Our management board
The Management Board is responsible for directing and monitoring our work so that we act properly and meet our objectives.
The following people are members of our Board.
Geoff Rose
Alan Teague
Dr Gillian Schiller
Nigel Pink
Margaret Attwood
Kevin Walters
Ros Goldfarb
There are also three co-opted members of our Board. These are:
Barrie Warner
Inderpreet Singh Johar
Steve Scown - Chief Executive
Geoff Rose - Chair of the board
Qualified as a pharmacist and went on to spend most of his working life in marketing and general management within the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry. Formally CEO of Devilbiss Health Care and Sunrise Medical with responsibility for affiliate operations throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where he led an organisation with sales of $340 million. The primary interest of Devilbiss and Sunrise Medical was the provision of care and equipment to patients and clients who were seeking independent living in their own home or in the community.
Appointed Chair of Harrow NHS Primary Care Trust at inception in April 2002 following the merger of five NHS organisations and decided to stand down in March 2007. The Trust employed 750 members of staff, held a budget of £230 million and served a population of 225,000. Geoffrey is currently a non executive director at West London Mental Health NHS Trust (including Broadmoor).
Geoffrey joined the Board as Chair of Dimensions Group in October 2005. Read Geoff's one page profile
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Alan has been a Director of Dimensions since 2002 and is currently chair of the Audit Committee.
He is 63 years old, married with three grown-up children and two grand-children (to date). He currently lives in South Cheshire but was born in Hampshire and lived in Hampshire and Berkshire for over 30 years.
Alan initially qualified as a Certified Accountant but spent most of his working life in general management, including many years as Company Secretary of a major British PLC.
His other interests include walking and trying to trace his family history. Read Alan Teague's One Page Profile
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Dr Gillian Schiller has been on the Dimensions Board since 2005. She is Chair of the Dimensions Remuneration and Appraisals Committee.
Gillian divides her time between non-executive posts (Dimensions, Barts City Life Saver, St Lukes Hospice and Harrow), health related consultancy for the NHS, volunteer work for Cancer Research UK and her home and family.
She began her career as a doctor with a special interest in children's health and also has qualifications in medical law (LLM) and business management (MBA).
Gillian is married, has three children and three cats, and sings in a local choir. Read Gillian Schiller's one page profile
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Nigel joined Dimensions as a board member in 2003. At the time he was working for a mental health charity as a Director of Operations. He trained as a teacher and taught in a special needs school before working with people with long term mental health problems as a care manager.
He is also a shepherd and keeps his own flock of sheep, some of which help with wildlife conservation by grazing a nature reserve – they are very willing volunteers!
Nigel has recently left his job and is re-training as Horticultural Therapist. He hopes to help people with mental health problems or a learning difficulty to develop an interest in gardening.
He is Chair of the Quality and Care Practice Committee. Read Nigel's one page profile.
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Margaret joined the Dimensions Board in 2008, having been a trustee and then Vice Chair of Adepta since 2003 and prior to that Chair of New Possibilities NHS Trust. She lives in Essex but originates from Rochdale. She is married and has two children and five grandchildren – three in Anglesey and two in Bristol.
Margaret works nationally through two consultancies, Action Learning for Service Improvement and the SuLeis Partnership.
Her work focuses on the development of individuals, teams, organisations and wider partnerships and relationships, mainly in the public sector. She has written a number of books and articles with colleagues, including Leading Change, A Guide to Whole Systems Working, Policy Press 2003 and How can action learning contribute to social capital, Action Learning Research and Practice, 2011.
Kevin was born in Sheffield, lived in the United States between 1997 and 2003 and now lives in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
He started his career in the mining industry as an Electrical Engineer and later worked in general management for a range of IT companies. These days Kevin runs his own consulting and interim management company.
Kevin is married with two daughters, one of whom has learning disabilities and in his spare time likes spending time with his family and playing golf.
He has been a Board Member since 2005 and was Chair of Dimensions UK between 2009 and 2011. Kevin is currently a member of a variety of committees and groups for Dimensions, including the Family Reference Group and he is also the Chair of the Marketing and Business Development Committee.
Ros Goldfarb
Ros joined Dimensions in 2010, and found her background in clinical psychology and then law to be useful to try and make a contribution to the work of Dimensions.
Ros did trained in psychology in the USA and returned to the UK, raised a family and then went into law.
Ros practised family and immigration law in her own Practice before becoming an Immigration Judge Ros has also previously sat on Social Security Tribunals for a number of years. Ros is very much enjoying her time with Dimensions and look forwards to continuing success.
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Barrie joined Dimensions in 2002. He has two sons, (one of whom has severe learning disabilities and is also within the autistic spectrum), and three grandchildren. He spent 38 years working in local government, retiring in 1992.
Together with a small group of like minded parents who found no provision within their area for their sons/daughters, he established a local charity in 1993 which provides training opportunities in horticultural methods and rural crafts for adults with learning difficulties. For the first 10 years, Barrie was Company Secretary/Secretary of the Board of Trustees.
He has been involved in the field of learning disabilities for many years, locally as chair of the Joint Group of Service Users and Carers, and since 1995 has been a member of the Wakefield Learning Disability Partnership Board. He also attends meetings of the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Family Carers. Barrie is currently Co-Chair of Dimensions Council, a member of Core Group and also the SUMAD Project Group. Barrie's one page profile.
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Steve has over 30 years experience working with people with learning disabilities. Prior to becoming Chief Executive Steve led the development of Dimensions work to respond to the personalisation agenda and co-authored the award winning book, Making it Personal.
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Inder joined the Dimensions Board in 2011, for one year in the first instance.
Inder's son experiences autism and he has worked closely with Dimensions to plan his son's support and is well placed to represent the views of family members.