United Kingdom
I'm a campaigner at heart. I like people, and most of my working life has been spent on working for social good. Through a varied career I've worked both in the UK and overseas to promote fairness, egalitarianism, compassion and the empowerment of the vulnerable. My belief in peacemaking led me to create and establish a reconciliation project for young people in Northern Ireland that took on sectarianism at its root. Through my work with the development charity Tearfund, and as Head of International Programme with Bible Society I've overseen projects in over 40 countries that have brought transformational change. I have a passion for politics and public affairs, gained through my studies and I have spent much of the last few years working closely with politicians from around the world on advocacy projects. I particularly enjoy analysing complex situations and finding the right path towards strategic objectives. All of this has came together well in my role as CEO of Oasis Community Housing, in which I led an incredible bunch of people across the country who together are tackling one of the greatest challenges of our times: homelessness.
Leading the International Programme team of one of the oldest faith-based charities in the UK. I'm responsible for setting the strategic direction of our partnerships with colleagues in 146 countries, including through our seven figure grant-making programme, and overseeing the delivery of a portfolio of projects from conception to completion. My role includes regular international travel across Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas to represent the charity, and to do site visits to the projects that we are supporting. Stakeholder management, strategic planning and managing people are important functions in this role.
Being a Regional Volunteer Manager was a supporter and public-facing role which centred around fundraising and campaigning. I was responsible for communicating Tearfund’s work in 70 developing countries to hundreds of volunteers and thousands of supporters across the range of international development issues. The role Involved public speaking, strategic planning, facilitating training sessions, dealing with the media, representing Tearfund on inter-agency international development coalitions – including Make Poverty History – and working with teams of volunteers to deliver fundraising and educational events in aid of the organisation’s work. As an RVM I had responsibility for up to 200 volunteers at a time across, successively, the island of Ireland, Scotland, and latterly the North East of England.