Simon Godwin: Chair of Trustees (2023– )

Chairs Committee (Chair) (2023– )

Development Committee (Chair) (2023– )

Finance Committee (2023– )

Simon has been a Library member for 14 years and is a member of the Founders’ Circle of supporters. With an extensive career in financial services, Simon was most recently a founding Partner and Finance Director of Fundsmith, the asset management firm. He is currently working with a number of high growth companies including being Chair of GaitQ Limited, a medical devices spin-out from Oxford University.

This is Simon’s third charity governance position; he is on the Board of Trustees at the Royal Institution and is the co-founder and trustee of Levelling Up:STEM, and he is also a supporter of the Hampstead and Park Theatres.

John Colenutt: Treasurer (2024–  )

Trustee (2020– )

Development Committee (2020– )

Finance Committee (2020– )

Library Member from 2020 (and 2010-12)

John has had a varied career with senior roles in investment banking (JP Morgan Cazenove), the charity sector (Teach First) and, most recently, at a tech spin out from Oxford University (Genomics plc). Earlier in his career he also worked as a professional economist (at HM Treasury) and taught economics. John has combined his professional career with extensive charity involvement, especially as a fundraiser, and co-chaired Balliol College's 750th Anniversary campaign. Other charity roles include acting as a mentor to young social entrepreneurs, being a management coach for newly-qualified teachers and supporting pupils in university applications. He is a governor of Westminster School and chair of governors at Harris Westminster Sixth Form.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied: Trustee (2020– )

Collections Committee (2020– )

Membership Committee (2020– )

Library Member from 2019

Yassmin is a writer, broadcaster and award-winning social advocate. Yassmin trained as a mechanical engineer and worked on oil and gas rigs around Australia before becoming a writer and broadcaster in 2016. She published her debut memoir, Yassmin's Story, with Penguin Random House at age 24, and followed up with her first fiction book for younger readers, You Must Be Layla, in 2019.

Yassmin's critically acclaimed essays have been published in numerous anthologies, including the Griffith Review, the best-selling It's Not About The Burqa and The New Daughters of Africa. Yassmin founded her first organisation, Youth Without Borders, at the age of 16, leading it for nine years and now shares her learnings through keynotes and workshops. Yassmin has spoken in over 20 countries on unconscious bias and inclusive leadership. Her TED Talk, 'What does my headscarf mean to you?', has been viewed over two million times.

Alain Aubry: Trustee (2019– )

Collections Committee (2019– )

Development Committee (2019– )

Library Member from 2015

Alain Aubry is a French private equity professional and former publisher. A keen bibliophile, he is a former Trustee of the American Library of Paris, and currently serves on their Advisory Council.

Based in London, he is a consultant for the Société Financière de l’Arno, a Belgian investment company based in Brussels, which he founded in 2004, and where he was the CEO until 2014. He was Chairman at LBO France from 1997 to 2005, and Vice Chairman from 2005 to 2012 .

He is also the Patron of a number of libraries and charitable organisations, both in the UK and overseas, which reflects his enduring interest in literature and books. He began his publishing career at the Club Français du Livre, of which he was later CEO. Until 2011, he was the Vice Chairman of the Cercle de la Librairie, a charity that publishes professional books and databases related to book publishing. He is a patron of the British Museum and is on the board of the Friends of the French National Library.

Paul Aylieff: Trustee (2022– )

Development Committee (2021– )

Finance Committee (2021– )

Library Member from 2012

Paul is currently Group Chief Financial Officer at Quantexa Limited, one of the UK’s leading Enterprise Software companies. He was previously CFO and Board Director of three European Financial Technology businesses, following a 25 year career in Investment Banking. As a banker, he was previously Head of EMEA Corporate Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, having focused on M&A advisory, debt and equity capital raising for European and US corporations for most of his banking career. Other previous roles include having been Chair of the Board of Trustees of The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, one of the world’s leading orchestras, and Trustee of Trinity Hospice, Clapham. Paul is also currently an external member of the Investment Committee of King’s College, Cambridge.

Neil Christie: Trustee (2022– )

Membership Committee (2021– )

Nominations Committee (2021– )

A member since 2021, Neil joined the Library when he became a full-time student of English Literature. Previously, Neil worked in marketing and communications for more than 30 years with some of the world’s most famous and innovative businesses. Most recently, he spent 17 years at leading independent agency Wieden + Kennedy as Chief Executive, Global Chief Operating Officer and as a member of the Trustee Board, tasked with preserving the company’s independence and ensuring its financial stability.

Neil was named by The Guardian as one of the top ten influencers in advertising and is a former Council member of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

Anni Domingo: Trustee (2024– )

Membership Committee (2024– )

Collections Committee (2024– )

Member since 2024

Anni is an actress, director, lecturer and award-winning writer who works in radio, TV, films and theatre. Her first screenplay Blessed Assurance is out later this year and an extract from her debut novel Breaking the Maafa Chain features in The New Daughters of Africa anthology. She is currently working on Ominira, her second novel as part of her PhD.

She is a member of the Sheffield Theatres Trustees Board, a Governor on Rose Bruford College’s Board of Governors and Chair of the Theatre Peckham’s Board of Trustees.

Patrick Fleming: Trustee (2020– )

Buildings and Facilities Committee (2020– )

Collections Committee (2020– )

Member since 2014. Patrick spent more than twelve years at the British Library, latterly as Director of Development. During his time at the Library, Patrick also held a number of different senior roles including Head of Operations, London, Associate Director and Head of Business Change, leading a number of major initiatives including the delivery of the British Library's £33m Newspaper programme, the digital procurement to launch the British Newspaper Archive and the Library's successful procurement to appoint a partner to develop 2.8 acres of the Library's site at St Pancras. After leaving the British Libary, Patrick was CEO of the Jubilee Sailing Trust for three years. He is also a former award-winning national and regional newspaper journalist and daily newspaper editor.

Paul Gismondi: Trustee (2024– )

Development Committee (2024– )

Finance Committee (2024– )

Member since 2023

Reverend Gismondi is Priest in Charge of All Hallows on the Wall. He was ordained at St Paul’s Cathedral in 2016 and from 2020-2024, he was Domestic Chaplain in Ordinary to the Marquess of Salisbury, having previously ministered at Holy Trinity Sloane Square and the Sandringham Benefice in Norfolk.

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, his first career began on Wall Street, at The Bank of New York and then at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. Posted to the UK in 1985, he spent 24 years as a partner at Lazard & Co and also served on the boards of several publicly listed companies.

A longtime Fellow of the Morgan Library in New York, and former trustee of LAMDA, he is currently a trustee of The Trusthouse Charitable Foundation, along with two other charitable trusts.

Daisy Goodwin: Trustee (2018– )

Collections Committee (2018–2020)

Development Committee (2018– )

Membership Committee (2020– )

Member since 1990. Daisy Goodwin is a writer, journalist and BAFTA winning TV producer. After ten years at the BBC making arts documentaries, she left to join the independent sector and created a number of programmes including Grand Designs and The Nation’s Favourite Poems. In 2005, she started Silver River productions, which she sold to Sony in 2012. Alongside her TV work, Daisy has written a memoir, Silver River and two novels My Last Duchess and The Fortune Hunter, which were both New York Times bestsellers. In 2014, Daisy was commissioned to write her first screenplay, Victoria, an 8 part series for ITV and is currently writing series 3. Her charity work has included chairing the Poetry Book Society and she is currently Chair of the Women Taking Action committee that works to promote Family Partners for Action for Children, the second biggest children’s charity in the UK.

Stephanie Hall: Trustee (2020– )

Buildings & Facilities Committee (2020– )

Chairs Committee (Chair) (2020– )

Member since 2020. Stephanie Hall began her career as a university lecturer in Early Modern and Medieval English Literature, then diversifying into large scale project and programme management in the Museums and Galleries, Heritage and Universities sectors, both in the UK and internationally. She is currently the Director of The Courtauld Institute of Art's major capital transformation project at historic Grade 1-listed Somerset House, overseeing and integrating all areas, from deeply complex build and design to inspirational outreach and activity across the UK. She has previously led projects and programmes at the British Museum and Arts Council England and supported grant panels in the charity sector.

Simon King: Trustee (2023– )

Development Committee (2023– )

Nominations Committee (2023– )

A member for much of his adult life, Simon is Chief Operating Officer at Hakluyt, the strategic advisory firm for businesses and investors. He has a global role as a member of the company’s senior leadership team, and currently divides his time between New York and London. He has previously worked for the firm in Tokyo and Berlin.

Before joining Hakluyt in 2014, Simon spent 15 years as a civil servant in the British government. He spent four years in 10 Downing Street, working first for Gordon Brown and then for David Cameron. His last role in government was as director of strategy and delivery for Theresa May when she was home secretary.

Simon has a lifelong interest in philosophy and the arts. Inspired by the poet and literary critic William Empson’s encounter with Buddhist sculptures in Kyoto and Nara in the 1930s, he is currently writing a book about various cultural, intellectual and religious connections between East Asia and Western Europe. Much of his research for this has been carried out in the Library.

Charles Spicer: Trustee (2024– )

Buildings and Facilities Committee (2018– )

Collections Committee (2024– )

Member since 2012

Following a career in the City specialising in the medical sector, Charles now splits his time between writing, business and the third sector. He chairs public and private companies, and a government grant-giving body. A warden of the Fishmongers’ Company, he is also deputy chair of the Royal Humane Society and served as High Sheriff of Greater London in 2019 and as a school governor in both the state and private sectors for twenty years.

Charles is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. His first book, Coffee with Hitler: The British Amateurs Who Tried to Civilise the Nazis was published in 2022 and he is working on his next.

Charles first joined the Library’s Buildings & Facilities Committee as a Co-optee in 2018.

Rosalynn Try-Hane: Trustee (2022– )

Buildings and Facilities Committee (2022– )

Collections Committee (2022– )

Member since 2022, Rosalynn is a writer, film critic and lawyer. She is currently working on her debut book, about how she discovered her voice in Paris and silenced her inner critic during the pandemic.

She is one of the lawyers to the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry. Her other work has included regulatory roles for central government on EU Exit matters, work for public sector organisations and on high profile litigation cases.

As a film critic and writer she has provided opinion pieces on subjects such as; genre and diversity in film, foreign travel and solo dining for BBC radio and television as well as in various publications Rosalynn is passionate about amplifying marginalised voices and her charity work has included running the writers group at Clean Break Theatre Company which helps to transform the lives of women affected by their experiences with the criminal justice system.

Her favourite spot in the Library is in the 4th floor stacks overlooking the square. It was here she discovered the poetry collection of Rosemary Tonks.

Steven Whitaker: Trustee (2024– )

Buildings and Facilities Committee (2024– )

Finance Committee (2024– )

Member since 2021

Steven is currently using the Library as he studies for a part-time MA in ‘Shakespeare Studies’. He is also an advisor to Equistone, the European Private Equity firm, where he was previously Chief Operating Officer and Partner. Prior to Equistone, Steven served on the Boards of two other international Private Equity firms in London and in Frankfurt. He has represented the industry at a senior level, including as Chair of the Tax Committee of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association.

Following a degree in English Literature, Steven started his career in finance at KPMG, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant, later becoming a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

He is also a member of the Court governing the Chartered Accountants’ Livery Company and has recently become Chair of the Livery Committee.

Stephen Withnell: Trustee (2020– )

Chair Search Committee (2022–23)

Development Committee (2020– )

Nominations Committee (2022– )

Member since 2018

Stephen is a Research Fellow in the History of Art and Architecture at Campion Hall, University Oxford, where he read for a DPhil in Architectural History. His current work is focused on architecture and Catholic material culture in the nineteenth century, with a specific focus on church architecture. Stephen has published widely on architectural history, including in the Oxford Review of Books, the Georgian Group Journal, and in Rewley House Studies in the Historic Environment. Stephen completed undergraduate studies at Durham University and graduate studies at both the University of London and at INSEAD.

Stephen is also an experienced executive and non-executive director with a background in finance, strategic advisory, and corporate governance. He is a Senior Advisor to the global investment bank Evercore. He is also a Professor in Practice at Durham University. He was previously a Managing Director of Goldman Sachs. Stephen is a Patron of the Stonyhurst Foundation, an independent educational charity and endowment, of which he was the founding Director.

Jasmin Allenspach: Trustee Placement (2024–2026)

Buildings Committee (2024– )

Membership Committee (2024– )

Jasmin is a Swiss writer, educator, and award-winning theoretical physicist living between Zurich and London. She graduated top of her year with an MSc in Physics from ETH Zurich, part of which she spent at Magdalen College, Oxford. She has taught physics and maths at university and secondary schools. Her research seeks to unite the largest and smallest scales in our universe.

Jasmin joined the Library upon winning a place on its Emerging Writers Programme in 2022. Speaking seven languages, she writes in English despite being a native Swiss German speaker. In 2023, she was awarded a Tin House Scholarship (USA). In addition to her own writing, Jasmin applies her scientific precision and knack for languages as a freelance editor.

With a lifelong passion for community building, Jasmin co-runs an international writers’ workshop. Her previous charity work and public speaking have centred on education and policy making, with a focus on disadvantaged communities. She has been volunteering for the Library ever since joining and is thrilled to continue to champion its cause as a Trustee Placement.

When not dissecting sentences or equations, Jasmin trains in classical ballet and performs with a professional dance collective.

Elliot Prior: Trustee Placement (2024–2026)

Collections Committee (2024– )

Finance Committee (2024– )

Member since 2023

Elliot works a short walk round the corner from the Library in the books department of The Curtis Brown Group. His focus is on finding talented new writers, particularly in non-fiction. His other roles in publishing have included scouting at Eccles Fisher Associates, translation rights at Curtis Brown, and an internship at Albatros Agency in Sweden.

Before joining the book trade, Elliot worked as an English Literature teacher at King's College Wimbledon and Hampton College. He has a BA in English Literature and an MA in Anthropology.