Thomson Foundation

Richard Tynen, Head of Development

Richard’s role as Head of Business Development for the Thomson Foundation includes identifying new markets and innovative ways to generate income. He is also responsible for devising an effective marketing strategy, which will help raise greater awareness of the important work carried out by the Foundation

Richard has had over fifteen years experience in campaign, capital and revenue fundraising and has particular expertise in developing new projects and fundraising for “challenging” causes.

Richard joined the Foundation after being Development Director at the Wales Millennium Centre. Since launching this flagship £106m arts project his key task has been to build a reliable and sustainable funding base with an ongoing requirement of over £2m a year.

Previous positions held by Richard include: Head of Development, National Museums & Galleries of Wales; Appeals and PR Manager, Royal School for the Blind; Senior Account Manger, Burnett Associates and Head of Development, World Development Movement.

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Tim Rogers, Head of Training

Tim Rogers is the new Head of Training for the Thomson Foundation. Tim has had more than thirty years of experience working across the media industry in newspapers, radio and television.

A former award winning BBC presenter and investigative journalist, Tim spent 12 years as a correspondent at ITN. He ran bureaux in Moscow, Manchester and Cardiff, covering a range of stories from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the execution of Saddam Hussein, the plight of casualties of war to major UK stories including the investigation into the world’s most prolific serial killer, Dr Harold Shipman, and later the 7/7 bombings in London and the immediate aftermath.

Before joining the full-time staff, Tim trained for the Foundation in Azerbaijan.

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Mary Gillard, Head of Finance

Mary Gillard is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Foundation’s finances, including those of its many overseas projects.

A fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, Mary has spent most of her career in banking and finance for the not-for-profit sector.

Her previous roles include working for Standard Chartered Bank, Chemical Bank and the Bank of Wales, and for The Prince’s Trust.

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Eric MacInnes, Academy Faculty Head

Eric MacInnes is the Foundation’s faculty head at the newly established Abu Dhabi Media Zone academy – twofour54 tadreeb. Eric works alongside other international training partners to deliver dozens of hands-on courses to the Middle East’s media professionals.

Eric worked for over two decades in TV news broadcasting in the UK. A former correspondent for ITN and award-winning reporter for ITV, he covered a number of major stories both at home and abroad. He also taught post graduate students broadcast journalism at Birmingham City University.

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David Quin, Training and Development Officer

David manages the Foundation’s training across 16 EU neighbourhood countries, part of the 6 million Euro EU-backed European Neighbourhood Journalism Network project. He previously worked on long-term projects throughout the Middle East, the Balkans, the Caucasus and South East Asia.

Prior to joining the Foundation, David reported for TV, radio and print for ABC, CBC, France 24, IWPR and the UK newspaper, the Independent.

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Tracey Clarke

Tracey Clarke is our Project and Office Administrator. Developing a new role, Tracey joined the Thomson Foundation in June 2008 where she concentrates on Training support but also works in development and financial management. Tracey is a graduate of the University of Glamorgan Business School and joined TF after working for five years as a Litigation Assistant with a leading firm of solicitors in Cardiff and Swansea.

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Daniel Strevens – Project Development Manager

Dan Strevens’ role is to research and develop new projects and manage them through to their conclusion.

Dan has more than 15 years’ experience of working in international development. He previously worked for the European Commission’s Asia Directorate in Brussels and for economic development consultancies in both Germany and the UK. His desk-based experience is backed up by two years as a resident project director in Hanoi where he worked for the French Federation of Insurance on an EU-funded initiative to strengthen the Vietnamese insurance sector.

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Rana Nejem – Regional Representative, Middle East

Rana has been responsible for managing the Thomson Foundation’s prestigious Inquirer Award for investigative journalism since its inception in 2003.

She is currently the press and public affairs officer at the British Embassy in Amman, Jordan, where she is its official spokesman and is responsible for the formulation and implementation of the Embassy’s public diplomacy strategy.

Prior to joining the Embassy in 1995, Rana was foreign press officer for His Majesty the Late King Hussein. Her journalistic experience includes working as a field reporter and news presenter for Jordan Television and with CNN during the First Gulf War.

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Savyasaachi Jain – Regional Representative, India

Saachi is a Thomson Foundation alumnus who has worked for the organisation for many years.

A specialist in the audio-visual industry, he trains extensively throughout Asia and elsewhere. He was project editor for two major programmes – the EU-India Media Initiative on HIV/AIDS for journalists, spokespeople and NGO network heads, and the EU-India Documentary Initiative, a training and exchange programme for documentary makers from India and Europe.

Saachi has also directed over 110 films of various lengths for international and domestic broadcast.

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Taras Kuzmov – Regional Representative, Ukraine

Taras has worked with the Thomson Foundation as a consultant since 1996, covering a wide range of projects in countries throughout the former Soviet Union.

He began his journalistic career with a regional newspaper, and later held various managerial roles at a media centre, set up by an international NGO, and funded by international donors. This organisation was responsible for numerous independent media support programmes, including training in journalism, media management, TV and radio production, consultancies and public awareness campaigns.

He also worked as an independent media consultant for the Delegation of the European Commission in Ukraine, co-founded and managed the journalistic NGO “Charter-4”, was involved in setting up and managing Ukraine’s first talk based “Public Radio” project. Currently he is a member of the Journalistic Ethics Commission – Ukraine’s self-regulatory body.

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Sylvia Vollenhoven – Regional Representative, South Africa

Sylvia Vollenhoven is a broadcast and print journalist and media trainer. She is the founder of the VIA – Vision in Africa media organisation, which has spearheaded innovative international training initiatives. As the Africa representative for the Thomson Foundation, Sylvia was the lead trainer for the Foundation’s documentary film making course in 2008. More recently, she brokered a collaboration between the Foundation and key African partners to launch the Africa Means Business (AMB) project, a long-term, pan-African training initiative for economists and business journalists. Sylvia served as the facilitator for the AMB pilot training seminar in Nairobi in June 2009.

In the early 1990s, Sylvia was the Southern African Correspondent for the Swedish newspaper, Expressen, and was awarded Sweden’s main journalism prize, one of many awards. She later went into broadcasting, working at the South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC, where she held a variety of positions over the years, including reporter, producer, trainer and manager. Subsequently, she has been a consultant for the SABC and for the Kaiser Family Foundation, training broadcast media professionals across Africa. For 10 years, Sylvia served as the Southern Africa Coordinator for the International Public Television (INPUT) organization, raising the profile of public broadcasting in the region.

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