Our spokespeople

Béatrice Butsana-Sita

Chief executive 

Béatrice became CEO of British Red Cross in November 2023, joining us following some time as CEO of Greenhouse Sports charity and a successful career and leadership in telecommunications. 

Lisa Hollins

Executive director of UK operations

Lisa joined the British Red Cross at the start of April 2022. She has extensive leadership experience in the health and social care sector, and is passionate about improving services.

She held various roles in the NHS including director of innovation delivery at NHSX, executive director at Kings College Hospital, and director at Barts Healthcare. She also a range of management positions across the emergency, community and mental health sectors.

Richard Blewitt 

Executive director of international

Richard leads our humanitarian programmes in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as emergency response around the world as part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.  

He previously was with the International Federation of Red Cross and Crescent Societies (IFRC) where he was head of delegation and permanent representative to the United Nations in New York from 2018 to 2020.  

Richard has also held senior positions with the UN Development Programme, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and Save the Children.  

Laura Scott

Director of UK resilience

Laura Scott oversees the development and delivery of Red Cross operations to build resilience with and for communities across the UK. She also leads the Red Cross crisis response capability within the UK, which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This helps make sure we are there for people before, during and after a crisis.

Before joining the team, Laura worked in UK government. Her roles was to provide rapid situational awareness briefings to ministers and senior officials for major national security and civil contingency crises.

Alexander Pendry

Head of emergencies, logistics and surge

Alexander Pendry has over 14 years' experience in international humanitarian work. He has supported communities affected by disasters, conflict and health emergencies across Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Alexander has helped lead the British Red Cross response to major international crises including earthquakes, cyclones and protracted emergencies in Yemen and Syria. He works across the global Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to strengthen emergency preparedness, logistics and surge capacity, helping humanitarian organisations respond more effectively when disasters strike.

Rob Murray

Director for Scotland

Rob is responsible for our health and crisis response work across Scotland and manages the work we do with our partners including the NHS, Scottish local governments and the voluntary sector. Rob represents the British Red Cross in various bodies including the Scottish International Development Alliance and leads our involvement with the Disasters Emergency Committee in Scotland. 
 
Prior to joining the Red Cross, Rob was chief executive of Cancer Support Scotland. He is also the chair of Voluntary Health Scotland and a keen scouter, leading their ‘Community Impact’ volunteer programme across the UK.