The Trustees
The No Smoking Day Board of Trustees is responsible for the governance and strategic direction of the charity. Recruited from and elected by our membership, the Trustees bring a wide and valuable range of skills and experience.
Dr John Beal MBE - Chair
John was born in North London and remains an Arsenal supporter although he is now Consultant in Dental Public Health and Regional Dental Officer in Yorkshire and the Humber. He qualified as a dentist at the Royal Dental Hospital of London and then moved to the University of Birmingham as Research Fellow and then Lecturer in Dental Health where he gained his PhD. In 1983 he moved to Yorkshire where he is employed within the NHS and has an honorary Senior Clinical Lectureship at the University of Leeds. He was awarded an MBE in 2004 for his contribution to dental health in Yorkshire. He is committed to improving health generally, not just dental health, and is a Trustee and former Hon. Treasurer of the UK Public Health Association. When not working he enjoys being with his family, undertaking history research projects and gardening. He is currently a member of the Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Churches Commission and was for 10 years an elected lay member of the General Synod of the Church of England.
Morag Wood - Vice Chair
Morag Wood is a communications consultant who now runs her own company, after a varied career working in both PR agencies and in-house teams.
In-house positions have ranged from PR for the Natural History Museum to setting up a new team as Head of Communications for the London Development Agency, to Director of Communications at the Millennium Commission, which distributed National Lottery funds to major projects and individuals.
Morag developed an interest in health-related communications having worked with clients including the National Blood Service and the NHS Breast and Cervical Screening Programmes - hence her support for No Smoking Day.
She currently works with a range of clients including the Olympic Lottery Distributor, the National Lottery Promotions Unit and the Fashion and Textile Museum.
Amit Aggarwal - Treasurer
Amit Aggarwal is Senior Business Development Manager for the Australian
Trade Commission, responsible for marketing Australian exports in the UK.
Previously he was a Valuation and Strategy Manager at financial consultancy
PriceWaterhouseCooper, project managing strategic shareholder and business
valuations for corporate clients.
Amit holds a first-class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from
Pembroke College, Oxford, and was admitted to the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in 2000.
Gerard Hastings OBE
Gerard Hastings is the first UK Professor of Social Marketing and founder/director
of the Cancer Research UK Centre for Tobacco Control Research (established
1999), the first such centre in Europe. Gerard is a the UK principal Investigator
on the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Study; was a Special
Advisor to House of Commons Select Committee on Health during its investigation
of the tobacco industry, provides regular guidance on tobacco issues to
the Scottish, UK and European Parliaments and the World Health Organisation,
is an expert witness in litigation against the tobacco industry and the
Chair of the Advisory Board for European Commission’s HELP anti-smoking
campaign (http://en.help-eu.com).
Gerard also teaches and writes about social marketing and tobacco control
both in the UK where he runs Masters and Honours level programmes and internationally
in the USA, Canada, Australia, Africa and South America. He has published
over eighty refereed papers in journals such as the British Medical Journal,
the British Dental Journal, the European Journal of Marketing, the International
Journal of Advertising, Social Marketing Quarterly and Tobacco Control.
His book 'Social marketing: Why should the Devil have all the Best
Tunes’ has just been published by Butterworth Heinemann.
More details of his work can be found at www.ctcr.stir.ac.uk.
Gerry Mc Elwee
Gerry has worked with the Ulster Cancer Foundation since 1989. He was
awarded the Diploma in Advanced Studies in Education (DASE), specialising
in Working with Adolescents (Queens' University Belfast, 1992).He contributed
to European Network on Young People and Tobacco meetings and training programmes.
He was awarded an MSc in Health Promotion (University of Ulster, 2002) for
his research looking at the role of nurses in smoking cessation.He is currently
the Head of Cancer Prevention at the Ulster Cancer Foundation, is Chair
of the No Smoking Day Northern Ireland Coordinating Committee. Secretary
of ASH (N.I.) and a member of the N.Ireland Tobacco Action Plan Implementation
Group. Gerry has campaigned for healthier policy for 19 years and is central
to local Tobacco control efforts including the campaign for a smoke free
N.Ireland.
Dr Geof Rayner
Geof Rayner was born on Merseyside. He has been active in healthy advocacy since the early 1970s. Having been of the founders of the Public Health Alliance in the mid-1980s he became the chair of the new UK Public Health Association in 1999. He was elected a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and has been a trustee of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations and many other third sector organisations. Today he works as research and policy consultancy and is Professor Associate in Public Health at Brunel University and Visiting Research Fellow at City University.
Dr Christopher Williams
Christopher Williams has a specialist interest in mental health, learning
disability and elderly care. Positions held during his career include Senior
Medical Officer for Mental Health in Bournemouth, Specialist in Community
Medicine for Dorset Area Health Authority, Chairman of Bournemouth Central
Primary Care Group, and Hospital Practitioner at Kings Park Day Hospital
for the Elderly Mentally Ill.
Christopher was a partner in a large general practice in Bournemouth for
over 30 years until his retirement in 2003. He continues to work as a facilitator
on work-related stress, as Director of Doctors Support Line, and as a Volunteer
Area Visitor for the Royal Medical Benevolent Fund.
Tanya Buchannan
Tanya Buchanan was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in Australia where she completed her education gaining two undergraduate degrees; one in the arts and one in science. Tanya also holds an MBA and a Diploma of Project Management. Tanya has worked in a number of health and education roles including work as a clinical nurse, working for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service in a number of executive roles including nursing, regulatory and project management roles, working in the higher education sector and as a private consultant. Tanya Buchanan is currently the Director of ASH Wales.