Spokespeople

Andrew Purvis| Fairbridge Chief Executive

Andrew Purvis joined Fairbridge as Chief Executive in April 2008, following a twenty year career in the private sector. After a short service commission in the Royal Green Jackets, in 1988 Andrew joined the Jardine Matheson Group and managed the Group’s businesses in Vietnam and Japan. In 1999 Andrew was appointed Managing Director of Neal’s Yard Remedies. Under his management, over the next 6 years Neal’s Yard Remedies grew from a turnover of £4m to £10m and opened 13 new shops. In December 2005 Andrew oversaw the sale of the company to a new owner. From March 2006 until joining Fairbridge, Andrew worked as a freelance management consultant.

Andrew has been involved as a volunteer in various fundraising activities, in food distribution with Crisis, and with a US charity, The Power of Hope, which runs creativity workshops for 14-18 year olds. Andrew sets great emphasis on the social responsibility agenda. He has an MBA from IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Tom Watson | Fairbridge in Scotland Director

Tom started his career as a civil servant in 1979, then joined the Drake Fellowship as an instructor. In 1989 he became a Training and Development Manager and in 1990 Regional Director (South), moving to Scotland in 1993 as the Director, Fairbridge in Scotland.

Tom has responsibility for up to 90 staff and a budget of over 2.6 million. He has set up and managed many projects and initiatives, such as The Venture Trust and he founded the new Fairbridge Team in Dundee.

Tom has been a member of a number of Scottish Government advisory groups such as The Beattie National Action Group and the NEET Employability Framework and is currently a member of The Curriculum for Excellence working group. He also sits on a number of NGDB advisory groups. He is a board member of Youthlink Scotland.

Chris Murray | Fairbridge in London - Hackney Centre Manager

Chris Murray joined the Fairbridge in London team (Kennington Centre) as Operations Manager in 2005.

Prior to joining Fairbridge he worked at Phoenix House, a drug rehabilitation service in London – working with clients on relapse prevention and criminality.

Chris has also worked at Raleigh International as Senior Project Worker on the Motiv8 Programme, working with excluded young people. He worked at Raleigh for four years – as a volunteer and employee. Prior to volunteering he accessed the Raleigh programme as a young person.

Allan Myatt | Director of Operations

Allan has worked for Fairbridge in a variety of roles since 1985 and as Operations Director since 1992.

During this time, Allan helped to establish three charities working in a similar youth sector: The Youth Enquiry Service in Plymouth, Challenge for Youth in Belfast, and The Venture Trust project in Scotland.

More recently Allen served for 3 years as Chair of the Institute for Outdoor Learning; an individual and organisational member organisation for those working in the field of development training and outdoor education.