Our Trustees
Get to know our trustees
Our trustees are volunteers who are responsible for making sure the organisation is run properly. They decide what we do, how the work is carried out, and vote on the major decisions. Most of the trustees have experience of using services directly or as family carers. Some of the trustees have a learning disability and/or autism and have support from advocates to take part in Trustee meetings.
Meet Our Trustees
Matthew Ansell
Trustee
Matthew has been a member of self advocacy groups, peer advocate, group volunteer and Secretary. He has worked in a local business for a number of years in a variety of roles.
Marie Le Warne
Trustee
Marie has been a member of a self advocacy group, then volunteered with the group before supporting it to become independent of Speakeasy a few years ago. Marie works in a training and development role for a public body.
Alex Azimi
Trustee
Alex has been a member of a self advocacy group for a number of years and has been a Trustee with other local organisations that he is part of.
Iain Speed
Chair of Trustees
Iain has been working in the disability sector for 25 years and has experience of senior management and directorships of local and national organisations. He is currently a director of a Community Interest Company supporting and empowering individuals with Cerebral Palsy to take opportunities and confront the barriers in society.
The Trustee role
All of our Trustees bring different things to the role depending on their skills and experiences. Trustees with a learning disability and/or autism are able to share their experiences of using our service to help us improve or develop a new service, as well as their experiences of trying to access other services. If our Trustees think a service puts barriers in the way of people getting help or doesn’t understand local communities then they expect us to do something about it!
Matthew’s story
Matthew first became involved with us when we were called HAS Advocacy. He was part of a self advocacy group, helped set up a new group called Hampshire Advocacy for the Promotion of Positive Youth (later known as Happy Club), set up another group for adults with Asperger’s called Virtual Friends, helped with training and funding bids. Matthew understood the importance of advocacy being independent from other services and was one of the founding members of Speakeasy Advocacy. Click here to listen to Matthew talk about the importance of self advocacy and why he got involved with Speakeasy, and click here to see his recent Lifetime Achievement award presentation.
