Mission & Team

We work with individuals, families and financial institutions to increase philanthropy in society.

NPT UK provides donor-advised funds (DAFs) to donors in the UK and those around the world who wish to base their philanthropy from the UK. We are an independent charity driven by our mission to make philanthropy more convenient and efficient for donors. We offer giving vehicles and expertise to philanthropists, family offices, and wealth managers from one of the world’s leading financial centres.

NPT UK is affiliated with National Philanthropic Trust, the largest independent provider of DAFs in the United States. Since its founding in 1996, NPT has raised more than $49.8 billion in charitable funding and has made more than 640,000 grants exceeding $25.7 billion to nonprofits around the world.

The NPT group also includes NPT Transatlantic, a US/UK dual qualified charity providing DAFs that enable dual taxpayers to benefit from tax relief in both the UK and the US.

Team

Céline Moseley

Grant Analyst

Céline is Grant Analyst at National Philanthropic Trust UK. She has four years’ experience in the charity sector, having previously worked at a London-based Community Interest Company and supported the director of a grant writing agency. Céline holds a MA in Legal Studies from SOAS University of London, and a BA in Philosophy awarded from both King’s College London and the Australian National University.

Natalie Pinon

Executive Director, Development

Natalie Pinon is Senior Director of Development of National Philanthropic Trust UK. Ms. Pinon is a leader in impact finance with expertise advising family offices, wealth managers and business owners on impact investing and philanthropy since 2006. She focuses on working with multi-generational global families to support their values-based giving and investing. Ms. Pinon has particular expertise advising female philanthropists and wealth holders, and supporting organisations focused on accelerating gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. She is recognised by NatWest WISE100 as a leading woman in impact investment and mission-driven business.

 

Ms. Pinon was previously Director of Impact for Social and Sustainable Capital, a leading impact investment fund. Ms. Pinon began her career in investment banking before moving to the international development field, where she worked for the United Nations Secretary General’s office and later the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). She was Head of Impact at the London based family office Novator and Senior Advisor at the Charities Aid Foundation. Ms Pinon has sat on several nonprofit boards and is currently a Trustee of the Womanity Foundation. She holds an MSc from Sciences Po Paris and the London School of Economics.

Lucy Shepherd

Senior Grants Manager

Lucy Shepherd leads the grants team at National Philanthropic Trust UK and brings 10 years’ experience in philanthropy and international development. In her career, Lucy has held a variety of roles at international NGOs including Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide and CARE International.

Before joining NPT UK, Lucy was the Senior Manager at the Swarovski Foundation and managed several charity partnerships which supported the Foundation’s mission to empower marginalised groups, advance creative talent and improve water sustainability.

Lucy is also a Board Member of the ASOS Foundation, a UK charity that creates opportunities to enable disadvantaged young people to reach their potential.

Stefan Velvick

Director of Development

Stefan Velvick is Director of Development at NPT UK and has over 25 years of experience in philanthropy and donor-advised funds. He previously worked for the Charities Aid Foundation, where he helped ultra and high net worth individuals to manage their philanthropy. He is involved with a small children’s charity and helps out with the local community boys football club.

Board of Trustees

Filter biographies by NPT UK Board NPT Transatlantic Board

Mary Boakye

Mary Boakye

Mary Boakye is a finance lawyer with over 25 years’ international capital markets and investment experience, globally and across multiple sectors. She has advised corporates, investment funds, financial institutions and governments across Africa, Europe, Asia and the United States.

 

Mary is a dual-qualified solicitor and New York Attorney with a stellar career including in leadership at leading global firms in New York, London, South Africa and Hong Kong. She worked at Allen & Overy and Dentons where she was head of the firm’s Africa Financial Markets Group. She also co-led the team that advised on Ghana’s 2007, 2013, and 2014 sovereign bond issues. Mary is the founder and CEO of Oriol Associates.

 

Mary is a board member of The Fore Trust and Dentons’ Board Diversity Committee. She has served on numerous advisory boards including the Technical Committee of the World Bank / AfDB All-Africa Conference on Law, Justice, and Development, Business Advisory Board of H.E. Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel, and the China Europe International Business School’s Africa Foundation for Governance and Leadership.

 

Widely regarded as a leading authority on doing business in Africa, ‘Powerlist’ named her as one of the UK’s 100 most influential blacks and ‘The Lawyer ‘as one of the UK’s “Hot 100 Lawyers” being “skilled in dealing with complex regulatory environments and jurisdictions”. She has been recognized by Cranfield School of Management in its 100 Women to Watch and 50 BAME Women to Watch lists and by the Legal week Class of 2021 as one of U.K.’s leading female lawyers.

 

Mary holds an LLB, Law (Hons) from Brunel University, Solicitors Final Exams from the University Law, Guildford and Distinctive Leadership in Organisational Leadership from Leadership College, London.

Holly Welch Stubbing

Holly Welch Stubbing

Holly Welch Stubbing is a nationally recognized leader in philanthropy with over 25 years of experience and thought leadership on giving and grantmaking.

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Holly joins National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) after serving since 2017 as president and CEO of E4E Relief, a national charitable organization offering emergency financial relief programs for global companies and communities. E4E Relief has awarded more than $260 million in emergency financial relief grants in 120 countries since 2020, assisting individuals impacted by catastrophic disasters and financial hardships.

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Prior to leading E4E Relief, she worked for Foundation for the Carolinas, where she led advancement, philanthropic services, investments and legal affairs. Together with the team, she grew the organization from $180 million to nearly $4 billion in charitable assets.

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Holly is an American Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund and has received the Charlotte Business Journal’s Women in Business award and 40 Under 40 distinction. Holly was named one of the Mecklenburg Times’ 50 Most Influential Women in Charlotte and recognized as the Charlotte Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Fundraiser of the Year.

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She holds a Global Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Dayton School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in speech communications and international studies from Wake Forest University. She is a member of the North Carolina and Tennessee Bar Associations.

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Holly is married to Matt Stubbing, a real estate developer specializing in affordable housing, and has two children.

David Rowe

David Rowe

David Rowe, OBE, spent 5 years in the British Army before leaving to work in finance. He spent 16 years at Schroders where he initially worked as a fund manager before becoming Managing Director of their UK Charities and Private Client business. After Schroders, he spent 17 years at UBS where he had responsibility for many different areas including their UK intermediary, Philanthropy, and Charities businesses. During his time at UBS, he created the UBS UK Donor-Advised Foundation, which is now the second largest DAF in the UK. Other locations in UBS (Switzerland and Singapore) have now replicated the UK philanthropy model.

 

He holds a degree in Economics from Exeter University. He is the Treasurer of SSAFA ‘the Armed Forces Charity, a trustee of the Army Sports Control Board and the Honorary Treasurers’ Forum. He is a Visiting Fellow in Charity Investments at the Bayes Business School, City University of London. He has been married for nearly 30 years and has a daughter and son. Amongst his interests are golf and gardening during the daytime and cooking and bridge in the evening. David was appointed as an Officer of the British empire (OBE) in His Majesty The King’s first Birthday Honours.

Ceris Gardner

Ceris Gardner

Ceris Gardner is one of the founding partners of Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP, a boutique private client law firm established in 2009 following the demerger of Allen & Overy LLP’s highly-rated Private Client Department.  Her areas of expertise include tax, estate planning, family governance, charity law (she is well known for advising both grant-making and operational charities on matters of charity law, governance issues and tax) and immigration.  This means that Ms. Gardner is able to adopt an holistic approach when providing advice.  She has a particular interest and involvement in encouraging families to consider philanthropy and in helping them to plan their giving strategy.

 

Ms. Gardner is actively involved in the charity sector, serving as a trustee of Philanthropy Impact (a body which incorporates the European Association for Planned Giving, Philanthropy UK and the Philanthropy Advisers Forum) and Crimestoppers.

Vivien Gould

Vivien Gould

Vivien Gould is currently the Senior Independent Director of The Lindsell Train Investment Trust PLC, and a non-executive Director of Baring Emerging EMEA Opportunities plc, Schroder AsiaPacific Fund PLC and Third Point Investors Limited.

 

Ms Gould has many years’ experience of the financial services industry and the charitable sector.

 

Ms Gould started work in financial services in 1981. She was a founder Director of River & Mercantile Investment Management Limited (1985) and served as a senior executive and Deputy Managing Director with the Group until 1994. During this period, the Group developed into a boutique investment management company specialising in the management of closed-end investment companies. She then worked as an independent consultant and served on the boards of a number of investment management companies and listed investment trusts from 1994-2001. Between 2001 and 2004 she served as an executive with Gartmore Investment Management. Ms Gould then served as a non-executive director of Cooper Gay (2006-2010), one of the largest privately-owned insurance and reinsurance groups in the UK. She served as a non-executive director of Waverton Investment Management (2014-2017), a privately-owned discretionary portfolio manager for private clients, charities and institutions.

 

Ms Gould has been actively involved in the charitable sector since 2005. That year she became a Trustee of the Stroke Association and Chairman of its Investment Committee (to 2014), and a Trustee of Cobalt Health (to 2015), a medical charity specialising in the provision of diagnostic services with cutting-edge scanning technology. Ms Gould has also served as a Trustee of the John Ellerman Foundation (2011-2017), and was a member of the Investment Committee and the Finance Committee.

Richard Cassell

Richard Cassell

Richard Cassell is Of Counsel in the private client and tax group at Withers, based in London, having been a partner there for over 15 years and previously a partner at another major US law firm.

 

Mr. Cassell advises on US and international tax and trust and estate planning, with clients based in Europe and the US. He specialises in US tax strategies for individuals, international trusts and closely held business structures. Mr. Cassell devotes a significant part of his practice to cross-border philanthropy and pioneered the use of dual qualified charitable structures.

 

Mr. Cassell was educated at University College London and qualified as a solicitor before moving to the US and attending the University of Pennsylvania Law School and has practiced in Washington DC and London. He is admitted as a solicitor in England, as a member of The District of Columbia and US Tax Court Bars.

 

Mr Cassell is a trustee of several charitable trusts and a school governor and is a former trustee of Philanthropy Impact, a membership group for charities and their advisors.

Mary Boakye

Mary Boakye

Mary Boakye is a finance lawyer with over 25 years’ international capital markets and investment experience, globally and across multiple sectors. She has advised corporates, investment funds, financial institutions and governments across Africa, Europe, Asia and the United States.

 

Mary is a dual-qualified solicitor and New York Attorney with a stellar career including in leadership at leading global firms in New York, London, South Africa and Hong Kong. She worked at Allen & Overy and Dentons where she was head of the firm’s Africa Financial Markets Group. She also co-led the team that advised on Ghana’s 2007, 2013, and 2014 sovereign bond issues. Mary is the founder and CEO of Oriol Associates.

 

Mary is a board member of The Fore Trust and Dentons’ Board Diversity Committee. She has served on numerous advisory boards including the Technical Committee of the World Bank / AfDB All-Africa Conference on Law, Justice, and Development, Business Advisory Board of H.E. Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel, and the China Europe International Business School’s Africa Foundation for Governance and Leadership.

 

Widely regarded as a leading authority on doing business in Africa, ‘Powerlist’ named her as one of the UK’s 100 most influential blacks and ‘The Lawyer ‘as one of the UK’s “Hot 100 Lawyers” being “skilled in dealing with complex regulatory environments and jurisdictions”. She has been recognized by Cranfield School of Management in its 100 Women to Watch and 50 BAME Women to Watch lists and by the Legal week Class of 2021 as one of U.K.’s leading female lawyers.

 

Mary holds an LLB, Law (Hons) from Brunel University, Solicitors Final Exams from the University Law, Guildford and Distinctive Leadership in Organisational Leadership from Leadership College, London.

Holly Welch Stubbing

Holly Welch Stubbing

Holly Welch Stubbing is a nationally recognized leader in philanthropy with over 25 years of experience and thought leadership on giving and grantmaking.

.

Holly joins National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) after serving since 2017 as president and CEO of E4E Relief, a national charitable organization offering emergency financial relief programs for global companies and communities. E4E Relief has awarded more than $260 million in emergency financial relief grants in 120 countries since 2020, assisting individuals impacted by catastrophic disasters and financial hardships.

.

Prior to leading E4E Relief, she worked for Foundation for the Carolinas, where she led advancement, philanthropic services, investments and legal affairs. Together with the team, she grew the organization from $180 million to nearly $4 billion in charitable assets.

.

Holly is an American Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund and has received the Charlotte Business Journal’s Women in Business award and 40 Under 40 distinction. Holly was named one of the Mecklenburg Times’ 50 Most Influential Women in Charlotte and recognized as the Charlotte Association of Fundraising Professionals’ Fundraiser of the Year.

.

She holds a Global Executive Master of Business Administration degree from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Dayton School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in speech communications and international studies from Wake Forest University. She is a member of the North Carolina and Tennessee Bar Associations.

.

Holly is married to Matt Stubbing, a real estate developer specializing in affordable housing, and has two children.

David Rowe

David Rowe

David Rowe, OBE, spent 5 years in the British Army before leaving to work in finance. He spent 16 years at Schroders where he initially worked as a fund manager before becoming Managing Director of their UK Charities and Private Client business. After Schroders, he spent 17 years at UBS where he had responsibility for many different areas including their UK intermediary, Philanthropy, and Charities businesses. During his time at UBS, he created the UBS UK Donor-Advised Foundation, which is now the second largest DAF in the UK. Other locations in UBS (Switzerland and Singapore) have now replicated the UK philanthropy model.

 

He holds a degree in Economics from Exeter University. He is the Treasurer of SSAFA ‘the Armed Forces Charity, a trustee of the Army Sports Control Board and the Honorary Treasurers’ Forum. He is a Visiting Fellow in Charity Investments at the Bayes Business School, City University of London. He has been married for nearly 30 years and has a daughter and son. Amongst his interests are golf and gardening during the daytime and cooking and bridge in the evening. David was appointed as an Officer of the British empire (OBE) in His Majesty The King’s first Birthday Honours.

Iain Younger

Iain Younger

Iain Younger is a Partner for EY Frank Hirth. Having joined in 2000, Iain has successfully established and built the Trust and Estates service within our Private Client offering. He covers numerous areas of US and UK taxation.

 

Iain is a qualified Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA), US Enrolled Agent (EA), and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP).

 

He was listed in eprivateclient’s ‘Top 35 Under 35’ in 2013. In Spear’s 500, he was ‘Top Recommended’ from 2016–20, and was named one of the ‘Top 10 Accountants and Tax Advisers’ in 2021–22. Furthermore, he was recognised as the ‘Private Client Accountant of the year’ in Spear’s wealth management awards in 2021.

Charles Lubar

Charles Lubar

Charles (Chuck) Lubar advises clients on all aspects of international tax and estate structuring and planning for individuals and their assets. He also provides corporate and individual tax planning for international investments and cross-border family business matters. He recently retired as Senior Counsel at McDermott Will & Emery and is currently providing advisory services for selected clients. Mr. Lubar is particularly known for his significant experience with clients in the film, recording and publishing industries, having structured the acquisition of the ATV music catalogue (including the Beatles catalogue for Michael Jackson) as well as the production of the Muppet Show in London. Mr. Lubar served for several years with the Chief Counsel’s Office of the Internal Revenue Office in Washington, DC. He has held roles as managing partner, chairman of the International Section, vice chairman of the Tax section and senior counsel with Morgan Lewis in London. His international experience extends well beyond the United Kingdom and includes working with clients from continental Europe, Latin America, North America, the Middle East, and Japan.

 

Mr. Lubar graduated magna cum laude from Yale University, earned his Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School and holds an LLM in Taxation from Georgetown University. Mr. Lubar previously served as a member of the Fulbright Commission in London for 12 years and served as President of the Yale Club of London for 13 years. He has recently completed his autobiography which was published in 2023.

Ceris Gardner

Ceris Gardner

Ceris Gardner is one of the founding partners of Maurice Turnor Gardner LLP, a boutique private client law firm established in 2009 following the demerger of Allen & Overy LLP’s highly-rated Private Client Department.  Her areas of expertise include tax, estate planning, family governance, charity law (she is well known for advising both grant-making and operational charities on matters of charity law, governance issues and tax) and immigration.  This means that Ms. Gardner is able to adopt an holistic approach when providing advice.  She has a particular interest and involvement in encouraging families to consider philanthropy and in helping them to plan their giving strategy. Ms. Gardner is actively involved in the charity sector, serving as a trustee of Philanthropy Impact (a body which incorporates the European Association for Planned Giving, Philanthropy UK and the Philanthropy Advisers Forum) and Crimestoppers.