Executive Team
Chief Executive Officer
& Company Secretary
Richard Whitby
Chief Exective Officer
Wirral born and bred, Richard has worked within the health, social care and charity sectors for over 15 years.
Previously the CEO of Nazareth Care Charitable Trust, Richard has worked in senior leadership roles for some of the largest care providers in the UK charity sector, including Aspirations and Community Integrated Care.
A former support worker himself, Richard has worked through various levels of social care management to achieve success at CEO level, and so brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to Autism Together.
Operational Directors
Director of
People & Culture
Helen Bilton
Helen Bilton
Helen Bilton – Director of People
Helen started her Human Resources career in the care sector over 18 years ago, with the NHS and is a chartered Fellow of the CIPD. She has a natural passion for people and strives to devise innovative strategies aligned to the needs of both the employee and those accessing care.
Previously the Regional HR Director for a multi-national Home Care provider, Helen has been recognised for her ability to bring fire and passion to the workforce, through the utilisation of HR strategies which provide employee sustainability and promote the interests of the people being supported.
Helen has worked in senior roles within both the public and private sectors, through various HR roles covering the full employment spectrum, allowing her to bring a wide range of expertise to support the entire staff team within Autism Together.
Director of Finance
Christina Davies
Christina Davies
Christina Davies – Director of Finance
Christina is proud to have enjoyed a successful career at Autism Together, starting in the organisation in 2009. She has evolved with the organisation, joining the Executive Team and becoming Director in April 2024.
Christina qualified as a Chartered Global Management Accountant, and is passionate about using her skill set to contribute to the continued success of the organisation. She ensures robust controls and performance reviews are in place, to support financial sustainability and future investment in our people and services.
Her degree in management provided the foundation to become a leader, she champions business partnering and believes in empowering her team to achieve.
Christina has a reputation for delivering the highest standards at financial audits, and has recently executed the seamless transition to a new finance system.
Director of Operations
Angie Kemp
Angie Kemp
Angie Kemp – Director of Business Development
Angie has worked supporting autistic people for over 25 years, both in Wirral and in Manchester.
Much of this time has been spent within Residential Services as a support worker, team leader and registered manager.
Angie moved into Business Development in 2007 and led the development of Supported Living within Autism Together. Since then, she has played a part in developing and building upon many of the services and initiatives that Autism Together runs today.
Angie is passionate about delivering person-centred services for autistic people. She is a tenacious networker, an innovative and creative thinker, and thoroughly enjoys driving projects and steering new initiatives through to completion.
Director of
Estates & Facilities
Chris Cullen
Chris Cullen
Chris Cullen – Director of Estates & Facilities
Chris joined Autism Together in February 2021 as Head of Estates & Facilities, before joining the Executive Team and becoming a Director in July 2023.
Having qualified as a Building Surveyor in 2004, he has previously worked across private Building Consultancy practices in a variety of sectors before moving into a wider property-based role at the Archdiocese of Liverpool. The broad range of experience gained through his career has enabled him to further develop our processes and strategies towards compliance and facilities, along with reactive and planned maintenance works to improve our sites at Autism Together.
Chris has ensured that one of the key priorities of Autism Together is recognising the importance of having a compliant, safe and homely environment that underpins the great work done within our services. As we continue to advance with our key objectives, his knowledge, passion and enthusiasm to improve every area of our assets will help ensure we continue to offer a provision we can all be proud of.
Outside of our charity, Chris is vice chair of a governing body for a primary school in Liverpool, where he lives with his wife, two young sons and miniature schnauzer, Willow. Having two football mad sons and being a qualified football coach, Chris then spends a lot of his spare time coaching their youth football teams.
Trustees
Edward Behan
Ted has been a trustee since 2013 and became Vice-chair in 2020. He has many years’ experience working at senior strategic and operational levels, primarily in the social housing and education sectors. His background lies in finance and in estates and property management.
Until recently, Ted was Chair of Governors at two local primary schools, and a National Leader of Governance, appointed by the Department for Education to support the development of Multi-Academy Trusts.
Ted is also very passionate about cultural diversity and has spent significant time since his retirement volunteering and supporting education and social enterprise projects in South Africa and Tanzania.
Carole Battersby
Carole was elected to the Board in 2016. She was formerly a special educational needs teacher and also ran an evening centre for adults with moderate and severe learning difficulties. From 2010-2014 she was a governor of Bridge College in Stockport – part of The Together Trust.
Since 2012 Carole has worked with the NAS Accreditation Team and has undertaken several inspections of registered care providers around the country.
The eldest of her four sons has autism and has been supported by Autism Together since 1993.
Iain Cadman
Iain has been a trustee since 2016. He has over 30 years’ experience in accounting and business operations from working for PLCs, limited companies and partnerships in the legal, retailing, manufacturing and marketing sectors, and has held senior positions at both board and managerial level.
Iain has a strong background in financial management, financial planning and analysis, and strategic planning. He also has a broad knowledge of IT and systems development, and strong management and administration skills. Iain has an autistic son who has been supported by Autism Together since 2008.
Nuala Kennedy
Nuala has a strong organisational and administrative background in business, running her own successful property business for over 20 years.
Her late brother was autistic and was supported by Autism Together for many years. Nuala has been involved with many charitable programs over the years. She is passionate about improving and enhancing the quality of care and the continued development of support systems.
Chris Smart
Chris is Chief Risk Officer and MLRO at the Co-operative Bank. Having initially qualified as a chartered accountant, Chris has spent the past 23 years working across Risk, Finance, Audit and Governance disciplines for PwC, Lloyds Banking Group, and now the Co-operative Bank. Chris chairs the Bank’s Executive Risk Committee and is approved by both the PRA and FCA in his current role.
Chris is driven by delivering fair customer outcomes, being particularly interested in ensuring customers identified as vulnerable are fully supported. Chris is ethically minded and passionate about making a positive difference to people’s lives.
Carys Ward
Carys is a Senior Organisational Development Consultant for a North West-based business, where she helps work communities become places where people can thrive.
With many years’ experience in HR and OD across public and private sector organisations, she proactively champions EDI through people-centric practice and co-production principles. Her aim as a trustee is to make a meaningful and positive difference to those in the autistic community.
Sue Leech
Sue was born and still lives in the Wirral. Now retired, Sue spent her working life in the private sector, mainly in Financial Services. Sue has worked in various accounting and management roles and has a range of financial, data analysis, governance and risk management experience.
Sue is delighted to have the opportunity of becoming a Trustee of Autism Together and using her skills to work with a charitable organisation that puts the individual at the centre of everything they do.
Steve Brealey
Steve is currently leading the Barclays Bank Retail operating model transformation, designing the future UK retail operating model for 2025 and beyond. Previously, he was Head of Records and Programme Manager within the Chief Data Office in Barclays Execution Services. In this role, Steve was responsible for the Records Management Policy, Control Standards and Global controls capability with the purpose of mitigating a critical Global data and records management risk.
Prior to 2019, Steve had served as a Commissioned Personnel Support Officer in the Royal Air Force for 21 years. In this time, he had served across the UK and overseas in a number of leadership and management roles around HR, Infrastructure, Policy and Finance. He has also deployed operationally, completed advanced staff training and achieved a Cranfield Executive MBA and MA in Defence Studies and International Relations.
Professionally, he is keen to deliver sustainable change and exploit innovation and continue learning. Away from work, Steve lives with his wife on the Wirral in Meols with their dog Edie. In his spare time, he is a competitive runner, cyclist and enjoys all things outdoors.
Charlotte Sansome
Charlotte is Deputy Director of Insight and Effectiveness at the National Deaf Children’s Society. She has a background in research, analysis and strategy development. Having spent the past nine years working in the charity sector, she is passionate about ensuring work in the sector is founded in strong evidence and insight, to ensure maximum impact is achieved.
Charlotte is driven by a desire to improve people’s lives. She is delighted to be a Trustee of Autism Together, with the four values of positive communication, being person-centred, learning and respect being so close to her own heart.
Carol Corton
Carol is an at-home mum, and full-time carer to twin sons David and Peter who attend Autism Together’s Day Services.
Carol has always strived to be involved and offer support, wherever her boys have attended throughout their lives. This has seen Carol be a school governor, plan fundraising activities, organise school fairs and enterprise schemes, and volunteer her time and assistance when needed.
She is a positive, creative, organised and enthusiastic person, with a calm, kind, and caring nature.
She says: “I fully understand the challenges involved in navigating the care system, and am passionate and doggedly determined that the people who need the most support to live their best lives should get it.
“I am proud to be invited to be part of Autism Together, an organisation I hold in the highest regard. I believe it sets a standard by which other organisations should be measured. I am very excited to contribute in any way I can and welcome the challenge ahead.”
Neil Whiteside
Neil is a Financial Planner at Schroders Personal Wealth, providing personalised financial plans to support and guide people in achieving their aspirations and goals for the future.
He has extensive knowledge and expertise in Pensions, Estate Planning, Trust Planning, Savings & Investments, Protection & Mortgages. Earlier in his career, Neil worked for Wesleyan Financial Services providing specialist financial advice to hospital doctors with in-depth knowledge and understanding of the NHS pension scheme and benefits.
Prior to becoming a Financial Planner, Neil spent 13 years’ in the banking sector, working across Lloyds Banking Group in a variety of jobs across the Wirral and Liverpool region – with roles ranging from customer service to senior management.
Away from work, Neil recently completed a five-year tenure as Local Authority Governor at an infant school in Bebington, focusing on Finance, Personnel and Safeguarding.
Neil lives in Wirral with his wife, two daughters and dog, enjoying days out and making memories as a family.
Our values
We promote positive
communication
Everything is
person-centred
We promote
learning
We are
respectful
