Trustees & leadership

Wing Commander Michael J Russell MBA, OBE, RAF retired – Chair of Board of Trustees

Mike spent 30 years as an RAF navigator followed by a successful civilian career in military training. He holds an MBA and a Private Pilots Licence. He has been a Sunnyside Trustee since 2012 and Chair since 2019.

Sue Bradshaw – Trustee

I am an experienced and enthusiastic Chief People Officer and Learning Leader with a demonstrated history of adding value in large multinational pharmaceutical companies, Biotechs and SMEs. I love to help people develop and be fulfilled in their careers.

I am experienced in all aspects of HR specialising in organisational development, coaching and learning as well as commercial acumen for strategy, planning, leadership, governance & ethics.

Emma Bryan – Trustee

Academy Lead Safeguarding Welfare & Attendance Manager for a growing multi academy trust. Our schools are special needs provisions, specialising in SEMH & ASC. I ensure the academy fulfils its statutory obligations in terms of safeguarding but also its values and mission to ensure that every child and young person can achieve to the best of their ability.

I previously worked for two years as a Coordinator for the community-based charity, Home-Start and, prior to that was a classroom teacher at an infant school. I have a 1st class honours degree in child development and am both a Senior Mental Health Lead and an Attachment Lead.

Adam Connors – Trustee

Adam started his career as a physicist, and completed his PhD at CERN designing part of one of the particle detectors which ultimately discovered the Higgs Boson. He has since taught physics in Sudan, sold encyclopedias in Chicago, fitted WiFi at the refugee camps in Greece, and provided emergency networking support to the relief workers in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

He’s worked at Google since 2006 and now manages a team of engineers and research scientists as part of Google Health, a project which aims to use big data and machine learning to improve the quality of healthcare.

Carl Lundberg – Trustee

Carl qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2013 and is currently an equity partner and Executive Board member at Gerald Edelman, a top 50 firm headquartered in the City of London.

After starting his career in audit Carl went on to specialise in corporate finance and regularly advises clients on M&A transactions and business valuations. As well as being heavily involved in the running of Gerald Edelman, Carl also holds a number of formal and informal non-executive directorships, through which he provides businesses with strategic advice.

Carl lives close to Sunnyside’s Northchurch site with his wife, their two children and their boxer dog, Snoop.

Jim Martin – Trustee

Chartered Civil and Structural Engineer leading multi-disciplinary projects in the UK and overseas.

Project Director and Design Manager

ICE Council member

Rachel Davis – Trustee

Rachel is a passionate advocate of Social Value, supporting local and promoting sustainable food production and consumption. In her current role as Social Value Advisor, Rachel supports central government organisations to unlock their social value and secure wider social, economic and environmental benefits.

A qualified and respected teacher, Rachel used the Sustainable Development Goals as a conduit to raise awareness of global issues by supporting teachers to develop their planning and identifying learning opportunities; whilst also leading children to explore the concepts of sustainable cities, gender equality, and responsible production and consumption amongst other vital goals.

Bella Stuart-Smith – Patron

Bella is a gardener and professional garden designer who has a long term interest in education.   She  chaired Hertfordshire Gardens Trust  and still leads  their schools programme, having developed and run the  Mrs Wheelbarrow workshops. Over a 7 year period these  visited 174 Hertfordshire primary schools delivering practical gardening  workshops, and now delivers a grant scheme.   She also sits on the St Albans Cathedral Foundation and chairs their Education Trust.

She became involved with Sunnyside during her year as High Sheriff of Hertfordshire.  From that first encounter at  the opening of Hemel Food Garden, she has always been amazed at the ambition of the charity and their determination to put horticultural work opportunities at the centre of an effective social enterprise. She speaks to everyone she can about Sunnyside, their delicious produce and the work they do.

Emma Claire Sweeney – Patron

Emma is the author of Owl Song at Dawn (2016), a novel inspired by her sister who has cerebral palsy and autism, which won Nudge Literary Book of the Year. Emma has been named as both an Amazon Rising Star and a Hive Rising Writer, and has won Society of Authors, Arts Council and Royal Literary Fund awards.

Emma’s PhD explored literary representations of disability, and she has written extensively about both disability and literature, publishing in the likes of the Paris Review, TIME and the Washington Post.

Her debut non-fiction book, A Secret Sisterhood: The Hidden Friendships of Austen, Brontë, Eliot and Woolf (2017) was co-written with her own friend Emily Midorikawa and features a foreword by Margaret Atwood, who described the work as a “great service to literary history”.

Emma first became involved with Sunnyside back in 2012 when she ran a yearlong writing residency, which culminated in the publication of The Memoir Garden: Poems from the words and experiences of adults with learning disabilities. She continues to hold regular literature sessions at Sunnyside, where she loves feeling part of such a progressive, inclusive and generous-spirited community.

John Driver – Patron

John is a retired chartered electrical engineer who had a successful 30 year career with BP; in a wide range of Engineering Technology, Project management, Scheduling and H&S roles across BP Oil and BP Solar; both here in the UK, and overseas up to Board level.

After retirement in 2003, John agreed to join the board of SRT as a Trustee and served for 15 years, including taking on the role of Vice Chairman, and making a significant contribution towards the sustainability, strategic direction and professionalism of the Trust going forward.

John has a passion for helping those in need across community; and has a deep love of nature and wildlife. He has been an allotment holder for the past 20 years, served on the Sunnyside Allotment Society committee and Sunnyside Church PCC; supporting SRT in fostering and maintaining good working relationships with it’s neighbours.

In his capacity as patron he will take every opportunity to promote and raise the profile of SRT’ across the local community.

Keely Siddiqui Charlick – CEO

Keely Siddiqui Charlick has worked with young people and adults with learning disabilities throughout her career. Before joining Sunnyside, she held senior development and operational roles for large London-based charities; since then she has been instrumental in transforming Sunnyside from a small day service into a thriving and innovative social enterprise. Keely also undertakes work for the School of Social Entrepreneurs (SSE – www.the-sse.org) and uses Sunnyside as an example to inspire other charities to move into trading and create employment opportunities for vulnerable young people and adults.

Keely has a particular passion for helping people reach their potential. Key aspects to her leadership are being person centred, putting a robust business framework around charity values, localism, financial and environmental sustainability and a love of nature and animals. She feels very lucky to work for Sunnyside and to see it develop.