Board of Trustees | Nominet Trust

Nominet Trust's six trustees meet quarterly and are responsible for oversight, strategy and decide how to distribute the funds. The Trustees are:

Jonathan Welfare (Chairman) has recently retired as the Chief Executive of Elizabeth Finn Care, a charity that provides support and care to a wide range of individuals and families.

Jonathan has extensive experience of the charity sector as a trustee and chairman of a range of charities. He has also held board-level appointments in both the public and the private sector. He has most recently established Turn2us, now part of the Elizabeth Finn Care, which is an online and helpline charity, to direct those in need to the charities and state benefits most appropriate to their individual circumstances.

Jonathan helped establish the UK's first electronic zoo in @Bristol and founded the UK's first online museum in 2008.

Lesley Cowley (Nominet Board representative) joined Nominet UK as Operations Director in April 1999 and has extensive management experience in both the public and private sectors together with an MBA, with distinction.

Lesley has been Managing Director/Chief Executive of Nominet since 2002. She is responsible for leading Nominet and for the development and implementation of strategy. She leads relationship building and liaison with Nominet members and stakeholders and international representation and leadership in the Internet field.

In 2007, she won the CBI First Women Award for Technology. In 2006, she was a top five finalist in Britain’s Best Boss awards and received a special commendation. Lesley is an elected Council Member of the Country Code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO) and is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, The Institute of Credit Management and The Chartered Management Institute. Lesley is a Trustee of the Jenner Hall charity. She has an MBA, with distinction.

James Kemp (Nominet staff representative) has several years experience as a fundraiser, researcher and project coordinator with Oxford Research Group: an award-winning UK-based charity. In this role James worked closely with decision makers, independent experts and the media to develop and promote policies relating to UK and international security. James has worked with Nominet since 2007, and is currently the Technical Department's Project Manager. James has a BSc (Hons) in politics and anthropology and an MA in human rights.

Vanessa Miner (Independant Trustee) is a marketing professional with a significant record of accomplishments in marketing, communications and campaigning in the UK and across global markets. She has experience in sponsorship and commercial partnerships, technology marketing, media, PR and issue-based campaigning.

Vanessa has senior management experience via direct interaction at board level and with Government. She has worked for companies such as BT, Vizzavi, Endemol, Edge Foundation (an independent charity foundation that focuses on vocational education for young people) and is currently an advisor to the DCSF on new school partnerships.

Ian Ritchie (Hon. Treasurer and Deputy Chairman) is the non-executive Chairman of Iomart plc, Computer Application Services Ltd., Caspian Learning Ltd. and the Interactive Design Institute Ltd. He founded a technology start-up company Office Workstations Ltd. in 1984 and has since been involved in the establishment of many new interactive technology businesses.

His experience in the field of charitable activities includes being Chairman of Connect Scotland, which linked academic researchers with entrepreneurs and a trustee of the Saltire Foundation which provides targeted international management training and experience to mid-career Scottish executives.

He is a board member and trustee of Dynamic Earth (Edinburgh's Science Centre), and the National Museums of Scotland. He is also a non-executive director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Edinburgh International Science Festival.