, an Independent Member of ACOBA (the Cabinet Office committee which advises the Prime Minister on the application of the Business Appointment Rules, which govern the basis on which Ministers and senior civil servants leaving office can take on roles in the private sector), and Immediate Past Master of the City of London Solicitors’ Company (the livery company for City solicitors).

Alexander ‘Sandy’ Mason trained and qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen in Edinburgh in 1985 and in 1991 joined Johnston Carmichael Chartered Accountants as an Associate. He was promoted to Partner in 1993 and became the Managing Partner of their Aberdeen office. In 2007 he was appointed Chief Executive of Johnston Carmichael and Chair in 2019.

Sandy retired from Johnston Carmichael on 31 May 2022 following which he has built a NXD portfolio. Sandy was appointed a member of the Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS) in 2011 and elected President 2018/19. In 2020, he was appointed by Her Late Majesty the Queen as Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire. He is also Chair of Salvesen Mindroom Centre, a charity specialising in supporting young people with neurodiversity challenges and is an Honorary Professor of the University of Stirling where he sits on the advisory board of the management school. He is also the former Honorary Dutch Consul for the North of Scotland and Chair of the Development Trust for the University of Aberdeen.

Julian Payne is Global Chair of Crisis & Risk and EMEA Chair of Corporate Affairs for the global communications advisory firm Edelman.  Prior to this, Julian worked for five years with the British Royal Family as Communications Secretary to Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla during their time as The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.  Previously, Julian held a series of global roles specialising in Corporate, Brand and Digital communications for the BBC, where he was Director of Communications, and Burberry where he held the post of VP Global PR and Corporate Affairs.

Dame Helen Stephenson is a Non-Executive Director and former Chief Executive of the Charity Commission for England and Wales. She joined the Commission from the Department for Education where she was Director of Early Years and Child Care. Helen previously worked in the Cabinet Office where she was Director of the Office for Civil Society and Government Innovation Group. Helen is a Non-Executive Board member of the National Lottery Community Fund and Chair of the People Committee. She is a Board member of the ECB Regulatory Board and on the People and Governance Committee at the Royal Academy of Dance.

Helen has also held roles at the Big Lottery Fund, at a large national charity as a development manager and as a researcher and consultant in the statutory and voluntary sector. Helen has a PhD from Bristol University.

Helen was awarded the CBE in 2014 and was awarded a DBE in the Birthday Honours list 2024 for services to charity and regulation.