Trustees

Jane is a communications expert and digital strategist with over 25 years’ experience. She currently serves as Head of Communications at Southern Housing Group, one of England's largest housing associations. She was previously Head of Digital Strategy at the Group. Jane has worked as a freelance consultant and her clients have included major international law firms, digital design agencies and advertising agencies. She has advised on brand, marketing and communications strategies, SEO and other digital communications strategies and specific product development, including traditional messaging and online content development.

Jane is a non-practising solicitor and an associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Jane worked as a partner in a city law firm specialising in media law until 2003. She has since left private practice and now sits as a lawyer on various tribunals. Jane is married, with a grown-up son and lives in London.

She was diagnosed 20 years ago with a type of rare bone marrow failure and was treated by Professor Ted Gordon Smith and his team at St George’s hospital who managed her condition. She became a trustee of the AAT 3 years ago. Jane enjoys gardening, cooking and travelling.

Paul has worked in the construction industry for over 30 years, starting as a Quantity Surveyor. The past 21 years have been with ISG plc, a specialist international construction services provider operating in 21 countries and employing approx. 2800 people. Paul was appointed CEO of ISG in early 2016 when the company was privatised following a takeover by an American investor.

Paul's commitment to the AAT is motivated by the fact his wife was diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia in 1983. Initially Paul took part in several charity events organised by the AAT until in 2007 when he became a Trustee of the charity. Paul took a break from being a Trustee between late 2014 and early 2017 but has now recommitted for at least 3 more years.

Paul has been married for 28 years and has two grown up daughters. His hobbies include cycling, hiking and running, and he is a season ticket holder of Brentford FC.

Ted was instrumental in setting up a bone marrow transplantation unit at the Hammersmith Hospital in 1972, and launching the Marrow Environment Fund, with friends and family members of patients suffering from rare bone marrow failures. This grew into the Aplastic Anaemia Trust in the 90s, when Ted moved to St George’s to set up a department devoted to the bone marrow failure syndromes of which acquired Aplastic Anaemia was a particular but not exclusive interest. Fantastic advances have been made since then in understanding and treating acquired and constitutional AA. The AAT was hugely important in establishing the unit at St George’s and by engendering interest by the work in other units throughout the UK, has put the country at the forefront of research and treatment of these rare syndromes in the International community.

Ted is currently Emeritus Professor of Haematology, St George’s, University of London and Honorary Consultant Haematologist, St George’s NHS Trust, retired December 2013.

Ghulam is the head of the department of haematological medicine at Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’s hospitals, King’s College London, with a team of 13 professors, 6 senior lecturers/lecturers and approximately 100+ research staff. In addition, Professor Mufti is the Clinical Director of Laboratories Sciences and a non-executive director of King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. 

Ghulam has extensive clinical and research expertise in leukaemias, lymphomas and in particular myelodysplastic syndromes, for which he is internationally renowned. His particular area of research has focused on molecular aberrations in MDS/AML and the identification of novel therapies that include gene and cell-based therapies. He has published 400+ papers and chapters in scientific journals and textbooks on leukaemias and MDS.

He heads the research groups at King’s working on the molecular genetics of MDS/aplastic anaemia/AML and is a member of the working group that produced national and international guidelines on the treatment and prognosis of MDS. He is a member of the European Bone Marrow Transplantation Group and a founding member of the Board of the International Myelodysplastic foundation, for which his department at King’s College Hospital is a recognised Centre of Excellence. The department is also a centre of excellence for Leukaemia Lymphoma Research and is the largest allogeneic bone marrow transplant centre in the UK, and the only gene and cell-based therapies centre for myeloid leukaemia and allied diseases.

Judith is a Professor of Clinical Haematology and Consultant Haematologist with specialist interest in aplastic anaemia disorders. She qualified from Birmingham University and prior to being appointed at King’s, worked at St George’s Hospital/ St George’s University of London as Professor of Clinical Haematology/Honorary Consultant Haematologist, Kingston University as visiting Professor.

Professor Marsh was Co-chairman of the Centre of International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research for nearly 10 years and currently chairs the writing board for British Committee for Standards in Haematology. Professor Marsh is Chairman of the European Blood and Marrow Transplant (EBMT) Severe Aplastic Anaemia Working Party and a member of the CIBMTR for International Affairs.

Sven has worked in corporate finance and banking for 30 years in the UK, the US and in Germany. He was a trustee of the AAT from 2007 to 2014 and re-joined in early 2017. Sven supports the AAT as he was diagnosed with a related disease to AA, PNH, and was successfully treated at St George’s Hospital, London, by Professors Ted Gordon-Smith, Judith Marsh and their colleagues in 2001.

Sven has witnessed the AAT able to make a significant contribution to fighting the disease by funding research as well as easing the anxieties, concerns and worries of patients as they cope with the illness. He is committed to supporting the AAT to allow it to intensify its activities significantly by ensuring it has the structure to grow and to enhance its fund-raising capabilities.