Board of Trustees
CCM has a strong trustee team of knowledgeable and passionate volunteers who share their expertise for the benefit of our staff and service users alike. The Board helps to make a valuable difference to the lives of those who depend upon our charity.
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Our Board
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to the trustee's biography
Chris Newson
Chair of Trustees
Neil Barnes
Treasurer
Safeguarding Lead
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Lucy Burgess
Vice Chair of Trustees
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Vivien Molulu
Secretary to the Board Governance Lead
Ruth Thompson
Trustee
Sharon Symon
Trustee
HR Lead
Tracey Schneider
Trustee
Meet our Trustees
Chris Newson
Chair of Trustees
Chris Newson was born and educated in Essex. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant before joining the first UK financial services regulator, IMRO. After two years, he moved into financial service businesses and accumulated over 25 years’ experience working at fund managers and investment banks such as Janus Henderson, Fidelity Investments, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup. During this time he was a regular speaker at conferences and actively involved with industry bodies, including lobbying regulators and tax authorities.
In 2019, Chris started work as a consultant for major fund management firms, helping them improve profitability and compliance with new regulations. He also used his extensive knowledge and skills to help a friend set up a charity to promote the interests of people with disabilities in the local community and continues to be both treasurer and trustee for that charity.
In 2021, Chris started working with the Altilium Metals group and is now the Company Secretary and Chief Financial Officer. However, he was keen to extend his involvement with local charities, so he joined the board of trustees at City of Chelmsford Mencap as Treasurer in 2022. He was appointed Vice Chair in September 2024 and Chair in May 2026.
In his spare time, Chris enjoys open water swimming, dog walking and gardening.
Lucy Burgess
Vice Chair
Lucy has over 10 years of experience in the charity sector. Starting as an Event Fundraiser with The J’s Hospice, she worked on a variety of major fundraising events, including the Chelmsford Marathon and Pedal for The J’s. Lucy also has experience of Trust Fundraising having managed a managed a diverse portfolio of funders at Gingerbread, a national charity that supports single parent families.
Lucy is now Fundraising Manager at a small Essex-based charity - Together In Musical Expression (T.I.M.E), combining her desire to support people with learning disabilities, professional experience as a fundraiser and passion for music. Lucy is overseeing all types of fundraising and has developed a fundraising strategy to build this income from scratch.
Lucy brings experience of organisation skills, budgeting, risk management and supporter development, fundraising communications, proposals and reporting and good stewardship. She is passionate about bringing her fundraising experience to board level for a local charity serving her community. With a personal connection to learning disability through her aunt, who had Down Syndrome, she feels City of Chelmsford Mencap is a perfect fit.
Lucy has a keen understanding of the importance of inclusive support and social opportunities for people affected by learning disability. She is excited to contribute her skills to City of Chelmsford Mencap to help broaden and diversify the charity’s income and increase financial stability.
Outside of work, Lucy enjoys playing her guitar, dancing, making cards and trips to Devon in her campervan.
Neil Barnes
Treasurer and Safeguarding Lead
Neil moved to Chelmsford in 1989 having grown up in North West London. After leaving school he worked as a butcher before joining BT in 1983. He is an experienced leader having worked within a continually changing and demanding environment. He retired as Director of Safety and Risk Management for BT’s Openreach subsidiary in 2018 to focus on his family. In his last role with BT he was responsible for the health and safety, risk management, business continuity management and ISO9001 for BT’s 33,000 external engineering organisation. Previous leadership roles included commercial management, change management and regulatory compliance. His early career at BT included management accountancy and product management, with many years of organisational and process change management at both project and programme level.
Neil has volunteered in various roles in the local community for over 20 years including chair of the board of trustees at an academy secondary school, board secretary at a local museum charity and home fire safety volunteer at Essex County Fire & Rescue Services.
Neil was previously Secretary to the Board at CCM and helped move the charity to CIO status. He has recently been appointed as CCM Treasurer, working closely with CCM’s Financial Administrator to oversee the charity’s financial affairs and ensure the other trustees and senior CCM staff have a good understanding of the fiscal position of the charity.
Family is at the forefront of Neil’s life since retirement. He does the school drop off and pick up for his grandchildren during the week and in his spare time likes to work in the garage on his classic car, grow vegetables in the garden and travel the world with his wife in search of good food and the sun!
Vivien Molulu
Secretary to the Board and Governance Lead
A resident of Chelmsford, Vivien began her career as a chartered accountant, spending a decade in the financial services sector. She held key roles at major institutions, including Santander Bank, The Bank of New York Mellon, GE Capital, and Euler Hermes, where she specialised in financial analysis, strategic reporting, and risk assessment.
In 2009, Vivien transitioned to the NHS as a finance manager, marking the start of a 14-year career to date dedicated to healthcare transformation. She has since held leadership roles across NHS South East Essex Commissioning and other regional bodies, leading programme management offices and driving large-scale transformation initiatives. Her work has focused on enhancing efficiency, optimising performance, and fostering collaboration among diverse stakeholders.
Vivien holds a Master’s Degree in Public Health and a Postgraduate Certificate in Health Economics, complementing her expertise in financial modelling, change management, and data analytics. Her contributions have led to improved service delivery and greater healthcare equity.
A passionate advocate for inclusive and effective community services, Vivien has led initiatives tackling health disparities and improving access to care. Her work in cancer awareness and screening, long COVID services, and quality improvement programmes has demonstrated her commitment to making a meaningful impact on public health and service accessibility.
In June 2025, Vivien was appointed Secretary to the Board and Chair of the Governance Committee. Vivien uses her expertise and enthusiasm to support City of Chelmsford Mencap in continuing to deliver its vital services and empower people with a learning disability in our community to live life to the fullest.
Ruth Thompson
Trustee
Ruth’s entire career has involved supporting people and families with neurological conditions, from learning disability and autistic spectrum disorders to her current role in a dementia charity. Ruth has had various roles ranging from frontline social care work to writing legal documentation to provide young people with the SEN support to which they are entitled. Her current role involves leading carers’ support services, ensuring that carers of people with dementia have the information and support they need to navigate the journey they have found themselves on. As part of this role, Ruth delivers various training courses to individuals and organisations supporting people with dementia.
Ruth has two dogs and loves nothing more than long walks in the countryside with them. She also loves
to crochet and to escape to various places across the world with her family when the opportunities arise.
Ruth’s drive to support City of Chelmsford Mencap comes from her career and seeing first-hand the impact of the charity. Having worked within the social care and charitable sectors, she looks forward to using her experience and skills to support City of Chelmsford Mencap and to offering strategic guidance to help the charity to continue to grow and fulfil its vision and mission. Ruth supports staff and volunteers with a variety of initiatives.
Sharon Symon
Trustee and HR Lead
Sharon’s first career in her native Scotland was in sales and marketing, during which she worked for the building trade and a pharmaceutical company. She then went to university as a mature student to fulfil her childhood dream of becoming a Speech and Language Therapist. Throughout her 20 year career, Sharon worked for community learning disability teams, including three years as Professional Lead. Her roles included assessing and managing communication difficulties, contributing to the management of complex swallowing difficulties and writing and delivering training packages for colleagues, carers and families.
In addition to her main role, Sharon has been involved with young people and performing arts for the last 15 years. Sharon owned a theatre school in Scotland and now manages a school owned by her daughter. Sharon’s other interests are gardening and her many grandchildren!
Sharon is keen to use her professional knowledge and experiences to benefit CCM and its service users as she is aware there is still work to do to ensure people with a learning disability have equal access to the opportunities others take for granted. She believes that providing really good quality services is protective and supportive and can be the difference between a “happy life” and not. She has a particular interest in carrying out meaningful conversations with service users and ensuring they are included in decision making. Sharon chairs CCM's HR Committee and also uses her skills, voice and energy to assist with the development of CCM’s services.
Tracey Schneider
Trustee
Tracey has worked across Adult Social Care, Public Health, Housing-related Support and Children’s Services for over 15 years, leading large-scale transformation, commissioning and operational improvement programmes across health, social care and community services.
Her experience includes supported living, homecare, Mental Health, Learning Disability, transitions and wider community-based services, with a particular focus on improving sustainability, strengthening partnerships and redesigning services around independence, prevention and better outcomes for people and families.
Alongside her professional role, Tracey is passionate about leadership development, co-production and ensuring organisations remain connected to the realities of people’s lives rather than becoming overly process-driven. She strongly believes that good services are built through collaboration, openness and maintaining a clear focus on people’s strengths, independence and opportunities within their local communities.
Tracey joined City of Chelmsford Mencap as a Trustee to support the charity’s work around inclusion, independence and opportunities for people with a Learning Disability and their families. She hopes to use her experience across strategic leadership, transformation and partnership working to help support the continued development of the charity and its services.
Outside of work, Tracey spends much of her time being outnumbered by animals and adult children, including two dogs, a three-legged cat, two horses and two grown-up children who still seem to have not quite got the message about moving out.
Chair of Trustees
Vice Chair of Trustees
Trustee
Chair of Trustees