We are very pleased to announce that we have appointed two highly qualified and experienced new Trustees to our Board.

Julian Bates has recently retired from being a Partner in a London-based real estate business which he joined some 40 years ago as a new graduate. Since then, he worked alongside founding colleagues to grow the business from an original staff of seven to the current 1100 employees. Julian describes his specialist interest as being business development and client management, two areas of expertise that we will be very happy to call upon. He is also passionate about education and is currently the Deputy Chair of the Board of Governors of the highly acclaimed Kingsbridge Academy.

Julian is married with two grown-up daughters and now lives in South Devon, conveniently close to the charity’s registered address and its CEO. He has travelled to Nepal many times  but only as a trekker and is looking forward to supporting the charity ‘in this most beautiful country’ and getting to know the people and our fantastic colleagues.

Nick Hinton is a former Commanding Officer of a Gurkha battalion who speaks fluent Nepali and who has, of course, a close personal knowledge of Nepal and affection for its people.

After Nick left the Army he spent 20 years leading various global programmes for IBM. Since retiring from full-time work in 2018, he has been active in various charities related to Nepal and the Gurkhas, and is Chairman of the Britain-Nepal NGO Network (BRANNGO) of which Pipal Tree is a member. He visits Nepal on a regular basis and on his last visit had his first opportunity to see for himself our project work in Kathmandu valley and in Janakpur area.

Nick is married with two daughters and (so far) four grandchildren. He and his wife live in Hertfordshire.

A huge welcome to both Julian and Nick who alongside their Trustee responsibilities will be taking a very hands-on role in our daily activities, thereby allowing Pipal Tree to expand and rise to the greater challenges that lie ahead in the coming time.