Trustees

Jennifer Bennett

Educated in Portsmouth, Jennifer started her career in the law with a leading firm of solicitors in the city where she first encountered Portsmouth Housing Association and its charitable subsidiary, The Roberts Centre.

During her career she developed one of the most influential Social Housing law teams in the country and has been consistently recognised as a leading individual in the legal directories.

Acting for housing providers and charities, her specialist areas are property law; leasehold, funding work; governance and regulatory law. Until her retirement in April 2021 she was a Partner in the firm Capsticks. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.

During her career, she has held a portfolio of NED appointments including Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, a local school governor, a director of a charitable not for profit loan provider regulated by the FCA  and is currently a Board Member of a national Registered Provider of Housing with over 33000 homes in management across England.

Becoming a trustee of the Roberts Centre means an opportunity to directly contribute her experience to a highly regarded organisation there for those families in Portsmouth facing homelessness and child care challenges.

Marcella Kirby

Marcella has worked, studied and lived in Portsmouth for over 30 years.  She worked in the Financial Services sector for many years and it was there that she discovered her Project Management abilities. She thrived in an environment where expectations were high and challenges had to be overcome.  When the Portsmouth office closed, she signed up for a degree course and graduated three years later.  She went on to work as the Office Manager at St Luke’s School (now Charter Academy) and is currently employed as a manager at the University of Portsmouth.

She has volunteered with a number of organisations, including the Credit Union, her parish church and Portsmouth Friendly Society.  With first-hand experience of fostering and adoption she served on Portsmouth City Council’s Adoption Panel and over time, developed a better understanding of the issues faced by young people in care and care leavers.

Marcella believes that access to good quality, affordable housing is essential for all, but especially for the most disadvantaged in society.  She has become a trustee of the Roberts Centre because she wants to be part of a movement to make practical improvements to the lives of people in Portsmouth.

Malcolm Childs

Born in Portsmouth in 1942, Malcolm was educated here at primary level followed by boarding school. Employment since leaving formal education has been mainly in the child care profession. He holds professional qualifications in both residential and field social work. His final position was as a Senior Manager locally. From that experience, he brings skills in financial and human resource management as well as negotiating and networking within the voluntary, private and statutory sectors.

Since retirement, Malcolm has worked in a voluntary capacity in various fields including family support and education as well as support of the elderly and vulnerable. As a Governor of a local authority educational provision for children with special needs, he has lead responsibility for safeguarding and serves on the finance committee.

Malcolm has been a trustee of the Roberts Centre for over 10 years and was motivated to do this through his earlier involvement with the centre in his capacity as a Senior Manager. He is an ardent supporter of the range of services provided by the centre and the commitment and enthusiasm of the staff.

Jim Allman

Jim M Allman BSc MRICS - Director is a Director of Boulter Mossman Chartered Surveyors.  The practice is an experienced team of independent Chartered Surveyors providing professional surveying consultancy services to commercial, industrial, public and private sector clients.

Jim specialises in the provision of surveying services on all forms of development from individual houses through to the construction management of large-scale mixed-use developments.

Jim works predominantly within the public sector for a number of regional and national Housing Associations, Local Authorities and charities.

Jim commenced his career working for Croudace Builders before enrolling for a three-year RICS accredited degree course in Building Surveying at the Polytechnic of South Bank. 

Jim started work for the Department of the Environment Property Services agency based in central London and joined Boulter Mossman to complete his qualifications.

Jim lives in Portsmouth and has two sons.

Tom Floyd 

Tom Floyd was Chair of Trustees of the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Community Foundation from 2010 to July 2017.  Until 2009, his career was in business and strategy roles in the biochemical industry, and lastly, as President of the Microbiology Division for Thermo Fisher Scientific, based in Basingstoke. Prior to that, Tom enjoyed almost thirty years with Unilever including three international assignments in Cote d’Ivoire, Netherlands and USA. He became a Fellow of CIMA in 1988. Tom was the High Sheriff of Hampshire in 2016/17 and, as a DL for Hampshire, leads a team promoting the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. Tom is also a Governor at Sparsholt College.

Professor John Craven CBE

John retired in 2013 as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Portsmouth where he worked for sixteen years.  He studied mathematics and economics at Cambridge and was a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He then taught economics at the University of Kent, becoming a Professor in 1986.  He is currently completing a Masters degree in Philosophy at King’s College, London.  John served for seven years as a member of the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England and continues to advise on the financial aspects of clergy training.  John is currently a trustee of the National Museum of the Royal Navy and a governor of the University of the West of England.  He serves as a lay adviser to the health service on the confidentiality of medical records.   As Vice-Chancellor John was a patron of the Roberts Centre, and his current focus as a Trustee is on finance and the development of proposals to replace the current centre with a new building.

Innes Richens

Innes has worked and lived in Portsmouth for over 20 years, arriving here as a student in the early 90s and then following a career in health and care in the city. Starting with an NHS job helping to organise the first World AIDS Day in the city, he went on to work in sexual health, drug and alcohol services and then into more general managerial and executive roles, often occupying joint roles across the NHS and Local Authorities usually with a focus on community health, social care and inequalities – including his recent role as Chief of Health & Care Portsmouth, a dual role between the NHS and City Council that included responsibilities for commissioning and providing both health and adult social care services for the city.

Innes currently works as an independent consultant with an interest in developing research, partnerships and delivery in the voluntary, community and charitable sector particularly to improve health, care and address inequalities. He still lives in Portsmouth, occasionally writes books (or pretends to) and shares his life with his husband and a very mad dog.

Lindsey Taylor

Born and raised in the North East of England, Lindsey came to Hampshire in the 1970s when she joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service and then spent much of her time in the WRNS in and around Portsmouth. She now lives in Gosport.

After leaving the WRNS she embarked on a career in Human Resources and worked with small and large technology companies both in the UK and globally. Later, she developed the HR practice for a charity supporting the rural community in the West Country.

Lindsey has been involved in long-term support for many organisations as a volunteer, as a member of both a Church and a Church Hall Committee, as an Enterprise Adviser supporting career development for young people at a Secondary School in Somerset and developing reading skills at a local primary school.

She is also a trustee of Reading Force, a service charity supporting Forces and ex-Forces families through the benefits of shared reading.

As a Trustee of The Roberts Centre, Lindsey will continue her commitment to resources that enable young people to get the best possible start in life.