About G.E.T//

Alicia Hardy (Trust Secretary) has over thirty years of experience in law, starting out as a Corporate lawyer, and now as global Director of Knowledge at Carey Olsen implementing global knowledge management solutions.  Since 2002, Alicia has been a proud trustee of the GET, which was originally set up by her late parents, and has also been Secretary to The Trust since 2007.

Sophie Carter is Global General Counsel & Company Secretary at Christie’s auction house and mother of three children. She has known the Grundy family since 1991 when she and Alicia used to fall out of pubs together at law school and Alicia’s parents (the founders of the Grundy Trust) would always have an open door, well stocked fridge and barbecue ready for Alicia and her friends.  Sophie has always believed in the power of education to change lives and thus was honoured to be invited to be a trustee in 2012.

Benjamin Buckle joined the Board of Trustees in 2015 having himself been a recipient of a financial award from the Trust in 1998. His award helped him to pursue a successful career in drug development and currently he heads a small team of drug safety specialists for global top 3 drug company.  Ben is a proponent of life-long learning and developing people and when not working is often found climbing and teaching outdoors. “..it’s a source of great personal pride supporting some of our brightest minds investing in their own education for the betterment of UK PLC.”

Mike Hayden (Trust Chairman) was asked to join the GET by the founder Philip Grundy and has been honoured to serve as a Trustee since 2006.  Mike’s interest in STEM subjects goes back to his earlier years when he studied Engineering Science as his degree and when he worked for Vauxhall Motors who sponsored him during his time at university.  After this he joined a Big Four accountancy firm where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant before moving on to a management consultancy where he progressed through the ranks to be Head of Finance and a member of the senior Management Team.  Since 2017 Mike has been the Director of Finance & Administration at an engineering consultancy so, to an extent, returned to his scientific roots. As a father of three girls who all have studied to degree level, Mike is acutely aware of the financial burden that is placed on university students and is very happy to be helping out through the support that the Trust offers.

Tina Staal Williams joined as a GET trustee in 2018. As the niece of the Trust founders, she has gratefully benefitted from June & Philip’s plentiful generosity and hospitality. Having studied Law at Southampton & Guildford, Tina switched into IT consultancy working interchangeably as a Project Manager, Business Analyst and Architect within the private sector as well as local and central government. With family across Europe, and a fondness of travelling, Tina enjoys holidaying with her husband and their son whenever possible. Tina is pleased to have the opportunity to assist the Trust to enable the ongoing studies of talented applicants.

Phil Anning joined the GET Board of Trustees in 2019. He was a housemate of Alicia’s whilst studying Electronic Engineering at The University of Birmingham and the friendship has continued ever since. Having completed his Graduate Apprenticeship with British Aerospace (now BAe Systems), he worked as a Systems Engineer on the development of Harrier aircraft on weapon and navigation systems. He worked for the company that invented 2D barcodes which have become ubiquitous today. After a sabbatical making quality furniture, he has run his own IT Support business for the last 21 years. With Engineering running in the family, he was (and still is) building cars from an early age and has gone on to build his own house for his wife and 2 daughters, both of whom are at Russel Group Universities studying STEM subjects at degree and Masters level.