Meet Our Trustees
Would you like to become a Trustee of Age UK H&W?
Could you use your experience to help us make a difference to older people across Herefordshire & Worcestershire? We always welcome expressions of interest for new Trustees.
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Craig Guthrie - Chair of the Board of Trustees
Craig Guthrie is a retired senior police officer, having served over 30 years at various ranks, in a variety of uniform and detective roles. His last two years’ service was spent on secondment to His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC - now HMICFRS) with specific responsibility for each of the police forces in Wales.
Following retirement from policing Craig wanted to continue supporting his local communities, and decided to volunteer as a Trustee. Craig joined the Board of Trustees in May 2022. He was drawn to Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire, as he enjoys collaborating and working with others who share his values, work ethic and commitment to supporting others.
As an accredited Chartered Manager, Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and Member of the Institute for Leadership and Management, Craig has always had a passion for leadership and developing others. He has a specific interest in understanding individual and team behaviours and the associated impact on wellbeing.
Craig is a company director and also a mentor for the Prince’s Trust. He likes to spend much of his leisure time playing bowls or enjoying the Cotswold countryside with his family and dogs.
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Charli Granby - Vice Chair
Charli Granby is a Civil Servant, Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire Companion Line Volunteer and Vice Chair. She has been a Trustee since 2018, working with colleagues and fellow Trustees to promote the charity and its work with older people across the two counties.
Charli's first job out of school was working for what was then Age UK Leominster & District where she saw all of the amazing work done by the charity to support older people. Despite moving away from Herefordshire she wanted to give something back to the community where she grew up and decided to join the Board at Age UK Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
'Being able to play a small part in making people’s lives better in their later years is a huge privilege. My favourite part of being a Trustee is hearing testimonies from our clients about how services we have provided them have made a real difference.'
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Michelle Worthing
Michelle Worthing is an Internal Audit Manager for a public sector organisation. She has been a trustee since February 2022.
Michelle joined the Board after qualifying as a Chartered Internal Auditor, to put the skills, knowledge and experience she had gained to good use.
Michelle's favourite part of the role is hearing about the impact Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire has in improving the lives of the people it has supported.
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Iain Balchin - Treasurer and Chair of the Finance, Information and Risk Committee
Iain Balchin is an Accountant by qualification and works as Group Chief Financial Officer for a Listed Renewable Energy Company.
Iain has been a Trustee for Age UK Herefordshire and Worcestershire since May 2022. He became a trustee for Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire as he lives locally and wanted to do something with a social purpose. He has elderly parents who have also recently moved to the area and is passionate about ensuring loneliness in old age becomes a thing of the past.
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Caroline Smith - Chair of the People and Culture Committee
Caroline Smith is a retired Human Resources Professional. She has been a Trustee with Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire since 2018. After leaving work she wanted to give back into the community, using the skills, knowledge, and experience that she had gained during my working life.
I chose Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire as it is a great charity that offers a wide range of services to their clients, led by clients wants and always look for new ideas.
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Brian O'Connell
Brian O'Connell is a retired solicitor. He welcomed the opportunity to add his skills as a lawyer to the board. His knowledge and experience of the law gained over 40 years in the industry is used to guide Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire in these interesting times.
Brian joined the Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire Board in 2021.
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John Bateman
John spent the majority of his career employed in the Third Sector with the last 17 years, before retiring in 2010, as CEO of UK Youth; the largest voluntary youth work organisation in the UK.
Whilst CEO of UK Youth he established a wide variety of non-formal education programmes for young people with themes including sport and recreation, the arts, health, finance and independent living with funding secured from a mix of organisations including Governmental sources, the EU, trusts and foundations, Lottery and the corporate sector.
John was instrumental in establishing a wide range of initiatives for young people, including the O2 Think Big programme, Starbucks Youth Action and Ask Accenture, Youth FM, numerous Alternative Provision Free Schools (including the Aspire Academy in Worcester). He also also organized The Official Saturday Night Fever Disco Dance Competition (which he claims was a forerunner of Strictly) and the only youth football final held at Wembley Stadium to be televised nationwide!!
Over the years John has served on numerous Government advisory committees relating to young people and was awarded the OBE for services to young people in the 2004 New Years Honours.
John joined the Board of Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire because he believes the organisation plays a critical role giving senior members of the community a voice to advocate for their needs as well as the much needed provision of support and services that enable seniors to continue to play an active role contributing to society in whatever way they choose.
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Darren Kangurs
Darren Kangurs is an experienced senior technology and digital leader with over 30 years of experience across several sectors, specialising in cyber security, cloud infrastructure and services, software development and digital transformation.
Darren joined the Age UK Herefordshire & Worcestershire board in December 2023 and hopes to use his professional knowledge in IT and Digital to help ensure older people in his local communities can easily access the support they require.