Our Trustees
Fight for Sight is governed by a board of Trustees who meet at least four times a year to agree the strategy and areas of activity for the charity including consideration of grant-making, fundraising, investments, reserves, and risk management policies and performance. Certain Trustees sit on the Finance Committee which is a sub-committee of the Board. The Trustees are advised on research strategy by the Research Strategy Advisory Group, which includes certain Trustees of the charity.
Chairman: Mr Christopher Moore MA FCA*
Christopher Moore obtained a law degree and then qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse. After a first career in investment banking with Lazards and the Fleming Group, he set up his own business in 1995, concentrating mainly on strategic advice and private equity. He is currently on the board of four quoted venture funds and was previously Chairman of Oxonica Plc. His other interests include being a trustee of Bletchley Park Trust. He has been involved with Fight for Sight since the mid 1980s and is currently Chairman of the charity.
Professor Desmond Archer OBE FRCS FRCOphth **
Professor Desmond Archer is an Emeritus Professor at Queen’s University Belfast and Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. His research interests include medical retina, with extensive publications relating to diabetic retinopathy, choroidal vascular disease, age-related macular degeneration and genetic eye disease. Desmond is the recipient of national and international lectureships including Sir Stuart Duke-Elder, Doyne and Bowman Lectures.
Mr Neil Cox FCOptom FAAO
Neil Cox is Senior Optometrist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and King's College Hospital, London. His work is devoted entirely to contact lenses with specific interest in medical applications. He was formerly a trustee of the International Glaucoma Association.
Professor Alistair Fielder FRCS FRCOphth**
Professor Alistair Fielder is Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology at City University, London and is Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist at St Mary’s and Hillingdon Hospitals, London. His clinical and research interests are the developing visual system (including retinopathy of prematurity and amblyopia) and visual disability. Professor Fielder was the Royal College of Ophthalmologists Bowman Lecturer for 2006. He is a Trustee of Action for Blind People and LOOK Federation of Families with Visually Impaired Children. He is Fight for Sight's Senior Medical Adviser.
Mr John Hannaford*
John Hannaford is Managing Director, Investment Banking with Credit Suisse in London. He has worked at Credit Suisse since 2004, prior to which he was Managing Director, Investment Banking at HSBC also in London. John is a qualified chartered accountant.
Mr James Layton*
James Layton is a retired Insurance Broker. He worked for the Sedgwick Group for 18 years and with specialist energy brokers Jenner Fenton Slade Ltd for ten years and thereafter for the Aon Group until his retirement in 1999.
He is Chairman of Youth Action Wiltshire and the Charles Letts Memorial Trust. He is also a Freeman of the Company of Waterman and Lightermen of the River Thames as well as being a Governor of Bradfield College.
Mrs Judith Mitchell*
Judith Mitchell has extensive voluntary experience with a special interest in education. She has been a primary school governor for 20 years, Independent Appeals Committee member and also a reading tutor with Volunteer Reading Help. She is also a trustee of the Friends of the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Mr Mark Powell*
Mark Powell has been involved in investment management for individuals throughout his career. He is Chairman of Rathbone Brothers Plc. He was for many years a Director of the Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers and its Chairman for six years. He is a member of the Takeover Panel and the Court of the Haberdashers’ Company and was formerly a Trustee of the Specialist Schools Trust and REACH.
Mrs Faanya Rose
Mrs Faanya Rose has been involved in financial management in the City of London since 1980. She was Group Treasurer of BAA plc for ten years and during that time was also specialist Financial Advisor to The London Ambulance Service. She joined the Council of The Iris Fund in 1999, became Vice-Chairman in 2002 and Chairman in 2004 when the name was changed to The British Eye Research Foundation. She was elected to the Board of The Explorers Club of New York in 1998 and was President from 2000 - 2002. Faanya was recipient of the 2002 medallion of honour from the New York Council of SARA (Society of American Registered Architects, USA) for excellence and outstanding service to the Community. She is currently grant award advisor of The Charles Lindbergh Foundation and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Faanya became President of Fight for Sight in May 2009.
Mr Simon Weil*
Simon Weil, Head of the Individuals Group at Bircham Dyson Bell LLP, specialises in charity law, tax-planning and contentious trust and estate matters for private clients and charities. He has lectured on charity trusteeship, charities in the context of tax-planning, the Charities Bill and public benefit. He sits on the Executive Committee of the Charity Law Association and on the Advisory Board of the European Association for Planned Giving of which he is also the Chairman.
Mr Tom Wiggin
Tom Wiggin has spent his career in investment banking. He is currently a Partner with Cheyne Capital Management and was previously Managing Director at Deutsche Bank in London. He joined the Council of the British Eye Research Foundation in January 2003 and was appointed Deputy Chairman in December 2004 prior to the merger with Fight for Sight in 2005.
Professor Alan Wright FRCP FRSE FMedSci **
Professor Alan Wright is currently a Program Leader at the MRC Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh. He specialises in research into inherited retinal disorders and the genetics of complex traits. He sits on the medical advisory board of the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society.
* Member of Finance Committee
** Member of Research Strategy Advisory Group