Our Trustees

Roma Bhowmick

Roma is a Certified INED (2020), Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute and Associate member of Institute of Consulting. She has supported, advised, coached and mentored individuals at Main Board level in both SMEs and larger Enterprises, specialising in the fast growth SME sector (£1m – £45m t/o) as well as “Blue Chip”/Corporate Organisations. Her key role and area of impact has been in advising and guiding Senior Leaders/Founders in Organisations through strategic development, acting as both catalyst and sounding board to challenge and evoke change.

In Having spent much of her career in the City of London, Roma is passionate about the focus on developing skills and opportunities for young people. To this end she became a Trustee for a City of London Educational Trust. She is also past Chairman of a City membership organisation and Senior Visiting Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire Business School, lecturing on the MBA programme. In 2006 Roma was awarded Freedom of the City of London in recognition of her ‘services to Management Consultancy’.

Mark Hoult-Allen

Mark began his career in stage and theatre management, working in the commercial and subsidised theatre. He held a number of roles in the arts funding sector including Head of National Touring and then Director of Business Process for Arts Council England. Following the Arts Council, Mark spent nearly seven years at Comic Relief, firstly as Head of Grants Operations, then Head of Business Planning and Process and for a short period as Director of Operations.

He now has his own consultancy company specialising in charity governance, compliance and business system analysis and improvement. His clients include Wellcome Trust, ChoiceCare, Barnardo’s, Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust, Be The Business and Marie Curie.

Mark has been a school governor and has held directorships and trusteeships in a number of not-for profit arts organisations and is currently the Chair of trustees of We Are Family, a peer-to-peer adoption support charity. He is also Vice Chair of Trustees for the Mercury Theatre, Colchester and director of Colchester Mercury Trading Ltd and Colchester Mercury Productions Ltd.

Mark has more than 20 years strategic leadership and management experience in the charity sector. He has extensive experience and practical knowledge of charity regulation, leading strategic business planning and transformation projects, team leadership, policy and process development and implementation, grant-making, fundraising, finance, business efficiency, HR, IT, data protection, governance and stakeholder relationship development.

Chris Luff (MBE)

Chris was a Co-Founder Director, of Freedom Communications a start-up company born in Watford and grown to over £20m before being acquired by GCI in 2017. He spent over 28 years working with public and private sector customers, understanding their business operations and working with them to develop sustainable productivity improvements increase sales and improve customer experience .He specialises in finding positive business outcomes using technology as an enabler; allowing our customers to do more with less and ultimately improve productivity sales, service and operations.

Through this time Chris has continuously developed sales and marketing strategies to meet the demands of the extremely fast-moving and competitive Information Technology market sector. To have sales recognised as a professional career is an ongoing crusade and passion, DEVO is a sales methodology devised by Chris to ensure an ethical approach to delivering value and positive outcomes for customers.

Chris was the initial driving force behind Freedoms award winning apprenticeship program, showing that engaging with the Local Community and public-sector agencies can deliver real value and create win -win- win outcomes for education, apprentices and business. Since then, his energy in Local community collaboration has contributed to Skillmakers a service to direct and connect people of all ages and abilities to employment opportunities best suited to them. Skillmakers will also help Enterprises of all sizes address skills development, create apprenticeship programs, understand the government levy and ultimately attract and develop a pipeline of talent into their business. In his role as CEO of the Watford Chamber of Commerce he has been campaigning for companies to have CSR and ESG on board agendas, linking volunteering to better more effective skills development, he is also a Founder of The Chamber of Conscience A movement of major organisations networking for a social cause, promoting equality , inclusion and diversity whilst finding good reasons to do business.

Chris has worked for many private and public-sector organisations managing teams and contracts via European and UK procurement frameworks. His experience in Business Transformation and Skills development enables contribution to the Hertfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership Skills and Education Board, and the Hertfordshire LEP Business Envoy, program. Chris is a Trustee at the Watford Community Sports and Education Trust @Watford FC helping with Community Centres, business engagement and fundraising and volunteers for the Hertfordshire Community Foundation by mentoring local charities.

A family tradition is to be active in the local community “Everyone regardless of age or ability has a personal social responsibility to give a little back, and so does local business” , Freedom was a great example of this and had a great deal of success as a result.

Chris started his career as a plumber’s mate at a very young age (so does not mind rolling up his sleeves and getting his hands dirty) and suggests this experience accelerated his learning and gave him a great grounding, he insists that he got into sales by mistake.

Liz Ranger

Liz started her career in theatre publicity, including working at the National Theatre in various marketing and editorial roles. She worked briefly with the UN on the first Mozambican General Election, and then travelled through East Africa before joining Comic Relief in 1995. She performed many different roles in Comic Relief (such as managing an application to the Millennium Commission for a comedy theme park, and the publication of two JK Rowling books) before she took up the position of CRM Manager in 2002. She became Business Planning and Processes Manager in 2016 with specific responsibility as Strategic Lead for GDPR. Having left Comic Relief in 2018 she became an Information Governance/GDPR consultant. Clients past and present include: Barnardo’s, Woodgreen the Animals Charity, Marie Curie, Versus Arthritis, the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust and We Are Family, the adoption charity. Liz is a member of the DMA’s Governance Committee, and chairs their Fundraising Forum.

Manda Sides

Manda joined the board in 2020 as representative of The Blue Tangerine Federation. Manda’s career has always had a SEND focus, initially as a teaching assistant, then as an Area SEND Manager for the Local Authority. Manda then trained as a SEND mediator and worked in the private sector. Her early career path made it possible for her to undertake her current role as the Head of Operations at The Blue Tangerine Federation which is formed of two special educational needs schools. Manda overseas the schools budgets, premises and HR management.

David Bisoni

David’s involvement in Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden dates back to 2009 when Warner Bros. decided to buy the old Rolls Royce engine factory in Leavesden, which had been converted into a temporary film studio and been home to the Harry Potter film series.

The site was developed into a first-class, purpose-built film and TV production studio and the Harry Potter Studio Tour. Since opening in 2012, both the Studio and the Studio Tour have enjoyed huge success and have led the way in their respective sectors. Both have doubled in size and have increased the scope and quality of the services they provide.

All of this success has been achieved in close collaboration with the local community and Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden has played a central role in providing opportunities for local people and supporting local schools and charities.

Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden has had a long-standing relationship with the Blue Tangerine Federation, starting with The Collett School in Hemel Hempstead, and is delighted to be supporting the café and farm project at St Luke’s School in Redbourn.

David is working on the further expansion of the Studio facilities at Leavesden and, having developed a Studio Tour in Tokyo which opened last year, is working on further Tours projects.

Previously, David was General Counsel for Warner Bros. International Cinemas which developed and operated cinemas across Europe and the Far East, encouraging new audiences to enjoy the experience of going to the movies.

David loves being outdoors and playing with balls, although is having to accept that he is not as good at it as he remembers.

Nick Griffith

Nick’s early career was spent in the British Army, serving with the Grenadier Guards for 5 years, leaving as a Captain.

Immediately thereafter followed a period of global travel, contract roles for expedition companies, and a couple of seasons ski instructing.

His second career began in project management for small consultancies, investment banks, and the NHS – leading large office build, refurbishment, and mechanical and electrical infrastructure projects.

Whilst working in these roles, he won a scholarship to undertake an MBA at Ashridge-Hult Business School. He became a student once again and studied for 12 months and successfully completed his second degree with distinction.

Post his MBA, Nick has been working in business development / commercial roles in the Ticketing Industry, part of the wider Live Entertainment business – across multiple markets globally. His latest role sees him leading on developing new markets for his current company.

With 25+ years leading teams across multiple markets and industry verticals, being part of The Blue Tangerine Charity, especially at this time with the Training Cafe and Farm project on the immediate horizon, is hugely exciting, and he cannot wait to get stuck in in earnest!

Outside of work, Nick is married to Sally, and together they have 3 children (and a dog)! Their middle child, Hector, has special educational needs and is a pupil at the wonderful St Luke’s School.

Nick has been a governor for the Blue Tangerine Federation coming up 3 years, is Vice Chair of Governing Board, Chair of the Finance and Resources Committee, and the Link Governor for St Luke’s School. When not at work or volunteering, he can be found on his bike, or watching rugby from the sidelines!

Fiona Sandell

Fiona began her working life in the Civil Service, working in central Government in two departments and for two different administrations. She had spells in policy and delivery units in justice and health as well as two stints in Ministerial Private Offices. After her children were born, she changed direction completely to build a career in workplace consultancy. What that actually means is anything to do with helping organisations design and use the space they need for work (and of course, since 2020, that can mean working almost anywhere). The critical focus is on supporting everybody to work to the best of their ability and to feel most part of the organisation in which they work.

In the real world, she has two adult children, both with autism and ADHD. She annoys them most by droning on about her main hobby: anything to do with history and genealogy.

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