Alison Sharp is Chair of our Board of Trustees.  Alison was formerly head teacher at Ravenscroft Primary School in Newham and has been involved with the charity since its inception.  Ravenscroft was the first school to join CSC’s school programme, and Alison has maintained strong links with the charity ever since. 

Chris Clark is an independent consultant, adviser and Non-Executive Director. He is currently an Independent Non-Executive Director & SID of Aviva’s General Insurance Business where he Chairs that Boards Conduct Committee. He was also recently Chairman of Aviva’s digital specialist legal entity UKD. Until September 2024 he was a Non-Exec Director of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and completed his full 6 year term.

He consults and advises a variety of organisations across Fin Tech, Banking, Technology, Charitable Sector, Private Equity and Marketing Services. In addition to these projects, he also ‘God Fathers’ several business start-ups in Tech, Marketing and Media.

In his corporate career Chris was CMO for HSBC and spent 16 years in a number of leadership roles in the HSBC Group. For the final 7 years he was overall CMO and a member of the HSBC Group Management Board.

While at HSBC he helped develop the iconic air-bridge advertising programme, was one of the architects of ‘the world’s local bank’ positioning, managed the bank’s portfolio of sports sponsorships, re-shaped marketing into a truly global function and lead an organisation of over 1000 Marketing professionals.

As part of his portfolio of responsibilities at HSBC he led the Group’s digital efforts, was Head of Customer Experience, ran the Global Sustainability Function, oversaw marketing for First Direct and M&S Bank and sat on several key management boards and committees.

Prior to HSBC Chris was in advertising with the bulk of his career at Saatchi and Saatchi looking after major clients such as Mars, Toyota, P&G and Mirror Group Newspapers amongst others.

When at leisure he can be found running, playing chess, fishing, painting and drawing and gardening.

He is married to Clare, an accomplished novelist, and they have two grown up children and live in Wiiltshire.

Stephen's career has been spent working in and leading UK Technology companies. He has overseen the successful delivery of major projects for Government and the Private Sector.  He was an Irish junior international chess player and has pursued his interest in chess at the Royal Automobile Club Chess Circle where he was Chair for eight years.

Stephen's career in Prisons spanned over 35 years, starting as a Prison Officer in 1987 progressing to Governor of three prisons before retiring in 2022 as a Deputy Director. As a keen chess enthusiast Stephen supported Malcolm to develop chess clubs in prisons over the last four years of his career. Stephen was also a trustee of Involve Kent for nearly 10 years including his last 4 years as Chair before joining the CSC trustee board in March 2023. Stephen was awarded an Honorary CBE in September 2022 for services to Prisons and Charities.

William Watson brings legal expertise to our Board of Trustees.  He recently retired as a partner at a leading international law firm, where he specialized in advising on tax matters relevant to corporate and financing transactions.  William is a chess Grandmaster, a former England International, and the current captain of the England chess team.