Trustees

Peter Cousins (President)

Peter is a former Managing Director for Lloyds Banking Group.

Belinda Coote (chair)

Much of my career has been in international development, of which 18 years were with Oxfam. I left Oxfam in 2002 and I took on a number of consultancies and CEO roles in small to medium sized NGOs until retiring from paid employment in 2018. I stepped down as Chair of Refugee Resource in 2024 and became a mentor with Charity Mentors Oxfordshire.

I began my career as a youth and community worker and then as a Probation Officer in Central London.

Jennifer Hill

Jennifer is an experienced European executive and transformation leader with a career-long commitment to education, commercial strategy, and governance. She currently serves on the European Executive at Smollan, where she leads large-scale operational change and governance across international markets. Her professional expertise lies in turning complex challenges into clear structures, aligning diverse stakeholders, and fostering cultures of high trust and sustainable value.

In addition to her corporate leadership, Jennifer has significant experience in board-level governance within the education sector. Most recently, she served as Chair of Governors for a primary school, where she provided strategic oversight for safeguarding, financial performance, and curriculum development. Jennifer began her career as a primary school teacher, giving her a foundational understanding of inclusive education and the specific needs of learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

As the mother of a talented autistic musician, a gifted chorister, composer, and multi-instrumentalist, Jennifer brings a deeply personal perspective to the Board. She has witnessed first-hand how music acts as a “bridge” for her son, providing a vital language for emotional regulation, identity, and joy. Jennifer is a passionate advocate for autism acceptance and is dedicated to helping OSJ Music for Autism extend these transformative musical sanctuaries to more families and children.

Michele Smith (Treasurer)

“My career has largely involved administration and finance, most recently as bursar of an Oxford College. Over the last ten years I have developed the concert venue SJE Arts and came across John Lubbock and the OSJ and was totally taken by the sheer quality and musicality of the performances they gave. While I can’t play an instrument nor can I sing, music is extremely important to me. I joined the board as Trustee in 2019.”

Michael Taylor

After studying for a year in the USA, Michael began his working life as a free church minister for 10 years, then head of a thoelgoical college while teaching Christian Social Ethics in the University of Manchester.  He became Director of Christian Aid in 1985, President of the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham in 1997 and Professor of Social Theology in Birmingham University in 2001.  He has chaired a number of charities including MAG (mines clearance), the Burma Campaign and Oxford and District Mencap. He works with refugees and homeless people and on climate change. He has written mainly on thoelogy and development.

He loves music but no longer plays and, having a daughter with special needs, was especially attracted to OSJ sharing its wonderful music-making with people with autism.

Sir Tom Shebbeare

Tom has been lucky enough to have had a ‘career’ developing, managing and helping to fund Charities and not-for-profit ventures in the UK and elsewhere. Following a decade with the Council of Europe (Strasbourg) he was appointed (1987-2010) The Prince’s Trust’s first Director. The charity has rightly become a substantial  feather in the cap of our new King. He has also chaired The Royal Parks Foundation, Virgin Money Giving, Virgin StartUp and China Exchange. He is a former Barclay Fellow of Green Templeton College (Oxford) and Trustee of the Turquoise Mountain Foundation (Afghanistan)

Tom has chaired Spring Films, a documentary filmmaker, since 2010 and is a Deputy Lord Lieutenant (DL) for Oxfordshire. 

Edward Mott

Ted co-founded Oxford Capital in 1999 to add support to the ‘new economy’ and to broaden access to venture capital for wealthy families and institutional investors around the world.

He chairs the Board and is a member of the Investment Committee at Oxford Capital. With over 30 years of experience as a business leader, investment manager and company director, Ted is a keen promoter of strong governance and sustainability in both mature listed businesses and younger high growth companies, having worked across a multitude of sectors in several countries. Following an early career in the US with Corning Glass Inc. where he was involved with the early commercialisation of fibre optics, he then pursued a career in investment banking with American, European and Asian banks in corporate finance, emerging markets and structured finance, before heading HSBC’s capital markets division based in Hong Kong. He later served the wealth manager GAM in London with responsibility for both institutional and private clients before co-founding Oxford Capital. Ted is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and an INSEAD MBA, and is fluent in French and German.

Ted is also a keen sailor and gardener.

Liz Cooper (Safeguarding)

Liz Cooper has a career in both mainstream and special education with a specialist knowledge of  working with autistic children and young people. She first encountered John Lubbock through Music for Autism visiting a school she was working at in 2011 and was inspired by the impact such a visit has. She continued to organise visits from MfA at schools she worked at until 2023.

Liz has been interested in music for a long time and has was involved with Hampshire Youth Orchestra when her son was a member of the group.

Music is very important to her and she has an eclectic mix of interests from folk music to classical . When she lived in Prague for several years , she enjoyed the many opportunities to listen to music around the city .