We know that trustee boards aren’t diverse enough and one of the challenges is encouraging those who are unable to see people like them represented as trustees.
The Inspire List provides a snapshot of profiles of people from black and ethnic minority backgrounds who are already serving on boards, showing the wide range of people already giving their time, skills and experiences for the benefit of charitable organisations.
This initiative has been developed by Wakkas Khan DL, who has brought together a trustee diversity panel to improve trustee diversity and inclusion.
To nominate a friend or yourself, join The Inspire List here.
Adeem Younis
Adeem Younis created the world’s most first Muslim marriage app, singlemuslim.com and from the proceeds of his success founded the Penny Appeal charity in 2009. A decade later, the charity has surpassed £100 million in donations, runs numerous high profile campaigns around the world and in the UK. Adeem has served on the board of the Penny Appeal since it was founded.
Ady Dike
Ady Dike is a trustee of the MS Society. She has over 20 years’ experience in a combination of strategic and operational roles for start-ups and established businesses and has a track record delivering organisational change, and overseeing high value programmes in the digital and data space. Ady is currently an Entreprise Agile Coach supporting leaders to deliver a sizeable transformation. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration degree at University of Central Lancashire.
Amina Ahmad
Amina is on the Board of The Social Investment Business, and is a Social Innovation Fellow at Year Here. Amina’s work centres on ethically responsible businesses being better placed to create sustainable profits and most effectively change systems of inequality.
Amita Bhalla
Amita is a trustee of Womens Health Matters. She has worked in marketing for over two decades in a variety of senior leadership roles.
Ana Maria Mideros Gadea
Ana Maria is a trustee of WAGGS, having joined the Asociación Nacional de Guías Scouts del Perú as a 7 year old. As the world´s largest organisation for girls WAGGGS represent ten million girls in 150 countries. Ana Maria has served in multiple roles nationally and globally within the Girl Guiding/ Girl Scouting Movement. She was elected to the WAGGGS World Board (W.B.) as trustee for the 2014-2020 term at the 35° World Conference in Hong Kong, and was selected as the Chair of the W.B, at the 36° World Conference for the period 2017-2020, the first ever Latin American woman.
Andrew Noel
Andrew is a Trustee of We Belong. He was born in Guyana and first arrived in the UK at the age of 11. Being denied access to university due to his migration status sent him searching for answers and solutions. This led him to the Let Us Learn campaign where he worked with the Education team and led the Immigration team to help bring about awareness of migrant issues in the Youth Sector. In 2019, Andrew was awarded with a full scholarship to study Law at the London School of Economics and Political science.
Arkam Babar
Arkam was born in Pakistan and brought to the UK when he was 10 years old. He worked on the Let Us Learn campaign and helped established the Let Us Learn Schools Programme. Arkam now shares his story across the UK and joined We Belong as a board member in 2019. He says: ‘It has been incredibly exciting to be a part of We Belong board, an organisation fighting for the rights of young migrants and breaking down systemic barriers so that people like myself can live a purposeful and fulfilling life in a country we call home. Since becoming a member in 2019, I have grown exceptionally in my first active role as a trustee….My drive to see We Belong flourish, comes from having lived experience of the issue the charity serves, and knowing that it can make national changes to improve the inhumane way migrants are treated in the UK. This gives me the desire to keep seeking knowledge on how to be a great trustee so I can use my skills to help enhance and further the organisation’s work.’
Arun Verma
Arun is a trustee of Getting on Board and applied in order to support diversity, inclusion and intersectionality in boards across the UK. This is his first trustee role. He says: ‘I have the honour of sitting alongside innovators from all backgrounds that are passionate about diversifying boards and working towards making trusteeship fair, accessible and impactful.’
Ash Mohammed
Ash has been a board member and the Chair of Move On for over three years, and works professionally at NatWest. He says: ‘It has been a very rewarding experience, influencing the strategy and direction of a charity that impacts so many people positively. Working with Move On has also really helped me as an individual and has helped with my career progression in my day job at NatWest . I’ve been hugely proud of how we’ve responded to Covid, distributing over 4 million meals. It’s been a proud experience, having personally been shortlisted for the Terrific Trustee award at this years SCVO award and Move On winning an award for its family food service.’
Azzees Minott
Azzees is Lay Trustee on the Board of Warwick University Students’ Union and provides business and strategic planning to support to help the University offer world class services to their members. Azzees is the co-founder and Director of award winning 2-3 Degrees, a social enterprise committed to helping young people fulfil their potential across England. Since March 2016, they have worked with over 5,000 young people across the country, providing them skills to improve their confidence, self-esteem, and employability skills. She previously held Trustee position at Bite the Ballot an international social enterprise that specialises in civic and community engagement.
Bayo Adelaja
Bayo Adelaja is trustee of the Royal Voluntary Service, which has been at the frontline of the COVID response during the past year. Bayo is also the founder and CEO of Do it Now Now; which she founded in 2016 in response to gaps in the support available to Black innovators building tech companies and social enterprises in the UK and across Africa. The initiatives Bayo developed for Do it Now Now have led to awards by both Harvard University and Oxford University’s Business Schools for her work to create and foster opportunities for under-served communities through technology.
Chloe Waters
Chloe is a trustee of Mind (Bromley, Lewisham and Greenwich), which fits with her previous work in social enterprise and for charities, volunteering in South East London. Her professional background is in tech, formerly leading customer operations for the bank Monzo and she’s currently the Community Manager for Peanut, a social media app for women and mothers. Chloe is also a member of the Young Trustees Movement, and committed to helping increase trustee diversity.
Christina Renner-Thomas
Christina currently serves as a NED/Trustee of Prostate Cancer Research USA, as co-chair of the Advocacy Committee of the HBA European council and is a Board Advisor of the Acupuncture Academy. She previously served as a trustee of TLBPET, a charity supporting education for disadvantaged children and as a NED for a start-up in the food industry. With more than two decades in healthcare, Christina recently had responsibility in the pharmaceutical industry within rare diseases for Europe and developed Asia, seeds sown earlier in her career working with people with rare cancers.
Christopher French
Chris is the founder and chair of Lambeth Links. He joined the Board of the LGBT Consortium in August 2020 and was appointed Chair in November 2020.
Darren Allaway
Darren is a trustee of the Miranda Brawn Diversity Leadership Foundation, a charity focused on education, building self-confidence, career development and networking opportunities, to uncover diverse talent with the potential for leadership success in the workplace. He was previously on the Board of the Bridge Academy in Hackney. Darren is a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs Apex.
Dawn Reid FRSA
Dawn is an Associate Director in the Housing Sector. She became a Trustee in October 2020 and was successful in securing a 2nd Trustee role in December 2020. She was motivated to join both charities because their values and causes resonated with her, and she was acutely aware of the lack of diverse Boards. Dawn says: ‘The challenges of 2020 focussed me to progress the things I really wanted to do. That involved me being part of the change as far as the composition of Trustee Boards is concerned. I rarely see anyone who represents me as a Trustee. I want to do my bit to change that!’
Diane Dumashie
Diane was appointed as a Trustee of Lionheart in June 2020. She is currently Director, Dumashie Ltd and Vice President of an international NGO, is a former commercial director and Advisory Group member to UN Habitat and founder and chair of African wide professionals network. She has also established ‘Leadership for Change’ programmes to assist African professionals and community groups.
Duro Oye
Duro is the CEO of 2020 Change, an award-winning social enterprise that helps young Londoners from low socioeconomic backgrounds fulfil their true potential. 2020 Change aims to create long standing change by delivering programmes on personal development, training and the social capital needed to thrive in the workplace. Duro holds a degree in Graphics and Advertising, a diploma in Documentary Filmmaking and is a fellow at the Acumen Academy. Duro joined the board of Coalition for Efficiency in October 2020.
Elaine Pearson
Elaine is an experienced trustee who has also been chair and vice chair. She is a senior executive experienced in organisational development and change. She is currently Interim Chair of Gloucestershire BME Group and CEO of AIVCCS. She has many leadership skills and is effective in bringing thought and challenge as a board member of Crossroads Care Gloucestershire.
Fahmim Chowdhury
Fahim is a trustee of the Young Westminster Foundation, and was motivated to join following their my own experience of benefiting from the services that are offered by the charities that the YWF supports: ‘When I was 16 my school was running a programme which allowed you to gain practical experience in the world of professional work, attend talks at corporate firms and actively participate in the development of young professionals. It was a result of this opportunity that I was able to work at McKinsey for 6 weeks, some 10 years later when I was looking for a new role the impression that I left at 16 was the first thing the hiring manager remembered when he walked into the interview room. The opportunity to give back and help continue these resources was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.’
Faiza Amin
Faiza was appointed to Groundwork’s Federation Board in September 2019 through the organisation’s first ever ‘young trustee’ recruitment process. She is an Aziz Scholar and has previously served as a Young Representative on policy for the Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport.
Fiyaz Mughal
Fiyaz is currently Chair of Alcohol Change UK and the conflict resolution organisation, the Oxford Research Group (ORG). He has previously been a trustee of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and is currently a trustee of Broxbourne Citizens Advice Bureau Service. Fiyaz is also the Founder and former Director of Faith Matters (www.faith-matters.org), the national hate crime monitoring organisation: Tell MAMA, and is the Founder and Director of the annual national No2H8 Crime Awards. He also founded and is a trustee of Muslims Against Antisemitism. His work and trusteeship has covered areas such as supporting social cohesion, countering hatred and intolerance, countering extremism and supporting better choices for members of the public around their drinking habits and alcohol consumption. These are issues that buffet communities and are of a personal and professional interest to him.
Furqan Naeem
Furqan is a trustee for Young Manchester and Manchester Central Foodbank and sits on the board as an Equalities Lead for Our Forum Mcr (previously the Manchester Partnership). He works as a Community Organiser for the charity Citizens UK and has previously served as a trustee for the Muslim Youth Helpline.
Hamid Vaghefian
Hamid is trustee of The Running Charity, supporting homeless young people through running and fitness programmes in London and Manchester. He is also trustee of the Young Harrow Foundation, supporting youth groups across Harrow. As Head of Community Engagement for London Marathon Events, Hamid is leading the charge in diversifying participation across the company’s event portfolio Hamid set up the organisation’s first Inclusion Advisory Group to tackle the issue of under-representation of ethnically diverse groups. Hamid’s expertise lies in community engagement and authentic partnership working to bring about social change. His network has been developed over years of working in the non-profit sector, as a youth worker, educator, community activator and managing local and national projects. He built a network of over 450 community organisations using sport for social change across London in his previous role at Sported, a London 2012 Olympic legacy charity.
Haroon Sheikh
Haroon is one of the founders of CareTech plc, the AIM-listed leading specialist care provider, of which he is Chief Executive Officer. He is Chair of the CareTech Foundation, the first corporate foundation in the social care sector. Since its establishment in 2017, the Foundation has distributed approximately £1.3M in grants and donations and is set to distribute over £1M in the next year alone. Haroon also established and Chairs the COSARAF Charitable Foundation to benefit communities and individuals in the UK and abroad, which in the last year has made grants and individual donations in excess of £1M. Haroon is also Patron and Enterprise Fellow of the Prince’s Trust and Vice-Chair of the UK Advisory Council of the British Asian Trust under the patronage of HRH The Prince of Wales.
Holly Khan
Holly Khan is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and music facilitator. She has recently joined the Board of CREATE,after working with them first through their nurturing talent programme, then as an artist/facilitator. She was asked in October 2020 to join the board of trustees, as well as the creative council and became the youngest ever trustee, first and currently only person of colour.
Iana Vidal
Iana is Chair of the Girls Friendly Society and was nominated for the Inspire List by the Society’s CEO who says: ‘She was a major part of why I joined the organisation because her dedication, commitment and leadership was clear to see. Iana has inspired so many of us along the way to think long term, big picture about how we can ensure the charity delivers against its promise to offer girls and young women inspiration for themselves and empowers them to achieve their dreams. She leads a complex organisation with humility, ambition and love. Her wider skills and expertise of the cause and the sector are extraordinary. These skills are brought into play every time she chairs a meeting for GFS.’
Imran Sanaullah MBE
Imran is a trustee of the Naz Legacy Foundation is a UK-based charity which seeks to promote excellence in education and positive integration into British society. The Foundation was established to continue the legacy of the late Naz Bokhari OBE. Imran was the inaugural Naz Bokhari Award winner in 2012 and since then Imran has gone on to become the CEO for the Patchwork Foundation and join the Board of the Naz Legacy Foundation. Imran continues to support successive Naz Bokhari Award winners with advice, mentoring and support.
Irene Adeyinka
Irene Adeyinka is on the Council of Goldsmith’s University and has several years’ experience across the health and social care fields, ranging from children and families to adult community mental health services. She is passionate about helping graduates to succeed in their careers which led to her setting up The Lost Graduate group, a career service that provides personalised career coaching and workshops for all types of graduates.
Jehangir Malik
Jehangir Malik is the Programme Director for the Voluntary and Community Sector Emergency Partnership housed at the British Red Cross. Previously, Jehangir has been the CEO of various organisations including Muslim Aid and Director for Islamic Relief UK focusing on faith-based humanitarian action and development, working in UK and in over Thirty countries worldwide. In 2017, Muslim Aid were one of the first responders to Grenfell tragedy and have remained actively engaged on numerous voluntary sector initiatives aimed at improving mechanisms within UK disaster response frameworks including the creation of VCSEP and the National Emergency Trust. In 2010, Jehangir was awarded an OBE in recognition of his 20 years of contribution to the humanitarian cause. Jehangir has served as a Trustee on the board of trustees at ACEVO (Assoc of Chef Execs for Voluntary Orgs), the Runnymede Trust, is the founder of Muslim Charities Forum and the recently formed National Emergency Trust. He is a serving Patron of The Feast, an interfaith group promoting youth dialogue using faith and has served as a Commissioner on Birmingham Children’s Commission on tackling poverty in Birmingham.
Justina Cruickshank
Justina was appointed Chair of Wac Arts – a performing arts charity – in October 2020. Justina is also Vice-Chair of the Electoral Reform Society, a non-profit organisation focused on improving citizen participation in democracy. Justina’s responsibilities as Vice-Chair include ensuring the effective management and administration of the Society as well as oversight of governance matters and risk management. Justina has been on the board since 2015 and was lead for its member engagement, and diversity and inclusion work. A passionate advocate for diversity, Justina has also launched her own company, Heady Mix, a subscription book service and publisher that showcases writers and stories from underrepresented groups including women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTIQ+ and people with disabilities. As part of her work, Justina advocates for more diversity and inclusion in literature and creates campaigns that raise awareness of the challenges facing underrepresented groups and builds allyships in new audiences.
Kirit Mistry
Kirit is an advocate for increasing diversity of patient public involvement. He established South Asian Health Action, a charity that is patient, carer and community led with a focus on diabetes, kidney disease, organ , blood and stem cell donation. He has also developed Leicestershire South Asian diabetes support group and has been a trustee of Voice 4 Change England for over eight years. He has also recently established Aikyam U.K. a new youth charity that will work with children and young people from 8-24 years old.
Leia Clancy
Leia joined Scoliosis Association UK as a Trustee in May 2020. She is the youngest Trustee by c.30 years and brings experience of fundraising, charity recruitment, and of the condition itself – she has had severe scoliosis since the age of 11.
Lisa Kiew
This is Lisa’s second Trustee role, having previously served as a Trustee for London Parks and Gardens Trust. She has over 15 years as a leader in the charity and not-for-profit sector and is currently Director of Finance and Operations at the Maudsley Charity with strategic responsibility for Finance, IT, HR, Property and Trading operations.
Luthfur Rahman OBE
Cllr Rahman is currently a trustee of Manchester International Festival and has been a trustee for a number of charities over many years. He is motivated and passionate about ensuring boards and decision making institutions are reflective of the demographics they serve.
Mariam Ajibola
Mariam is a 21 year old trustee of a migrant youth led charity – We Belong. Her lived experience of the UK’s immigration system means she is able to make an invaluable contribution at both a strategic and operational level to ensure that We Belong meets its objectives. An avid supporter of STEM and BAME representation she is able to provide insight and courage when speaking out against societal injustice.
Meena Anand
Meena is an experienced Managing Director, NED and Board Advisor with experience in Wholesale Banking, Retail Banking, Shared Services, Publishing and the not-for-profit sectors. She currently holds three Board positions in the charitable sector advising on culture, employee conduct, remuneration, talent and succession management issues. I have been a board member for over a decade starting with the City HR Association – an HR trade organisation. I am a specialist in managing the people implications of business transformation – accelerated growth, right sizing, new market, start up etc.
Michelle King
Michelle has over twenty years experience within the finance sector, where she has been actively involved in various networks designed to promote opportunities for minority groups, and has transferred that experience to the charity sector in the last few years. however it has only been in the past three years that I’ve worked directly with charities to support the wonderful work they do to address inequalities in the community, including as a trustee of The Advocacy Academy.
Ms Ramneek Sohal
Ramneek is a Human Resources leader with over 20 years’ experience across a wide range of industry sectors. She is currently Global Vice President, Human Resources for NTT, leading HR requirements across a number of functions, regions and countries. She became a Trustee for the first time in January 2019 for the Royal College of Psychiatry and was appointed the safeguarding lead in 2020. She became a Trustee at the Prince’s Trust in September 2019 and was appointed to the Young Person’s Committee in November 2020.
Navjyot Johal
Navjyot is Chair of CREATE International, and a trustee of Sisters of the Christian Retreat, a charity offering retreats, spiritual Direction, supervision and counselling.
Niresh Rajah
Niresh joined the Board of Fircroft Trust in July 2019 and has brought specialist strategy, digital, data and marketing expertise to the organisation.
Nizam Uddin OBE
Nizam is currently a Trustee at SOAS, University of London, a Trustee of RFK Human Rights UK and a School Governor of Mulberry Academy Shoreditch. He is also Chief Strategy Officer of ‘algbra’, a technology-based financial ecosystem dedicated to global financial inclusion by focusing on the underserved and underbanked. He says: ‘Being a Trustee ensures I bring a diversity of opinion, expertise and lived experience to the shaping of our organisational strategy, which impacts the lives of many communities. It is personally gratifying, especially so when the work is societally impactful.’
Oluwaseun (Seun) Onasanya
Seun Onasanya is a trustee of The Equality Trust and an associate in the Global Financial Markets group at Clifford Chance (CC). He works within a team which advises financial institutions on structuring deals which facilitate balance sheet liquidity – with a particular focus on emerging markets. His main areas of practice are repack loans, currency and interest rate swaps and deal contingent hedging. Seun trained and qualified as a solicitor in CC’s London office, where he gained experience with the firm’s construction, project finance, private equity and Islamic finance (secondment to Dubai) practices. As a proud south Londoner of Nigerian heritage, he is particularly passionate about youth empowerment and intervention work. His personal interests/hobbies include learning more about African cultures (having travelled to Ethiopia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Ghana in the last couple of years) and riding the emotional roller coaster that it is to be an Arsenal Fan.
Ominder Dhillon
Ominder is a trustee of Facing History and Ourselves and has professionally worked for several leading investment management firms. He also serves as a Senior Advisor on the Global Advisory Board of investment consultant research firm IC Research.
Ozzie Clarke-Binns
Ozzie has spent the last 15 years as an independent advisor for various organisations, including the London 2012 Organising Committee and Business in the Community. He is a People and Culture specialist and is currently People Lead at Aula. Previously, he was Head of Innovation and Consultancy at University College London. Today, Ozzie is in his second term as a Trustee at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, a Non-Executive Director at A2Dominion Housing Group, and a One Young World Ambassador.
Rodney Williams
Rodney Williams is a Lead Project Manager for National Grid and responsible for a team of engineers that deliver a programme of construction projects. Rodney has been a proactive champion of diversity. From 2016 to 2019, Rodney was chair for ‘ONE’, National Grid’s multicultural employee resource group. As chair, Rodney relaunched the network, boosting membership by 95% and nurturing new programmes such as the ‘Development Programme for Diverse Leaders,’ a company-first course designed to accelerate and support BAME employees to management positions. Rodney was ranked number 2 in the EMpower and Yahoo Finance Top 100 Ethnic Minority Future Leader Role Models list 2020. In 2019, Rodney joined the City Year UK Board of Trustees, nine years after he volunteered on the City Year programme. Using his past experience as a volunteer, he has been able to bring a unique and fresh perspective to the trustee board to shape the charity’s future growth and progression.
Rupinder Ashworth
Rupinder is on the boards of The Piece Hall in Halifax, British Weightlifting (NGB) and The AHDB (Agricultural & Horticultural Development Board). She is also part of the Northern Power Women organisation. Rupinder says: ‘I am able to add value to these boards precisely because I have worked in commercial organisations – this gives me the ability to see apply cross sector learnings and be a good trustee. This diversity of thinking is as important as sex, race or colour. Diversity of experience, thought and bringing learnings from private/public to third sector and back again is the future. I do represent all of this diversity in the boards I am on – I am Asian, female and from a commercial background. As a useful trustee I think thats quite a powerful package. The Northern Power Women forum has taught me to be loud and proud about that!’
Sanjay Nair
Sanjay is a Trustee and Treasurer of KIDS and is the Head of Finance for Commercial Banking at HSBC in the UK. He also Chairs a Cluster Board for Reach2, the largest primary academy Trust in the UK which supports circa 60 schools:
Sanju Pal
Sanju is the Founder and Trustee of the education charity RISE, which she established in 2009 as an award winning Teach First teacher in the UK. RISE works to raise the aspirations of disadvantaged young people through two unique education projects in the UK and rural India. Sanju won the 2013 UK Asian Women of Achievement Award in the Young Achiever category for her work as a RISE Trustee, she is a case study in the book ‘Success Against the Odds’ by Teach First Founder Brett Wigdortz OBE, she was profiled in the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills publication on Inspirational Women in Business and in 2020 Sanju received the UK Prime Minister’s Points of Light award for her volunteer work with RISE. Sanju was also profiled by Teach for All as part of a learning series on Leadership During Covid-19, empowering other Trustees and Leaders on agile leadership during the pandemic.
Savraj Kaur
Savraj is on the board of West London Welcome, which supports refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and other locals in the area she grew up in. She is enjoying giving her skills and expertise to the fast-growing charity as it makes a huge difference to members in-need who remain at the core of its vision and mission. Her interest is storytelling to inspire change, and she is passionate about empowering people to make a life better for themselves and people they care about. She also co-founded Ready Tech Go, a minority-led initiative which encourages locals to pass on old devices to benefit those affected by the digital divide in Hammersmith & Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea, and Westminster.
Segun Olowookere
Segun is a qualified management accountant and currently works for the youth charity Restless Development as their Finance Director. Segun’s passionate about helping to make finance fun and easy to understand. Outside of his professional work he is also a social entrepreneur and mentor. Passionate about inspiring young people, he is the author of a motivational book called, You Might As Well.
Sharon Marshall
I have over ten years’ experience in the arts and charities sector having previously worked with a charitable foundation and also in theatre, dance and media, managing a youth arts and community centre in West London. I have strong operations, stakeholder engagement, finance, staff and venue management expertise. I enjoy interacting at all levels with colleagues and external stakeholders from a wide range of backgrounds. I am committed to ongoing personal and professional development. I am a strong leader with the ability to work and interact effectively at all levels, both internally and externally with colleagues and stakeholders from a wide range of backgrounds. I have mentored young people and trained teams to provide efficiency and excellence. This is my first trusteeship. I joined Maxability in October 2020 but I am enjoying the challenge and excited about the charity and its work and what it has to offer its beneficiaries in its next stage of development.
Shashi Sharma
Shashi Sharma is a trustee of LionHeart RICS, the charity supporting RICS professionals and their families, and serves on the Audit and Risk Committee, utilising her professional background in tax and finance, with senior roles in across the engineering, energy and FMCG sectors.
Shirin Shah
Shirin is a qualified solicitor, currently working in corporate mergers and acquisitions in an international law firm. In 2016, she co-founded South Asian Sisters Speak (SASS) to create safe spaces for South Asian womxn in the UK to share their experiences openly. In August 2020, Shirin became a trustee of the East End Women’s Museum because of her passion for championing the histories of diverse women.
Sophia Aluko
Sophia Aluko is Head of Service Management, Transitions Management Office and COO D&I Ethnicity Co-Lead at Barclays. Alongside her day job, Sophia supports gender equality initiatives and she is a Trustee and Treasurer at Global Fund for Women UK (GFWUK), an organisation that advocates and promotes gender equality in the most disadvantaged communities. Sophia joined GFWUK in 2019 and is responsible for setting the finance strategy and overseeing the financial affairs of the organisation. Sophia has a passion for helping people, and does this through coaching and mentoring. She also founded a non-profit, The Steer Network, that provides career coaching and mentoring for individuals from diverse backgrounds Sophia has an MBA from Imperial College London and is a Qualified Accountant with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
Srabani Sen
Srabani Sen OBE is currently the Chair of Action Aid and has served on Boards for more than 25 years, including chairing four. She says: ‘The theme linking many of the organisations I’ve been involved with is poverty and social justice. I am passionate about Board excellence. The people our organisations serve deserve no less.’
Sufina Ahmad MBE
Sufina currently holds four charity Trustee roles at We Belong, Just for Kids Law, the Charterhouse and the Association of Charitable Foundations and has previously held two other Trustee roles at the Elfrida Society and London Funders. She has been a Trustee since the age of 26, and is passionate about the positive impact that more visibly diverse people joining boards can have by putting forward their perspective on how to strategically deliver the goals of their charity. She says: ‘I have sought out Board positions for charities and causes that I am passionate about and interested in – sometimes these roles are not aligned directly to my professional experience, as is the case with being a Trustee currently for charities working with young people and a charity which has a heritage focus, alongside its work as an almshouse. In all of my Trustee roles I bring dedication and a commitment to use my skills in fundraising, grant-making, strategy, policy and stakeholder engagement and to use my experience from various leadership roles across numerous charities and public sector bodies.’
Tasneem Alom
Tasneem is a Corporate Solicitor at a leading law firm in Mayfair. She read Law at King’s College London, and then went on to do a Masters in Law at the University College London, focusing on issues of social justice and feminist jurisprudence. She has had experience working in the House of Lords and the House of Commons, and has worked with organisations such as Future First and the Brokerage City Link. She joined the Blagrave Trust as a Trustee in 2018
Tom Palakudiyil
Tom Palakudiyil is on the boards of Water and Sanitation for Urban Poor (WSUP) – India; and Dalit Solidarity Network – UK, where he is also vice chair and is a trustee of Anti Slavery International. He brings substantial multi-sectoral social development experience to these Boards as a leader at grassroots, national and international levels since 1982. From 2005 up until September 2019, Tom led WaterAid UK’s programme delivery across 5 countries in South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan). Prior to joining WaterAid, Tom worked with Christian Aid, first as Country Director for India, and subsequently as Regional Manager for South Asia.
Yaseer Ahmed
Yaseer is a trustee of the British Red Cross. He is also Director of Strategy and Organisational Development at Roccia (private sector) and a Clore Social Leadership Programme (CSLP) Fellow. Yaseer has previously been a trustee of a number of BAME led organisations, as well as his local CVS and NHS Trust. Yaseer was a volunteer for over 8 years before becoming a trustee at the British Red Cross. He says: ‘It was a huge achievement for me, and I feel also for the BAME community, to have a representative who is not only from an under represented group, but someone who looks different in the way they dress and present themselves. I attend meetings at the BRC in my thobe and have been able to really effect change and to encourage growth in my colleagues on the Board.’
Yasmin Ibison
In October 2020, Yasmin was appointed as a Young Trustee at Kids in Museums – a charity working with museums, heritage sites and cultural organisations nationwide to make them more welcoming for children, young people and families. She is also the founder of Critics’ Club – a social enterprise working to engage young people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds with theatres and galleries as critics. Yasmin also works for Black Thrive – a racial justice charity fighting for systems change to tackle the structural inequalities the Black community face in Lambeth.
Zak Khan
Zak joined Mid Mind as a Trustee in 2019 and was appointed as Vice-Chair in 2020. He has worked at the frontline of public services for many years, primarily as a police officer within Kent Police as well as a Governor of a local secondary school, Non-Executive Director of a limited company and involvement in trusted community organisations such as Rotary International. Zak has been able to utilise his skills, as well as understanding of mental health personally and professionally, to support Mid Kent Mind to effectively deliver its vital services throughout the area.
Stacey Quay
Stacey is a trustee of Dress for Success Greater London and The Global Legal Lead for Technology at HSBC, supporting the Wealth and Personal Banking business, FinTech and Digital Business teams. Stacey has been a trustee of Dress for Success Greater London since February 2017, their mission is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional clothes, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.
Kiran Kaur
Kiran is a trustee of NCVO and is CEO and Co-Founder of GirlDreamer, a social enterprise on a mission to educate, elevate and empower the next generation of women of colour.. Her efforts have earned her accolades such as “Birmingham 30 under 30” and “Best Digital CEO 2020”.