Initiatives of Change is a registered charity (under the name, The Oxford Group) in England and Wales (no. 226334). The Board of Trustees have legal responsibility  for all its activities and for the best use of its resources. They are all volunteers. Some have given many years of work without salary to Initiatives of Change and others are in various professions.

The role of the Trustees is to see that the activities of IofC-UK are well led and managed, in accordance with charity law and the Articles of Association of the company. They are elected by and answerable to the Association of The Oxford Group, which has more than 70 members. The Trustees appoint an executive team to manage the charity’s affairs, set the priorities and goals for the team and agree an annual budget which determines how many resources will be devoted to each area of work. The Trustees make a full report of the charity’s activities each year and submit this with audited accounts to the Charity Commission and Companies House.

Current members of the Board of Trustees are (September 2008):-

Elisabeth Tooms (Chair)

Elisabeth has been a Trustee of The Oxford Group since taking early retirement in 2005 from Allen & Overy, a law firm based in the City of London, which has grown to become a major global practice. She became Chair in June 2007. After reading law at Oxford, Elisabeth worked full-time with IofC for several years, in particular travelling for a year with a musical review, Time to Choose. The review visited Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) at the time of the civil war and also South Africa, aiming to share a message of hope and reconciliation. During that period, she also directed and toured with Columba, a play with music about the life of the Celtic saint.Elisabeth later trained in Library and Information Management and spent nearly 20 years at A & O where she eventually became Head of Global Library Services, responsible for over 70 staff. She is also a founder member of Renewal Arts, an international network of artists of all disciplines, and was its first ‘international co-ordinator’. She has been part of a team which has organised six week-long Renewal Arts Forums during IofC’s summer conferences in Caux, Switzerland. She is also on the Board of the Christian Arts Trust and works as a free-lance theatre director, stage manager and lighting designer.She lives with her husband, Tim Firth, near Horsham, Sussex, and has a horse and two cats. 

Sheila Andren (Deputy Chair) 

Sheila is a retired medical doctor, whose husband, Erik, passed away recently. She has a son, Ross, and a daughter, Lindy. She has been involved with Initiatives of Change for 35 years and a trustee for the past eight years. Her interests include pastoral care, relationships, young people, entertaining at home, walking and the garden. She is also a volunteer at the local bird reserve in the village where they live, near Cambridge. 

Philip Boobbyer

Philip was born and raised in Oxford. After taking degrees at Cambridge and Georgetown Universities and the London School of Economics, he moved to the University of Kent in Canterbury in 1995, where he became a lecturer in modern Russian and European history. His publications include S.L.Frank: The Life and Work of a Russian Philosopher 1877-1950 (1995), and Conscience, Dissent and Reform in Soviet Russia (2005). Apart from his academic work, Philip is an enthusiast for sport (he plays football and squash), goes to church (Anglican), follows current affairs, and occasionally goes fishing. Philip got involved with IofC through his parents, who were full time workers. He also met his wife, Laura, through the movement, and they have a young son called Peter.

Angela Elliott

Angela was born in Germany and educated in Switzerland and Wales and now lives with her husband, Will, outside Washington DC. A nurse, and mother of two grown children, Angela has known IofC from childhood, through her parents, Sydney and Linde Cook. Having lived overseas as the wife of a US Foreign Service Officer, she is particularly grateful for the bridges of friendship and trust that IofC has built, and continues to build, across national, religious and ideological divides. Angela's own faith 'home' is the Catholic Church, where she is an active volunteer.

Chris Evans

Chris was born, and now lives with his wife Anne, on his family's farm in the west of England. Apart from two years' farming in the '70s, he has worked with Initiatives of Change in one capacity or another since 1969. The first two and a half years were in Asia, particularly India where he has enduring links, and since then he has been based in Europe. He was treasurer of IofC in Britain for 13 years, which gave him much conviction and some experience of what it takes to finance IofC. He is deeply involved in Foundations For Freedom and Caux Initiatives for Business, and for the last 6 years has served on the Board of IofC-USA. 

Francis Evans

Francis was born in Paris and lived his early years in France where his parents were working full-time with Initiatives of Change. The family moved to Britain where he completed his schooling and went on to study agriculture at Reading University. He worked in farming for a time and later joined the Department of Trade and Industry, where he was responsible for education and skills issues in manufacturing. After 14 years as a Civil Servant Francis founded the Learning Grid, an independent charity that promotes science, technology and engineering in schools through hands-on projects and competitions. He is married to Rachel, a journalist, and they have one daughter.

Neil Mackay

Born and raised in London, Neil has since studied, lived and worked in Scotland, France and South America. He has a degree in French and Education and recently completed a Masters in Diplomatic Studies. He is a senior teacher at Kingston Grammar School and lives with his wife and two young children in Surrey.

Ruth Neal

Ruth has been involved in the work of Initiatives of Change since Cambridge University days. She and her husband, Keith, taught biology in Secondary schools in London and Manchester. They have three adult children and one grandchild. Ruth is now Secretary of Churches Together in Hale, Altrincham, and actively works to create friendships between different Faith groups in the area. She fully supports Keith's involvement with the programme of IofC in Sierra Leone.

Kenneth Noble (Secretary and Acting Treasurer)

Ken was brought up in Manchester and gained a BSc in physics at Imperial College, London, where he had much contact with IofC. Ken worked with MRA (IofC) as a full-time volunteer, initially in Malta for 18 months and was later based at Tirley Garth, the IofC residential centre in Cheshire, for seven years. He spent three months in Nigeria and then in 1980 moved to London to work as an editor of New World News. In 1987 Ken resigned and took a year's sabbatical visiting Canada, USA, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and India. On return he married Maggie and started working as an editor of For A Change magazine, which he did for 16 years. They have a daughter, Laura, born in 1993.  Ken was appointed to the Executive Team of IofC UK, with special responsibility for pastoral care, in February 2008.

If you wish to contact the Board, please use the postal address on this page or email the Secretary