Our Team and Board

Josephine brings over 23 years of experience in the charitable sector and a deep passion for helping children and young people. She joined The Childhood Trust from her role as Chief Executive of Kent Community Foundation, a lace based grant maker. Her earlier career includes senior leadership roles at Imperial College Healthcare Charity in London and the Royal National Institute for Blind People. Josephine is a strong advocate for voluntary organisations in her local area where she Chaired the Kent Children & Young People’s Steering Group, as well as sitting on other Kent county steering groups and statutory Boards.

Helen oversees all areas of programme delivery and impact, including grant-giving, volunteering, community programmes, as well as leading the organisation’s research and impact work. She is passionate about putting children and young people at the heart of programme design and delivery, making sure their voices and needs shape every aspect of our work.

With twenty years of experience in project and programme design, management, working across different sectors, Helen’s career has been shaped by a commitment to improving outcomes for children and young people. Starting out supporting young people in the criminal justice system and later on, empowering residents in the Big Local programme, she brings a strong track record of driving meaningful impact through collaboration, strategic partnerships and national campaigns.

Get in touch with Helen to collaborate on strategy development, explore partnership opportunities or learn more about TCT’s work.

Mayaz bring over 20 years experience working across high value fundraising and corporate community investment programmes. Prior to joining The Childhood Trust as Director of Fundraising, Mayaz held senior high value fundraising roles at STEM Learning, Crisis, The Kings Trust and Breast Cancer Campaign. Mayaz also spent several years advising companies including KFC, FedEX and P&G on their community investment programmes.

As Director of Finance and Governance, Cheryl is responsible for overseeing the financial health of The Childhood Trust, guiding financial strategy and ensuring compliance with charity law and regulatory requirements. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, Cheryl works closely with her fellow members to support the Chief Executive and Board of Trustees.

Rosamund leads our Operations team, managing our external and internal policies, governance, HR and compliance. Rosamund has been in the charity sector for over 5 years, previously working at an educational charity she helped set up during the Covid-19 pandemic helping to drive her passion for ending childhood inequality.

Get in touch with Rosamund with any Operations or Governance queries.

As Head of Communications and Marketing at The Childhood Trust, Stacey leads the charity’s brand and voice to highlight the reality of child poverty in London. By amplifying the lived experiences of the families the Trust supports, she builds connections with funded charity partners, supporters, and advocates to create a unified front against poverty across the capital.

Beth leads on volunteering across the organisation as well as our community outreach programme, Transforming Spaces. She shapes the programme to ensure positive outcomes for families across London with the support of our fantastic partners.

Beth has a wide range of experience from across the youth charity sector in London. She previously managed programmes focussed on reducing serious youth violence, enabling youth social action and promoting overseas volunteering opportunities for young people facing multiple disadvantages. She also loves to travel and has spent time in China, Rwanda and Kenya teaching and working in community development.

Get in touch with Beth to learn more about our community outreach and volunteering work.

Olivia has worked in the third sector for almost a decade, building and delivering values-driven partnerships between charities and businesses based on shared purpose and delivering tangible impact. She is passionate about causes focused on supporting children, young people and communities facing multiple disadvantage – leading her to join The Childhood Trust in 2025 – and the power of partnership working to harness collective resources, expertise and audiences to drive positive change.

Reach out to Olivia to discuss how The Childhood Trust can support in fulfilling your corporate responsibility or social impact ambitions and how your business can help us in our mission to alleviate the impact of poverty for children in our capital.

For over 10 years Yesha has worked as a mixed methods social researcher within the charity sector and social policy. Her main areas of expertise are in children’s services including child poverty, health and wellbeing and social work and families.

Her interest in research started from studying BA Sociology and Criminology, she then honed her skills through MSc and further postgraduate study in social work. Yesha has since conducted a wide range of research projects from small scale case studies to large Government evaluations. She has also published 3 papers in academic journals and has taught research methods at master’s Level.

Yesha is passionate in carrying out research that sheds a light on the key issues and challenges faced in the child poverty sector and helping to find solutions to support our charity partners and alleviate the impact of poverty on children in London.

Karis leads the charity’s volunteer strategy, building meaningful partnerships with corporate and community groups and developing inclusive, engaging volunteer experiences through the Transforming Spaces programme. With a strong background in workforce development and community engagement, Karis is passionate about creating opportunities for people to connect, contribute and make a lasting difference in children’s lives.

Lauren supports our partnerships and fundraising efforts, working with corporate partners to create meaningful volunteering opportunities and drive donations. She began her career in sales at a beauty box company, sourcing and negotiating hundreds of products each month with leading brands. Driven by a desire to make a greater social impact, she moved into the dementia care sector, managing international accounts and partnerships at Relish for five years. Lauren is passionate about raising awareness of child poverty in London and helping to grow our impact through meaningful partnerships.

Get in touch with Lauren to discuss corporate partnerships or volunteering opportunities.

Yoctan has over 10 years of experience in the charity and international development sector. He has a strong track record of working with underserved communities and brings valuable skills to the team, including programme management, research, and monitoring and evaluation. His primary areas of focus have included poverty alleviation, immigration, youth development, and global health.

He holds a master’s degree in International Politics (Globalisation, Poverty, and Development) and a bachelor’s degree in law. He is passionate about supporting campaigns that address child poverty and is committed to empowering charity partners in developing solutions and mitigating the impact of child poverty in London.

Marcia manages The Childhood Trust’s Salesforce CRM system, supporting staff with technical queries, onboarding, and system enhancements. She ensures the platform runs smoothly to help the team deliver impactful work. With a background in the non-profit sector, Marcia brings both experience and passion to her role. After a career break to raise her two sons, she retrained as a qualified Salesforce Administrator. She is proud to support The Childhood Trust’s mission to help vulnerable children. Outside of work, Marcia enjoys volunteering, learning new tech skills, and spending time with her family.

Iqra brings over twelve years of experience in both the charity sector & academia to our team. She is a qualified development practitioner with an MPhil in Development Studies (Gold Medallist) & a Master’s in Project Management. Iqra supports the day-to-day operational activities of The Childhood trust i.e. providing administrative support across Operations, assisting with policy development, contributing to safeguarding procedures.

Hannah is our PR and Communications Officer who leads on PR, social media and storytelling to showcase the impact of our charity partners. She’s previously worked with a children’s charity and in the startup space promoting equity in graduate recruitment, experiences that sparked her passion for social mobility and positive social change. A lover of words and ideas, she studied English Literature and still finds joy in reading, writing and learning something new every day.

Bradley leads our digital communications, managing the website, newsletter and social media. Following a Masters in Sports Journalism, he has developed communications experience in local government, sporting and charitable spaces.

George leads the design and installation of the Transforming Spaces project, creating warm, cosy spaces for children in need of a place to sleep, learn, and play. George brings a wealth of experience from both the charity and arts sectors. Over the past decade, he has worked at the intersection of these two fields, specialising in fundraising, events management, project delivery, and set design.

Nisat coordinates our Transforming Spaces outreach programme. Nisat has experience working in the charity sector and with volunteers and young people across London.

Grant Gordon is a philanthropist and social entrepreneur working as a non-executive board member with a portfolio of charities. A common theme across these charities is the development of social capital to foster a society where people have more opportunities. His philanthropic interests cover a wide range of issues including: rural community regeneration in the Scottish Highlands; helping to alleviate child poverty in London; and developing a greater understanding of the contribution of family business. He also works in his own family business Wm. Grant & Sons’ charity group focusing on creating greater opportunities for disadvantaged people in Scotland. In his earlier career he was most recently co-founder and director general of the Institute for Family Business. He is married to Brigitte, and they have three grown up daughters.

Galiema became the acting Head Teacher at Rotherhithe Primary in February 2012 following a period of instability of leadership at the school. The school serves a community where the deprivation factor is high (double that of schools nationally) and the percentage of children with English as an additional language is three times higher than schools nationally. The school was placed in Notice to Improve in February 2011 due to lack of progress, poor data, and poor teaching. Under her leadership, the school was graded Good with outstanding features and most recently became a Centre of Excellence for Inclusion. As a result, the Local Authority requested that Galiema support a second school seeking strong leadership. Galiema is originally from South Africa, where she trained and became a teacher in 1992. She taught in deprived areas of Cape Town for nine years. Having grown up in the Apartheid era, Galiema is and has always been focused on ensuring equality in the provision for all pupils in education, striving to ensure that every pupil makes progress and reaches their full potential. Since 2013, Galiema has been supported ten different schools in Southwark, Lambeth, Greenwich, and Bexley.

David Rhodes is now a Senior Advisor to The Boston Consulting Group, where he worked for 35 years. Throughout his career, David advised clients around the world on major strategy and organisational change. David has a particular interest in matters relating to Governance, business standards and conduct. He served on the firm’s Executive Committee and chaired the firm’s practice areas. In 2015 he was a founding Board member of the Forward Institute. The Forward Institute strives to work with leaders and companies that are serious about becoming beacons of purpose and responsibility. Its flagship programme instils a values based approach to management in the future leaders of major corporations and public sector organisations. David received a BA in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He also qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He is married to Alex and they have four grown up sons.

Nicola Horlick has been a leading fund manager in the City of London for over thirty years. During that time, she has set up and managed several investment businesses. She now chairs a private equity business, is CEO of a film-development company, and is a director of an NHS Foundation Trust.

Lesley has been Managing Director of Michael O’Mara Books for over 30 years, which has grown from a husband and wife start up in 1985 to a team of over 50 publishing 150 new nonfiction books a year. Michael O’Mara Books is proud to support several international and local charities and has published titles in partnership with Amnesty International, Client Earth, and Mind to raise proceeds and the profiles of these charities. They also sponsor the annual Global Canvas Children’s Exhibition at the Natural History Museum for The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation. Lesley worked with the charity Pilotlight as a Pilotlighter business leader for two years, which provided an insight into the common issues that charities face. She then became a Trustee of Link Age Southwark for several years, a local charity supporting vulnerable older people. Lesley is also a member of the Environmental Funders Network, Women for Women International and the Leadership Circle for Client Earth.

Rebecca is Senior UK Policy Adviser at UNICEF UK, and has held roles at The Children’s Society and Chance UK, developing policy and creating change for children and young people experiencing poverty. She works to highlight the issues facing children and families living on low incomes to influence national and local changes to public policy. Rebecca volunteered in Mexico, working directly with children living in poverty to increase their access to education. She studied for an MA in Sociology and a BA in History and Politics at The University of Sheffield before beginning a career in the charity sector.

Mathias spent the last 14 years at the private equity manager, Kingsbridge Capital Advisors, focusing mainly on distressed mid-sized company investments. Previously he worked for 5 years at Kleinwort Benson in London and for 4 years at Dresdner Bank in Frankfurt. He is a qualified lawyer by training and holds a PhD in Law from the University of Berlin. Mathias is a trustee of the Kingsbridge Foundation in Lausanne, supporting early stage technologies and education. He is also a trustee of the Norbert Braining Foundation in London and the Camerata Asolo, fostering musical education. He was previously a trustee of the Awareness Foundation in London supporting the dialogue between different religions. He is married to Carolyn, and they have four children.

Jonathan Kelly is a Senior Managing Director in the Infrastructure Group and European Head of Infrastructure for Blackstone, based in London. Since joining Blackstone, Mr. Kelly has been involved in the execution of Blackstone Infrastructure’s investment in Autostrade per I’Italia (ASPI), while also serving on the Board of Directors for ASPI.