Meet Our Leadership Team

Richard Lee MBE CStJ QAM FIMC FCPara
Chief Executive Officer

Richard joined St John Ambulance Cymru as Chief Executive Officer at the beginning of May 2024, following a 5-year period as the Chief Operating Officer at St John Ambulance in England. His efforts in this role resulted in him being awarded an MBE for services to healthcare during Covid-19 in the 2021 New Year’s Honours List. He was also awarded the Queens Ambulance Medal for distinguished ambulance service in the 2016 Queen's Birthday honours list.

Originally from South London, but having spent his teenage years in North Wales, he is a Paramedic and also brings with him previous experience as Director of Operations at the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust. He also saw active service in the Royal Air Force during the Gulf War in 1991 and the UN operations in Bosnia in 1993. As well as volunteering for St John Ambulance in England during his time there, he also volunteers for MEDSERVE Wales, a branch of the British Association for Immediate Care (BASICS) charity.

Benjamin Savage
Chief Operating Officer

Benjamin joined our senior management team as Chief Operating Officer in June 2021.

Arriving from St John Ambulance in England, who he first joined as a volunteer, he held the role of Head of Planning and Programmes for Event Planning, having previously been in position as their Ambulance Operations Manager for Greater Manchester.

Having led and implemented major improvement programmes in his previous roles, and working and volunteering on the front line across the pandemic, Benjamin’s passion for patient care and enhancing community services has been a constant throughout his career.

David Monk
Clinical Director

David joined St John Ambulance Cymru at the beginning of January 2023 with a broad background in urgent and emergency care. David has held senior leadership roles in the NHS since 2008. A paramedic by profession, David has worked in clinical roles since 1997. David has been a volunteer with St John Ambulance in England for 22 years.

David holds an MBA and is a fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management. As the Executive Clinician for St John Ambulance Cymru, David’s role includes clinical leadership and oversight of all our activity. Working closely with our existing clinical, quality and safety leads his initial focus will be to review and assess the work programme needed to strengthen the charity’s clinical governance and to develop the clinical management and leadership model to support St John Ambulance Cymru’s operational service delivery.

David feels both elated and excited about working in partnership with so many of our talented and experienced volunteer lead officers and key staff.

Richard J Paskell MBE CStJ
Chief Volunteer

Richard joined St John Ambulance Cymru initially as a Trustee in 2017. He was successfully appointed to the role of Chief Volunteer in 2020.

Since then he has led on the Modernisation of St John Ambulance Cymru volunteer structures and is a proactive, visible uniformed leader of our Volunteers. He is passionate about volunteering, something he has done for over thirty years with various Charities. In 2022, he was appointed to the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, by the late HM Queen Elizabeth, for services to Mountain Rescue and to the communities in South Wales.

Richard’s full time job is a Police Officer within South Wales Police, where he serves as a Specialist Crime Detective.

Manon Frost FCA
Financial Controller

Manon has a wealth of experience and a track record of leading finance departments in both the charitable and commercial sectors, having worked in various finance and accountancy roles for organisations such as the RSPCA, London Symphony Orchestra and WJEC/CBAC.

A proud Welsh speaker, Manon joined SJAC in January 2024, having returned to live in Cardiff after many years living and working in England.

Heading up the Finance and Procurement Teams, Manon is passionate about developing closer partnerships across the organisation, working with the Leadership Team and the Board of Trustees towards our aim to become more financially sustainable and ensuring our continued impact, whilst continually reinvesting in our divisions, volunteers and staff.