Board of Trustees
Our Trustees come from a broad range of backgrounds with diverse skills and experience to support the charity. They all give their time, energy and expertise for free.
Their key responsibilities are to:
- Lead the charity, establish its mission, vision and values and ensure it has a clear purpose and an overall framework of policies and standards.
- Develop overall strategies to achieve the charity’s aims and to ensure there is a clear system to delegate implementation of the strategies to the Chief Executive and employee team.
- Monitor performance of the charity against standards that ensures effective, efficient and economic use of the charity’s resources and assets.
- Ensure compliance with the law and accountability to the charity’s stakeholders and provide transparency in performance of their actions.
- Ensure the Board of Trustees performs effectively, contains people with the skills and experience it needs, and makes plans to ensure the recruitment, induction and development of new trustees.

Chair: Professor Neil Gittoes
- Graduated from University of Birmingham with honours in medicine (MBChB(Hons)) and anatomical studies (BSc)Hons))
PhD in molecular endocrinology. - Awarded the Goulstonian Lectureship at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), London.
- Head, Centre for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Birmingham Health Partners.
- Member of Council of the Society for Endocrinology, Vice-chairman of Specialised Endocrinology Clinical Reference Group, NHS England and West Midlands Clinical Senate member.
- Consultant Endocrinologist and Metabolic Bone Physician at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, and Birmingham Children's Hospital.
- Associate Medical Director for Clinical Partnerships at University Hospitals Birmingham.
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Vice Chair: Mr Richard Darch
- Has more than 20 years' experience in healthcare.
- A recognised thought-leader in the area of infrastructure.
- Worked as a research fellow at the University of York's Health Economics Consortium following a Masters in Health Economics.
- Founding partner of SDC Consulting, a niche healthcare consulting group focusing on strategy, operations improvement and investment appraisal.
Founder of Infracare, a specialist provider and funder of healthcare infrastructure. - Associate Fellow of the Nuffield Trust.
- Member of the SALUS Global Advisory Board as part of the Congress for European Healthcare Design.
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Treasurer: James Abbott
- An experienced charity leader and qualified accountant, specialising in helping charities deliver significant strategic change and transform their reach and impact.
- Builds and leads corporate services and operational teams, ensuring insight and analysis drives strategic decision making at all levels of the organisation.
- Currently Director of Performance and Corporate Services at RNID, with responsibility for Finance, Performance, HR, Governance and our Contact Centre.
- Previously held roles at other disability and health charities, including Scope, Diabetes UK and Guide Dogs.
- Passionate about delivering social change.
- A Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.

Dr Nicky Peel
- A consultant in metabolic bone medicine for more than 20 years.
- Graduated with honours from the University of Nottingham Medical School in 1984.
- Awarded Doctorate of Medicine in 1994 for studies on osteoporosis in steroid-treated rheumatoid arthritis.
- Clinical lead for the Metabolic Bone service at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, instrumental in developing and evaluating innovative models of service delivery.
- Has a long affiliation with the charity with many roles, including previous editor of our journal for healthcare professionals, Osteoporosis Review.
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Paul Herbert
- Over 25 years of experience in brand strategy, marketing and corporate communications.
- A Senior Director at BCW, part of WPP (NYSE: WPP), a creative transformation company and 2020 Global Agency of the Year, #1 on the PRovoke Creative Index.
- Over ten years' healthcare industry experience, launching and managing global brands, public health campaigns and public policy advisory for leading companies, including GSK, Pfizer and Sanofi.
- A digital transformation expert with recent experience leading both AdTech and MarTech strategy and PMO for £10m+ technical delivery programmes in the healthcare sector.
- Winner of several national and international prizes, including two Cannes Lions, D& AD Yellow Pencil, Digital Impact Award Gold and DBA Design Effectiveness Gold.

Judith Lyons
- Over thirty years’ experience in HR in the private sector, of which a third has been at Executive level.
- Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
- More than ten years’ experience of being a Charitable Trustee.
- Through my work as Group HR Director of a social care business I see the negative impact that late diagnosis and treatment of conditions, along with lack of access to good quality support services has on the lives of those we care for.
- An advocate of education and prevention for younger adults to enable them to take positive action on the health of their bones.
- As one of the 3.5 million people in the UK living with osteoporosis I have a keen and vested interest in the ongoing development and success of the Society.
- I passionately want future generations to live without osteoporosis.

Teresa Hicks
- Graduated from the University of Brunel with a BSc in Sport Sciences and subsequently went on to obtain a Postgraduate Certificate in Management and Leadership from the University of Sussex.
- Published in the International Journal of Sport Psychology.
- Over 20 years of experience in fundraising and sales both in the private and charity sector.
- Director at the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Previously held senior roles at Cancer Research UK.
- Member of the Institute of Fundraising.

Ian Cooper
- A Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
- Formerly a partner with Smith & Williamson (now Evelyn Partners) holding a number of senior management roles including head of the Bristol Office Assurance business and a member of their International Audit Committee.
- As a partner had extensive client portfolio, ranging from professional practices, charities and owner managed businesses through to companies listed on the stock market.
- Took early retirement in 2015 and have worked with a number of organisations including Chair of Audit and Risk at the Royal Agricultural University (2017-2021) and Chair of Finance & Estates at Atlantic College (2017 to date).
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Dr Gurjit Bhogal
- Graduated from University of Birmingham with Honours in Medicine, MBChB (Hons).
- MSc in Sport and Exercise Medicine with Distinction from The University of Nottingham.
- Consultant in Musculoskeletal, Sport and Exercise Medicine at The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital, Birmingham.
- Non-Executive Director of The Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust and Great Britain Table Tennis.
- Team doctor for the England Women's Cricket Team and Aston Villa Football Club.
- Chief Medical Officer of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup and Chair of the Biosecurity Committee for the 2021 ICC T20 Cricket World Cup.

Dame Barbara Frost
- Barbara currently mentors young leaders and is the Deputy Chair of the Joffe Charitable Trust.
- She was Chief Executive of WaterAid from 2005 to 2017. Previously she led Action on Disability and Development and worked as a Country Director with international NGOs in Mozambique and Malawi.
- She started her career working with the Australian government and in community development in NSW.
- Barbara holds honorary doctorates from Exeter, Bath, Cranfield and the Open University and was appointed a Dame in 2017.
- She lives with osteoporosis, is a passionate gardener and enjoys rural life in Somerset.

Professor Emma Clark
- Graduated from the University of London in medicine (MB.BS) and biomedical science (BSc Hons), and from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in epidemiology (MSc).
- PhD in musculoskeletal epidemiology from the University of Bristol.
- Professor of Clinical Musculoskeletal Epidemiology at the University of Bristol, with a research focus on vertebral fragility fractures.
- Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist seeing patients with inflammatory arthritis, osteoporosis or metabolic bone disease at North Bristol NHS Trust.
- Long standing involvement with the ̨ž³uuÖ±²¥ since 2008 including receiving research grants, contributing to the Bone Research Academy, chairing the Conference Organising Committee, active involvement with the Clinical Research Committee, and collaborating to produce patient-facing and healthcare professional-facing literature.