Meet the External Trustee's - Alison Griffin

Name: Alison Griffin

Occupation: Director of Finance – London Borough of Bexley

Board Member Since: July 2013

Other Guild Involvement: Guild President 1994-95

I’m Alison Griffin and I’m really proud to be the Chair of Trustees of the Guild. I’m an External Trustee. My day job is Director of Finance at the London Borough of Bexley and I’ve had a number of other local government roles throughout my career. I’ve also held a number of other trustee roles, most notably Treasurer of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) a national charity which aims to eradicate child poverty in the UK.

I was a student at Birmingham over 20 years ago studying Maths and Theology, I was a Guild Councillor, Chair of the Standing Committee – ComAc (society for student volunteering in the local community) and finally President of Guild in 1994/5. During my year as President I was elected to the National Executive of NUS and then became National Secretary in 1996/7.

The Guild played a huge role in my student experience and it is an honour and privilege to be able to serve Guild members again as Chair of the Trustee Board. I see my role and that of the other external trustees as ensuring that the Guild is a sustainable membership organisation, using all its resources and endeavours to engage with its members and provide the best student experience possible both now and in the years to come. The future direction, policies and priorities of the Guild are defined by the officer team and students, my role with the other external trustees is to help the Board explore and ‘test’ the ideas so that they are implemented successfully with an eye on the long term too.”