Our Trustees

Mrs Carol Mayo (Chair)

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In 2019, Carol exited Polarn O Pyret, a Swedish childrenswear company, after leading the retail division for 12 years and contributing to its growth from a start-up business to a multi-channel operation of solus stores, concessions, and website. The role involved defining a brand ambassador approach to build brand awareness, through a network of contacts across the UK and Ireland, along with change management and development of an entrepreneurial culture of trust and loyalty across the retail teams and customers.

Alongside holding various positions within the retail sector over the last 20 years, Carol also supported the growth and development of the Blue Cross animal charity over a similar length of time. Carol has also held officer roles for her local political party, which involved communication, strategic planning and organisational development. Carol has been a donor to Sight Research UK since 2002. She joined the Board of Trustees in January 2020 and was elected as the Board's new Chair in June 2021.

Mr Phillip Jackson (Vice-Chair)

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Philip is currently the Product Director for Specsavers, a privately held optical business. In this role Philip holds the responsibility for the product offering across the Specsavers operations in Europe. His experience stretches from operations, supply chain, marketing and commercial delivery. With over 25 years’ experience working with consumer facing organisations, Philip’s focus is on helping businesses build their brand and deliver the best possible customer proposition. A Trustee of Sight Research UK for over two years, Philip is excited about the prospect of supporting the charity to develop its own proposition and ultimately improve eye health for all. Philip joined the Board of Trustees in July 2018 and was elected Vice-Chair in September 2021.

Mr Simon Bowker (Treasurer)

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Simon is a qualified accountant who has worked in senior roles in the public, private and charitable sectors. He is currently the Finance Director of a community charity in Bristol. Simon’s career has focused on improving financial results, sustainability, governance and business partnering. He has wide-ranging experience in devising financial strategies for organisations and is also a qualified business coach.

Simon joined the Board of Sight Research UK in February 2021 as Trustee and Treasurer.

Dr Dolores Conroy

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Dolores has a degree in Biochemistry and a PhD in Pharmacology and spent her research career studying the role of inflammation in asthma at University of Sherbrooke, Canada, and Imperial College London. In 2004, she took the post of Principal Scientist at Mercia Pharma Inc. working on the development of disease-specific immunotherapeutic vaccines for autoimmune and chronic diseases.

In 2008, Dolores joined Fight for Sight where she became its first Director of Research shaping the charity's research strategy and overseeing its implementation. Since January 2018, Dolores has been the project manager for the ORNATE-India study, which aims to build research capacity and capability to tackle the burden of blindness due to diabetic retinopathy in India. She is based at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and is responsible for the day-to-day management of this UK-India collaboration.

Dolores became a Trustee of Sight Research UK in January 2019.

Dr Richard Lee

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Richard’s early career as a clinician scientist was strongly supported by grants from Sight Research UK. This enabled him to secure major funding subsequently from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, to build a research program in human immunology and the eye.

With the support of his colleagues across multiple institutions, he sought to apply cutting edge understanding of the immune system to develop new tests and treatments for patients with sight-threatening eye conditions by linking the resources and expertise of Moorfields Eye Hospital with the internationally renowned Ocular Inflammation Laboratories at the University of Bristol.

From this success, he went on to create a research consortium for Human Ocular Immunology between these leading UK centres and the National Eye Institute in the United States. At Moorfields, Richard has also established a new clinical service with a team of Consultants, specialising in Uveitis and Scleritis, which has attracted dedicated NHS funding and receives referrals from across the UK for complex care. Eligible patients are routinely offered the opportunity to participate in clinical trials if they wish to try an alternative to standard therapies or contribute to the development of new diagnostic and imaging tools.

Increasingly, Richard is also supporting clinicians and researchers of multiple professional groups across ophthalmic and scientific disciplines to create new knowledge and translate this into advances in clinical and surgical practice. Following four years as Deputy Director of Moorfields’ Clinical Research Facility, Richard was appointed as Clinical Director of Research & Development at Moorfields Eye Hospital in 2020. In this role, he is committed to driving continued innovation to improve both patients’ vision and wider human health.

Mr Adam Ross

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Adam is a Consultant Ophthalmologist with a subspecialty interest in medical retina and uveitis. He carried out his training in Bristol and Cheltenham as well as visiting fellowships in New York and Washington. He is currently the lead for the macular degeneration service at the Bristol Eye Hospital. He is an advisor for the ophthalmology content of the British National Formulary (BNF) and provides ophthalmology opinions for both the BNF and the children’s BNF. He has published extensively in the ophthalmic literature. He is the Royal College of Ophthalmologist’s College Tutor for the Bristol Eye Hospital. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at the University of Bristol and is the lead coordinator and teacher for the ophthalmology undergraduate teaching programme. He has completed various post-graduate qualifications, is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and continues to be actively involved in teaching of ophthalmologists in addition to allied health professionals.