Our leadership team

Olivia Marks-Woldman OBE, Chief Executive Officer

I joined the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) as Chief Executive in February 2012. I have overseen the growth of Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) around the country and a hugely increased media presence.

I believe passionately that everyone, regardless of age or background, should know about the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution of other groups and more recent genocides, and should set aside time to remember all those who suffered. I feel privileged to be working for an organisation that enables people to do this, that encourages people to consider their own responsibilities, and that puts the life stories of those who were murdered and those who survived at the centre of commemorations.

Before joining HMDT, I worked in a number of other charities, mainly in roles that involved political lobbying, policy development and stakeholder engagement. I am also a trustee of the children’s disability charity, Kids. 

Paul Lopez-Salzedo, Chief Operating Officer

Paul joined the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) as Chief Operating Officer in October 2024. Paul brings his multi-sector experience to the leadership team. As well as many years experience in charity leadership he has also held senior management positions in manufacturing, environmental and security sectors. 

He believes passionately in our collective mission to build a better world through compassion, tolerance and understanding. 

Paul is a keen repairer and regularly volunteers at his local repair cafes.

Trustees

Our Trustees are from a broad range of backgrounds and contribute to our work through regular board meetings and liaison with our staff team.

Each Trustee stands for a minimum of one three-year term, and is eligible to be re-elected for one further three-year term after this time. Three of the places on our board are reserved for those from the Board of Deputies and two for the Holocaust Educational Trust.

 

Sir Sajid Javid, Chair

A former Member of Parliament, Sir Sajid served in the UK Government in several roles, including as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Communities Secretary. Before entering Parliament, he spent nearly two decades in international finance, with senior roles in London, New York, and Singapore.

He is now a Partner at Centricus, a global investment firm, and also Co-Chair of the Independent Commission on Community Cohesion and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford. During his time in government, he took a leading role in tackling antisemitism and strengthening support for Holocaust remembrance and education.

He brings to HMDT a deep personal commitment to ensuring the lessons of the Holocaust are never forgotten and to standing up against hatred and discrimination. 

Sir Leigh Lewis KCB, Vice Chair

Following a career of nearly 40 years in the Civil Service – the last five as Permanent Secretary at the Department for Work and Pensions from 2005 to 2010 – Leigh has over the last nine years undertaken a variety of roles in the public, private and not for profit sectors. Currently Leigh is Vice President of the homelessness charity, St Mungo’s and he was previously Chair of Trustees at Drinkaware, the alcohol education charity.

In addition, he is a non-executive Director of Fair4All Finance, a body established by Government to promote affordable borrowing. Leigh is also a visiting fellow at Greenwich University Business School.

Leigh is a lifelong supporter and season ticket holder at Watford FC.

Brian Markeson, Treasurer

Brian Markeson is a second-generation survivor who actively supports holocaust education and commemoration.  He is a former Trustee of March of the Living UK and the Yad Vashem UK Foundation. 

Brian retired from Chartered Accountancy practice after more than 50 years working in private equity, property, hotels and restaurants.  He has given many years of community service currently acting as Honorary Treasurer for four UK based charities and advising other educational establishments. 

He is deeply committed to inter-faith activities and all aspects of religious freedom and is proud of his four wonderful children and ten grandchildren.   

Like our VP, he is also a lifelong Watford season ticket  holder!!! 

HE David Ashley

David has 30 years of diplomatic and international experience, working primarily on genocide and conflict prevention. Having studied history at Cambridge and SOAS, David worked for the UN in Cambodia, including advising on the establishment of the tribunal for Khmer Rouge leaders. After joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1999, David helped secure UK ratification of the International Criminal Court. He has subsequently worked to end conflicts and pursue justice in the former Yugoslavia, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Since January 2021, he is the British Ambassador to Madagascar.

David said: ‘My father, now 96, and all my grandparents were Jewish refugees from Germany. My wife is a Cambodian survivor of the killing fields. Unsurprisingly I feel passionate about the need both to honour the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides, and to stop such crimes from being repeated in today’s world.’

David Austin OBE

David is the Chief Executive of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), the UK’s independent regulator of film and video. In this capacity, he considers potential harmful content for the classification of theatrical films, online videos and websites, including about the Holocaust.

Before joining the BBFC, David worked in the Diplomatic Service, specialising in conflict resolution and post-conflict reconciliation in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

David says: ‘I learned a huge amount about tolerance and the fight against racism from my father, who as a young Czech Jewish boy, escaped the Nazis and came to England… From this personal experience I believe passionately in the work of the Trust to bring the wider community and future generations knowledge and awareness of the impact of the Holocaust and the lessons we should learn from it.’

Paul Giannasi OBE

Paul is currently the Hate Crime Advisor to the National Police Chiefs’ Council in the UK. Having accrued 30 years’ experience as a police officer, he advises on hate crime policy and coordinates national responses, managing ‘True Vision’ (www.report-it.org.uk) and the National Online Hate Crime Hub on behalf of the police. He is the co-author of the national Police Hate Crime Guidance which offers advice to all UK police officers and partners.

From 2007, until it ended in 2017, Paul led the cross-government Hate Crime Programme, which brought all sectors of government together with civil society, to coordinate efforts to improve the response to hate crime across the criminal justice system.

For over a decade, Paul represented the UK Government to international governmental agencies on hate crime. He has a number of publications and has worked to share good practice in many developing and post-conflict states, training professionals and assisting in policy development.

Michael Marx

Michael worked in business for many years and has been an active Trustee in the charity sector for decades. He is a Governor of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and also of The Jonathan Levene Music Scholarship (a trust providing assistance to socially disadvantaged young and aspiring musicians). Until recently, he was a Trustee of JW3 (a significant Jewish cultural and community centre in London) and prior to that Chair of the London Jewish Cultural Centre as well as a trustee of The Separated Child Foundation (a trust providing comfort and welfare to separated child refugees in the UK).

For many years, whilst Michael was the Chairman of the London Jewish Cultural Centre, that organisation ran a Holocaust teaching and awareness programme; additionally, the organisation funded and produced the Holocaust Explained website to help learners understand the essential facts of the Holocaust, its causes and its consequences.

Michael’s late mother-in-law Mascha and most of her sisters and brothers were survivors of Auschwitz and other concentration and labour camps during the Holocaust and she provided testimony and was a lifelong lecturer of their terrible experiences.

Joan Salter MBE

Joan Salter is a child survivor of the Holocaust. Since the 1980s she has been involved in Holocaust education and research and has an MA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

In addition to her own Holocaust experience, her presentations and papers include Surviving Occupation in France, and Tarnow the life and death of a Polish Jewish Town. She has presented in schools, universities, and at corporate and civic memorial events as well at academic conferences in the UK, USA, Germany, Poland and Greece.

In 2018 she was awarded an MBE for services to Holocaust Education.

Phil Rosenberg

Phil Rosenberg is the 49th President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. At 38, he is the youngest ever President in the Board’s 264-year history. Phil is the Deputy for Brondesbury Park Synagogue. A consultant specialising in government relations, media, faith and diplomacy, he has served as an elected local councillor in the London Borough of Camden and was previously Director of the Faiths Forum for London. Phil is married to Frances.

Dr Linda Asquith

Dr Linda Asquith is a senior academic at the University of Derby. A specialist in victimology and Holocaust and genocide education, Linda has worked extensively with survivors, and communities, developing inclusive and innovative teaching practices in the field of Holocaust and genocide education.

Linda is passionate about widening participation and social justice, and champions student engagement and employability. Linda is an experienced leader and public speaker, committed to advancing equality, diversity, and the transformative power of education.