The CIPR benevolent fund, iprovision, has strengthened its board with the appointment of three new trustees  – Lizzie D’Angelo, Baroness ‘Olly’ Grender and James Harkness.

Announcing the appointments, iprovision chair and former CIPR president Tony Bradley said: “A number of long-serving trustees reached the end of their term at Christmas, and after carrying out an extensive skills audit we had a very clear picture of what we were looking for in our quest to take the charity to the next level.

“The iprovision board is delighted at the calibre of these three new appointments, who will help us to achieve our vision for 2019 of increasing the number of CIPR members we are able to support – as well as exploring new ways of encouraging donations to help us to carry out our vital work.”

Lizzie D’Angelo is deputy marketing director at Tommy's – the UK’s largest charity funding research into the causes of miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth.

She has particular experience in fundraising, campaigns and digital communications.  Prior to joining Tommy’s she was head of communications at The Sick Children’s Trust and before that senior communications officer for the Anthony Nolan cancer charity.

Career highlights include raising £900,000 through an integrated, multi-channel PR and digital strategy for ITV’s Text Santa 2012 partnership, managing the PR strategy for the launch of the 2014 Virgin Money London Marathon charity partnership and working on a campaign to increase the number of BAME bone marrow donors – resulting in 2,000 new donors joining the register in a six month period.

Baroness ‘Olly’ Grender entered Parliament in Autumn 2013 after being elected by the Liberal Democrats party to the peers interim panel in 2006.  Her career has spanned the world of politics, government, the voluntary and corporate sectors – and she has run communications operations and campaigns in all four.

Olly spent a year at No10 as the deputy director of communications for the Government – where she co-ordinated the Liberal Democrats communications operation on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, promoting issues such as the Lower Tax Thresholds.

She headed up communications under Paddy Ashdown’s leadership from 1990 to 1995 and prior to that was a speech writer and had responsibility for housing and transport policy in his office.  For over four years, she was director of communications for Shelter.

Third new trustee, James Harkness, held senior positions in WPP and The Body Shop before founding HarknessKennett – a consultancy providing internal and change communication services to a range of organisations including Allen & Overy, AWE, Aviva, Eurostar, Highways England, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Kering, Rentokil-Initial, Telefonica, Virgin Trains and World Animal Protection.

A previous CIPR board member and chair of the Inside sectoral group, he is also active in the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and was a judge in February 2018 of the IABC Gold Quill Awards.  In 2015, he received the CIPR Clare Latham Award for Best Contribution to Internal Communication.

James is a volunteer for Canine Partners and has fundraised for them for six years. He has introduced a number of major corporates to the charity, and is currently working with the trustees and chair to introduce both private donors and encourage corporate support for the charity.

Find out more about iprovision here.

Photo: iprovision chair Tony Bradley (back left) with new trustees (l-r) Lizzie D'Angelo, Olly Grender and James Harkness