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
Dr Dolores Byrne OBE - Chair
Dolores Byrne has been a Trustee since 2018.
Dolores is a chartered engineer and an Honorary Fellow of the IET. Following a career in industry, she has been a Board member of several engineering & technical services organisations.
Dolores has been a Trustee and Vice-President of the IET and also chair of the IET Fundraising Committee. She was also a Trustee for other charities engaged in supporting engineers and encouraging more young people into careers in engineering. Dolores is currently a Non-Executive Director at Sellafield and a Trustee of Winchester Science Centre
Gareth Price - Treasurer
“I am a Chartered Accountant and qualified with a medium-sized London firm of chartered accountants.” Gareth 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.”
Joe Dunn - Trustee
Joe is a chartered engineer who started working for BAE Systems in 2008 as a Software Engineering graduate and since then has delivered roles as a Systems Engineer, System Design Authority and an Engineering Manager in the UK and Europe.
Joe is now the Head of Systems Engineering and Governance for one of BAE Systems’ UK business units in the Maritime sector and lives on the South coast of the UK. He has been a volunteer with the IET since 2009, first as the Solent Local Network’s Young Professionals team leader which led to him winning the IET’s Paul Fletcher award in 2015, then as Solent network Vice Chairperson, Solent network Chairperson, a member of IET Council (2016-2018) and a member of the IET’s Board of Trustees (2018-2021). Joe has been a volunteer with Foothold since 2020 and joined the Board of Trustees in 2021.
John Gleeson - Trustee
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.
Professor Kate Sugden - Trustee
Kate has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2020.
Kate Sugden has been working in the area of photonics for nearly 30 years. This includes working for ADC (Australia), Oxford Fiber Optic Tools, and Indigo Photonics. She joined Aston University in 2004 and is currently Deputy Dean for the College of Engineering and Physical Science. Current research interests are in photonics and include fibre sensing, femtosecond laser material processing, OCT metrology and 3D printed photonics. Kate has a passion for outreach work and encouraging people to enter the engineering field regardless of their background. Kate has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2020 and is also a trustee of the IET.
Richard Spalding - Trustee
Richard has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2017
“Having retired as a Captain from the Royal Navy in 2014 after 37 years, I am now actively engaged in various non-paid voluntary activities mainly in charity management.
I became a Trustee of Foothold in 2017 having spent the previous 8 years as a member of IET Council (2 years as Chair) during which I learnt a lot about the predicaments some unfortunate members and dependants find themselves in, so wanted to see how I could help.
I am also President (from July 2020) of Winchester Rotary and support other aspects of Rotary overseas including helping disaster areas and disabled citizens. Additionally, I am the co-founding Chairman of Worthy Runners as I believe social exercise is so good for well-being, and I provide occasional Customer Services consultancy as this is an area which can always be improved.”
Tom Budd - Deputy Chair
“Tom was born in Australia and attended university at the University of Queensland and the University of Cambridge”. Tom has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2020
He 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 Margaret Hodge - Trustee
Virginia has been a Foothold Trustee since October 2019
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.
Opening up new opportunities for the engineering community with the launch of our Engineering Neurodiverse Futures programme
Our new support programme is designed to empower neurodiverse engineering professionals, students and apprentices to achieve their full potential.
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1000 engineers access Foothold’s Wellbeing Hub in year since launch
The hub, funded through a collaboration with Gattaca PLC, offers clinically approved resources and guidance for engineers and their families.
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Foothold developing ‘Differently Wired’ hub for people living with neurodiverse conditions
The hub will offer free, on-demand access to expert content and resources on a range of neurodiverse conditions.
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