Our team

It takes teamwork to make the dream work!

Hope For Podencos is run by a small team of passionate volunteers, working together from different places but with one shared purpose: to raise awareness of Podencos and to help rescue, rehabilitate and re-home the dogs who need us most.

Every person in our team brings something different, but we are all here for the same reason, the dogs.

We are their voice, and together we are stronger.

  • Chairman - Steve

    Steve started Hope For Podencos and is still very much at the heart of HFP. He helps keep the charity grounded in the values it was built on, supports the team with key decisions, and is often quietly involved in the paperwork and checks that help everything run properly.

  • Trustee - Clare

    Clare helps keep the day-to-day rescue work moving. She leads on adoptions, fostering, rehoming and rescue requests, and helps make sure dogs have what they need in place before travelling. She also looks after the website, Pod tracking and many of the practical systems behind the scenes.

  • Trustee - Gemma

    Gemma works closely with several of our rescue partners and gets to know the dogs in their care so she can help match them well. She also brings HFP’s work to life through social media, marketing, advertising, adopter transport groups, adoption packs and merch.

  • Trustee - Kerry

    Kerry works closely with several of our rescue partners and helps make sure the dogs in their care are understood and supported. She also looks after sponsorship, supporter updates, our foster and adopter communities, donation responses, finance tracking and management accounts.

  • Trainer - Jackie

    Jackie supports our adopters and fosters once dogs are home. She carries out official check-ins, offers practical training advice, helps with settling-in questions, and supports the team in finding specialist behaviour help where a dog or family needs more support.

  • Trustee - Cara

    Cara is currently taking a break from day-to-day rescue work. She has been a big part of HFP’s foster process and, like Gemma and Kerry, supports dogs through partner relationships, welfare input and dog-specific knowledge.

Irene+and+Steve+Allan+Hope+for+Podencos+founders+with+Podenco

Our founders Irene and Steve.

Irene and Steve Allan began their journey running a dog grooming business in Scotland. In 2009, they moved to Orihuela in Spain and started supporting local rescues, grooming dogs to help them find homes.

As they met more dogs, they became increasingly aware of the Podencos who were being overlooked and left behind. By 2014, they had set up the first Hope For Podencos sanctuary at their converted finca.

In 2017, Irene and Steve helped a Podenco in desperate need. They named her Princess Leia, to give her a name of strength. Sadly, she did not survive, but her story became part of HFP’s future.

Irene sadly passed away in 2020, but her love and vision remain at the heart of the charity. Steve continues to lead HFP as Chairman, supported by the wider team, and the dream they began together lives on.