Board of Trustees
The RPS has a Board of Trustees, also known as Council, comprising five elected Trustees (including the President) and four appointed Trustees (including the Honorary Treasurer). The Board of nine Trustees is chaired by the President and is responsible for governance and for ensuring that the RPS fulfils its charitable object of public benefit and the promotion of the highest standards of achievement in photography. On a more practical level, the Board supports the Senior Leadership Team, the staff and the volunteers, in the delivery of the RPS strategic plan.
If you are interested in finding out more about the role of a Trustee please get in touch.
For further information on RPS governance, please click here.
To find out more about our equality, diversity and inclusion work, and the RPS Critical Friends, click here.
Simon Hill HonFRPS
President and Chair of Trustees
Simon has been taking photographs since he was three years old and joined the RPS while still at school. As a schoolboy, in 1982 he gained his LRPS and the following year his ARPS. He went on to gain an HND in professional photography from Blackpool College of Art, followed by a BA from UCA (via the Open College of the Arts) and an MA from St Martins School of Art, London. In 1991, shortly after beginning in practice as a professional editorial photographer, he was awarded his FRPS in the ‘Applied' category. Exactly forty years after joining the RPS and thirty years after gaining his FRPS, Simon became the 72nd President of the RPS and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship (HonFRPS). Simon is a Membre de l’Excellence of the Fédération Internationale de l’Art Photographique (EFIAP).
With over 30 years experience as a professional photographer, Simon's work has been published in National Geographic Magazine, The Observer, The Sunday Times and many UK and European newspapers and journals. He is the first British winner of the Longford International Art Portrait Award, a former Kodak ‘Showcase’ Professional Photographer of the Year and, in 2019, was named BIPP Professional Photographer of the Year. In addition to his photographic work, as Managing Director and Lead Designer of VIDAR Media Group, Simon designs museum and gallery exhibitions for domestic and international clients. He has won many awards for his design projects including Best New Museum, the HLF Arts and Heritage Renaissance Award, RHS Bronze and Silver medals, European Attraction of the Year and Best Global Attraction of the Year.
Having over 25 years experience as a Charity or NFP Trustee, including three years as Trustee of the Open College of the Arts (an RPS partner organisation), Simon brings an essential and broad range of skills to the RPS Board of Trustees, not least his extensive commercial experience. Simon has held directorships on the board of over a dozen UK and European companies, including Chairman of one of Scandinavia’s leading cultural heritage design companies. In 1994 he gained the Institute of Directors Diploma in Company Direction and was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. In 1996, he became a Qualified Member of the Chartered Society of Designers; in 2006, he qualified as a Chartered Marketer and was elected a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Simon remains an active Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and of the Royal Geographical Society, through which he is developing reciprocal benefits for the RPS.
The President writes a Voicebox feature in the RPS Journal.
Charlotte Fraiberg
Honorary Treasurer
Charlotte is Chief Financial Officer of Health In Harmony, an international non-profit working alongside Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in rainforests across the tropics, to reverse deforestation and address the climate and biodiversity crises. Charlotte oversees Health In Harmony’s finance operations and strategy globally, as well as its innovative finance pipeline to deliver impactful conservation outcomes while supporting the Sustainable Development Goals, and create a healthy, thriving planet for all. She strives to scale investments in rainforest communities' intersectional solutions that typically link healthcare, reforestation, livelihood support, education and ecosystem conservation.
Charlotte also supports the mission through her photos from the field that celebrate humanity, raise awareness and centre communities at the heart of the solution. She strongly believes that photography has a unique way to tell stories, inspire people, and impact for change. Therefore, she was thrilled to put her experience to the service of the Royal Photographic Society and become their Honorary Treasurer.
Before joining Health In Harmony, Charlotte was a director at Credit Suisse, where she ran the Structured Rates Trading desk in London and in New York. As a sustainability champion, she set up non-profit partnerships and employee engagement initiatives to help drive an internal cultural change around sustainability issues. In 2015, she co-led a sailing expedition from London to the Arctic to raise awareness around food waste, global warming and sustainable development - three months during which the team travelled over 8,000km with a near zero carbon footprint, documenting the voyage along the way. The expedition raised enough to provide more than 100,000 meals to vulnerable people in the UK through redistribution of good food which would otherwise have gone to waste - and the photographic journal played no small part in the fundraising success.
Charlotte is an enthusiastic volunteer and acts as an advisor to several non-profits, supporting their strategy and development. She also serves as Board Chair of Girl Be Heard, a New-York based non-profit building leaders, changemakers and activists by developing and amplifying the voices of girls and young women through arts and storytelling.
Charlotte is a passionate traveller, having visited all seven continents, and loves scuba diving and wildlife photography. She holds a Master in Management from ESCP Business School and Bachelor in Applied Mathematics from Paris 6 University.
Gavin Bowyer ARPS
Travel and photography have always been an important part of Gavin’s life and work, from photographing disease-carrying snails in African irrigation schemes, to recording war wounds on the Afghan border and in Gaza for the International Committee of the Red Cross. Gavin believes that photographs have had a tremendous relevance - not just as records, but as part of establishing a treatment and scientific narrative.
Gavin’s photography interests and commitment have developed considerably in the past 5 years, as he moved into semi-retirement. This has been in no small part related to his involvement with the thriving local Winchester Photographic Society. Gavin has sought ways to support charities through photography, working with organisations in Africa to raise awareness of welfare and conservation issues. He is also involved in remembrance photography in the UK, volunteering for Remember My Baby.
Sebah Chaudhry
Appointed Trustee
Sebah is a freelance creative producer and curator, experienced in working on international festivals, projects and events. She is co-founder and co-director of ReFramed, a photographic based visual arts network based in the Midlands, supporting the community and artists who are Black, Asian, or from other ethnic minorities. She is Director at BCVA, where her focus is to work with the South Asian Community. She is currently Project Coordinator of ‘Picturing England’s High Streets’, a Historic England funded project managed by Photoworks. She is also Creative Producer on ‘Peer To Peer UK/HK’, a digital exchange programme managed by Open Eye Gallery and the University of Salford.
Sebah was Creative Producer on the international British Council funded project with Ffotogallery, ‘The Place I Call Home’, connecting the UK to the Gulf region, culminating in 10 exhibitions in seven countries.
From 2013-2017, Sebah was Coordinator at FORMAT, the UK’s largest contemporary photography festival. She continues as a freelancer for FORMAT, organising the UK’s largest annual portfolio review. She also manages the Belfast Photo Festival Portfolio Review.
Sebah reviews portfolios internationally and mentors artists. She was on the selection panel for the RPS IPE 163 Open Call and the BJP Portrait of Britain 2021. She is also the Curator for AIS Open 2022, an online exhibition and exhibition as part of Beta X in Leicester. Currently UK editor for thephotoexhibitionarchive.com (Berlin), Steering Group member for FORMAT Festival (Derby) and a Board Member of Redeye Photography Network (Manchester).
Sophie Collins LRPS
Appointed Trustee
Sophie is an experienced marketer with international experience spanning over two decades; working agency-side across Global clients including IBM, Cisco, Apple, GSK, Unilever, American Express, Sony, and British Airways. She has led integrated global marketing strategies, managing large teams and significant budgets, and specialises in digital marketing transformation, and combining brand awareness and performance activity to meet ambitious business growth.
Sophie has been Chief Marketing Officer at MPB for the past 4 years as part of the exec team driving 5x business growth in that time. The marketing challenge at MPB has been through the funnel, from raising brand awareness in international markets, to improving customer loyalty and lifetime value in the UK, to establishing and communicating the sustainability strategy.
Prior to MPB, Sophie was VP of Performance Marketing at DAZN - a global leader in sport streaming - responsible for driving subscriber growth and loyalty. Sophie was a founder member of the marketing team, and developed and delivered the global marketing strategy from launch through to over 1.2 million subscribers in the first 3 years.
As Managing Director, North America at Ogilvy, Sophie was seconded to IBM to lead the digital marketing transformation team within IBM Studio. This encompassed designing and delivering the tech and data infrastructure for CRM and media delivery, along with the people strategy and governance to deliver against IBM’s $200M+ marketing budget effectively and efficiently.
Sophie has been a keen photographer since the age of 13, studying in the UK and in New York, at the International Centre for Photography. She joined the RPS in 2020 and gained her LRPS distinction in 2021. Sophie is passionate about supporting diverse representation in photography and videography, often speaking on the topic and supporting numerous projects to improve access to visual storytelling for everyone.
Andy Golding ASICI FRPS
Elected Trustee
Andy has been teaching photography, for more than 30 years. He was a Visiting Professor of Photography in Nanjing, China and has taught, lectured and exhibited internationally. He was the Head of photography and film at the University of Westminster.
Andy has been an advisor for the RPS since the 1990’s including serving on the Distinctions Advisory Board, Education Committee, Awards Committee and recently set up the Film Panel. He was awarded the Fenton Medal in 2009.
His other significant voluntary role is Chair of his local youth football club. Andy continues to teach part time and professionally he is working on accreditation of a school and a university, ensuring the highest standards of equal opportunities and diversity, teaching and learning, assessment, feedback and all aspects of quality assurance.
Mathew Lodge LRPS
Appointed Trustee
Mathew began making photographs at age 10, when he learned to shoot, develop and print black and white images. At University he served as Director of Photography for the student newspaper, leading a team of volunteers and producing pre-press images. Moving to the US and embarking on an international business career helped him visit 35 countries and work on his travel, landscape and architecture photography. His images have appeared in newspapers, magazines, books, TV shows and websites, and on the walls of restaurants, wineries and hotels. He joined the RPS after returning to the UK, achieved the Licentiate distinction, and is planning his Associate submission.
He is CEO of an AI spin-out from Oxford University, and serves on non-profit and for-profit boards. He has 25+ years’ experience as a product executive in Silicon Valley at market-leaders Cisco, Symantec and VMware as well as small venture-funded start-ups. He has extensive financial, governance and organisational experience building and growing products from zero to hundreds of millions in revenue, and from helping non-profits achieve their goals.
A key area of contribution to the RPS strategic plan is using his experience to help the RPS executive team grow an engaged membership base, raise RPS’ profile, and build a strong financial backing for its mission. That includes finding ways to remove barriers and broaden participation and enjoyment by photographers from all walks of life.
Mervyn Mitchell ARPS
Elected Trustee
Before transitioning into his photography practice, Mervyn’s career was in the areas of Sales, Marketing and Project Management, in which he amassed a wealth of experience and several professional qualifications including a post-graduate ‘Diploma in Management Studies’.
Mervyn is a staunch advocate for the use of photography as a means to engage and inspire communities and individuals. It is his expertise in this area which he brings to the RPS.
Within his photographic practice over the past 12 years he has worked as the Community Engagement Officer for The New Art Exchange (the largest gallery in the UK dedicated to culturally diverse contemporary visual arts) and with schools, using photography to help bridge the gap between urban and rural schools, and introduce black role models through photography workshops.
10 years ago (until present day) he co-founded the Nottingham Photographer’s Hub, giving a voice to marginalised people and communities. They work with Adults with mental ill-health and Young People who are not in education, employment or training. During this time Mervyn has gained an MA in Photography, and continues to develop his personal photographic skills and knowledge.
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