Board of Trustees:

Dale Cooper - Chair:

Dale started his career at Benetton Sports Systems in their international marketing department before moving to the voluntary sector where he has gained nearly ten years of fundraising experience. Currently, Dale heads up the Major Gifts (Arts & Sciences) team at King’s College London, raising money from wealthy individuals, foundations and businesses. Previously, he worked for Internal Planned Parenthood Federation, developing a range of sexual and reproductive health projects throughout the world. He was Director of Development at the political lobby group, Stonewall and has worked for Shelter, the homeless charity and the Lesbian and Gay Foundation. Dale has also undertaken consultancy work for London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard and an NHS organization specializing in HIV research, treatment and care.

Dale is familiar with the excellent work of the Metro Centre and is thrilled to join the Board of Trustees at such an exciting time in the organization’s development. He brings a range of skills and experiences to the Centre. This includes a sound understanding of LGB and sexual health issues, the voluntary sector and donor and service delivery institutions nationally and internationally. More specifically, his expertise includes fundraising, development, charity governance and strategic development.

Dale is originally from the Lake District, but the constant rain drove him south. Current fads include the art of Banksy, Italian cookery and the History Channel. He lives in London with his partner and their six year old son.

 

Andrew (Andy) Smith - Treasurer:

Andy is currently the manager of a capacity building project in the London Borough of Greenwich based at Volunteer Centre Greenwich. He offers organizations a variety of support around organizational good practice including governance, human resources and fundraising. He has worked in Greenwich's voluntary sector for nearly six years starting out as an outreach volunteer on he CSV programme. From there he worked on a variety of projects including a social enterprise for people with learning difficulties and an information project collecting information about the variety of organizations within Greenwich's voluntary and community sector.
He currently sits on the board of trustees for Working with Words which works with people with learning difficulties and makes information more accessible.

When Andy first moved to the Borough he decided a good way to find out about the local area was to do additional volunteering and he became a volunteer at the Metro Centre on Wednesdays Pitstop. As a gay man he felt it would be a good opportunity to find out more information about gay, lesbian and bisexual issues and services that are available, as well as making new friends. He really enjoyed his time at the centre but decided to move on to new areas after several years. He now has the opportunity to share his new skills and experience to help support the organization as a way of saying thank you for the friendship and support he was given when he was new to the area.

 

Dr Murat Soncul:

Murat was born in Turkey. After completing clinical training in Dentistry, Murat worked as an oral surgeon and completed a doctorate in oral and maxillofacial surgery at University College London. He is currently working in senior management in South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust where he manages the e-Health Programme which aims to improve clinical communication and access to healthcare services. As part of the information team, Murat’s responsibilities include clinical information management and confidentiality. Murat works with the Trust Equality and Diversity Group and the LGBT Focus Group as the equality and diversity lead for the department with a special focus on sexual orientation. He has been involved in projects to improve working conditions for LGBT staff in the NHS. Some of his work has focused on monitoring sexual orientation to improve the visibility of LGB patients and shape services to meet healthcare requirements of the LGB community. Murat would like to bring his skills and experience in organisational management and strategic development to support Metro’s contribution to the LGB community in south London. He would like to be part of the further development of Metro to meet the changing ethnic mosaic of local LGB community. Murat has lived in Southwark with his partner for the last ten years.

 

Alastair Cartwright:

Alastair works in public relations and marketing, specializing in health and corporate communications. He graduated in Politics with International Relations in 2001 and has worked in R ever since.

Some of his most notable clients for whom he has carried out media relations and marketing campaigns for include: The Disability Rights Commission; The Commission for Racial Equality; the NHS; Holocaust Memorial Day for the Home Office; and he has been involved in charity communications having launched the UK’s first not-for-profit bank ‘Charity Bank’ with Gordon Brown in 2002.

In his current role he handles campaigns for GlaxoSmithKline, through which he first met the people involved in The Metro Centre when it won an IMPACT Award for its contribution and innovative services for the LGB community, and Miriam Stoppard, the pregnancy expert.

Alastair brings a wealth of PR and marketing experience to The Metro Centre and aims to help the organization effectively communicate with key communities and raise awareness of the services it offers. In addition, as a young gay man at 28 years old, he hopes to bring a fresh perspective to the organization and aid it in its growth and expansion into new areas.

Alastair is well aware of the work of charitable organizations, especially those working with LGB people. He has benefited from the advice such organizations have made available since moving to London in 1998, and feels very strongly that now is the time is put something back and get involved in directly helping to continue to communicate important messages in an ever increasingly information-overload society. What drew him to Metro was the inspiring, fresh way it approached issues and the tailored way it deals with service users – it’s certainly not a one-size-fits-all approach

Alastair hopes to play a major role in the organizations future as it expands its outreach work and ontinues with its trailblazing approach to what are still critically important issues facing this, and many other, communities today.

Dr Christopher Whiteley

James Field