Our people

Richard Williams MC

Chair

Richard was commissioned into the Welsh Guards in 1986 and returned to the Army after university. He went on to a number of training and command roles and served in many theatres throughout a varied operational career. He left the Army as a Major in 1999 and went on to work at the Cabinet Office and in senior executive roles in insurance and banking. He has been a trustee of veterans’ and youth development charities for over twenty years and became Chair of Royal Star & Garter in July 2025.

Francoise Bathews (British Red Cross appointee)

Vice Chair

Francoise Bathews is an experienced senior leader in health, social care and crisis response, with specialist expertise in trauma‑informed practice, safeguarding, EDI, and high‑quality regulated service delivery. 

Francoise previously served as South East Director of Health and Local Crisis Response at the British Red Cross, where she led national crisis services, High Intensity Use programmes and major health portfolios grounded in humanitarian values. Since June 2026, she has been part of the Consensus leadership team, supporting people with learning disabilities, autism and complex needs to thrive in safe, person‑centred regulated services.

She joined the Royal Star & Garter Board in 2023, bringing over 25 years of operational and strategic leadership across learning disability services, mental health and forensic settings, supported housing, advocacy, and humanitarian crisis response. She serves on Royal Star & Garter’s Audit, Assurance & Risk Committee.

Maria Byford

Air Vice-Marshal (Retd) Maria Byford is currently an RAF Reservist supporting the Chief of Air Staff following retirement from full-time service in 2024.

She originally joined in 1991 after graduating from Kings’ College London with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery. For the first half of her career, she looked after patients in dental centres and military hospitals across the globe. Leaving clinical delivery behind, Maria served in a wide variety of command and staff appointments across Defence and, in her last assignment, was appointed Chief of Staff Personnel and Air Secretary. Maria is passionate about veterans and their families - her father served in the RAF for 27 years and she is married to Alistair, a retired RAF fast jet pilot.

Maria joined the Royal Star & Garter Board in 2018 as the Ministry of Defence appointee and on her retirement from service was appointed as a Governor. She is a member of the Finance and Audit, Assurance & Risk committees and a trustee of Care for Veterans.

Stephen Crookbain

Stephen Crookbain is a Senior Client Partner at Korn Ferry, a global organisational consulting firm where he leads the firm’s UK Executive Search business for Government & Public Services.

Stephen joined Korn Ferry following six years in Government; initially running an Arm’s Length Body of the MOD and then serving as a Senior Civil Servant in the Cabinet Office, where he worked across a wide range of briefs including national resilience, the national Covid-19 response and leadership development. Stephen was the UK Government’s Director of Leadership, and he played a leading role in the establishment of the National Leadership Centre.

Stephen’s first career was spent in the British Army, leading soldiers on three operational tours as an officer in the Royal Artillery. He has a bachelor’s degree in Archaeology from Durham University and a master’s degree in Conflict, Security and Development from King’s College London.

Stephen joined the Royal Star & Garter Board in 2023 and he chairs the Nominations Committee.

Carolyn Eastwood

Carolyn Eastwood has worked as a Consultant Psychiatrist for Older Adults at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust since 2003. She sub-specialises in dementia, working primarily in the memory clinic, but has significant expertise in all areas of older people’s mental health (OPMH). She has been involved in training and appraising all grades of doctors. Carolyn has been involved in service development in several aspects of OPMH.

She is also a Director of Eastwood Mind and Memory Ltd providing Specialist mental capacity assessments.

Carolyn qualified from the University of Birmingham Medical School in 1992. She spent a year working as a GP in Australia before embarking of her Psychiatry training.

Her father served in the RAF for 12 years, many of those were spent flying Shackletons in Coastal Command.

Carolyn joined the Royal Star & Garter Board in 2019 and chairs the Care Committee.

Anna Harrison

Anna Harrison is currently a Nurse Partner and an Advanced Nurse Practitioner in a large General Practice in West Sussex. Her main interests include a focus on nurse education and development, as well as developing services closer to home for elderly populations and those requiring rehabilitation following injury or illness.

She started her nursing career after qualifying as Registered Nurse in 1983 at The Middlesex Hospital in London. Following her move to West Sussex in 1986, she has continued to develop her nursing skills in the Community and Primary care settings.

Through family links, Anna has always had an interest in caring for members of the veteran community. Her father completed his officer training in India and served in Egypt after the war. Her partner is an ex-RAF veteran having completed 14 years' service.

Anna joined the Care for Veterans board in 2020 the Royal Star & Garter board in 2025. She is currently a member of the Care Committee.

Luke Houghton (Defence Medical Services appointee)

Luke Houghton was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff (Health) and Head RAF Medical Services in July 2026 after completing the Global Strategy Programme at the Royal College of Defence Studies.

He originally joined the RAF in 1995 as a medical cadet, going on to become a GP and Senior Medical Officer with experience in the UK and on operations in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan, before moving into Command and Staff appointments including Senior Medical Adviser to the Permanent Joint Headquarters and Standing Joint Headquarters during COVID.

As Air Commodore, he has undertaken tours in healthcare planning including responsibility for healthcare transformation programmes and as Head of Medical Operational Capability for the Defence Medical Services, including a period as Acting Surgeon General.

Luke joined the Royal Star & Garter Board by the Defence Medical Services in July 2024 and is a member of the Audit, Assurance & Risk committee. He is also a trustee of Care for Veterans.

Asoka Karandawala

Asoka Karandawala is an independent Finance Director and Management Consultant to organisations in healthcare, technology and charity sectors, as well as growing companies in other sectors.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

Asoka began his career in accounting and audit consulting before becoming the CFO of Cromwell Hospital. He then spent twenty years working on a consulting basis for a variety of finance strategy engagements across a range of organisations.

Asoka joined the Royal Star & Garter Board in 2023. He chairs the Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Finance Committee.

Sapan Maini-Thompson

Sapan Maini-Thompson is a barrister at Outer Temple Chambers specialising in employment, public law and professional discipline.

After graduating from Oxford University in History & Politics, he completed a Master’s degree in Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and an LLM at University College London, specialising in labour law, comparative public law and the conflict of laws in commercial disputes.

Prior to joining the Bar, Sapan worked as a legal representative for the Cleaners and Allied Independent Workers Union (CAIWU) and as a researcher for the Uyghur Tribunal. Sapan received a Queen Mother scholarship from Middle Temple.

Sapan was appointed to the Attorney General’s C Panel of Counsel in his first year of eligibility. He represents government departments across a wide range of private and public litigation including employment, prison law, equalities, social welfare, data protection and immigration.

Sapan maintains a keen academic interest in legal affairs and has written extensively for the UK Human Rights Blog, the New Law Journal and various other outlets.

He joined the Royal Star & Garter Board in 2023.

Treasurer

William Reid is Head of Charities at Quilter Cheviot, holds a BA in Economics and is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment (CISI).

Prior to his city career, William spent a decade working in the Royal Navy, including seven years in the Submarine Service.

His city career in investment management began in 2002 and has managed charitable and private client portfolios since 2003.

Amongst his other charitable commitments, he is Trustee and former Vice Chair of the Seafarers' Charity and chairs the Finance Committee for Royal Navy Rugby Union. Historically, he has acted as the independent adviser to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity (RNRMC), has served as a school Governor and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts.

William joined the Royal Star & Garter Board in 2016, was appointed Treasurer in 2023 and chairs the Finance Committee.

Chris Sexton

Chris Sexton is an independent consultant in major infrastructure projects. He was Technical Director and Deputy CEO of Crossrail, the project to build London’s Elizabeth line metro, from 2010 to 2020. He works principally on UK Government infrastructure programmes and in the energy sector’s transformation to Net Zero. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Royal Engineers and is a Fellow and former President of the Chartered Quality Institute.

He was commissioned from Sandhurst into the Royal Engineers where he spent the next 30 years in engineering, leadership, and management appointments around the world. He is an alumnus of the Indian National Defence College in New Delhi. Military appointments included policy adviser in the MOD, Director of Army Recruiting, CEO of the Royal School of Military Engineering and Engineer in Chief of the Army.

Chris joined the Royal Star & Garter Board in 2023 and chairs the Audit, Assurance & Risk Committee.

David Staples

Vice Chair

Dr David Staples is a Consultant Physician in Acute Internal Medicine and Director of Urgent and Emergency Care at Northwest Anglia NHS Foundation Trust. He is lead consultant for the rapid diagnostic service and is a clinical advisor to the various National Ombudsmen in general and emergency medicine. 

Outside his clinical work he has led a large multinational membership organisation at CEO level for five years, holds a variety of Board and NED interests and was founding chairman of the Centre for Theology and Community in East London.  He spent 10 years as a naval reservist teaching coastal navigation in the years before GPS and splits his time between North Cambridgeshire and West London.

David joined the board in 2019. He is Co-Vice Chair of the Board of Governors at Royal Star & Garter and is a member of the Care and Audit, Assurance & Risk committees.

Julie Thain-Smith

Julie Thain-Smith worked in the NHS for 19 years, training as both a general nurse and midwife, until she commissioned into the Royal Navy full-time from the Reserves in 1998.

Her roles during 19 years as an Officer in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing Service included that of Assistant Head for strategic commissioning at HQ Surgeon General and strategic workforce planner for the Royal Navy Medical Service. Operational deployments included those to Iraq and Afghanistan where she was Chief Medical Adviser to the Commander of the ISAF mission. On retiring from the Armed Forces, she worked as Head of Clinical Services/Clinical Advisor with an organisation in the Third Sector covering the UK.

Julie joined the Royal Star & Garter Board in January 2015. She currently serves on the Care Committee, previously with the Strategy Committee and also chaired the Governor Recruitment Committee (now Nominations).

David Williams

David Williams enjoyed a 27-year banking career with Barclays in London, New York and Singapore, specialising in risk management, and served as a non-executive director of the Bank of London and The Middle East from 2025 to 2026.

He is a former Regular and Reserve Royal Artillery officer, having served in the UK, Germany and the Falkland Islands. His last appointment was as Battery Commander of 265 (Home Counties) Battery, Royal Artillery, in South East London

In 2015 David became a trustee of Haig Housing Trust, the UK's leading provider of housing for veterans and their families, and served as Chair of Trustees from 2019 to 2025. He joined the trustee board of Care for Veterans in 2019 and was appointed Chairman in 2023.

Following Care for Veterans' merger with Royal Star & Garter in 2025, David was appointed a Governor of Royal Star & Garter. He is a member of the Finance Committee.