The Board & Staff
Lady Marianna Falconer QC - Chair of Trustees
Lady Marianna Falconer has had a long law career since 1977 specialising in children’s cases. She was made a QC in 2002. She is a patron of the Galleries of Justice, which has a wide educational role teaching citizenship and the law in schools. A school governor for 20 years, Lady Marianna was a close friend of Deborah Hutton and, inspired by her motivation and passion, wants to join Deborah’s legacy that ‘each of us can do a little’.
Charlie Stebbings - Founding Trustee and Film Director
Charlie was married to Deborah until her untimely death and has a professional reputation as photographer and now film director for advertising campaigns in the UK and abroad.
He witnessed the extraordinary way which Deborah campaigned in her last seven months on the dangers of teenager smoking and lung cancer, and as a parent he is acutely aware of the devastating consequences that smoking can have for all the family.
Father of four, Charlie is determined to fulfill her legacy, ‘to go out and do a little kindness in her name’.
Adam Stebbings - Treasurer
Charlie’s brother, Adam, has extensive financial and operational experience within the accounting profession, the BBC and more recently with WPP and is a qualified chartered accountant and graduate with a law degree.
In 2007 he started working in the voluntary sector where he has been the interim CEO for a new ex-offender charity and most recently as the Chief Operating Officer for the National Foundation for Youth Music.
Alex Rentoul - Schools
Alex is a longstanding close friend of the family. After Oxford and qualifying with KPMG as a chartered accountant (now retired), Alex specialised in banking, strategic consultancy and corporate finance issues in the UK and internationally with first Arthur D Little and then Booz Allen Hamilton. He has a wealth of financial experience in the City and in retail, wholesale and services management as a board member in listed companies. He runs a private group of preparatory schools in London and provides strategic support to the Campaign.
James Best – Marketing
James has 30 years’ experience in advertising, serving as Chairman of the UK Advertising Association and President of the European Association of Communications Agencies.
During his career James was Chairman of BMP DDB in the 1990s; then President of DDB Northern Europe, Middle East, Africa and India; and finally Chief People & Strategy Officer, DDB Worldwide.
On retirement from DDB in 2007, he became a member of the Advertising Standards Authority Council and a farm labourer for his brother at home in Dorset.
Karen Ford - Health and Government
Karen has a MSc Med (Public Health) and is an independent consultant in health research and policy. She was formerly head of Public Health Advice at the Health Development Agency (now part of NICE) responsible for leading a team of research and policy experts.
She has over 25 years experience working in the public sector in education, management, research and policy. She works with a range of clients including government departments, government agencies, charities, and primary care trusts and is a scientific advisor to the Department of Health.
Romilly Stebbings - Youth
Romilly is one of Deborah and Charlie’s daughters and is now reading History of Art at Bristol University after taking a gap year travelling in South America and the Far East.
Using her close experience of her mother’s death, and her own interest in fashion, Romilly was Chairman of the Fashion Show Committee in Autumn 2007, organising fundraising and speaking in front of 950 people on behalf of the Deborah Hutton Campaign and The Teenage Cancer Trust.
Whilst at school, Romilly was a Prefect and on the Head Girl’s Team at Francis Holland School. She also won the Good Citizen of the Year Award from Select Education for London & South East in 2007.
Sarah Cornaby - Fundraising
Sarah has worked in the voluntary sector as a volunteer and consultant for 15 years. She was Head of Corporate Fundraising at NCH Action for Children and Marie Curie Cancer Care before becoming a freelance consultant to a range of local, national and international charities specialising in trust, company and major donor fundraising.
She worked in South Africa for four years concentrating on child nutrition programmes and pre-school education and is a Trustee of the Early-learning Rural Foundation, a charity she founded there in 2002. In a voluntary capacity Sarah is a panel assessor for the Stars Foundation Impact Awards, and an advisor to English PEN.
Emma Wrafter - Director
Emma is a fundraising, communications and marketing specialist with 10 years experience in the charity and public sector. Past organisations include the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), The Children’s Society and most recently the British Safety Council.