In this, Volunteers Week, we are delighted to announce three additions to our board of trustees: Louise Hastings, Zaiba Malik and Dhruti Shah.
Louise Hastings has worked at Sky News for over 20 years and is now Managing Editor and part of the senior leadership team which sets the editorial and strategic direction of Sky News. Louise says ‘I am dedicated to promoting inclusivity in our newsrooms so when I was invited to join the board of the John Schofield Trust I leapt at the chance. It is rewarding to be part of a small charity which works to bring about real change in news rooms by opening their doors to welcome people who may not realise this is an industry in which they can have a career. Now, more than ever, we need news gatherers who represent the views and stories of all audiences’.
Reputation, crisis and corporate communications consultant, Zaiba Malik, is a regular chair, media commentator and public speaker in the UK and abroad. She was named as one of the twenty most influential black and Asian women in the UK. Zaiba says: ‘It’s never been so vital to have a truly diverse media, one that reflects the experiences, insights and perspectives of our society and communities. I’m delighted to work with the Trust in its ambition to support and encourage young people from all backgrounds to become the journalists of tomorrow.’
Dhruti Shah is an award-winning BBC journalist and started her career on local newspapers and at Insight News Television. Dhruti was selected as a mentee on the Trust’s first mentoring scheme in 2012 and has been closely involved with the Trust ever since. Dhruti says: ‘It’s a great honour to be a trustee and help the next generation of journalists and storytellers in a way that I’d not had an opportunity to do so before. It’s an amazing feeling to see ideas we discuss in the board meetings then become reality and actually make a difference in people’s lives’.
Founder and Chair of Trustees, Susannah Schofield, adds: ‘Dhruti, Louise and Zaiba bring a wealth of campaigning, business and corporate sense as well as experience of working in the broadcast and print news industry. Next year will mark 25 years of the Trust and Dhruti, Louise and Zaiba will be key to our success, as we strengthen our efforts to improve diversity within UK news rooms so that audiences hear their stories and the stories which affect them’.
We would also like to thank retiring trustees, Toby Castle, Alan Grady and Gill Penlington, for their sterling work. Between them they contributed 15 years’ service to the running of the Trust and we are grateful that they have all agreed to continue to serve the Trust as members of our advisory panel.
We look forward to working together to help young people who do not have the benefit of privilege to enter the news industry.