Trustees

James Moore

Trustee

James joined the trustees in autumn 2011. Before retiring he was a marketing consultant working in financial services, wealth management and the public sector. Specialising in direct marketing he managed new product launches and customer retention improvements, usually involving IT and call centre developments.

James and his wife Margaret are cat lovers, whose lives are ruled by the various felines they have adopted over the years, the grand total currently stands at eight. Coco and Sugar are the current incumbents, having been adopted in September 2020 at the age of 13.

Among James' other interests are providing technical support for speakers at his local branch of The Arts Society (TAS) and volunteering at a local arts centre. He also spends his time designing websites, keeping an allotment in order, and learning foreign languages.

Laura Magee

Trustee (Chairman)

Laura joined the trustees in 2005.

Laura is a construction project manager, with work positions ranging from building site supervision, detailed analytical modeling to survey work on offshore gas platforms.

Her current projects sit within the education sector, schools at all educational levels plus higher education; with keen interest in aspects of inclusivity and sustainability.

Animals have always played a role in Laura’s life and she is owned by rescue dogs, Alfie and Skye, from NAWT Hertfordshire.

Laura has also recently become a beekeeper.

To relax and unwind she chooses life underwater and is a qualified sub-aqua diver

Lynley Griffiths

Trustee

Lynley has been NAWT’s Health and Safety Consultant for nearly 10 years. Lynley ensures the Trust meets its legal obligations and reports annually to the Board, attends quarterly H&S Steering Committee Meetings and advises on an ad hoc basis when issues occur.

She has also advised a couple of other animal welfare charities as well as several other clients from hospitals to art galleries to community sports clubs. She gained her initial experience in healthcare in New Zealand.

Caroline Thomlinson

Trustee

Caroline has almost 20 years of experience in the financial services industry and is currently a Managing Director at a large European bank. I enjoy what I do but I am looking to add some purpose to my life, spending my time and using my skills doing something that I truly care about and where I can make a difference. The purpose closest to my heart is animals. I am a proud pet owner of four cats, Trixi, Dash, Pepsi and Everest, and one pony, Firefly. The pony was a rescue as the former owner could not afford to keep her. It is the best thing we have ever done and it gives so much joy to my family. My animal behaviour experience is from 40+ years of pet ownership mainly horses, ponies and cats.

Danny Lezer

Trustee

Danny is a digital business consultant within consumer goods and retail, with a career spanning over two decades specialising in direct-to-consumer ecommerce business strategy and growth. Danny has worked within digital across many different industries which include: toys, drinks, tooling and pet food, as well as starting his own business. Outside of digital, soon to be dad Danny likes to ‘switch off’ by exploring the outdoors, travelling throughout the UK as much as possible with his family and very energetic Working Cocker Spaniel, Teddy. The family are also pet parents to a rescue cat, tropical fish and koi and are always contemplating what to rescue next!

John Garratt

Trustee

John joined the trustees in 2022 after completing an MSc in Animal Welfare, Ethics and Law. Prior to that he served in the Royal Navy for 30 years in a variety of challenging roles both on-board ships, on land operations and in various shore based HQs. Recent HQ roles included teaching operational planning both in the UK and overseas, supporting national resilience planning and two stints at the MoD.

Motivated by compassion for all sentient animals, John became a vegetarian in 2015 and vegan four years later. He and his partner Ethaar have the privilege to share their home with two rescue dogs, a collie-x called Billy and an ex-street dog from Afghanistan called Moosh.

Mel Chapman

Trustee

I’m Mel and I live in Cheshire with my husband Neil and our 4 hens and 2 hives of bees.

I have always been an animal lover and from an early age I knew I needed to be a veterinary surgeon! As a vet I love to see all animals (although if I’m being honest, my favourites patients are chickens!), and I enjoy discussions with clients. Most days as a vet are cats and dogs but one particular day I remember opening my consult door to the waiting room and there sat a Valais Blackface ram, a 5ft lizard, a hedgehog, a bearded dragon and a Snowy Owl! And I thought “gosh, I am just like James Herriott!”.

My other job, is as a lecturer at Liverpool Vet School, where I get to shape the veterinary graduates of the future, this is a role I find to be really satisfying and I feel I’m doing my bit for my profession by producing quality graduates. I particularly enjoy it when students go into practice for the first time and they come back to uni absolutely fizzing with excitement for their future career. It's an honour to work with the students.

I am hoping to add my veterinary and education skill sets to the NAWT board of trustees, and I am really excited to see what we can achieve together.

Sharmini Julita Paramasivam

Trustee

Sharmini Julita Paramasivam graduated as a veterinary surgeon in 2008 from Universiti Putra Malaysia. She started work in small animal practice and moved on to zoological medicine practice for a few years before working as an academic at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Surrey in 2015. Sharmini has an MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare from the University of Edinburgh and focuses her teaching and practice on animal behaviour, animal husbandry and human animal interaction.

Sharmini is based in Surrey but leads the Animal Neighbours Project in Malaysia which aims to reduce negative interactions between wildlife and humans in urban spaces.  Improving the quality of life of captive animals is very important to Sharmini and believes a positive emotional health is key to achieving this.

Ben Brilot

Trustee

I’m a passionate believer that we can and should do better for the animals that share our lives: whether companion, working, livestock animals or wildlife. I’m also of the view that science and evidence-based practice are the best way for us to choose how to make those improvements and, very importantly, make the case to others that our choices are necessary and justified. From a very early age I was fascinated with the question of why animals do the things that they do and what that means for how we interact with them. As such I pursued a research career in animal behaviour and welfare science from a degree in zoology, a PhD in animal behaviour and a decade of research in animal welfare at several universities. My primary focus has been about how the behaviour of animals can tell us about whether and how they might be experiencing the world (in the sense of the potential for emotion states). I'm interested in this question both from a practical point of view: can we assess and improve the welfare of animals in our care, and a theoretical point of view: why have emotions evolved, and how should animals (including humans) express them?

At present I’m the Associate Head of the Animal department at Hartpury University. I lead a team of 20 individuals in delivering animal-based degree programmes to over 500 students a year. I really enjoy my leadership and lecturing roles and see them as a great opportunity to generate impact: by developing the knowledge, critical analysis and reflective skills of the young people who will form the future of animal care and campaigning, we have the potential to effect genuine positive change. I’m also thrilled to have been given responsibility as a trustee for NAWT. Again, I think we are an organisation that can have major real-world impact. Through our preventative and rehoming work we can ensure that owners have the best available pet care knowledge to ensure that their lives, and the lives of their pets, are harmonious and fulfilling.