CoFarm Foundation is governed by an experienced Board of Trustees, each recruited to provide expertise and guidance on different aspects of the charity’s work.
DR ARUN GUPTA - trustee
Arun is Director of Postgraduate Education at Cambridge University Health Partners and was Director of Postgraduate Medical Education at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Director of the Addenbrooke's Simulation Centre.
He is also Consultant in Anaesthesia and Intensive Care and Associate Lecturer, University of Cambridge. Arun trained in medicine at St Mary's Hospital Medical School, University of London.
He was appointed Assistant Professor Anaesthesiology, Medical College of Virginia, USA, before being appointed as a Consultant in Anaesthesia and Neurointensive Care at Addenbrooke's Hospital in 1996.
ben cowelL - chair of trustees
Ben is the Director General of the Historic Houses Association, which represents over 1,600 historic houses in independent ownership. Prior to joining Historic Houses in 2016, he was a regional director for the National Trust in the East of England, having also led the Trust's External Affairs function.
Before then, Ben spent ten years working in the civil service at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, including a three-year secondment to English Heritage. His PhD was on the history of estate landscapes, and he has published widely on this and other topics. Ben is a Fellow of the RSA.
dr laura james - trustee
Laura is a is a Chartered Engineer who delivers practical systems around emerging internet technologies in different contexts including commercial startups, non-profits and co-ops, and has established and scaled organisations, teams and communities.
Laura co-founded Cambridge Makespace, the Digital Life Collective, and the Festival of Maintenance, and helped develop humanitarian NGO, Field Ready.
Much of Laura’s work has focused on creating a more responsible technology industry. She was CEO of Open Knowledge International; worked at Doteveryone and established the Trust & Technology Initiative at the University of Cambridge Department of Computer Science and Technology, where she is Entrepreneur in Residence and read for her Masters and PhD degrees in Engineering.
Laura is also a Director of CoFarm Foundation’s wholly owned subsidiary, CoFarm Estate Limited.
richard brooks - treasurer
Richard is a Chartered Accountant and co-founded FD Solutions, a professional firm that provides Finance Directors on a part-time or interim basis to commercial, governmental and philanthropic entities.
Richard has extensive experience in advising mature and early stage commercial and social enterprises to develop successful growth and financing strategies in addition to creating appropriate governance, risk and compliance cultures and infrastructure. Richard is also the Chair of Trustees of iMedtrust - a charity which seeks to dramatically increase the number of skilled health workers in lower-resource settings around the world. He is also a Director of CoFarm Cambridge - a wholly-owned subsidiary of CoFarm Foundation - and a Fellow of the RSA.
sally vergette - trustee
Sally is a pasture-fed beef and sheep farmer who originally trained as an artist at Central School of Art and Design. She and her husband have farmed Coombe Farm, near Okehampton in North Devon, for over 30 years.
During this time, through sensitive and enlightened management of their holding - which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest - they have created an oasis for biodiversity at Coombe.
sue pritchard - trustee
Sue is Chief Executive of the Food, Farming & Countryside Commission. Her background is in leading large-scale change for more sustainable futures and works with public, private and not for profit organisations on their leadership, strategy, culture and governance.
Over the last twenty years, Sue has been awarded a number of Visiting Research Fellowships; has written papers and books on leadership and change and is a founding board member of the international journal ‘Action Learning: research & practice’.
Sue runs an organic livestock farm in Wales, with her family and volunteers. The farm is also home to a charity, the Silver Birch Foundation, which provides education, training and development for disaffected and disengaged young people, in partnership with local schools. Sue is a Fellow of the RSA.
gavin shelton - founder & CEO
Gavin has spent the last 25 years developing, leading and advising community-based organisations, NGO’s, and social impact ventures around the world.
This has included leading science and adventure-based expeditions to polar, desert, rainforest and mountainous environments and running cross-cultural youth exchanges; outdoor education and community development programmes.
Much of Gavin’s career has been spent bringing together diverse groups of stakeholders to collaborate on solving seemingly intractable sustainable development challenges. At Fauna & Flora, Gavin devised and co-founded the first global, open online community dedicated to conservation technology - WILDLABS. For Raleigh International, Gavin established and led a new country operation in India, as Country Director.
Gavin is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Geographical Society and a Commissioner of the Food, Farming and Countryside Commission.
