Board of Trustees The board of trustees are responsible for the governance and strategic direction of ION and upholding its value and ethos. Rachel Hampson MA (Cantab) Medicine, MSc Personalised Nutrition, mBANT, CNHC Chair of the Board of Trustees Rachel is a Registered Nutritional Therapist with a practice called Rachel Hampson Nutrition based in London. She has a Masters degree in Personalised Nutrition and a background in Medicine. Prior to qualifying as a nutritional therapist, Rachel was a Business Strategy Consultant with Bain & Company, working both from London and from San Francisco, in a variety of business sectors from food retailing, venture capital to utilities. She has also been involved in the charitable sector for 20 years in various voluntary roles, originally for CHASE hospice care for children, which, following a successful merger, is now Shooting Star CHASE. She also set up and ran a successful restaurant in Central London for 11 years, which was sold in 2014. Rachel joined the ION Board as Trustee and Vice-Chair in July 2016 and was elevated to Chair in January 2022. Sue Hillman BA (Hons), DipCG, DipHR Management Trustee Sue spent 18 years at the BBC in the HR function, starting as a trainee and leaving in 2008 as Head of HR for Production. She has extensive experience of working with senior managers and advising on the change processes for setting up new areas and reducing existing ones, as well as the effective management of large departments. She worked across many areas of the BBC from News to World Service to Post Production, working mostly with creative staff. Prior to this she worked in the Essex Careers Service which provided support for school leavers as an Adviser, Service Manager and latterly as the County Trainer. Currently she is working in tourism having set up her own company ‘It’s Your London’ which designs and organises tailor made tours of London for small private groups. She is also involved in charity work, abroad and in the UK. This includes building schools in the rural areas across a wide variety of countries in Africa and volunteering at Citizens Advice in Westminster. Sue joined the ION Board of Trustees in January 2012 to bring external expertise in the field of HR and an interest in the field of nutrition. Liam Keogh Trustee Liam Keogh is a business leader, entrepreneur, investor, advisor and communications, marketing and PR specialist with over a decade and a half’s experience in the Food and Drink industry. In 2010 he Co-Founded a F&B specialist Public Relations and MarComms agency, following a career as a journalist. During his 13 year tenure at the business, he worked with the leadership team to grow the agency into an award-winning business, with an exceptional reputation in the industry. Keogh has experience across all comms disciplines, from PR, to influencer marketing, social media, copywriting, advertising and brand identity. He has led communications strategies for literally hundreds of F&B businesses, from start-ups that went on to change the industry to multinational conglomerates behind the biggest brands in the world. In 2023 he was named the “Outstanding Professional” of the PR industry by the PRCA and he has also been shortlisted as the “Consultancy Head of the Year” in the PRCA National Awards. Since exiting his agency, Keogh works at board level for multiple organisations and specialises in launching new companies and growing existing ones. He has a particular focus in health and education and works as a Visiting and Guest lecturer at universities across the UK and abroad. After building a successful career, he is now privileged to sit on the board of The Institute for Optimum Nutrition and contribute to its great work. Carmai Pestell BA (Hons), PGDip, MBA Trustee Carmai is a higher education professional with almost 20 years’ experience in student services, regulation, and governance. Carmai played a key role in the launching The Engineering & Design Institute London, a new engineering higher education provider, and is now their Registrar & Secretary. Her past leadership includes positions at City University of London, UCL, and SOAS University of London where, she was the Director of Governance. Carmai has a keen interest in the regulation of small and specialist higher education providers, such as ION, and is currently undertaking a doctorate in this area. Carmai joined the ION Board in 2022 and is the Chair of the Education Committee. Laksh Ranganathan BEngg (Electronics), BTech (Computer Systems), MBA Trustee A technology professional with over 19 years specializing in the development of IT products, Laksh has supported global organizations in industries like financial services, retail, automotive, health and education. Laksh's particular focus has been to utilize insights from data to develop customer-centric products and regularly writes about and speaks at conferences on leveraging metrics to bridge the gap between IT and business. Currently, Laksh leads the product operations function within Tasktop facilitating decisions and operations around governance, compliance, product program management and product analytics. Laksh briefly worked at ION in 2010 through a partnership with the LSBU with specific responsibilities to drive ION's digital transformation. The tenure at ION made a significant impression on Laksh; she continued to follow ION's progress over the years and was thrilled at the opportunity to support ION's board in 2019. Laksh joined ION's board in Jan 2019 as an advisor and in Jan 2020 as a Trustee. Dian Shepperson Mills CertEd, BSc, BA, DipION, MA Health Education Trustee Dian is the Director of The Endometriosis and Fertility Clinic and author of the book "Endometriosis: a key to Healing and Fertility through Nutrition" published by Thorsons. She has lectured worldwide to health professionals and the public about the role of sound nutrition in the treatment of endometriosis and infertility. Dian is a Member of BANT (British Association of Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy); CNHC (Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council); Member of the Royal Society of Medicine; Member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and Chairs their Nutrition Special Interest Group; Member of ESHRE (European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology); A Trustee of Endometriosis SHE Trust UK, the leading Charity working with Integrated Functional Medicine, encouraging hospitals to work towards the ESHRE guidelines for the specialist treatment of endometriosis, and is a Trsutee of ION. She authored the ION Home Study Course. Dian has spent her life teaching nutrition and researching the various aspects of endometriosis and the effects of nutrition on fertility and has presented research at world conferences. Dian joined the ION Board of Trustees in 1999. Anita Wyles BA (Hons), FCMA Treasurer Anita is an Accountant with over 20 years experience working primarily within the media industry. She started her career at Channel 4 while it was still in its infancy and left BBC Worldwide 8 years ago to pursue a lifelong ambition to paint. During her time at BBC Worldwide, Anita worked within the finance function for 10 years before making the successful transition to general management becoming Commercial Director of Europe, Middle East, India & Africa. She managed a large team responsible for exploiting the commercial potential of cross media product produced both in house and by Independents. As well as painting and providing local accounting services, Anita is a regular coach and mentor in her neighbourhood schools & colleges. Anita joined the ION Board of Trustees in February 2014. Manage Cookie Preferences