Meet the board

Philip Kolvin KC is a licensing barrister, practising from the public law Chambers 11 KBW. He is a Patron of the Institute of Licensing, a Recorder of the Crown Court and an associate fellow at Westminster University. He is the author of a number of textbooks in his specialist field.

I was honoured to join the Board of Betknowmore because of its important and pioneering work in the field of peer support for those with gambling addiction. Gambling harm is a public health issue, but its outward invisibility means many suffer alone. The warmth, compassion and expertise of Betknowmore’s staff and volunteers is a lifeline for many people and an inspiration to all of us. Its work is important and urgent, and we are all proud to be playing our part in its development.

Joe Seet is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and an associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.  His professional career has been in the wholesale and investment banking and private investment management sectors and he is a specialist on corporate governance, regulatory, accounting, audit, pension and tax matters. He is currently the non-executive Treasurer and a director of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry and has held other and similar positions in other not-for-profit organisations.

Betknowmore’s approach to help support individuals, in my view, especially appropriate with the documented increase by the NHS over the last few years and its Peer Aid service is particularly important and it’s success is self-evident. The soul-destroying nature of long-term gambling addiction and the harms it causes to personal, family and social life are well known.  Betknowmore’s staff and volunteers work tirelessly to help others and have the full support of all the Trustee Directors and I am honoured to be able to help, in my role as trustee and non-executive Treasurer.

Catherine is a chartered Company Secretary and is currently working within financial services.

Catherine has spent over six years working in Governance roles within financial services, gaining practical experience supporting Boards and Committees and undertaking Governance projects. Having historically undertaken ‘front of house’ voluntary roles for charities, Catherine believes it would be of value now to combine the Governance skillset developed throughout her career and studies with voluntary work in support of charities and worthwhile organisations.

Andy brings his lived experience from gambling harm to the board.

I trained as a clinical psychologist and have since worked across NHS, third sector and independent sectors. I am passionate about developing psychologically informed environments and approaches across services and within organisations so that the people they serve can realise positive change in their lives.

I am especially interested in how we, as a society, as organisations, services, teams and as individuals can work proactively to promote physical and mental wellbeing. BetknowmoreUK’s approach to both supporting those experiencing the impact of existing gambling harms as well as working to prevent gambling harms therefore resonated with me.

I am delighted to be part of BetknowmoreUK as it grows and develops, enabling more and more people to live the lives they want to lead.

Laura has broad operations experience in senior management roles in the charity sector and now in Higher Education, where she leads a fundraising operations team. She hopes that her will skills and experience across governance, finance and digital development will be particularly helpful in her role of Trustee. Laura was inspired to join the Board at Betknowmore because of the unique lived experience angle that the charity’s work takes, and the huge potential for scaling the reach and impact of the charity’s programmes.

Neil is an accredited counter fraud specialist with over 30 years’ experience in helping senior managers take an ethical and proactive risk-based approach to managing risk. He has worked in a variety of industries across the private and public sectors, including a number of multinational FTSE 100 companies. Neil now runs his own Consultancy 'Rightway Compliance' which provides audit, risk and training services.

It was a conversation at a conference with founder Frankie Graham that led me to becoming involved with Bet Know More. The more I got to know Frankie and his obvious passion and commitment it made me determined to see how, in any small way, I might be able to help the organisation.