In 2024, SeeAbility recruited two new trustees in Michael Smith and Keith Valentine, both leading figures in the business and charity worlds who have lived experience of sight loss. In joining the Board of Trustees, they bring a much closer perspective to the issues facing the people SeeAbility supports, and demonstrate the true, business value that lived experience can bring.
Michael Smith, Principal Counsel at Revantage Real Estate is a legal adviser who acquired sight loss at a young age. It was support from charities like SeeAbility that gave him the confidence and skills he needed to pursue a career in law.
“I think you can only really understand the services that a charity is providing if you’ve gone through it yourself,” says Michael. “It’s a really scary thought as to how life would look without charities like SeeAbility in my life. I just wanted desperately to give back to the sector because I’m so aware of what people are going through.”
Michael has already shown his commitment to SeeAbility, undertaking the extraordinary challenge of scaling 24 peaks in 24 hours in the Lake District with our Chairman Jack Stacy, raising over £170,000 in funds.
Keith Valentine is the CEO of Fight for Sight, a charity that funds innovation that can change the lives of people with sight loss. He has extensive experience in the sight loss sector, having previously worked for RNIB and Vision UK. At SeeAbility, he brings a breadth of professional and personal experience to the Board of Trustees.
“I wanted to take everything I’ve learnt through what I’ve been through and apply that for good,” says Keith. “Sight loss is one of those weird things where on the one hand it’s very general, but on the other it’s very personal. Michael and I have different experiences and nuances that we can bring to the table.
In becoming the CEO of Fight for Sight in 2020, he became the first ever Chief Executive of a national sight loss organisation – a staggering statistic to Keith, and a development that was long overdue.
“I don’t want to critique other organisations, but I do think the presence and prevalence of people with sight loss in leadership and governance isn’t where it should be.
“I don’t view diversity as a compliance issue. It is a clear opportunity and an asset in driving performance and delivery. From a business point of view, the more open an organisation is to diverse ways of thinking, the more they’ve got in their toolkit for delivering successful work. It’s not about rules, it’s about opportunities.”
SeeAbility focuses heavily on ensuring that people with lived experience have a voice at all levels of the organisation, from the ListenUp! Team, where people with learning disabilities self-advocate on external policy issues, to Taking Control, where people the charity is supporting have their say on their support. Lisa Hopkins, SeeAbility CEO recognises the strength that a diverse Board of Trustees can bring:
‘I am delighted with the professional and personal experience that Michael and Keith bring to our Board of Trustees. At SeeAbility, we are always striving for lived experience of disability to have a greater influence on our decision-making and for our charity to benefit from the richness that diversity brings. We know there’s always more we can do, and I’m confident that with Michael and Keith and all of our Trustees’ support, we will keep making progress towards our goal of a truly inclusive society.’
Michael is clear on the importance of lived experience at the highest level of organisational management.
“It’s vital, in rigorous decision-making within corporate organisations, to have people who think differently. It really pushes them on.
“SeeAbility is an important charity which employs a lot of people, and has huge responsibilities, and the decisions that we make as a board are
important. Keith and I, through our personal experience of sight loss, can really understand what’s happening on the ground. We can provide insight at a very human level.”
Both Michael and Keith have a wealth of experience in driving successful organisations to strong outcomes. When first getting to know SeeAbility, both of them quickly identified its culture of care and humanity as its most powerful asset, and an asset that their lived experience can help nurture.
“There are things about SeeAbility that I’ve not seen anywhere else,” says Keith. “The deftness and delicacy that the organisation has in working through things like intimate personal relationships is so personal. If you want a one word answer for what inspires me about SeeAbility, it’s the humanity.
“And that’s something I really thrive from – human connection. One of the ways that I came to terms with sight loss was trying to live with purpose, and meeting the people SeeAbility supports helps me reach that. I think, in that way, sight loss has made me a better person, and more open to the people around me. That’s something I can really bring to the boardroom.”
Michael’s experience is very similar. “Our lived experience and the humbling nature of what we’ve been through is our superpower. We’ve shortcut the process of developing empathy. We’re never going to pull the ladder up for future generations.
“I think, with a lot of charities, it’s sometimes hard to define the mission, but for us, it’s so easy. Keith talked about finding purpose in life, and we all love that – that feeling in life that you’re confident in your own skin, and you have a purpose, and you have a fulfilling life to live. I think that’s what SeeAbility supports people to get to, and that’s our ultimate mission.”
