The Ashley Foundation's "non-Executive" Chief Executive Officer, who has never been a Director (let that sink in) set to retire
Lee Dribben, the purported “CEO” of The Ashley Foundation, a Blackpool-based homeless ‘charity’ that receives the bulk of its income from public funds off the backs of the less fortunate, has announced that Dribben, a professional gambler, will “step down” as Chief Executive Officer.
Dribben has never been a Director of the company and therefore could not have legally had an “executive” role in the management of the company, but that hasn’t stopped Dribben from pulling the strings from the shadows.
Since the founding of the charity, Dribben has in effect been a ‘shadow director’ as defined by Companies House. According to the former Chairman of Trustees for The Ashley Foundation, Roy Leonard Alleway (who was elevated to the role of Chairman after long-term Chair of Trustees Paul Austen Bamber ceased being a Director in June 2016 after 19 years) confirmed in the company’s most recent set of accounts that Lee Dribben is a Shadow Director.
Alleway wrote: “Our CEO manages everything so the trustees can sleep soundly at night.”
It would appear that the Directors, including Wendy Anne Swift, David Kam, Ashley Samuel Dribben (Lee Dribben’s son), Neville Walter Bramhall, and Ronald Bell may have made a false statement when they collectively confirmed that they knew of no person or entity with significant control.
Alleway’s appointment as a Director was terminated on 13 November 2017.
Dribben, who is best known as a proficient Poker player, is the Company Secretary and has been since The Ashley Foundation was founded in May 1997.
The ‘Foundation’ didn’t report when Dribben will actually step down, but given that he operated in the shadows for the last 22 years… it’s unlikely that anything will change moving forward.
###