Meet the Team
James Wilcox, Project Lead
For me, this project started three years ago prompted by a thoughtful conversation with Chris Boulton, visionary CEO of Greenham Trust. I was seeing more and more families struggling to live well with dementia in my role as Chief Executive of Age Concern Newbury.
We decided to take on the big challenge of transforming local dementia care and support. After an extensive period of research and development, by the end of 2024 the timing was right to set-up a new charity to make the transformation a reality. I am a VCSE sector leader with 25 years of strategic business development experience spanning charities, start-ups and £100m global TV technology scale-up. I live in North Hampshire with my wife Alessandra, and we have two grown-up daughters.
Our Trustees
Catherine Haig, Chair of Trustees
Resident in Berkshire almost all of my life, I am a journalist by training, with experience in other fields. My first job was as junior reporter on the Reading Chronicle, my last was in the Parliamentary constituency office in Newbury; I am now retired and live in Englefield village.
My involvement with West Berkshire Dementia Hub was prompted by a conversation with Chris Boulton, CEO of Greenham Trust, when he mentioned a plan was taking shape for a dementia project. My mother had just previously been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and I was becoming all too aware of the challenges faced by families in the same situation. I joined the initial group of trustees, becoming chair in April 2025. I also chair the Englefield Charitable Trust, set up by my father, Sir William Benyon, in 1968, which is listed as a funder on The Good Exchange and gives to good causes in Berkshire and North Hampshire. I live with my husband, Peter, and we have three grown-up children and two grandchildren.
Edwin Bruce-Gardner, Trustee
I have worked as an actuary throughout my career and I am currently working part time as an independent trustee in the pensions field. I am particularly passionate about the West Berkshire Dementia Hub project having had experience of the difficulties associated with dementia and I know that its services will be of great benefit to the community. I like to be involved with local organisations and I also act as treasurer to the Berkshire Ornithological Club and the Bradfield Mayfayre in addition to the WBDH. I am married with five grown-up children.
Jonathan Hopson, Trustee
I have lived and worked in Newbury, West Berkshire, for most of my life. I joined the family-owned retail, removals and funerals business, Camp Hopson of Newbury, in 1986 and during the next 18 years took on a variety of roles including company secretary, marketing director and finance director, prior to being appointed chief executive in 2004.
Following the sale of Camp Hopson in 2014, I have continued to take an active interest in the Newbury and West Berkshire local community, becoming a Trustee of the Fairclose Centre in Newbury in 2020 and completing a 10 year stint as a governor of Newbury College in 2021.
The West Berkshire Dementia Hub (WBDH) is a hugely significant initiative that will make a tangible difference to the lives of many people living in West Berkshire and North Hampshire and I am delighted and honoured to be part of the WBDH team.
Catherine Lovell, Trustee
Family, friends and community are the bedrock of my life. They have been the constant in my career of teaching children with specific learning difficulties, governorship of a school and in the successful fundraising for local charities and organisations that I have done over the years. When I was invited to join the board of trustees for the West Berkshire Dementia Hub I thought the role would play to my strengths of encouraging family, friends and our community to join the Ambassadors Programme and to spread the word about the project.
My passion for this project emanates from watching my father-in-law’s decline suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and observing my mother in law’s despair when she was unable to access the assistance they required. Friends in a similar situation have spoken of feeling abandoned. I am determined that with the help of all the talented people in our community that this must never happen again once the WBDH is up and running. I am married, mother of four adult sons and grandmother of Alfie.
Rick Marsh, Trustee
I have been resident in Burghclere in north west Hampshire for over 30 years where I live with my wife Janey. We are lucky to have three daughters and (so far!) eight grandchildren. I was a solicitor in the City with the international law firm Taylor Wessing. I was with them for 48 years (unlikely to be repeated in this day and age of job mobility!) becoming a Litigation partner and then Senior Partner. I retired as a consultant in 2022.
I was honoured to be invited to become a trustee of the WBDH. I was excited not only by the scale of the project but also by the possibility of making a real difference to the lives of those suffering from dementia in the area. It also sadly coincided with my sister being diagnosed with dementia. She became unable to look after herself and now lives in a residential care home outside Newmarket. Though she is very well looked after there, I believe she could have continued to have a better life at home if she had been diagnosed earlier and we had learned more about her living with dementia at home.