The Board of Trustees is the governing body of Focus Birmingham.

The Board of Trustees have ultimate responsibility for directing the affairs of Focus Birmingham, and ensuring that it is solvent, well-run, and delivering the charitable outcomes for which it has been set up.
The board is responsible for the legal and strategic direction of the charity and formally accounts for its actions in annual reports to both the Charity Commission and Companies House.

The board is made up of key people who give their time and carry out their duties for no payment. The charity benefits from the objectivity such a body brings, and from the skills and experience of its board members. The board’s duty is to act in the best interests of the charity and declare any conflicts of interest.

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Meet the Board

Marc Reeves - Chairman

Marc was editor of the Birmingham Mail and the Birmingham Post and launch editor of the BirminghamLive website, now one of the largest in the country.

As a campaigning newspaper editor, he worked with community organisations, businesses and charities across the city for two decades, raising money for good causes, demanding justice for the victims of the Birmingham pub bombings, and holding local and national politicians to account.

Birmingham-born, Marc now lives in Oxfordshire and runs a media consultancy business, advising clients on revenue generation and publishing strategies.

When not working he and wife Claire enjoy plotting their next travel adventures, or, closer to home, cooking in the kitchen or on the barbecue for friends and family.

Richard Hindle - Treasurer

Richard is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales and of the Association of  Corporate Treasurers. After beginning his career within the accountancy profession, specialising in providing tax advice to large companies, Richard then worked in a number of senior roles in the manufacturing and service sectors across the West Midlands.

Richard taught at Birmingham City University’s Business School as a Senior Lecturer specialising in accounting, corporate finance and taxation.

Richard lives close to Focus with his wife, two boys and dog. When not transporting his sons to their various sporting events he enjoys training for and competing in triathlons.

Jean McDougall - Marketing Trustee

Jean began her working life in journalism and editorial work before becoming interested in consumer behaviour and taking up a market research role within an advertising agency. She worked for a number of market research agencies helping local and global companies better understand their consumers, their brands and their brand communications. Jean later combined her market research and marketing abilities with her editorial skills to become Global Communications and Marketing for Millward Brown, a top global market research agency.

Jean later set up her own consultancy helping both public and private sector organisations to bring their brands and their organisations to life. More recently she has started an e-commerce business. Jean is also a volunteer Business Mentor with Sported UK.

Jean lives in Warwickshire and her interest in sight loss began when her father, and later two friends, were affected by age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Valarie Griffiths

Val is a service user and volunteer at Focus Birmingham and she has now joined the board as a Trustee. Val is visually impaired and brings her personal experience to help advise the board about the needs of blind and partially sighted service users to help people reduce their social isolation through the importance of having activities such as health and well-being days, coffee mornings and days out.

When Val isn’t volunteering on our SupportLine, she enjoys going to the opera and theatre, shopping and enjoying good food and wine with friends. Val has lived all around the world including France, Nigeria, Wales and Newcastle and she currently lives in Selly Oak with her guide dog Kizzy.

Mandeep Jandu

Mandeep Jandu is a Commissioning Manager for adult social care at Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council. He has worked in the health & social care sector for over two decades starting his career as a carer in a residential/nursing home. A co-founder of JP Integrated Care Services which has supported over 150 vulnerable families to access and improve their health and wellbeing. He has worked across all industry sectors & routinely volunteers his time supporting third sector organisations.

Graduating in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Wolverhampton, he has consistently engaged in continuing professional development. An accredited project manager across both waterfall & agile methodologies. He has an interest in artificial intelligence, machine learning and is undertaking a range of training including SQL, Python & statistics to further advance his knowledge.
Mandeep enjoys spending time with family and friends, playing golf & has completed many residential refurbishments.

Zoe Allen-Robinson

Zoe Allen-Robinson is a qualified Solicitor having previously worked in private practice in criminal defence. She then moved in-house to the Solicitors Regulation Authority in their General Counsel department and now manages a team that looks to prevent law firms being used for money laundering. She is Chair of her employer’s Access Ability Network, a network set up to promote and encourage equality of opportunities for disabled employees and a champion for inclusion.

Zoe herself has a sight condition and was keen to get involved in the important work of Focus Birmingham following her father becoming partially sighted.

Ramesh Sivaraj

Ramesh Sivaraj is a Consultant Ophthalmologist with a special interest in macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease and intraocular inflammation. He is the Deputy Clinical Service Lead at the University Hospital NHS Trust and led the Diabetic Retinopathy Service at the Heart of England NHS Foundation trust during 2011-2013 and was Clinical Director for the department 2013-17. Ramesh has been member of the International Medical Graduates subcommittee with the Royal College of Ophthalmology since June 2019. He is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Life & Health Sciences at the Aston University (since 2014) and was the Clinical Lecturer in Ophthalmology at the University of Birmingham from 2004-2008.

He has been awarded the Macular Society Clinical Excellence award in 2015 and an Innovation voucher from the Aston Business School. He has multiple publications in international peer reviewed journals & is a principal investigator in several international research studies looking at newer treatments for macular degeneration, diabetic maculopathy and artificial intelligence in Ophthalmology.

Victoria Tierney

After completing her HR degree at Keele University, Victoria began her career in HR at Poundland. She now has HR and Operations experience within the education, pub and retail sectors. Victoria is a Chartered Member of the CIPD and is currently a People Business Partner for Busy Bees, a private nursery company.  

Victoria has a young visually impaired son and is ‘learning on the job’ being a first time mum with a child who has additional needs. She is very interested in supporting both individuals and families that are affected by visual impairment and complex needs. 

Victoria lives in Harborne with her husband, little boy Freddie and dog, Jasper.

Vickie Pargetter

Vickie is a business development and marcomms specialist. She has a degree in Business Commerce from The University of Birmingham, and a Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Her career has spanned the public and private sector, latterly spending nearly 13 years at the University of Birmingham where in recent years she was the Assistant Director of Business Engagement and Research Impact. She is now Director of Digital Skills and Commercial Impact for TechWM. 

Vickie was born in the Midlands and is a passionate advocate for the region, particularly Birmingham, where she has lived for the past 25 years. She is committed to improving the lives of the people in the city and to raise the profile of some of the incredible organisations supporting that mission. 

Vickie and her husband have a young son and met at a local triathlon club. Whilst sporting activities have been largely put on hold since having her son, Vickie is steadily working her way to competing again.