BBC Charity Appeals Advisory Committee

The BBC's Charity Appeals Advisory Committee is made up of independent experts from outside the BBC with wide experience of the charitable sector who advise and support the BBC in a number of areas, including

• Policy matters relating to all charity appeals associated with the BBC (by broadcast or on other platforms)
• The overview (and scrutiny where required) of specific fund-raising projects such as Children in Need, Comic Relief's Red Nose Day, Restoration Village, the Blue Peter Appeal, emergency appeals and other projects where funds are raised for charities
• The allocation of broadcasting time on BBC Television and Radio to regular appeals for individual charities

They work with the BBC's Charitable Appeals Advisor Diane Reid.

The current members of the Appeals Advisory Committee are

Stephen Dunmore (Chair)

Term of office: 1 July 2008 - 30 June 2011

Until recently, Stephen was Chief Executive Officer of the Big Lottery Fund (BIG). He is currently undertaking a portfolio of work, including consultancy work for the Cabinet Office and is Chair of the National Family Mediation charity.

Dean Casswell

Specialism: disability
Term of membership: 1 October 2004 – 31 December 2009

Dean is Chief Executive of Bag Books, a national charity which supports the learning of children, young people and adults with severe to profound intellectual impairments. Prior to that he was Director of Finance and Fundraising at Contact a Family, a charity he had been with for 17 years, which provides advice, information and support to parents of disabled children. He has an MBA and an MSc in Charity Accounting and Financial Management.

Simon Denegri

Specialism: medical issues
Term of membership: 1 October 2007 – 31 September 2010

Simon Denegri joined the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC). AMRC as its Chief Executive in February 2006. Previously, Simon had been Director of Corporate Communications at the Royal College of Physicians of London from 2003. He was Assistant Chief Executive at the Alzheimer's Society (UK) from 2002 to 2003 and its Head of Public Affairs from 1992 until 1997. In the intervening period he was Corporate and Financial PR Manager at Procter & Gamble in the United States and then Director of Communications at the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health (SCMH). He has written and spoken extensively on issues concerning health and healthcare policy and practice.

Linda Doull

Specialism: international development
Term of membership: 1 November 2008 - 31 October 2011

Linda Doull is a registered General Nurse and holds a MA in Public Health. She worked in the UK NHS from 1977-1985 and moved into international health and humanitarian relief. She has worked with Medical Aid for Palestinians and Medecins Sans Frontieres in the Middle East, Africa, Central & South East Asia and former Yugoslavia. She joined Merlin in 1997 as Health Advisor, became Health Director in 2000 adding Policy to her portfolio in 2006. She is a member of the IASC Global Health Cluster, led by the WHO. Linda also holds a BA in Geography and Anthropology.

Paul Farmer

Specialism: generalist
Term of membership: 1 June 2007 - 31 May 2010

Paul Farmer is Chief Executive of Mind, a leading mental health charity. He has worked in communications, policy, planning and strategic roles in the Samaritans, Mental Health Alliance and Rethink and is a Trustee of the Directory of Social Change. He has extensive knowledge of social and healthcare policy.

Simon Hepburn

Specialism: generalist
Term of membership: 1 June 2007 - 31 March 2010

Simon Hepburn is the Chief Executive of the Advisory Centre for Education (ACE) . Prior to this Simon was the Assistant Director leading on quality assurance and development at The Children’s Society, where he worked for over twelve years. He has also worked as Director of the Adisa Organisation and was a Trustee of the Abeng Organisation . Simon is a visiting lecturer at the University of Greenwich on the MSC Education Management Course and has a MA in Education Management and a PGDip in Management.

David King

Specialism: finance/generalist
Term of membership: 1 February 2004 - 31 July 2009

David King is Chief Executive of Chase Hospice Care. Prior to that he was Chief Executive of Samaritans, and before that interim Chief Executive at Cancer Research UK. He has worked in the voluntary sector since 1988 in a variety of senior executive and trustee roles. David is also a Trustee at the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and Founder Chair of the Charity Treasurers' Forum. Previous roles have included Trustee at the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), and Chair of the Charity Finance Directors' Group (CFDG) and the Charities Consortium.

Stephanie Knell

Specialism: overseas aid
Term of membership: 1 June 2004 - 31 August 2009

Stephanie Knell is an International Development Consultant. Prior to that she was Head of the Office of Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Maldives, co-ordinating tsunami relief to the 1000 islands that make up the Maldives. Previously, she worked for OCHA in South Sudan, as well as the UN (UN mission and WFP) in East Timor for two years. She has also worked for Oxfam for 10 years, working in some of the most extreme crises such as Sierra Leone, Burundi, Angola, Kosovo and Macedonia. Stephanie has also worked with a number of UK charities, including Crisis and Raleigh International. Stephanie has an MSc in Development Practice from Oxford Brookes University.

Dr Daleep Mukarji

Specialism: international development
Term of office: 1st January 2008 – 31st December 2010

Dr. Daleep Mukarji has been Director of the relief and development agency Christian Aid since 1998. He trained as a doctor in Vellore, India, before working in a leprosy hospital in Andhra Pradesh and then running a 125-bed hospital in Medak. He became General Secretary of the Christian Medical Association of India in 1977, advising over 300 hospitals in training, fundraising, management and policy and issues around health, development and social justice. In 1994, he took up the post of Secretary for Health, Community and Justice for the World Council of Churches in Geneva. He is currently Director of Christian Aid which is one of the UK's largest development agencies and works with partners in 60 countries. Dr Mukarji Is on board of Aprodev (the group of 17 European church-related development agencies) and the Disasters Emergency Committee.

Gerald Oppenheim

Specialism: generalist
Term of membership: 1 June 2004 - 30 November 2009

Gerald Oppenheim is Director of Policy and Partnerships at the Big Lottery Fund (formed through the merger of the Community Fund and the New Opportunities Fund). Having worked for the Community Fund since 1995, he became its Director of Policy in February 2002. Gerald has also worked as a grant-maker for the GLC and as Director of the London Boroughs Grants Scheme, and was Chair of the London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund.

Fiona Weir

Specialism: generalist
Term of membership: 1 May 2007 - 31 April 2010

Fiona Weir is Chief Executive of Gingerbread. Prior to that she was Director of Policy and Communications at Save the Children. She has also been Head of Public Affairs at the Consumers' Association (now 'Which?'), and Campaigns Director for Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth. She has knowledge of both UK and international social policy, and high level experience of organisational change, evaluation systems and impact measurement.

There are National Advisory Committees for BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. The remit of these bodies varies across the nations but typically their role includes advising national management on the broadcasting of charity appeals and other charity broadcast opportunities, social action programming, relationships with the voluntary sector and related issues, as well as making recommendations to the Trustees of BBC Children in Need as to the distribution of grants in their areas.

The Chairs of these Committees are members of the central AAC. They are:

• Rev. Stuart MacQuarrie (Chair, Scotland Appeals Advisory Committee)
• Martin Price (Vice Chair, Wales Appeals Advisory Committee)
• Robert Moore (Chair, Northern Ireland Appeals Advisory Committee)