• The Quintin Hogg Trust and the Quintin Hogg Memorial Fund are independent charities founded in memory of the Victorian merchant, educator and philanthropist Quintin Hogg.

The Quintin Hogg Trust’s sole purpose is to support the advancement of education of students at the University of Westminster – in keeping with our founder’s lifelong work. The Trust derives its income from a portfolio of Central London property and investments, and aims to allocate all income to projects that fit our purpose.

The Quintin Hogg Memorial Fund supports the education of students of the University through the provision of facilities for their recreation, and is permitted to use those facilities to support other young persons.

As charities, the Trust and Memorial Fund are managed by a Board of Trustees who oversee its finances and decide which activities it will fund.

Patron:

  • The Hon. Dame Mary Hogg DBE - Patron

    The Hon. Dame Mary Hogg DBE - Patron

    Dame Mary has served as a governor of the University and Trustee of the Quintin Hogg Trust since the mid 1980s.

    A direct descendant of Quintin Hogg, Mary’s contribution to the Trust as the Hogg family representative has been considerable. Mary strongly believes in the Trust's aims and in particular the way it can support students. In her time as a Trustee, she has seen the Trust increase its focus on the needs of students and the University as a whole. Dame Mary retired as a member of the Board of Trustees in April to become QHT’s first Patron, thus maintaining a direct link with the Hogg family.

    Photography: David Freeman - University of Westminster

Trustees

There are currently 12 Trustees who come from a range of professional areas reflecting the requirements of a modern forward thinking Board and in alignment with the needs of an Educational Institution.

The Trustees offer a broad range of expertise related to the Trust’s aims and activities; comprising of Academics, Property, including development, management, and risk, Finance, Law, Accountancy and Alumni of the University of Westminster.

  • Mr Bill Weston

    Mr Bill Weston

    Bill became a trustee in October 2019 and was appointed Chair of the Trustees in April 2021. With over 35 years’ experience working in financial services, initially as an investment manager and for the last fourteen years, as a risk, compliance and governance specialist, Bill brings his expertise in managing project and sales risk to help reinforce the Trust’s oversight of all of its charitable activities.

    Bill is highly supportive of the Trust and its goals and has a particular interest in projects that provide expanded opportunities to students from a wide variety of backgrounds and in particular those projects that promote physical and mental wellbeing.

  • Dr Geoffrey Copland CBE

    Dr Geoffrey Copland CBE

    Geoffrey first joined the Trustees in 1996 in an ex officio role as the then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Westminster. When he retired from the latter post in 2007, he remained a Trustee, bringing to the role an unparalleled insight into higher education funding.

    Over his time in post, he has seen the Trust become both increasingly independent of the University and increasingly professional in its operations. He is personally particularly supportive of initiatives that broaden the student experience beyond the core curriculum and of programmes that support students from less advantaged backgrounds.

    Photography: David Freeman - University of Westminster

  • Mrs Joanna Embling

    Mrs Joanna Embling

    Joanna views her time as a mature student at the University of Westminster as the foundation of her career in the property industry. Keen to support the University, she became a Trustee in July 2013.

    She has worked with several universities and colleges as an adviser on estate matters and as a member of the governing body. Drawing on that knowledge, she has been instrumental in the professionalisation of the Trust’s role as landlord to the University. Joanna is highly supportive of the Trust funding field trips for those who otherwise may not have been able to afford to participate.

    Photography: David Freeman - University of Westminster

  • Dr Ann Rumpus

    Dr Ann Rumpus

    A former lecturer at the University of Westminster, Ann joined the Board of Trustees in April 2017 becoming Deputy Chair in April 2021. Throughout her career, she has worked in a range of roles promoting the widening of education. She led the establishment of the University’s Educational Development Unit and has chaired both the Westminster Education Action Zone and the London Open College Network.

    Ann has long been aware of the Trust and its goals and views the support for the 125 Fund as a great example of the Trust’s value to individual students. She hopes to see more applications for funding cross-discipline projects.

    Photography: David Freeman - University of Westminster

  • Mrs Victoria Batten

    Mrs Victoria Batten

    Victoria has 20 years’ experience in asset management. She attributes her continued professional success to the foundations laid while an undergraduate at the University of Westminster. Victoria joined the Trust in the summer of 2019 and is excited about becoming involved with the planned development of the Chiswick site. As a former captain of the women’s boat club, Victoria has many fond memories of Chiswick and is looking forward to seeing it thrive.

    Victoria has been actively engaged with the University since graduating, including the Alumni Association, the mentoring programme and is a supporter of the 125 Fund. In 2014 she was awarded an honorary doctorate.

  • JIFREE CADER

    JIFREE CADER

    Jifree is a partner at an international law firm at which he co-heads the London restructuring team. He has been in private practice for over 15 years advising debtors, creditors and private equity sponsors in distressed situations.

    Appointed as a Trustee of the Quintin Hogg Trust in 2024, Jifree is passionate about the value of education and is excited to be working with his fellow Trustees in advancing the educational experience of students through the work of the Trust.

    Jifree graduated with a Law degree from the University of Westminster in 2005 and considers his experience at University and support received at that time from both the University and the Trust to have been a pivot point in his life and the launchpad for his career as a lawyer.

  • Andrew Saunders Davies

    Andrew Saunders Davies

    Andrew is a Chartered Surveyor with over 30 years experience of mixed use property development and planning, a large part of his career being spent with the Berkeley Group. He attended Henley Business School, and has operated at a strategic and detailed level and is very experienced at managing large scale property developments. Appointed as a Trustee of the Quintin Hogg Trust in December 2020, Andrew is very keen and excited about utilising his expertise to help optimise the potential of the Trust’s land holdings, which are situated in central London and at Chiswick. He is now focussing his attention on organisations that are adding real value to society, particularly through education and he is a firm believer in ensuring everyone has access to a good and effective education.

    Andrew already has experience as a non-executive director and is currently training as a Magistrate.

  • Ms Paula Doyle

    Ms Paula Doyle

    Paula Doyle joined the Quintin Hogg Trust Board as a Trustee in April 2021, she is also a member of the Governance and Nominations committee. Paula, as an experienced Board member has extensive knowledge on the handling of legal matters at board level and brings this skill together with experience of dealing with equality related legislation to the Trust.

    Paula is the Chief Legal Innovation Officer at World Commerce & Contracting, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to promoting better contracts for a better society. A lawyer by training, Paula has extensive experience in industry, working strategically as part of the European legal management team at IBM for many years. Prior to that, she worked in private practice.

    Paula is passionate about equal access to education and co-led a pressure group that successfully convinced the UK government to change the law, affording children adopted from abroad the right to priority access to schools alongside children adopted domestically.

  • Liz Duff

    Liz Duff

    Liz was formerly a lecturer and more recently Head of the Law School at the University of Westminster; she joined the Board of Trustees in July 2022. Throughout her academic career, she has focussed predominantly in the areas of equality and diversity, carrying out research and consultancy for the Law Society of England and Wales and the Legal Services Board.

    Liz is passionate about education providing transformational growth and opportunities for students and looks forward to assisting the Trust in achieving its goals and objectives.

  • Maria Semedalas

    Maria Semedalas

    Maria is an international banking executive and board member. The early part of her career was spent at the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago. She then relocated to Europe where she spent the past 25+ years in the UK and Greece in senior roles at The Northern Trust, Citibank, JP Morgan and BNY Mellon. Maria is an accountant and internal auditor by training and experience and has held a broad range of roles.

    Maria’s personal passion is in the area of Equality, Diversity, & Inclusion, supporting and mentoring on gender, family, and career development issues.

  • Mark Pryce

    Mark Pryce

    Mark holds a Bachelor of Business Science degree with Honours in Finance from the University of Cape Town. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and CFA Charter holder.

    In his most recent role he served as Financial Director of Atlantic Leaf Properties, a UK REIT owned by the private equity group, Apollo Global Management. He has over 20 years of working experience in the financial services industry with extensive experience in real estate, investment banking, corporate finance and fund management obtained in New York, London, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

    “I look forward to supporting the finance and investment committee of the Trust and contributing to delivering meaningful projects that provide real tangible benefits to the students of the University of Westminster.”

Governance & Business Manager

  • Anne Engstrom

    Anne Engstrom

    Anne studied Politics at Canterbury University, New Zealand 1999-2002, relocated to the UK in 2005 and worked in local government, parliamentary, national, and international political membership organisations. Having seen the part that the “not for profit” sector played over the 2-year Covid lockdown period, in particular the important role that Charities played in helping vulnerable groups, Anne actively sought a role within the Charity Sector.

    Anne, in her role as Governance and Business Manager, looks forward to assisting the Quintin Hogg Trust in identifying and supporting projects that enhance the “student experience”, alongside this she will also be supporting the Trustees in all areas of the Trusts work.

Our values

Independent and objective

We are not part of the University of Westminster and make our decisions on funding purely on the basis of our objects – the advancement of education of the students of the University of Westminster.

Energetic and challenging

We actively seek out projects that meet this objective. For example, we have introduced a protocol that at least one application each year should come from the Students’ Union.

Thoughtful and open

We are keen to examine wholly new ideas that meet our purpose and can offer seed funding for new initiatives or to support cutting-edge research. We are also open to applications for funding to support international students at the University of Westminster.

Celebrating our past to drive our future

We believe that Quintin Hogg’s aspirations and values should continue to underpin education today and tomorrow.