Our Staff

Our Directors and Rescue and Rehoming Centre Managers.

Our Directors and Rescue and Rehoming Centre Managers.

Directors

Roly Owers
Roly Owers

Chief Executive

Roly joined World Horse Welfare as Chief Executive in January 2008. He already knew the charity well, having led its fundraising and communication teams from 1999 to 2003.

Roly qualified as a veterinary surgeon from Cambridge University in 1992. Having spent a short time with the Blue Cross, he joined the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, which included a posting as the Veterinary Officer at the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in London. After the army, he came to work for World Horse Welfare until 2003, when he left to take up the post of Development Director at the Perse School in Cambridge. He returned to World Horse Welfare in 2008.

Since then Roly has played an active role on the steering group of the British Horse Council and established the Equine Disease Coalition, of which he is Chair. He is also the Treasurer for the British Equine Veterinary Association and on the Management Board of the European Horse Network, and represents the charity at national and international events.

Roly has ridden for much of his life, greatly enjoying eventing and team chasing. He rode for his university and says that a highlight was being part of our first Challenge Ride in Jordan, back in 2001. He is married, with three children, and lives in Cambridge.

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tony tyler
Tony Tyler

Deputy Chief Executive and Director of UK

Tony has spent the last 35 years involved in the horse industry with extensive experience training horses and riders.

Tony has worked in riding schools, as a freelance trainer, BHS Chief Examiner, senior college lecturer and he has worked for World Horse Welfare since 1999. Starting in the charity as the Norfolk Centre Manager and being promoted twice he oversees the work of the charity in the UK including the work of the Centres and Field Officers, educational initiatives and liaising with other charities and organisations.

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Jessica Stark
Jessica Stark

Director of Communications and Public Affairs

Jessica oversees the charity’s brand and reputation, media relations, campaign lobbying and online media.

Jessica has more than 20 years of international communications experience both agency and client-side, as well as a history of volunteering and campaigning for good causes.

After 10 years in various roles with The Economist Group and Pearson plc she led communications and campaigns for Britain’s senior public servants’ union, the FDA, before joining the charity in 2010.

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Liam Maguire
Liam Maguire

Director of International

Liam is responsible for the charity’s international work helping working horses in Africa, Central America, the Caribbean and Asia.

Liam studied agricultural engineering at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and management for development at Cranfield University. The greater part of Liam’s career has been in overseas development both in the private sector as an agricultural engineer and with the human development agencies such as Oxfam, Save the Children and CARE

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jenny fernando
Jenny Fernando

Director of Finance & Administration

Jenny is a Chartered Accountant with more than 10 years experience working within the charity sector.

She began her career as an auditor specialising in charities and independent schools before moving into a role at fundraising charity Diabetes UK. She later worked at VSO, an international development organisation, before becoming Director of Finance and Resources at Breast Cancer Care. She joined World Horse Welfare in 2019.

Jenny has a life long love of horses and owns a Chestnut gelding called Sox who she explores the Norfolk countryside with.

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Peter Rowbottom
Peter Rowbottom

Director of Fundraising

Peter’s role is to develop and drive the fundraising strategy and income growth to support the delivery of the charity’s work.

Peter is an experienced fundraiser, having worked in the charity sector for twenty years. Prior to this, he worked in Sales and Marketing roles for Internet Service Providers in the late 1990s.

His charity work has been mainly in the health sector, having worked in the hospice world for ten years, at Arthritis Care, KIDS, and Bowel Research UK.

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Centre Managers

Eileen Gillen
Eileen Gillen

Belwade Farm Centre Manager

Eileen has been Centre Manager at our Aberdeenshire Rescue and Rehoming Centre since 1990.

She helped set up the farm, which has since grown to be the largest receiving Centre in Scotland for equine cases subjected to neglect and ignorance from all areas of the horse world. Eileen has been involved in the training of horses and riders across the major disciplines, but particularly show jumping. She instigated the “whole horse approach” that is used at each of our farms when assessing and rehabilitating our horses.

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Claire Dickie
Claire Dickie

Glenda Spooner Farm Centre Manager

Claire has worked in the equine industry for many years and has had extensive experience with all types of horses.

She originally joined World Horse Welfare as a groom in 2001, and, after a brief spell away from the charity, she returned to take on the role of Glenda Spooner Farm Centre manager in 2011. Claire is a keen horse woman who rides regularly. She has a genuine passion for equine rehabilitation and is a trained equine massage therapist.

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Sue Hodgkins
Sue Hodgkins

Hall Farm Centre Manager

Sue joined World Horse Welfare in 1997, starting as Head Girl at Overa Farm.

She later became Assistant Centre Manager for both Overa Farm and Hall Farm, and then in 2007 took on the role of Centre Manager at Hall Farm. Prior to joining the charity Sue trained for her BHS qualifications at a large Equestrian Centre, where she also became involved with Carriage Driving. Sue spent seven years on the driving circuit, competing at both National and International events with pony pairs, horse pairs and horse teams of four.

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Adam Cummins
Adam Cummins

Penny Farm Centre Manager

Adam has worked in the equine industry since 1997 and joined the charity as Penny Farm’s Centre Manager in 2019.

Working as an Equine Instructor for one of the UK’s leading colleges for 17 years has provided Adam with a broad range of knowledge of horse care, riding and teaching.

Adam has been a competitor in affiliated Dressage up to and including Prix St Georges level. He has also trained riders for affiliated and unaffiliated competition from Prelim to advanced level, both regionally and nationally.

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