The Union has a Board of Trustees which is legally responsible for making sure that the Union remains here long into the future. This means they may occasionally take legal, commercial or human resources decisions that cannot be overruled by students. The External Trustees, provide a voice on the Board that is independent of the Officers.
Why do we have a Trustee Board?
In 2010 the Union set up its first ever charity-law compliant trustee board, in line with our charity status application to the UK Charities Commission.
It is an essential part of becoming a charity, that a Trustee Board is there to help oversee governance and scrutinise performance of the charity to ensure it is compliant with the charitable objectives. There are many types of objective that make a charity - you can find more detail around charity objectives.
Later, in 2015, the Students’ Union incorporated as a Company Limited by Guarantee and became a new charity. The Articles of Association is the governing document of our Trustee Board. This outlines all of our structures and procedures, along with how they should be operating.
What is the Trustee Board?
The Trustee Board is the Students’ Union’s governing body. They must meet no less than four times a year. This brings together a group of people internally and externally that use their experience and expertise to help set the Students’ Union’s strategic direction and ensure the longevity and sustainability of the Students’ Union. Alongside this, the Trustee Board is responsible for holding the senior leadership team to account on their performance in fulfilling the Students’ Union’s charitable objectives.
What does the uea(su) Trustee Board look like?
The Trustees shall appoint an External Trustee to be the Chair of the Trustees. The Chair of the Students’ Union Trustee Board is Yinbo Yu, who has held the position since 2024. The Deputy Chair of the Trustee Board is Olivia Hunt who will be supporting the Chair.
The make-up of the Trustee Board for 2025-26 is as follows:
Full Time Officer Trustees
- Olivia Hunt – Deputy Chair
- Chris Kershaw
- Bhaskar Shivanna
- Turaiya Lemard
- Amjad Daher
Student Trustees
- Vacant
- Vacant
- Vacant
- Vacant
External Trustees
- Yinbo Yu – Chair
- Peter Robertson
- Katerina Iliopoulou
- Peter Mason
- Vacant
- Vacant
Agendas and minutes
Please note that some links in the agendas are only available to Trustees.
If you would like to request access to any of the documents where the links are broken, or request access to restricted documents please contact our Governance and Democracy Coordinator via su.governance@uea.ac.uk.
Trustees make a declaration of all their interests which may affect their work for the Union - you can find these here in the Register of Interests.