Sense is governed by our council of trustees. Their primary purpose is to promote Sense, uphold our vision, protect our assets and funds, and ensure that we comply with legislation and regulation.
We currently have 15 trustees and their brief biographies appear below.

Our executive team manages Sense on a day-to-day basis and their details can be found on Our executives page.

• John Crabtree OBE DL  D Univ - Sense Chair
• Liz Booth - Vice-Chair
• Ian Harley - Chair of the Audit Committee
• Nicholas Keegan - Honorary Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee
• Jim McManus
• David Reeves
• Jane McNally
• David Pearson
• Roy Staines
• Duncan Tannahill
• Sue Turner
• Gillian Wood
• Gini Bartlett MBE

John Crabtree OBE DL  D Univ - Sense Chair

John was senior partner of Wragge & Co for 12 years during which time the Birmingham legal firm developed into a major international practice. He was UK Lawyer of the Year in 2003 and voted West Midlands Businessman of the Year in 2004. He was awarded an OBE in 2007 and in 2010 received an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University.

Following his retirement from Wragges in 2004 he developed further interests in business and charity. John has been instrumental in raising more than £3 million for Sense, much of it through annual treks. Other charity involvement includes being chairman of Birmingham Hippodrome, the country’s most popular theatre. He is also chair of two quoted companies and several private enterprises. John is a Deputy Lieutenant of the West Midlands, and a former High Sheriff.

Liz Booth - Vice-Chair

Liz is currently head of HR for the General Dental Council, having been HR director of the NSPCC and The Prince’s Trust. She has a long association with Sense, having worked with us from 1988-1997, latterly as director of human resources, and as a trustee for a number of years since 2001.

She has spoken at Chartered Institute of Personnel Development national conferences on managing change and has a particular interest in designing recruitment systems to protect vulnerable people.

Ian Harley - Chair of the Audit Committee

Ian has been a member of our trustee council since 2008. He has many years’ experience working within both public and private sectors as a senior manager in the police service and strategic director in the retail sector.

Until recently he was independent chair of his local authority standards committee, was a founder member of the Crimestoppers charity and is founder member and trustee of the charity Witness Confident, which provides support to witnesses of violent street crime. 

Nicholas Keegan - Honorary Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee

Nick is a chartered accountant, and since qualifying with Price Waterhouse Coopers has spent the last 30 years in finance and business. He spent 10 years as an investment banker in the City of London and has subsequently been finance director of a number of quoted and unquoted UK-based companies, most recently as chief financial officer of a multi-national engineering group. He is also an experienced non-executive director, and is currently on the board of an AIM-listed recruitment and human resources outsourcing company. He is a school governor and lives near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire.

Jim McManus

Jim worked for 35 years for the Northern Ireland Court Service, holding a number of senior operational posts and in 2007 was appointed Supreme Court Administrator. He led an extensive modernisation programme that focused on customer service excellence and staff development and as a result received a number of business awards, including the Mark of Excellence from the NI Quality Awards sponsored by the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

As a parent of a deafblind child, Jim joined a small group of parents who lobbied for the establishment of Sense in Northern Ireland as there were no local services.  Following success with the campaign and ongoing involvement in organisation he was appointed Chairman of the NI Board of Trustees at the end of 2009.

David Reeves

David is a technology and marketing specialist with almost 40 years experience in the UK and internationally. His experience includes 15 years in senior management positions with Sony following a series of successful roles in the marketing sector. He was president and CEO of Sony Playstation in London for six years, overseeing a turnover of over £3 billion. He is fluent in German, Japanese and French and holds an MBA in Marketing as well as a PhD in Chemical Physics.

Jane McNally

Jane has spent her career in the retail fashion industry and held senior positions in companies such as Peacocks and Primark. She was chief executive of Alexon and now leads the Irisa group. In addition to being a trustee she also serves as a member of Sense trading board, whose remit is to maximize the income of Sense charity shops.

David Pearson

Dave first became a parent trustee in March 2001 and became a member of the finance and audit committee and vice chair. After eight years’ service he stood down for a year as required by Sense’s governance procedures, before becoming a trustee again. Dave took early retirement in October 2000, having worked in the textile trade for over 40 years, rising to become technical and manufacturing director in a large company producing fabrics for the automotive industry, with control over all aspects of cost, quality and resources both human and machinery-based. He has also been involved with the Society of Dyers and Colourists working on several committees including their council.

Roy Staines

Roy has Usher syndrome. He retired from a lifetime career in IT involving mainframe computer applications. He worked up to senior positions in private sector companies in a range of business areas embracing insurance broking, grocery retailing, toy manufacturing and distribution, marketing and banking.

He has been a member of Sense since the early 80s when Sense started its first Usher syndrome project and has been involved with a number of groups in a variety of roles since then. For the past 30 years, Roy has undertaken voluntary campaigning on consumer and technology issues for deaf and deafblind people, and he currently represents Sense in a number of stakeholder groups.

Duncan Tannahill

Duncan works with the small-to-medium enterprise sector, coaching and mentoring business owners to help them to fulfill their potential. This follows a career in a range of organisations and taking two technology start-up businesses from concept to reality.

As chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, he was responsible for introducing major change to the organisation’s culture and customer relationships as well as the development of new products and services to support the business community. Duncan has served as chair and board member on a number of organisations related to business and economic growth, and his contribution to Glasgow was recognized by the City who awarded him their inaugural ‘Medal for Enterprise’. Duncan is also a member of the Council of Sense Scotland.

Sue Turner

Sue was a founder of the Kent Branch of Sense and is currently its chair. She has also been a Sense parent trustee at times since 1993. Sue has ten years’ experience as a non-executive director for the local health trust for learning disabilities and mental health, and has acted as a Mental Health Act manager. She was also a voluntary advisor at the Citizens Advice Bureau for eight years. Sue has campaigned locally for the rights of deafblind people, in particular sitting on a Kent County Council panel in order to write a county-wide strategy for deafblind people. She is also a member of the board of Sense International.

Gillian Wood

Gillian was a parent trustee of Sense from 1996 to 2004 and again since 2005, in a range of roles for the organisation. 

She has combined her knowledge of acquired deafblindness and personal experience of congenital deafblindness, and uses this when talking to politicians, business people, service providers and the public to influence and motivate support - political, financial and practical - for Sense.

Gillian has held management roles in sales and customer services, supported students with disabilities in their learning and worked as a project manager for a design company. Gillian also supports her husband in his health and safety consultancy.

She is taking the lead in developing a support group for parents of deafblind children in Hampshire.

Gini Bartlett MBE

Gini has a son who is deafblind and lives with Sense in Birmingham. She was a trustee in the 80s and was UK committee member of the European Deafblind Network, and Deafblind International for many years. She has also addressed and run workshops at many international conferences in Europe, the USA and Canada.

Gini set up and ran the Sense library, now based in London and called the Ian Cloke Library after her son. She worked as family liaison officer for Sense West and South-West until retiring in 2010. Gini was awarded the MBE in 2000, and Sense Awards for Exceptional and Sustained Contribution in 2009 and for Outstanding Contribution in 2010.