History of
The AIM Foundation
LEGACY WITH PURPOSE
In 1989, following the sale of their family business Trebor Limited to Cadbury, Angela and Ian Marks chose to donate part of their share of the proceeds to the I R Marks Charitable Trust. In 1993, the trust was renamed the AIM Foundation - standing for the Angela and Ian Marks Foundation, while also reflecting its purpose: transforming lives.
In 2006, Angela and Ian’s children - Pippa, Caroline, Joanna and Nic - became Trustees. Caroline became Chair in 2016, when Angela and Ian stepped back from the Foundation. In 2022, Nic retired as a Trustee, and two independent trustees joined AIM’s Board.
Today, we are proud to have welcomed the third generation of the Marks family into the Foundation. In 2024 and 2025, Poppy, Charlotte, Luke and Alex became Trustees, and in 2026 Charlotte took over as Chair. Building on the vision and values of their grandparents, they bring fresh perspectives and a shared commitment to our mission.
Together, we remain focused on creating lasting impact and ensuring the Foundation continues to make a meaningful difference for generations to come.
Historical Grants & Support
During Ian and Angela Marks’ lives they were visionary in seeing opportunities to create highly-leveraged pragmatic solutions to help alleviate the acute needs he identified. Not only were they able to direct significant funding towards a few selected charities, but Ian also offered his business experience and networking to help their causes.
Their philanthropy went far beyond financial support. They actively sought new strategic ideas to develop the infrastructure of charities, and create sustainable approaches to social improvement.
Ian was the Chair and major shareholder of Cytoplan Ltd, and he gifted his shares to AIM, making Cytoplan wholly owned by the Foundation in 2008.
In line with Ian’s wish that Cytoplan dividends support “the advancement of health,” AIM funded nutrition work from 2018 to 2023 before creating the Nutritional Wellbeing Foundation in 2023 to take this work forward. NWF now owns Cytoplan and is chaired by Ian’s daughter, Caroline Marks.
