The BCF Patron
Dame Menna Rawlings
British Ambassador to France
Menna Rawlings was appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the French Republic in August 2021.
Previously Menna was the Director-General Economic and Global Issues at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) from March 2019 until August 2020. In this role, she had responsibility for Global Britain, Asia Pacific, Americas, Africa, Overseas Territories, Commonwealth and Economic Diplomacy. She was also Board-level Diversity and Inclusion champion for the FCO.
Menna joined the FCO in 1989 and has served in a wide range of Diplomatic Service roles. She was most recently British High Commissioner to Australia from April 2015 to February 2019. Overseas, she has served in Washington DC, Accra, Tel Aviv, Nairobi and Brussels. In London she has served on the FCO Management Board as HR Director, as Private Secretary to the Permanent Under Secretary, in Press Office and in Africa and EU Directorates.
Menna holds a BSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and an MBA from the Open University. She was awarded the CMG in 2014.
Menna is married with 3 children.
The Chairman of the BCF
Richard Hallows
studied PPE at Oxford before entering an industrial career, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant on the way. After an MBA from Insead, he successively joined multinational groups in the food and agro-food sectors, leading him to work in Belgium, France, Iran and South Africa. After retirement, he has been involved in the promotion of qualified non-executive directors in France. Trustee since 2011, he became Chairman of the BCF in 2019.
Trustees
The British Charitable Fund Paris is a UK charitable trust, registered with the Charity Commission of England & Wales; it is administered and managed by a board of Trustees of between eleven and sixteen members. The current members are listed below. The charity is represented in France by the charitable association, the “British Charitable Fund in France”, registered with the French authorities in Nanterre, Hauts-de-Seine; the association is managed by a board (conseil d’administration) of between eight and fifteen members.
All the members have spent many years living in France and give their time and expertise freely, working as a close-knit team, ensuring that objectives of the BCF are correctly fulfilled; the team conducts all aspects of the charity’s work competently and efficiently, whilst keeping running costs to a minimum. The BCF employs one administrative assistant and is grateful to the Hertford British Hospital Charity for providing the BCF office in Levallois-Perret, France.
The Board of Trustees
Mr. Richard Hallows (Chairman)
Mr. Jonathan Goatly
Mrs. Julia Howes
Mr. Matthew Kay (Treasurer)
Mrs. Fiona Anderson Astolfi (representing the British Ambassador to France)
Mrs. Kim Borel
Mr. Steven Collins
Mrs. Pamela Conger
Mrs. Sarah Hardenberg
Dr. Gunita Jolly