Trustees | Chinese Wellbeing

Andy Green Chair

Andy Green trained as an urban planner and became an urban regeneration specialist, for many years focused on the physical and economic regeneration of Liverpool and its city centre. He subsequently became Head of Investor Development for Liverpool’s economic development company, Liverpool Vision, where his specific activities included the development of Liverpool’s international positioning, supporting the delivery of Liverpool’s presence at the Shanghai World Expo and - with Liverpool’s HE institutions- the development of Liverpool’s Knowledge Economy offer. His skills and experience include:

research and analysis
development and implementation of strategies
management of programmes
management of change.
management of people and meetings.

Andy has worked in and with the Chinese community both in a professional and a voluntary basis since the mid 1980’s. From 1984 until 2009 he was a member of the management committee of Liverpool City Council’s Chinese community centre, The Pagoda, and, along with the late Lord Dr Michael Chan he was an initial subscriber to the formation of the Merseyside Chinese Community Development Association (subsequently Chinese Wellbeing) as a social business and a charity.

He is married to fellow trustee Polly Green.

Polly Green

Polly Yeeling Green was born in Hong Kong and obtained a degree of Social Sciences in Geography in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She came to Liverpool University in 1973 and studied a Postgraduate Diploma in Transport Planning. She worked for a number of years with the Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive before taking the job of establishing and managing the then new Pagoda Chinese Community Centre which was set up by Liverpool City Council. Although a City Council Youth and Community Centre, Pagoda developed and provided a wide range of services for all ages, including a bi-lingual nursery and services for the elderly. In particular it was (and remains) the home of Pagoda Arts and the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra. She retired from the Pagoda in 2011 having developed it into a well known and respected institution with a national and international profile.

Polly is qualified as a Youth and Community worker, and has over 30 years experience of working with the Chinese community and with local and national government, the NHS and other voluntary sector networks.

Polly was a founder member of MCCDA Chinese Wellbeing and brings to the table a continuity of knowledge and experience, and the skills necessary to manage a successful local authority community centre – financial management, people management, networking, political awareness etc.

She is married to fellow trustee Andy Green.

Helen Owen

Helen Yee-Hung Owen. Born in Canton, now Quang Zhou, China and came to the UK at the age of 11.
She has worked with the Chinese community in Liverpool since 1980 in a variety of roles including Chinese Community Worker, and Vietnamese Refugee Resettlement Programme Co-coordinator. For most of that time she was employed by Liverpool City Council and based at the Pagoda Chinese Community Centre. She retired in November 2011.

Helen has a particular interest in Chinese mental health, and organised the important National Chinese Mental Health Conference in Liverpool in 2002. She maintains an interest and role in Chinese mental health affairs, with roles having included Secretary of the UK Association for Chinese Mental Health, reference member on the Delivering Race Equality in Mental Health Care in Liverpool and a member on the Focussed Implementation Buddy Site. (FIS)

She joined MCCDA as a Trustee soon after its incorporation, and was a key player in the Chinese Carers Project which was one of the foundations of the establishment of MCCDA. She has led and completed a CISP Mental Health Research on Delivering Race Equality (DRE) Community Engagement Programme.

Since retirement, Helen volunteers to counsel victims of Domestic Abuse and assist with welfare benefit for disadvantaged people.

She brings to the board 30 years experience in developing and running projects and programmes, and networking skills.

Oscar Ip

Oscar Ip FCA is a fellow member of Institute of Chartered Accountant in England & Wales (ICAEW), and runs his own accountancy practice in Liverpool providing a range of accountancy and business support services. He came to Liverpool as a student more than 20 years ago, and qualified as an accountant in 2005.

He worked at a national top 10 accountancy practice where he specialised in charities and non-profit organisations accounting, auditing and taxation.

With the combination of his strong Chinese background and professional skill, Oscar has been able to help many local community organisations such as the Pagoda Chinese Community Centre, Liverpool Chinatown Business Association, a number of churches, and Merseyside Sports Foundation.

Oscar joined Chinese Wellbeing as trustee in October 2007. He maintains an oversight of the organisation’s financial practices and finances in particular keeping a long, medium and long term perspective of Chinese Wellbeing’s financial position in the light of the challenges faced by the voluntary sector. He is now working closely with Chinese Wellbeing operational staff and external auditors to ensure the implementation of an appropriate strategy and plan of action for the next 3 years. He worked closely with the Chair in developing the recent update of the organisation’s governance.

Stephen Wong

Stephen was born in Liverpool and he qualified as a graphic designer in the 1980s. In the late 1980s he was employed by the predecessor of Chinese Wellbeing (Merseyside Chinese Community Development Association MCCDA) on one of its projects, a bi-lingual community newspaper ‘Silk Road News’. Stephen subsequently joined the Passport Office, but maintained his link with Silk Road News as a volunteer both as a regular contributor and supporting its production with his graphic skills.

In 1996, Stephen became a trustee, and also Company Secretary to MCCDA.

Stephen brings to the table his perspective as a Liverpool born Chinese, and many years of operational experience as an employee and volunteer.

Dr Simon Kan

Dr. Simon Siu Man Kan is a local medical graduate (L’pool), a Liverpool GP and a Fellow of Royal College of General Practitioners. He came to UK in the early 80s from Hong Kong. He is a board member of the Royal College of General Practitioner Mersey Faculty, GP appraiser NHS England and has an interest in holistic care for patients and in the promotion of primary care led health service in the developing world. He has worked with the U.K.

Chinese Community nationally and regionally (Northwest) on a voluntary basis for many years, and is a trustee of the Manchester Health Information Centre.

He brings to Chinese Wellbeing the skills and connectivity of a medical practitioner with an understanding of the cultural needs of CW clients and the operations of the healthcare system in the UK.