Staff
Senior Management Team
Chief Executive – D’Arcy Myers
D’Arcy joined The Rainbow Centre in October 2011. He was educated at Douai Abbey, a community of monks of the English Benedictine Congregation, near Reading. He then went on to the Berkshire College of Agriculture and Cranfield University. He then spent about eight years working in marketing and business development. In 1993 he went out to the independent kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific with VSO. The overseas project led him to work in 32 countries around the world from Africa, the Far East, Europe, the former Soviet Union, USA and the South Pacific. He is passionate about professionalism within the voluntary sector and believes that the leadership within the sector is key to this change. He is active within the sector and amongst other things he is one of the founders of the Small Charities Coalition. The Coalition aims to seek out the problems small charities face and find the best solution via innovation, inspiration and leadership. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, a member of various fundraising institutes, the IoD, and a governor and trustee of different education and voluntary organisations.
Maria Adams – Office Manager
Maria returned from maternity leave in September 2011 and has now taken the role of Office Manager.
Service Director, Senior Conductor Teacher – Magdi Kovacs
Following extensive training and years of experience, Magdi joined The Rainbow Centre in 1998. She has worked extensively to develop and deliver high quality services to the families and this work has been recognised by our success with Ofsted. Magdi’s efforts were rewarded with national recognition as Special Needs Professional of the Year in 2007.
Fundraising Manager – Clare Acklam
Clare has come to us from an Events and Fundraising background and has 16 years of experience in this field. In addition, with an MBA behind her and lots of enthusiasm, she is hoping to lead the fundraising team into the next phase of our development.
Finance Officer – Fiona Brent
Fiona is self employed and provides book-keeping and finance services two days a week
Fundraising Team
Co-Founder – Helen Somerset How
Helen worked for 21 years to build the Centre to what it is today. In January 2011 Helen stepped down from the Chief Executive role to begin working part time, supporting the transition period and to promote high level fundraising.
Corporate Fundraiser – Emma Macnaghten
Emma joined the fundraising team in 2010 after a career break to bring up her family. Emma has a strong background in sales and is making a significant impact on generating support from the Corporate sector.
Community Fundraiser – Rachel Moore
Rachel joined the team in early 2012 after graduating from university and is busy building the centre’s profile in the community. She has volunteered with a number of children’s charities in the previous 6 years including in a fundraising department.
Service Delivery
Senior Conductor Teacher Leading the Nursery & Transition groups – Enikő Kocsis
Enikő graduated from the Pető Institute in Budapest in 1995. She worked in school and family support units in Hungary and then took up a post at the National Institute for Conductive Education in Birmingham. She returned to Hungary to start a family but became The Rainbow Centre’s summer-school conductor for four years before taking a full time post with us in 2003. Enikő is now Lead Conductor-Teacher in the Nursery and Reception classes.
Senior Conductor Teacher Leading Parent & Child and Adult groups – Melinda Bodi
Melinda graduated from the Pető Institute in Budapest in 2001 and took up a post with The Rainbow Centre straight away. She has earned herself the reputation of being a perfectionist in all she does. Melinda has a particular interest in imparting knowledge to others and particularly enjoys the Lead Conductor role she has in the Parent & Child group teaching parents how to help their children learn. Melinda also leads our work with adults with MS, Parkinson’s Disease and stroke survivors.
Conductor Teacher – Aniko Anna Vass
Anna is a qualified Conductor Teacher who joined us in 2008 having held posts in other international Conductive Education settings.
Conductor Teacher – Nora Schuck Pap
Nora is a qualified Conductor Teacher who joined us in 2008 having held posts in other international Conductive Education settings.
Conductor Teacher -Zita Derbak
Zita is a qualified Conductor Teacher who joined us in 2010 having held posts in other international Conductive Education settings.
Conductor Teacher – Mariann Balla
e: mariannab@rainbowcentre.org
Mariann is a qualified Conductor Teacher who joined us in September 2011 having held posts in other international Conductive Education settings.
Conductors’ Assistant – Dee Lawrence
Dee joined us originally as a volunteer and then took a post as our Conductors’ Assistant in May 2006
Jo Candy – Administrator
Jo joined us in 2004 and is secretary to the service team. Jo supports all the administration required in liaising with parents and professionals, supporters and clients. She also helps with the Fundraising administration at busy times.
