News By KCOM | 11 March 2024 - 2 min read

KCOM's Kenneth joins leading local charity as trustee

Forging stronger links with local community

We’re delighted to announce that Kenneth Ross has joined the board of leading local charity HEY Smile Foundation.

Kenneth, who joined KCOM as our Chief People Officer in 2022, will serve on the charity’s Board of Trustees alongside another new appointee, Catherine Sykes, who is the Director of Governance at Hull College.

Kenneth said: “In my role as Chief People Officer at KCOM I’ve been proud to work with HEY Smile Foundation on a number of community initiatives and I’m delighted to be able to further strengthen the long-standing partnership between our organisations by becoming a trustee.

“Initiatives such as KCOM’s Digital Inclusion Grants, which we’re running in partnership with Smile, show what a huge difference organisations such as ours can make when we work together and I can’t wait to get started as a trustee to help deliver more schemes to improve lives in communities across Hull and the East Riding.”

Other projects KCOM and HEY Smile Foundation has worked together on include the Time2Volunteer portal which provides volunteering opportunities for KCOM employees in the local area. Last year KCOM employees donated more than 1,000 volunteer hours to community projects in Hull, East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire.

HEY Smile Foundation’s CEO, Jamie Lewis, said: “We are delighted to welcome our new trustees Catherine and Kenneth to the board here at the HEY Smile Foundation. We are excited to work alongside these prominent figures from within the city, tapping into their wealth of knowledge and expertise. Attracting talented trustees is always a challenge for most charities. I know we are extremely lucky to work alongside Catherine and Kenneth, especially as our foundation evolves to focus on the needs of our local communities.”

Patricia Dalby, Chair of Trustees, added: “A warm welcome to Catherine and Kenneth as they join our team of trustees at the HEY Smile Foundation. We are grateful for the extensive skills and expertise that they will both bring and the passion that they have for the important work of Smile.”

The new appointments will join HEY Smile Foundations current trustees: Patricia Dalby, Chair, Andrew Milner, Andrew Bowden, Tim Wigglesworth, Graham Cross, Cathy Philips and Dileepa Ranawake.