Trustees

Deborah Sleightholme is a legal consultant working with the claimant division of national law firm Hugh James. Her key focuses are appropriate signposting and support for families and individuals, empowering them to cope during the worst time of their lives and helping them to move forward, and she is active in educating lawyers, police family liaison officers, charitable organisations and healthcare professionals – encouraging them to work together to achieve the very best possible outcomes.

Helen works for NHS Blood and Transplant as a commercially focused general manager for Tissue and Eye Services. She leads a team of healthcare professionals who identify potential tissue donors and get consent from their families for donation. The tissues are used in various operations including cornea transplantation and joint replacements. She also led the rapid implementation of the NHS Bereavement Helpline at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Helen is a Leeds Rhinos season ticket holder and travels home and away to as many games as possible.

Professor Nick Reed has led road safety research for more than 15 years with landmark studies of driver behaviour and trials of automated vehicles. Nick directed research activities at TRL and Bosch before starting Reed Mobility – an independent expert consultancy working on safer, cleaner, efficient, ethical and equitable transportation.

Simon is an independent social researcher with significant experience in road safety. Simon is a Chartered Psychologist, a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Public Policy Research at King’s College London, an Associate Consultant at the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London, and a Fellow of the Leeds Sustainability Institute.

Simon is a transport planner with more than 20 years of experience, specialising in the field of transport safety and strategy. He led Transport for London's work to develop the Vision Zero agenda, before leading Uber’s safety programme in the UK and Ireland. Simon now acts as a freelance specialist supporting organisations to reduce road risk.

In his role as Executive Director of Corporate Affairs at National Highways, Peter led the communications for large road infrastructure projects and introduced the biggest national road safety campaigns for a generation. He now runs his own consultancy advising boards and executives on risk management. He is passionate about road safety and continues to campaign and support Vision Zero.

Meera Naran MBE is a road safety campaigner and public speaker helping to ensure we have safer drivers on safer roads. In 2018 Meera’s eight-year-old son Dev died in a smart motorway collision. Since then, she has campaigned for the adoption of 18 national policy changes with a commitment from the Department for Transport to spend £900m to improve safety and driver education. She continues to work to ensure that no one else goes through the pain of losing a loved one in the way she and her family did.

Lucy is a CIMA qualified accountant and experienced finance director responsible for analysing and driving the financial performance of businesses. Lucy has over 20 years of experience working in and leading leisure and events businesses and brings a wealth of financial, accounting and business acumen to the board. Lucy is a road victim herself having lost a close family member in a road crash a number of years ago, and is delighted to offer her skills and expertise to further Brake’s mission.

Richard Cuerden is Director of the UK’s TRL Academy. He has worked in the field of applied road and vehicle safety research for more than 20 years and leads a diverse portfolio of research and consultancy projects.

Mark has gained over 20 years of experience working in safety and operational roles in high-risk industries including gas, water and roads. He was responsible for devising and implementing National Highways’ “Home Safe and Well” approach for its employees, supply chain and the millions of drivers on England’s high-speed roads.