Staff

Honeypot is a small and personal charity. We have a dedicated team of 30 permanent staff based at Honeypot House in the New Forest and at our Head Office in London. We also have a large number of volunteers who are passionate about enhancing the lives of vulnerable children and young carers.

Board of Trustees

Caspar MacDonald-Hall

Chairman of our Board of Trustees. Caspar has been chairman of London and Cambridge Properties, the largest private and industrial estate owners in the UK, for 17 years. He took up the post of chairman of the Honeypot Board of Trustees in the summer of 2004 and aims to help the charity make the next vital steps to helping more vulnerable children in this country.

Laurie Oppenheim
Laurie has been a Honeypot Trustee for over ten years. He lives in London with his wife, Laetitia, and three children. Laurie worked for Marks & Spencer for 30 years, prior to his retirement in 2005.

Paddy Grafton-Green

Paddy is the Senior Partner of Michael Simkins LLP since May 2006. He graduated from Oxford University in 1965 and joined Theodore Goddard as a trainee solicitor, becoming a partner in 1973 and a Senior Partner in 1997. He developed a client base drawn from the entertainment and music business, encompassing all aspects of commercial contracts. In 2003, Paddy merged Theodore Goddard with Addleshaw Booth to form Addleshaw Goddard and became Chairman of the merged firm for the next 3 years.  Paddy became a Honeypot Trustee in 2005.

Mary Davis
Mary was born and raised in New York. She joined the US Foreign Service in 1983 and spent two years in Jordan and Lebanon. In 1986 she moved to London to work at the American Embassy, where she met and married her British husband, Peter, with whom she has two daughters. Mary first became involved with Honeypot by joining the Ball Committee in 2000. She became a Trustee in 2005 and also sits on the Honeypot Fundraising Committee.  Mary has chaired three major fundraising events for Honeypot and is also very involved in community activities and other charity projects.

Michael Jolliffe

Michael is Deputy Chairman of Tsakos Energy Navigation SA, a shipping company owning over 50 tankers and quoted on the New York Stock Exchange.  He is also Chairman of StealthGas Inc, a shipping company with a fleet of 46 LPG ships quoted on the Nasdaq National Market.  Michael is also Chairman of Wigham-Richardson Shipbrokers Ltd, one of the oldest established shipbroking companies in the City of London, and of Shipping Spares Repairs and Supplies Ltd, an agency company based in Piraeus, Greece.  He is also joint President and Deputy Chairman of Hanjin Eurobulk Ltd, a joint venture between Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd of Seoul, Korea and Wigham-Richardson Shipbrokers Ltd. Michael joined the Honeypot Board of Trustees in 2008.

Hugh Whitaker
Hugh spent 34 years in the Royal Navy, retiring as a Commodore. Before becoming a Honeypot Trustee in 2005, Hugh spent five years as Chairman of Trustees for The Royal Naval and Royal Marines Children's Fund. He is also Trustee of another small children's charity and is a Fellow of The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.

Gareth McKeever
Gareth joined the Board of Trustees in 2007. A former Investment Banker with Morgan Stanley, Gareth is currently the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Westmorland and Lonsdale in the Lake District. Originally hailing from Portstewart in Northern Ireland, Gareth now divides his time between London and his home in Kendal.

Charlie Lesser
Charlie is Managing Director of commodity brokers Marex Carlton Ltd. He joined the Honeypot Board of Trustees in 2008.

David Clark
David owns fine sports and racing car dealership, Taylor and Crawley.

Verne Grinstead

Verne is the Managing Director of Equity Capital Markets at JP Morgan Cazenove Ltd.

He joined the Honeypot Board of Trustees in 2009.

Childcare Advisory Board

The board's skills and experience ensure our work meets the highest possible standards of professionalism.

Jo Barker - Child Psychiatrist

Tim Wright - Healthcare Lawyer

Richard Hadley - Children's Service and Social Care

Melanie Leeder - Extended Services Manager, CATCH

Pauline Taylor - Director of Youth Work, UK Youth

Pat Ash - Community Health Visitor