Meet our Trustees
The Trustees of Foothold
Every year, our trustees provide invaluable experience, guidance and support in all our activities. We are proud of our trustees and here they are.
Our Trustees
Alan Watts - Trustee
Alan is a successfully exited technical entrepreneur. He has been a Foothold trustee since October 2023.
Alan co-founded Yelo Ltd which was acquired by a Canadian PLC. He also created and ran Halo, the Northern Ireland angel network whose members invested £12m in NI companies (£28m including leveraged funding).
As Director of Funding at Catalyst, a not-for-profit transforming the Northern Ireland tech economy, he created a network of UK-based Venture Capital companies and angel groups. Matching these with high potential NI companies, he took a leading part in the rise of NI tech equity investment from £10m to £140m. Today 75% of this investment is from outside NI.
Alan has completed two terms as Vice President and Trustee of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, where he instigated and led a major governance review.
He has also been a board member of the UK Business Angels Association, and is currently a director of two IET companies and a member of the IET Disciplinary Board.
In his spare time, Alan is a keen windsurfer – furthering his mission to break every bone in his body.
Alison Lanchester - Trustee
Alison has worked in the voluntary sector for over 29 years with a variety of charities. She has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2022.
Alison has worked in the voluntary sector for over 29 years with a variety of charities. She is also an independent consultant, working to review fundraising operations and deliver improved income. Alison enjoys working with teams and has an outcomes focused philosophy. Since becoming a qualified NLP coach, this is becoming an increasing part of her work. Alison has held a number of high-profile director roles covering income generation, marcomms and leadership, most recently as Director of Fundraising & Communications at St Helena Hospice in North Essex. In her spare time Alison enjoys long walks in the Norfolk countryside with her dog.
Colonel Andy Rogers BEng PGCert CEng FIET - Trustee
Andy Rogers is a British Army Officer with over 26 years of leadership experience in engineering environments. He has been a Trustee since October 2023.
He now works at the Ministry of Defence having returned from 6 months deployed, helping to coordinate the international donations and integration of military capability into the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2023.
Andy has conducted multiple operational deployments including Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Chad. Until 2021, he was the REME Corps Colonel – the professional head of 8,000 technical soldiers and engineering officers. He then spent the next 12 months in academia, studying global security, stability and prosperity at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London.
As well as sitting on the Board of Trustees for Foothold, Andy is also a Trustee for the IET and has been a member of the IET Council for three years. He was a Trustee and Director of the REME Charity from 2019 to 2023, and is passionate about improving the lives and conditions of engineers and their families.
Dale Briscoe - Trustee
Dale is a highly experienced, board level investment management and financial markets professional. He has been a trustee since November 2024.
He originally trained as an engineer, spending a pre-university year and subsequent summers working in industry before graduating with a Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering (MEng) from Imperial College, London.
He has spent the last 35 years working in the investment management and hedge fund industries. He has held senior executive and board level positions with some of the world’s leading investment banks and funds including Lehman Brothers, Bankers Trust, UBS and Morgan Stanley.
His investment experience spans all asset classes and a wide range of investment strategies. He is widely acknowledged for his expertise in global macro investing and long/short equity trading where he is currently ranked #1 in the world.
For the last decade Dale has been the CEO of an investment consulting boutique whose clients include the world’s largest asset management firms and hedge funds.
He has previous Trustee experience on the Board of a well-known children’s charity.
Gareth Price - Treasurer
Gareth is a Chartered Accountant and qualified with a medium-sized London firm of chartered accountants. He has been a Foothold Trustee since March 2020
“After qualifying, I joined Deloitte’s where I worked in the audit department for five years. While there I was involved in the audit of numerous NGOs, charities, universities and colleges.
Since then I worked in the secondary banking sector providing factoring and trade finance facilities to small to medium-sized family businesses.
I have also acted as a financial consultant to a number of businesses in the wholesale sector. From 2004 until I retired in 2018 I worked for 3 charities where I managed the fiscal and operational health of their UK and/or worldwide operations.
I lead teams in the areas of finance, information technology, personnel, legal, membership management and administration. In my spare time, I enjoy walking, travelling, family history and I am a season ticket holder at Reading Football Club.”
John Gleeson - Trustee
John is an engineer and IET member who specialised in microelectronics and computer science at Trinity College, Dublin. John has been a Foothold trustee since October 2022.
John is an engineer and IET member who specialised in microelectronics and computer science at Trinity College, Dublin.
After graduating he completed an MSc in Computer Science, with a specialism in AI/expert systems for electronic fault diagnosis, and worked on the ESPRIT programme (European Strategic Research Programme on Information Technology).
Following a stint in software development, he has worked in consultancy with Coopers & Lybrand/PwC and as an independent consultant on major business, financial and ERP systems, as well as completing an MBA at Warwick University. His consultancy experience involved working with major pharmaceuticals, engineering, high tech and financial service organisations, delivering major systems, organisational and business change programmes.
In addition, John worked on Global Markets systems at JP Morgan, was CRM Programme Director at Barclays and served as an IT Service Operations director at BT. He has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2022.
Tom Budd - Chair
Tom was born in Australia and attended university at the University of Queensland and the University of Cambridge. He has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2020
Tom has lived and worked in London for many years. He is a solicitor and a partner in an international law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, specialising in finance and restructuring law.
Tom is honorary legal adviser to the Order of St John (which operates St John Ambulance in the UK and elsewhere in the world) and a trustee of the British Society of Gastroenterology.
Virginia Hodge - Trustee
Virginia has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2019
Virginia has worked in industry throughout her career primarily in the Aviation and Defence Sectors having gained a BSc in Computer Science. She also has an MSc in Project Management. She has held many roles from software engineer to being responsible for the software architecture on a £700m mid-life upgrade project.
In parallel with this she has been a volunteer at the Institution of Engineering and Technology and has completed 2 terms as a Vice President and Trustee where she was the inaugural Chair of the Volunteer Engagement Board. The IET awarded her an Honorary FIET in 2020.
Virginia now has a portfolio career running her own business and has been a Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Southampton which she continues to support and is Trustee of two charities. In her spare time, she supports her mother and is active in a local theatre.
Wolf Byttner - Trustee
Wolf has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2022.
He has held a wide variety of roles in several industries, including defence and medical technology, and currently works as a consultant helping clients to adopt new software engineering technologies.
Wolf was active in the driverless car revolution and has published several research papers on machine learning. He is also a member of the IET, and advises several start-ups in the UK.
Latest news
Our AWARD WINNING ‘Engineering Neurodiverse Futures’ Programme!
Our Engineering Neurodiverse Futures programme has been recognised as ‘Impactful Grant of the Year’ at the ACO Awards!
Introducing Mental Health Check-In: Foothold’s new wellbeing tool
We're excited to announce the launch of our brand-new mental health self-check tool for the engineering community.
A statement from our Honorary Treasurer Gareth Price on our financial situation
Our Trustee Gareth Price explains how the IET's decision to stop collecting donations for Foothold may affect our support for engineers.