AdsFoundation Directors

Dr. Zoe Picton-Howell – Managing & Strategic Director

Zoe is first and foremost Adam’s mum.

Zoe is also a solicitor (but does not give advice in this capacity for the AdsFoundation) and healthcare academic. Zoe creates all AdsFoundation resources, provides AdsFoundation training & is responsible for the day to day management and strategic development of AdsFoundation. Zoe is also an advisor for AdsFoundation’s free legal advice clinic which is part of the Law Works Clinics Network.

When she is not working for AdsFoundation, Zoe is a tutor of medical education at University of Edinburgh Medical School, a position she has held since 2011. Zoe began her working life as a journalist working for local and then national newspapers. However, her training in media law, sparked her interest in law and she soon switched career paths. After studying law at London University, Zoe trained and then worked post qualification with a large London law firm. She then became a partner at a smaller London firm, heading up it litigation and employment law department.

Whilst completing her law degree, Zoe worked full-time as a paid adviser for the Citizens Advice Bureaux Service (CABx) in London, including advising litigants-in-person at the Royal Courts of Justice. Once qualified, Zoe established an award winning pro-bono scheme where a team of 40 solicitors provided free legal advice at CABx. Zoe went on to become the Chair of Westminster CABx Service.

Following Adam’s birth the family moved to Scotland where Zoe, whilst Adam’s full-time carer, completed her masters in Human Rights Law at Glasgow Graduate Law School. This included a dissertation, for which Zoe was awarded a distinction, which examined disabled children’s rights in healthcare and education. Zoe also studied a masters course at the University of Sheffield in Language and Communication Impairment in Children. Observing Adam’s healthcare experiences not just through the eyes of a mother, but also the eyes of a lawyer heavily influenced Zoe’s PhD at Edinburgh University Law School which examined UK paediatricians’ decision making for disabled children, especially their knowledge and use, or otherwise, of relevant law and ethical guidance.

Whilst in Scotland, Zoe was a director, trustee and treasurer of the Scottish Alliance for Children’s Rights; the Scottish Chair and UK Trustee and director for Contact A Family and served on several committees of the National Clinical Network for Children with Exceptional Health Needs and a Scottish Government advisory group on the training of health professionals. Zoe also served on NHS Lothian’s Equality and Human Rights Committee. Zoe also served as a member of the NICE End of Life Care for Infants, Children and Young People, guidelines and quality standards committees and on several other national and government guidance and investigative committees concerned with child health. Zoe is also one of the authors of the UK Government’s 2018 Child Death Review: statutory and operational guidance (England). Zoe was also the Chair of the Royal College of Paedatrics and Child Health’s (RCPCH) Parent Advisory Committee and severed on several other RCPCH committees, including its Law and Ethics Committee & had ‘observer’ status on the RCPCH’s council. Zoe is a member of both the Law Society (the professional body for solicitors in England & Wales) Mental Health & Disability Policy Advisory Committee and its Human Rights Policy Advisory Committee.

Zoe was a chapter author for Disability Matters and has published and presented nationally and internationally on child health law, particularly best interest decision making.

During the COVID19 global pandemic, Zoe researched and wrote the physical health rights appendix for Scotland’s Children’s and Young Person’s Commissioner’s Independent Children’s Rights Impact Assessment on the Response to Covid-19 in Scotland and has gone on to write a paper on the impact of school closures on children and young people’s health rights.

Zoe is also an experienced tertiary level tutor, both designing and delivering courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level in healthcare law and ethics for law and medical students and healthcare professionals and supervising dissertations whilst working for the University of Edinburgh, the University of York, the Open University and the NHS Leadership Academy.

Paul and Adam on the beach — Paul and Adam

Paul Bojelian – Director

Paul is first and foremost Adam’s dad.

He is also a director of the AdsFoundation. Paul is an actuary (a professional working for financial institutions with particular expertise in evaluating risk). He has over 30 years experience working in life and general insurance at Lloyds Banking Group. He currently specialises in assessing the Group’s solvency and future funding needs.

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