Long-standing Rainy Day Trust board member Ashley Leboff has stepped down from the charity after 20 years as a trustee - the last two of them as president.
Caption: Ashley Leboff (with certificate), with fellow RDT trustees: (left to right) Rob Rowe (Toolbank), Philip Duncan (Akzo Nobel), Peter Jackson Cooper (formerly Calor), Colin Petty (DIY Week), David French, BHETA), Peter Stone (BHETA), Avril Hicks (Holbury Hardware), Alan Hawkins (BHF/BSSA) and Liam Hyland (Decco).

At the board meeting on May 11, he was presented with a certificate to mark his two decades of service. DIY Week publisher Colin Petty, who succeeds him as president, recalled that his presidential term had been one of turmoil, with several unexpected changes of administrative staff, BHETA's move from Northampton to Birmingham, and the impact on the charity of the credit crunch and the recession that followed it.

Mr Leboff started in the DIY industry with the family timber business in north London, growing national accounts business from £200,000 to £6m, but left to set up his own PR and marketing agency after Leboff was sold to a South African timber business. During his time with the Trust, he launched and organised the DIY Dinner - which rapidly became the most important fund-raising event in the charity's calendar - as well as overseeing the production of the Annual Review.

His retirement from the board ends an even longer family association with the Rainy Day Trust - his father Paul was also a trustee of many years' standing.