Nicola Horlick
Chair
Nicola read Law at Balliol College, Oxford and was made an Honorary Fellow of Balliol in 2019. She has over thirty-five years of experience managing funds and was responsible for leading the development of some of the UK’s best known fund management companies, including Mercury Asset Management (now BlackRock), Morgan Grenfell Asset Management (now Aberdeen) and SG Asset Management, where she built assets under management to £7 billion within three years.
In 2004, Nicola set up Bramdean Asset Management LLP with Sir Derek Higgs and the business was launched at the beginning of 2005. Bramdean ran a number of alternative investment mandates before selling the bulk of its business to Aberdeen at the end of 2009. In 2011, Nicola became one of the founding partners and Chair of Rockpool Investments LLP, a private equity business. She remained as Chair until early 2015.
In 2013, Nicola co-founded Money&Co. and remains as its CEO today. Money&Co. allows individuals and family offices looking for a better return on cash to lend to good quality SMEs based in the UK.
Nicola became Chair of the Board of Trustees of Anthony Nolan in July 2021. She is also Chair of the Nominations Committee, and a member of the Audit and Finance, and Governance and Risk, Committees.
Martin Laws
Vice-Chair
Following an initial career in international construction and commercial property, Martin spent 25 years in business consultancy roles including, from 2002 to 2018, as a partner at Deloitte. A Chartered Civil Engineer and Fellow of the RICS, Martin also has an MBA in International Business from City University Business School, London.
In his consultancy career, Martin advised a diverse range of companies, charities and Government bodies, both in the UK and internationally, latterly with a particular focus on the implications of fast-moving technology and changing workforce expectations on their future operations and workplaces. Martin now works as an executive coach and as an independent advisor to a number of start-up and fast-growing companies.
Martin became a Trustee of Anthony Nolan in March 2018 and was appointed as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees on 24 July 2023. He is also the Chair of the Governance and Risk Committee and a member of the Audit & Finance Committee and the Nominations Committee.
Mike Altendorf
As the founder and CEO of digital consultancy and systems integrator Conchango, Mike Altendorf has experience in consulting services, technology and business development. With a degree in Production Engineering & Management, Altendorf worked in business development, sales and solution design before founding Conchango in 1991, which was acquired by EMC Corporation in April 2008. As an entrepreneur, mentor and investor, Altendorf is passionate about the role technology can play in driving business innovation and growth.
In his non-executive and advisory roles, Mike works with companies to advise them on developing value based digital business propositions. Mike has also applied digital thinking to charitable causes, exploring the potential to improve lives, transform communities and leave sustainable legacies.
Mike became a Trustee of Anthony Nolan in July 2016 and is a member of the Nominations Committee.
Dr Leanne Armitage
Leanne’s ultimate mission in life is to inspire people to be the best version of themselves. She does this through sharing her story of the obstacles she has overcome in order to walk in her purpose.
In addition to this, she has a passion for healthcare. Leanne currently works as a junior doctor with interests in Anaesthetics. In 2018 she co-founded a charity - The Armitage Foundation -which aims to offer medical outreach programmes to students from under-represented backgrounds to increase socioeconomic and ethnic diversity across UK medical schools. As a result of the work she has been doing through The Armitage Foundation, she was awarded the 2018 UK Queen’s Young Leaders award by Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Leanne has also featured in the 2021 edition of the Future Leader’s Magazine as number 4 out of 150 of the UK’s most outstanding African-Caribbean students and new graduates. In 2020 she was named a LinkedIn Top Voice and has featured on several news channels including Channel 4 News, ITV News, BBC Radio, the Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Telegraph and the Evening Standard.
In her spare time Leanne enjoys exercising - she is an avid gym goer. She also loves socialising with friends and dancing!
Leanne became a Trustee of Anthony Nolan in January 2022 and is a member of the Nominations Committee.
Dr Susan Conroy
Susan Conroy completed a PhD and post-doctoral research in molecular biology at University College London, before moving to work in a variety of scientific and commercial roles within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. She specialised in the identification, evaluation, management and commercialisation of pharmaceutical and biotechnology projects and also worked as a consultant covering technology transfer, medical affairs and commercial exploitation of existing products.
Susan became Chief Executive of Therakind Ltd in 2007, a company she helped to set up to increase the availability of authorised speciality medicines and ensure that these medicines are both safe and effective. As Chief Executive, Susan leads the company’s strategy, identifying and negotiating key agreements and commercial opportunities as well as leading the day-to-day operations of the company. Under her leadership, Therakind has successfully completed eight clinical trials and gained regulatory approval for three medicines.
Susan became a Trustee of Anthony Nolan in January 2022 and is a member of the Governance and Risk Committee and a member of the Audit and Finance Committee.
Debbie Lee
As the Executive Director, Finance for Grosvenor Property UK, Debbie brings expertise of financial management and governance. She has over 25 years’ experience of providing financial, commercial and strategic advice at the Board level. Prior to joining Grosvenor in 2014, Debbie was a Director in Deloitte’s Real Estate Corporate Finance team having qualified as a Chartered Accountant at PwC.
In her spare time Debbie enjoys Pilates, playing netball and spending time with her family.
Debbie became a Trustee of Anthony Nolan in November 2022 and was appointed as Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee on 24 July 2023. She also brings her personal experience of going through blood cancer.
Matt Miller
Matt is Creative Director at Born Social, a global social media agency bringing social-first thinking to the brands of tomorrow. He previously founded Oddigy, a culture-aware creative studio building commercial brands and campaigns.
Matt’s expertise and leadership in creative, branding and visual messaging has crossed all sectors. From global charities and NGOs to luxury brands, celebrities and music artists, his ability to build diverse and experienced teams and solutions has been pivotal in providing access for the next generation of talent and generating meaningful impact.
Matt has personal experience of blood disorders as his family has been impacted by them, and by virtue of the fact that he himself is a carrier of the sickle cell blood disorder trait. He is excited by the opportunity that joining the Board of Trustees provides for his own narrative to contribute to saving lives and inspiring life-saving action within communities.
Matt became a Trustee of Anthony Nolan in January 2022 and is a member of the Audit and Finance Committee.
Katy Minshall
Katy Minshall is Director of Public Policy at PlayStation. In this role, she covers a wide range of public policy and technology issues. Prior to PlayStation, Katy worked at Twitter as UK Director of Public Policy, where she focused on online safety and government regulation. Alongside this, her role also involved working with charities in the UK, as well as coordinating with government departments on issues ranging from public safety to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Prior to working in the technology sector, Katy was a civil servant in the Cabinet Office, and previously worked as a parliamentary researcher. She holds a masters degree in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
Katy lives in London with her wife Emily and their daughter. She has personal experience of cancer, having been successfully treated for a synovial sarcoma in 2021.
Katy became a trustee of Anthony Nolan in April 2023.
Dr Victoria Potter
Dr Victoria Potter is a Haematologist specialising in myeloid malignancy and stem cell transplantation at King’s College Hospital, London, UK. She completed early postgraduate and specialty training in Sydney, Australia followed by a clinical fellowship at King’s College Hospital.
In 2017 she was appointed Transplant Programme Director at Kings College Hospital. She has specialist interests in AML, prevention of relapse post-transplant and development of transplantation strategies for sickle cell disease. She is research active and committed to development of clinical trials in myeloid malignancies and transplantation. She is a member of the AML NCRI working party steering group and Chair of the relapse sub-group of this committee.
Victoria is secretary of the BSBMTCT clinical trials sub-committee, a member of the BSBMTCT Executive and an IMPACT (UK prospective clinical trials network) deputy medical director. Victoria became a Trustee of Anthony Nolan in July 2023 and is a member of the Nominations Committee.
Mark Ritson
Mark is a control engineer who has worked all over the world designing and commissioning complex control systems for offshore oil, steel making plants and other large-scale industrial projects. He is now the Managing Director of Inspec Solutions, a company he founded in 2000. Inspec Solutions provide large scale control and software systems to the industrial and commercial sectors.
Mark was diagnosed with Severe Aplastic Anaemia in early 2008, with no bone marrow match worldwide he was forced to follow alternative therapies until 2012 when his disease returned and a transplant was the only option. Fortunately, weeks earlier a young German woman had registered and was a match. In 2013 Mark had two transplants, the second being successful and he is now back to almost normal health. In 2016 he ran the London Marathon to raise funds for Anthony Nolan and in 2018 ran a half marathon with his donor, Jacqueline in Germany.
Mark also previously sat on the board of the NHSE Clinical Reference Group for Bone Marrow Transplantation for three years, working collaboratively with clinical experts helping develop national service standards, quality standards, commissioning policies and plans for NHS England.
He is a keen reader, runner and tennis player and a very keen fly fisherman.
Mark became a Trustee of Anthony Nolan in 2019 and is a member of the Governance and Risk Committee. He brings his personal experience of going through blood cancer and blood disorders having had a bone marrow transplant himself. He also has a deep understanding of technology, data, and business from his professional career as well as experience of the NHS at a national commissioning level.