Sudbury and District Citizens Advice is a member of the national Citizens Advice charity. It is a company limited by guarantee, company number 06051096 registered in England and Wales and a registered charity, charity number 1123466. We are also registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.
The role of the trustee board is to provide strategic leadership for the organisation to ensure its continued service excellence and long-term financial sustainability. The annual report and accounts are available here and through Companies House; the most recent Chairman’s statement will help to give a picture of how the organisation is facing its challenges. It can be accessed here.
Good governance is essential to the way we operate. The Board and organisation is governed by our Articles and these were recently updated and simplified by vote of our members. They can be accessed here.
The directors of the company and Trustees of the Charity with their respective portfolios are:
Alan Braithwaite (Chair)
Alan has been a Trustee since 2017 .
He became Chair in 2020, during the pandemic.
His business career was based on founding and developing
his specialist business consultancy in supply chain and logistics
and as a visiting Professor at Cranfield University's School of
Management.
Paul Sweeny (Vice Chair)
Paul is a Chartered Financial Planner and a Fellow of the Personal Finance Society, specialising in 'at-retirement' and later life advice. He has a Master’s degree in Financial Planning and Business Management and runs his own regulated advice business, Sweeny Wealth Management Ltd. He has been a Trustee of Sudbury & District Citizens Advice since January 2021. Paul lives in Leavenheath with his wife and daughter.
David Watts (Research and Campaigns)
David comes to the Board with a background in consumer affairs and journalism. His career included editing Which? and Money Which? magazines and being Assistant Director of Consumers’ Association. He has also written a weekly Personal Finance column syndicated to several major regional newspapers and was a member of the Financial Services Authority Consumer Panel. David edited The Daily Mail Ski magazine for several years and edited and published an annual guidebook to ski resorts worldwide for over 20 years.
Sarah Bartlett (Treasurer)
Sarah has been a Trustee since 2022 when she joined us as Treasurer. As a qualified accountant, Sarah began her career in practice before spending nearly two decades in the Insurance industry. She now runs her own accountancy practice supporting local organisations and small businesses.
Piers Roberts (Fundraising)
Piers Roberts spent over thirty years as an in-house lawyer in the City of London where he worked at a senior level for a range of UK and international banks. He is delighted to have stopped the daily commute to London and is putting his legal and corporate governance experience to use with Sudbury and South Suffolk Citizens' Advice.
Jan Osborne - (Local Government contact)
Riham Aboushousha - ( HR and Policies)
Martin Royal - (Health, Housing and Fundraising)
Matthew Martin - (Legal and GDPR)
The Chief Officer of the organisation is Colleen Sweeney.
