Matthew Heasman
BEd, MA, NPQH
Chief Executive Officer
Matthew was appointed CEO in May 2013 following a 23-year career in the education sector, which included almost a decade as a head teacher. Since his arrival at New Hope, Matthew and his team have transformed the charity into a modern, professional organisation whilst maintaining its missional heart. Matthew headed up a team that led New Hope through the pandemic, successfully working with other agencies to ensure the needs of rough sleepers were met in a timely manner through what was a very challenging period for the whole country. New Hope’s services have constantly changed through this period in response to the changing needs.
Rob Edmonds
Deputy CEO and Head of Services
Rob oversees all of New Hope’s services. He is also New Hope’s service user advocate and champions health and wellbeing with service users, staff and volunteers.
Rob joined the New Hope team in 1996 as part of a gap year and has never left. He has vast first-hand experience of working with homeless and vulnerably-housed people and is passionate about supporting the vulnerable within society, particularly those who have given up on everything – including themselves.
Rob has a theology degree and a post-graduate certificate in Addiction Studies.
Alison Bowyer
BCom
Head of Resources
Born and raised in South Africa and having spent a year teaching in Dubai, Alison has travelled over three continents to join the team at New Hope. After graduating university with a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce, Alison began her professional career teaching business at a tertiary level and in 2001 started work with New Hope as a Finance Officer.
A background in business and commerce formed a strong foundation from which she progressed over the following ten years to the role of Finance Manager and then, in 2018, to the position of Head of Resources.
Alison has a comprehensive knowledge of every part of New Hope and is therefore in an excellent position to oversee New Hope’s income generation (fundraising and communications, retail, and statutory contracts) as well as human resources and health and safety.
Alison has a love of travelling, walking and reading as well as spending time with her family.
Sarah Holford
LLB (Hons), ACA, DChA
Head of Resources
Sarah joined New Hope in 2009, providing sound financial support throughout one of New Hope's most challenging periods. Sarah is a Chartered Accountant with more than 15 years of experience working in a number of finance-related roles for various charities. Her training included work with London-based charity specialist Sayer Vincent. Sarah’s role with New Hope is part-time as she also conducts training and independent examinations for a number of other charities.
Rebecca Palmer
Fundraising and Communications Manager
Rebecca has been working at New Hope since 2011 and loves communicating the impact of the charity’s work to people of all ages, through written communications, social media, and interactive sessions and talks.
You can get in touch with Rebecca if you have any questions about making a donation to New Hope, including a gift in your will, or if you'd like to discover more about the charity.
Rebecca also writes our monthly prayer diary and regular e-update. If you'd like to receive these (or indeed any of our communications), please sign up here.
Ekta Gurney
HR Manager
Ekta has been with New Hope since June 2018, starting as the HR and Volunteer Administrator and progressing to HR Manager.
Ekta has three wonderful sons and been married for over 20 years to an amazing husband, she enjoys running, and, most of all, family day outs.
Nic Platt
HR & Volunteer Administrator
Nic studied psychology at the University of Hertfordshire & has always had a passion for working with people. She is originally from Greater Manchester but has lived in the local area for over 20 years. She joins the team as the HR & Volunteer Administrator and is excited to highlight the fantastic contribution the volunteers make at New Hope. In her spare time Nic enjoys going out for meals with her family & friends, watching Manchester United & holidays in the sunshine.
John Ford
MA (Oxon), CFA
Chairman of the Board
John joined New Hope as a Night Shelter volunteer in the late 1990s and subsequently became a long-standing Haven Support Centre volunteer. John was invited to join the Board in 2005. He was elected Vice Chair in 2011 and Chair in 2013. John is a holder of the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. He brings important financial oversight skills to the Board. His expertise has been developed over a 25-year career in portfolio management, where he held a number of senior roles –most recently as Chief Investment Officer of T. Rowe Price International. John has also built up extensive charity governance expertise serving as chair of Opportunity International Global Network, Opportunity UK and as a director of Opportunity Bank Malawi. As well as chairing New Hope he is also currently treasurer of St Andrew’s Chorleywood.
Andrew Robertson
Trustee
Andrew has spent almost 30 years managing private hospitals, both mental health and surgical. Andrew is an experienced in raising significant donations for charitable hospitals.
He is now a part-time consultant and is chairing The Hub Fundraising Committee.
Claire Logan
Trustee
Claire is an HR professional and fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. She started her career working in retail and then after completing an MBA at Cranfield University spent a number of years as management consultant working in the private and public sectors with clients. She returned to the corporate world as an HR Director for Microsoft and now at Experian in a global HR leadership role. She is also became a non-exec director for the Royal Navy in 2023.
Claire was invited to join the board in 2025 as someone who lives in the local area so that she can bring her professional expertise on people management.
Dr Tim Robson OBE
Founding Trustee
Tim is a founding trustee, leading New Hope as Chairman from 1991 to 2008. He is a qualified medical doctor and this 40-year-long vocation has led him as far afield as a refugee camp in northern Thailand. Tim settled in Watford in 1983, where he saw a growing need for a surgery offering specialist support to people suffering health issues as a result of poverty and homelessness. As a consequence, the Meadowell Surgery (now known as Meadowell Clinic and based at the Watford Health Centre) was launched in 2003 as an NHS GP surgery offering specialist primary care for those who are homeless. Today, this clinic remains vital for people in the town who are suffering from substance and alcohol misuse and mental health issues.
Tim, now retired from his clinical work, is also a trustee of Tower Hamlets Mission, a 12 step residential rehabilitation programme in Whitechapel. Tim was awarded an OBE in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to the homeless in Hertfordshire.
Melanie Sills
ACA
Trustee
Melanie’s involvement with New Hope began in the late 1990s, as a volunteer at the Haven. Melanie was first invited to join the board in 2002. She is a Chartered Accountant with more than 30 years of experience in this field. As such, Melanie has served as Chair of New Hope's finance committee, overseeing a pivotal period in the New Hope's history when six years of financial deficit were reversed. Interestingly, Melanie is a keen kick boxer and martial artist, holding a black belt in the latter. Melanie rejoined the board in September 2023.
Annette Reeve
Trustee
Annette, a lifelong Watford resident, has spent over 40 years working in the property world, both locally and overseas. She still lives in Watford with her husband and is actively involved in St Andrew’s Church, where she also serves as the Safeguarding Officer. Annette first got involved with New Hope through volunteering at the Watford Winter Shelter.
Sam Meldrum
Trustee
Sam is a Fellow of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and works as a Managing Partner at a firm of Actuaries and Consultants. It was during his time as a student, over 30 years ago, that Sam first became passionate about the importance of the need to tackle the problems of homelessness. It is an honour to be able to combine that passion with his Christian faith through contributing to the work of New Hope as a Trustee. Sam is married to Rachel, they have four children and live in Chesham.
David Evans
Trustee
David has a joint honours degree in Maths and Physics and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He spent the eighties and nineties working in a variety of senior financial positions in industry during which time he moved from Manchester to London. In the late nineties a change in direction saw him move into the charity sector taking charge of the Finance, IT and Information departments of a registered provider and homelessness charity St. Mungo’s where he was part of the leadership team for twenty years. Since retiring, in addition to being a trustee of New Hope, he has continued to be a steward and treasurer of his local Methodist church in Watford and treasurer of a small charity for the disabled that covers Herts and Beds. He has a wife Carolyn, three grown up children and two grandchildren. In his spare time he enjoys gardening and travel.
Sheila Meaning
Co-founder & Honorary Life President
A qualified caterer by trade, Sheila and her best friend, the late Janet Hosier, co-founded New Hope in the late 1980s. Sheila’s tireless dedication to New Hope – for which she has never received remuneration – was interrupted for just 14 months, in 2005/06, when she travelled to Peru to work with female prisoners. Over the years, Sheila has won various accolades for her work with those who are marginalised. Notably, in 2016, Sheila was awarded a British Empire Medal as one of the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Also, in 2011, she was awarded the Lesley Peace ‘Women of Courage’ Award and Watford Borough Council’s Audentior Award.
Gary Grant
The Entertainer
Gary joined New Hope as a Patron in 2019 and has a great passion for supporting local charities, making a difference in the community and those involved in social action. Gary is the Founder of The Entertainer, a chain of toy stores founded in 1981 with his wife Catherine Grant.
Gary has always been impressed by the small beginnings, vision of Janet Hosier and the impact New Hope has had on so many lives over more than 30 years.
To reach Restore Hope, a charity of which Gary is a also a trustee, please visit https://restorehopelatimer.org/
Baroness Dorothy Thornhill, MBE
House of Lords
Dorothy is married to Cllr Iain Sharpe and has two adult children. By profession she is a teacher of children with Learning and Behaviour difficulties at secondary school. She taught locally for 25 years.
Having been a councillor for several years she stood and was elected as Watford’s first Directly Elected Mayor and the first female Mayor in the country. She describes it as a truly unique job which she loved ( most of the time!) and felt privileged to do. She was
re-elected in 2006, 2010, and 2014 and it was during these years that she first came across the, then, Watford New Hope Trust.
“I was so struck by the commitment and professionalism of the Trust that, for a couple of years, I thought it was part of a national charity. On discovering it was well and truly home grown, it became one of my ten best things about Watford of which I boasted regularly.”
Dorothy was awarded an MBE for services to local government in 2011 and a Life Peerage in 2015.
Rev. Tim Roberts
YMCA Chiltern Group
Tim is married to Jen, father of three adult children, author, and ‘leader of leaders’ with over 30 years’ experience in local church and community leadership. After 25 years leading Wellspring Church in Watford alongside his late wife Helen, Tim’s latest assignment is serving within YMCA Chiltern Group as Associate Director for Christian Mission and Strategic Partnerships.
For most of his years in local church leadership Tim played a leading role in Christians Across Watford, a town-wide unity movement that birthed Watford Town Centre Chaplaincy and inspired him to write his first book about Christian unity, The Power of One. Tim was awarded Watford Mayor’s ‘Audentior’ Award for community leadership in 2014.
Tim has travelled to 45 different countries, in many cases as an overseas mission mobiliser on behalf of the Assemblies of God denomination. More recently he has served as an architect and Head Coach for the Ministers in Training programme which is now seeing over 80 Ministers accredited year on year.
A keen (and longsuffering) Watford FC season ticket holder, Tim also enjoys early mornings, exercise, U2, good wine, summer barbecues, honest questions, and growing lasting friendships around the world.