Our Trustees

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 International in 2001 and had a life changing experience.

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

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.

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.

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. 

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