OUR TEAM
HSDT is operated by a team of six experienced volunteers with a wide range of skills all of whom have conducted fieldwork on HSDT programs. Trustees set objectives and strategies, selecting programs, agreeing deliverables and measuring performance in the long term. None are paid - so HSDT’s operating costs are very low.
MEET THE TEAM
Our team has met many inspirational people during fieldwork abroad in East India, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Ghana, where HSDT has had programs, and also in many other countries on visits with The Philanthropy Workshop.
We have been impressed by the calibre and commitment of Oxfam, Save the Children, local NGOs and governments who we have worked with in the field, but most of all we have been inspired by the determination, skills, courage and hard work of the people in the field who made the programs successful.
HUGH DAVIDSON
Hugh is an author, marketer & social entrepreneur. He was born to a family with strong social commitment. His parents founded a conservation organisation and his Aunt Nessie spent four decades in India and Bangladesh, founding three schools, and knew Mother Teresa.
Hugh graduated from Cambridge in Economics & Law, and qualified as a barrister, in the top 1%, but actually pursued his career in marketing. He joined Procter & Gamble (P&G) managing two major brands. Later, he headed Marketing for United Biscuits and was President of Canada & Europe for Playtex before co-founding Oxford Strategic Marketing (OSM).
OSM is now flourishing in third generation of employee ownership and is a B Company with a team of 75 and Hugh sold his shares in OSM to fund HSDT.
Hugh's business books on marketing and on corporate values have sold over 100,000 copies and "The Committed Enterprise" was a finalist in the Financial Times Global Business Book Awards.
He has been involved in voluntary sector for many decades, first as a Prison Visitor at Durham Prison, then as Chair of Trading and member of Council, at Save the Children UK. Since 2004 he has been full time unpaid volunteer, mainly through HSDT, involved with India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, & Ghana and Rushen Heritage Trust on Isle of Man.
SANDRA DAVIDSON
Sandra Davidson was brought up in the North East of England and educated at Gateshead Grammar School. She has a degree in Publishing and English from Oxford Brookes University.
Her first employer was Procter & Gamble before working at Charles Trevelyan Technical College and later at Oxford Brookes University.
Sandra is a lifelong volunteer, for the Samaritans, as a hospital visitor, as School Reading supporter, for Save the Children and for the Rushen Heritage Trust as Secretary. Further afield, Sandra has visited front line projects for the Trust in remote areas of Ghana, West Bengal, Odisha, North Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Tanzania, Uganda and China.
Sandra enjoys creative writing and has had stories published including on BBC Radio and founded a writers group in Beaconsfield. She's also edited all of Hugh's books and completed a biography of her mother Joyce, entitled ‘Open House’.
BRUCE DAVIDSON
Bruce Davidson is a Trustee of the Hugh and Sandra Davidson Trust (HSDT).
He has a degree in Transport Planning and Management from Loughborough University and a Masters with Distinction in Environmental Assessment and Management from from Oxford Brookes University.
Bruce is a Senior Partner at Environmental Resources Management (ERM) and has specialised in assessing and mitigating the environmental impact of major transformational infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and HS2. He's worked on a wide variety of rail, road, and airport projects in the UK and internationally, working with the world’s leading organizations on solutions to
environmental challenges and climate change.
He has been involved directly in a number of the projects advanced by the Trust and undertaken project evaluation field trips with the Trust to Odisha in India.
NIGEL WORNE
Nigel spent his early years in Pakistan and Africa. He was educated at St Edwards, Oxford before starting his career in marketing in Canada with General Mills and Quaker Oats.
Returning to the UK he worked in marketing at Beecham, Campbell’s Soup and Ross Youngs before becoming Managing Director at HP
Foods, Fox’s Biscuits and then Denby Pottery.
He worked as a volunteer St Anne’s Shelter in Leeds which supports homeless individuals to live independently and was Chairman of West Yorkshire and Humberside Business in the Arts.
He was invited to become a Trustee of the H&S Davidson Trust in 2012. He has worked on two HSDT projects in Kolkata with Save the Children, the first focused on rescuing female child domestic workers and the second creating education opportunities for children from the slum districts of the city enabling them to enrol in the state school system.
ANNE O'BEIRNE
Anne was born in western Ireland and studied Engineering at University College, Galway where she was President of the Student Union and represented the
college in international debates. While at University she was very involved in social issues.
Anne has worked in Ireland, the UK, the USA and Canada and her speciality is change management in a zero defect environment in industries
including automotive parts and electrical components. Latterly she was Operations Director at Denby Pottery and part of the management buy out team
She has worked on two HSDT projects in Kolkata alongside Save The Children. One aimed at improving the life chances of young women with a range of training options. The other focused on enabling street children to enter state education and not drop out.
Anne was Business Representative on the Amber Valley Partnership in Derbyshire, an umbrella organisation for the district’s voluntary sector and the main provider of support for local voluntary and community groups. Her specific focus was persuading young girls to consider a career in the male dominated technical sector.