The new trustees bring considerable business skills and experience to the Trust. In addition their specialist knowledge in the key areas of finance, asset management and property investment will benefit the charity, which will be the third largest owner of listed buildings in the UK and one of the top 20 charities by income.
The three new trustees are:
Marisa Cassoni A qualified chartered accountant since 1975, Marisa has been the Finance Director of the John Lewis Partnership, one of the UK's leading department stores, since June 2006.
Prior to this, Marisa spent five years as Group Finance Director at The Royal Mail where she played an instrumental role in guiding the company through its renewal programme.
Between 1998 and 2001 Marisa was the Group Finance Director at Britannic Assurance plc and was the Group Finance Director of Prudential's UK division from 1994 to 1998.
In 2005 Marisa was appointed non-executive Director of GFI, a company listed on New York Stock Exchange where she chairs the audit committee.
Marisa is a Governor of the Peabody Trust and, until very recently, was a member of the Accounting Standards Board.
Manish Chande A member of the institute of chartered accountants and a chartered surveyor Manish Chande is Senior Partner of Mountgrange, a private real estate group that specialises in UK commercial property investment and development. He has been in the real estate business for 28 years.
Before joining Mountgrange, Manish was on the main board of Land Securities plc. In 1997 he co-founded and was Chief Executive Officer of Trillium, a company specialising in property outsourcing.
Prior to Trillium, Manish worked at Imry Merchant Developers plc as the Finance Director, and then as Chief Executive in 1995. Manish originally trained as a chartered accountant and has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales since 1980.
In 2003, he was appointed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as a Commissioner of English Heritage, a position he held until 2011; and in 2007 was appointed a Trustee of The London Clinic, one of the UK's premier private hospitals.
Steve Shine OBE Since 2007, Steve has been Thames Water's Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Main Board. He is leaving in March 2012 to take on new challenges.
Steve started his career with London Electricity Board in 1973 as an apprentice Electrician, whilst working he qualified as an Electrical Power Engineer and later took degrees in Management, Marketing and in 1993 he finally gained a Masters in Business.
Steve worked his way through various roles in the electricity business and became the MD of London Electricity Contracting and a member of the Executive Board of London Electricity (Later EDF) in 1996.
In 2000 he worked to form a Joint Venture between Eastern Electricity and London Electricity known as 24Seven and became the MD of this very successful company. In 2003
Steve left the Electricity sector to become the CEO of SGB UK, part of Harsco Corporation (an industrial services company), where he transformed the performance of the business. In 2010, Steve was awarded the OBE by the Queen for services to industry.
Expertise and knowledge
Tony Hales, Canal & River Trust Chairman, comments: “I am absolutely delighted to welcome the three new trustees onto the Board of the Canal & River Trust. The new trustees bring a huge amount of expertise and knowledge to the Trust, particularly in the areas which will be key to our future success.
“We are now in the final detailed processes of transferring the canal and rivers in England and Wales over to the charity so these new trustees join us at a really interesting and challenging time.”
The candidates' appointments will be ratified at the first meeting of the Trust's Council in March for an initial three year term. The new trustees will not be paid, although travel and other expenses will be reimbursed.
The recruitment of the new trustees was undertaken by a Defra constituted Appointments Committee made up of two existing trustees and two independents.
First published 13th March.
