Raleigh International

Eddie Botsio is an award winning BBC journalist. He has been a trustee since 2006 and has travelled to Namibia on behalf of Raleigh. Eddie says, "I really admire the young people who put themselves through the Raleigh challenge. It's an experience that genuinely transforms lives".

Andrew Clay has enjoyed a career spanning over thirty years in international financial management in different industry sectors; most recently with the pharmaceutical company Wellcome plc and the educational publisher Oxford University Press. The main thrust of his career has been supporting the management of UK export markets and setting up and financially managing overseas representative offices and operating subsidiaries. As a frequent and enthusiastic business traveller, he has covered a number of geographic areas including Latin America, Japan, South East Asia, Africa and The Middle East. Andrew has also been fortunate to have lived and worked in Mexico with his family and more recently taken up challenging senior management positions in Tanzania and Malaysia. In addition to Raleigh, Andrew is also working with The Princes Trust and The Iain Rennie Foundation.

James Cochrane had a 30 year career in the pharmaceutical industry ending on the board of GlaxoWellcome plc in charge of all of their international operations. He is currently Chair of the British Red Cross and NHS Innovations and on the board of the London School of Tropical Medicine and the Medicines for Malaria Venture. All four of his daughters went on Raleigh expeditions and benefited enormously from them. He is keen to ensure that Raleigh is attractive to a wide cross section of young people.

Margaret Dane has been Chief Executive of AGCAS, the professional association for careers practitioners in higher education in the UK and Ireland since 2002. In this capacity she represents AGCAS and its member services at national and international level, working closely with the AGCAS President and Board of Directors. With well over 30 years working experience in the higher education careers arena at UK and international level, Margaret was AGCAS President from 1995 to 1998, and also President of FEDORA, the European Forum for Student Guidance from 2000 - 2003. In these roles, she has developed extensive links with government, employers, related professional bodies and colleagues in HE Careers Services and spoken at many conferences, across the world.

Established in 1967, AGCAS has 132 institutional members and over 2,000 individual members concerned with the delivery of careers information, advice and guidance to HE students and graduates.

Jeremy Fish attended Operation Raleigh in 1987 as a venture to Indonesia and then as a staff member to Guyana in 1988.  Describing the experience as “transformational” in his personal development Jeremy has spent the last 22 years in industry and commerce working in senior positions at home and abroad for blue chip companies including the former General Electric Company (GEC), Misys and Aggreko, where he is currently responsible for the Russian and Nordics businesses.  With a background in Marketing Jeremy offers a commercial perspective for Raleigh International whilst recognising the immense value that Raleigh plays in developing the leaders of tomorrow and the rôle that Raleigh plays in delivering environmentally sustainable projects around the world.  Jeremy is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and holds an MBA (with distinction) from Warwick Business School.

Amy Holmes is a civil servant in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. She is currently leading a series of projects to ensure the sustainable development of our marine environment within the UK and across Europe. She has had a wide ranging career across the Department's responsibilities and Whitehall, including working on the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreaks in 2001 and 2007. Amy took a career break in 2008 and joined several Raleigh expeditions in Borneo first as a Project Manager, and then as Deputy Programme Manager on expedition 09B, and the subsequent Summer programme. Since coming back to the UK and the civil service in 2009 Amy has continued her involvement with Raleigh including returning to Borneo as a Bespoke Project Leader. Before joining the civil service Amy spent time in the charity sector funding community based projects in the UK. She has a degree in Land Economy from the University of Cambridge.

Kishor Mistry has a background in working with young people, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Although he has not completed a Raleigh expedition, he has delivered development programmes for young people with an adventure element. By way of background, Kishor is a born and bred eastender and went to a school that The Guardian described as "worse than the worst school in Britain". He is currently a civil servant on secondment to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and in his spare time, is a school governor for a comprehensive in Brent.

Dr Derek Pearce was Chief Executive of the Leeds Training and Enterprise Council for three years from 1993 to 1996. He was previously an Executive Director of Tioxide Group plc and prior to this he was Managing Director of Tioxide's UK Operating Company. Derek has served as a member of the CBI's Northern Regional Council and of its National Education Policy Panel. At Leeds TEC he became closely involved with Raleigh's youth development programme working with disadvantaged young people from inner-city Leeds. He has been a Trustee since 1997.
He has been a non-executive director of Celsis International plc, a biotechnology company and a director of Manor House Group Ltd, a group of venture management consultants.

Christopher Wilton CMG is the Chair of Raleigh International. Chris was HM Ambassador to the State of Kuwait from 2002-2005 and had previously held postings in the Diplomatic Service in the UK, Tokyo, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Dubai. He is currently an advisor to a number of large companies and to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on the Executive Committee, Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, Chair of the Advisory Council, London Middle East Institute and Co-Chairman, Kuwait/British Friendship Society. His son went to Costa Rica and Nicaragua with Raleigh in 2001 and had a life changing experience.

Fiona Woolf is a consultant at CMS Cameron McKenna and has built an innovative energy and major project practice that spans law, engineering and economics, successfully building on the overlaps. She led legal teams on the Channel Tunnel and electricity and water liberalisations and privatisations in the 1980s.

Over the last 20 years Fiona has worked around the globe in 38 different jurisdictions including many developing countries, supporting the World Bank. She has advised over 25 governments on reform strategy and liberalisation and she has vast experience in dealing with regulation, market design, procurement and environmental issues - culminating in a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for her contribution to the UK knowledge economy and invisible earnings.

Fiona was President of The Law Society of England and Wales in 2006/7, being, in effect, the chief negotiator and spokesperson for the solicitors' profession, both in the UK and internationally. In the 1990s, she chaired the International Committee and negotiated access to legal markets in many jurisdictions.

She is the elected Alderman for the Ward of Candlewick in the City of London. She is also a Member of the UK Competition Commission and a non-executive director of Three Valleys Water plc.

Fiona studied Law at Keele University and earned a Diploma in Comparative Law from the University of Strasbourg.