The Rix Centre Trustees
Rudi Mueller CBE, Chairman of Trustees
Graduating from the University of Geneva with a degree equivalent to an MBA, he held numerous senior management positions in Switzerland, the Far East and London during a career with the Union Bank of Switzerland. He was Chief Executive and Chairman of the UBS in London and a Member of the Banks Group Executive Board until 1998. He has held Board Directorships in a variety of international companies, among them the London Stock Exchange and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
In recognition of his work in the financial services industry he was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1997 and, through his work with the Rix Centre, was awarded a Doctor of Business Administration (honoris causa) from the University of East London in 2005. He is committed to helping the Rix Centre achieve its aim of ensuring that those with learning disabilities can lead more independent lives through the use of the latest IT and multi-media technology.
Brain Baldock CBE, Trustee
After working as a director for a number of blue-chip companies, he joined the main board of Guinness plc in 1986, retiring in 1996 as Group Managing Director and Deputy Chairman. He was awarded the CBE in the 1997 Birthday Honours List.
He was a director of Marks & Spencer plc from October 1996 and Chairman from June 1999 to February 2000. He is a past Chairman of Lord Taverners (1992 to 1994). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Companion of the British Institute of Management and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
Since becoming Chairman of Mencap in December 1998, he has ensured that people with a learning disability are now at the heart of everything that Mencap does. Brian has been one of the first to acknowledge the potential for innovative technology to improve communication for people with a learning disability, and steered the establishment of the Rix Centre at the University of East London, dedicated to the use of technology to support those with disabilities.
Jonathan Rix, Trustee
Jonathan Rix represents the Rix family on the board of Trustees and has personal experience of learning disabilities as a parent, sibling and practitioner. He is a lecturer in Inclusion, Curriculum and Learning at the Open University. He researches and writes on inclusive pedagogies and policies, parental perspectives and issues of access for people with learning disabilities, and has been an advisor for the Departments for Education and Skills and Department of Health Early Support programme.
He has worked in education in many different settings. He spent 13 years as a support teacher in a Hackney Secondary School, as well as working in theatre-in-education, as a writer-in-residence in prisons, and with community arts groups in different parts of the UK. He has won awards as a novelist, playwright, and author of audio tour guides, as well as being a contributor to two books on theatre history, and the academic advisor on two Open University - BBC series, ‘School Day’ and ‘Nobody’s Normal’.
Anthony McClellan, Trustee
Tony McClellan has had a successful corporate career first with Ferranti Limited, as marketing research manager, and then with Geo. Bassett & Co. Ltd, as group industrial engineer with responsibility for five group factories. He then worked as regional general manager and Marketing Director for Carryfast Ltd, then a division of Unilever. He led an MBO of Carryfast, purchasing it from Unilever to build it into the largest ambulance manufacturer in the UK, when it was sold to UBS. After leaving Carryfast in 1997, he became part owner and director of Gifa SA, the leading manufacturer of ambulances in France. He is, a Member of the British Institute of Management, a Member of the Institute of Logistics and Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Member of the Board of Management of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Member of the Board of the Foundation of the Academy of American Ophthalmology.
He has had a long interest in the development and use of modern communication methods and technologies in assisting people with learning disabilities to flourish in today’s world. This interest stems from tackling the problems of his own daughter, who is a Downs Syndrome child. The great opportunity to become a Trustee of the Rix Centre allows him to support in a very tangible way this very important work.
