Jon Blythe
Jon Blythe is an accountant with a small tax practice on the Upper Richmond Road West. He comes from Coventry but has been in the Parish of Mortlake with East Sheen for 40 years (5 in Mortlake, 35 in East Sheen) where he is Treasurer and a member of the congregation at All Saints. His interests are more sporting than intellectual - tennis features very high, but rugby has always been top. He has recently become a grandfather and it hasn’t taken long for the boys to cast their spell! He can often be found at the Hare & Hounds in East Sheen, he attends to his wife’s allotment when necessary and in between things does enjoy juggling. Jon was a Trustee of Mortlake Almshouse & Relief Charities for 30 years and its Chair for 15 years.
Following the merger of Mortlake and The Richmond Charities in 2021, Jon was co-opted to the board of The Richmond Charities in January 2022. Jon is a member of the Finance Committee.
Emma Halford
Emma Halford has lived in Richmond for 15 years. She is an insurance broker working for a property company in the West End and has also been sitting as a magistrate for over 10 years.
Emma became a Trustee in November 2019 and is a member of the Welfare Committee, the Property Committee and the Risk Management Committee.
Peter Marr
Peter Marr is Managing Director at William Blair International and was previously a Managing Director at Citigroup. Prior to that Peter worked at Lehman Brothers and Schroders. He graduated with an Honours degree from Edinburgh University.
Peter is married with four children and lives in East Sheen. Peter has been a Trustee of The Richmond Charities since 2005 and was Chair from 2018 to 2023. Peter is the Chair of the Finance Committee.
Katherine Maxwell
Katherine is a partner and head of the employment law team at Moore Barlow solicitors. She works from the company’s Richmond and Southampton offices, handling all aspects of employment law, acting for clients ranging from large corporates to small companies, as well as senior executives. Katherine has lived locally for over 15 years and is involved in a number of local networking groups. She is also a governor of Marshgate Primary School. Katherine has been a Trustee of The Richmond Charities since 2015 and is a member of the Risk Management Committee and Chair of the Safeguarding Group.
Kate O'Brien
Kate O’Brien retired in 2020 having worked recently in a school in Chiswick, and previously for a software company.
Her family moved to Richmond in 1981 and her four children attended local schools. Kate served as a Governor at The Vineyard School during this time. She has been a Samaritan and a Cruse Bereavement Volunteer in the past. After retirement, she and her husband downsized and moved to Isleworth.
In her spare time, as well as enjoying spending time with her family and especially her grandchildren, Kate is a keen reader (she was a founder member of a book group which has been running continuously since 1984!), enjoys the cinema and walking.
Kate joined the Trustee Board of The Richmond Charities in January 2019 and is Chair of the Welfare Committee and a member of the Property Committee and the Safeguarding Group
Paul Phillips
From 2004 to 2018, Paul was the Group Finance Director of Notting Hill Housing. Following its merger in 2018 with Genesis Housing to form Notting Hill Genesis, he was the Chief Financial Officer of the new group until his retirement in July 2021. Prior to that, he held similar roles with Servite Houses, Knightstone Housing Association and others.
Notting Hill Genesis is a major Registered Provider with operations across London and the South East. It has about 65,000 homes in management, a balance sheet of over £8bn and a turnover of about £900m.
Paul is interim chair of the Salvation Army Housing Association. He is chair of Audit and Risk at Wandle Housing Association and a Board member at Swan Housing Association.
Paul has lived in the Borough for over 25 years. He is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and holds an MBA from the University of Bath.
Paul was appointed as a Trustee of The Richmond Charities in May 2022 and is a member of the Finance Committee.
Jeff Picton
After studying Law at university, Jeff qualified as a Chartered Accountant and was a partner at PwC from 1991 to 2019 where he worked with many clients, mostly in the banking and capital markets sector. He spent 3 years in New York as well as time seconded to the Bank of England. As well as being an audit partner he led many other client engagements including investigations, due diligence and regulatory reporting reviews. He is a Non-Executive Director on the board of Mansfield Building Society and has recently served on the board of a start-up bank; he is a member of and Treasurer for the Richmond borough Safer Neighbourhood Board which acts as a key link between the local community and the police.
Jeff has lived in the East Sheen and Richmond area for nearly 40 years. He enjoys golf, walking and travel. He joined The Richmond Charities as a Trustee in November 2024 and is a member of the Finance Committee.
Cllr Richard Pyne
Richard Pyne was elected to Richmond Council in May 2018 and represents the North Richmond ward. He serves on the Social Service and Housing Committee and is a trustee of Richmond Parish Lands Charity and of the Museum of Richmond. Now semi-retired, Richard was a Partner in an international management consultancy firm and prior to that worked in Human Resources in industrial companies. He is a long-standing volunteer at Kew Gardens and also enjoys golf and quizzing and has appeared on several TV quiz programmes. He lives in East Sheen with his wife and daughter. Richard joined the Trustee Board in January 2020.
Mike Townsin
Mike Townsin’s career spanned 40 years in advertising, from trainee to Managing Director of the London office of Young and Rubicam, at that time the world’s second largest advertising agency. After 20 years at Y&R he became Chairman and CEO of GGK, the UK office of a Swiss multinational advertising agency, and latterly was Regional Director/Senior Vice President of Grey Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong, one of the world’s largest multinational advertising agencies, now part of WPP.
Mike has lived in Richmond for 50 years. From 2006 – 2016 he was a Governor of the Old Vicarage School in Richmond, 5 years of which was as Chairman. Mike has trained as a Cruse bereavement counsellor. In 2023 he was appointed Chair of Governors of the Holy Trinity CE Primary School, Richmond. Mike was appointed to the Board of The Richmond Charities in 2018 and is also a member of the Welfare Committee, the Finance Committee and the Almshouse News Editorial Committee.
Jeremy Williams
Jeremy was born in Kew and has lived in the London Borough of Richmond for virtually all his life. He was a partner in a local firm of solicitors, Calvert Smith and Sutcliffe, based on Richmond Green, for 35 years until he retired in January 2013.
Apart from his voluntary work, Jeremy now devotes most of his time to his four grandchildren, his membership of The Richmond Golf Club and supporting Fulham FC.
Jeremy was Vice-Chair from 2022 to 2023 and became Chair in 2023. He is also Chair of the Risk Management Committee, Chair of the Property Committee and a member of the Safeguarding Group.