Structure, Governance and Management
Structure
The operation of the Foundation is governed by a Trust Deed dated 10 October 1958.
At 5 April 2008, the Foundation owned 79.2 percent of Wittington Investments Limited, a company registered in England. Wittington Investments is the ultimate holding company of Associated British Foods plc, which is listed on the International Stock Exchange, and Fortnum and Mason plc and Heal’s plc. Under the terms of the Trust Deed, the investment in the Wittington Investments Limited group of companies forms the permanent capital endowment of the Foundation and the Trustees may not dispose of those investments except by a unanimous vote of all the Trustees.
Governance and management
In accordance with the Trust Deed, after the death of Mr W Garfield Weston and his wife, their descendants became trustees. The number of trustees is limited to ten but must be at least five. If the number of trustees drops below five, new trustees fall to be appointed from amongst the lineal descendants of W Garfield Weston. In December 2007 Nancy Baron expressed a wish to retire as a trustee and her daughter Melissa Murdoch was appointed in her place.
The Trustees are very sad to report the death of Miriam Burnett on 12 March 2008. Mrs Burnett was the eldest of the 9 children of Mr W Garfield Weston. She was a woman of enormous character, a guardian of the ethos and principles of the Foundation and also a compassionate and much loved mother, aunt, sister and colleague. She will be most sorely missed.
Being family members, incoming Trustees are aware of the aims and objectives of the Foundation and the manner in which the Trustees carry out their responsibilities. Nearly all of the Trustees are on the board of other charitable entities either in the UK or the United States. The Foundation is a member of the Foundation’s Forum and also receives the main charities’ journals. This ensures that the Trustees are well placed to keep up to date with developments in charity practice and regulations. In addition, the Trustees receive direct information in relation to important areas from both their secretary, who attends monthly meetings and is a practising lawyer with expertise in the charities’ field, and from their auditors UHY Hacker Young LLP.
The Trustees are directly responsible for the management of the Foundation and hold regular meetings in order to consider grant applications for more than £100,000 and to ratify grants which have been made since their previous meeting. While the initial processing of grant applications is dealt with by the administrator, every application is seen by at least one of the Trustees. The Trustees also hold an annual meeting in order to adopt the Annual Report and Accounts and to carry out a formal review of the fulfilment of the Charity’s aims and objectives and the investment performance over the year.
The Trustees would like to record their grateful thanks to Mrs Fiona Hare for the contribution she has made to the Foundation over her nearly twelve years’ service as administrator. Over that time, the numbers of applications received and level of grants made have increased substantially and the systems and procedures which Fiona put in place have enabled the Trustees to support a broad range of charitable projects with the minimum of administrative costs. The Trustees are delighted to welcome Philippa Charles as Fiona’s successor and wish Fiona a well-earned retirement.
Risk management
The Trustees are satisfied that appropriate protection, systems and checks remain in place in order to mitigate exposure to major risks. The Trustees have begun a review of their computer systems in order to ensure that they continue to satisfy the Foundation’s requirements and can be maintained adequately.
The Trustees regularly review the levels of risk with their independent investment managers ensuring they are commensurate with investment returns. As a result of this review the Trustees have replaced Sarasin Chiswell with Unigestion with the aim of achieving a better overall rate of return and reduced risk – see the section of this report headed ‘Investment Performance’ for further details. The Trustees also regularly review the performance of the underlying assets in the Wittington Investments Limited Group.