Our Trustees have a broad range of complementary experience across multiple industries, disciplines, and across the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Nasir Ahmad
Nasir has worked in the UK financial services sector for over 20 years, and is currently General Counsel and Chief Risk Officer for 11:FS, a UK based consultancy, media and banking services company specialising in Fintech. Nasir has previously worked in a variety of senior legal and risk roles for Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, Halifax Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland. Nasir has also recently stepped down as a trustee of Reprieve after sitting on its Board for 6 years and chairing it’s risk committee. Nasir is married with 2 children.
Richard Brown MBE
Richard is Spencer’s cousin. He took early retirement after a successful career in Local Government, having worked throughout Oxfordshire and the West Midlands, specialising in access, equality and diversity, and housing management. He was awarded an MBE in 2021 for services to Disabled People and his local community. He is an experienced leader of charities large and small and a prolific volunteer with several local community organisations in Oxfordshire where he lives with his wife and two children.
Hugh Davies
Hugh is Marketing Director at Lookout Point, one of the UK’s leading producers of television drama. After starting as a strategic planner in advertising, Hugh moved to the BBC in 2009 where he headed up marketing for Radio 4, BBC Drama, and BBC Studios over a ten year period. He read English at St Hugh’s, Oxford and currently lives in London with his wife and three children.
Russell Korgaonkar
Russell is Chief Investment Officer and partner at AHL Partners LLP, a global investment management company. He is also a member of the executive committee of Man Group PLC. He studied Physics at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University. Russell lives in North-West London with his wife and two children.
Samaya Nissanke
Samaya Nissanke is an associate professor in gravitational wave and multi-messenger astrophysics and the spokesperson of GRAPPA (centre of excellence in gravitation and astroparticle physics) at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, completed her PhD at the Institut d’Astrophysique Paris (Universite de Paris VII, France), followed by postdoctoral fellowships & research positions at the Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics (University of Toronto), California Institute of Technology and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of Colorado-Boulder and Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Her research focuses on black holes, neutron stars and gravitational waves. She is a mother of an active five year old boy and a Board of Trustee member at the International School of Amsterdam.
Ali Shepherd
Ali is a Managing Director for cyber security consulting firm Mandiant, providing advice to government and private sector organisations. He previously worked in the UK Government for almost 10 years, and studied Geography at Oxford University.
Kate Steadman
Kate is the Global Strategy & Communications Director, and a member of the Group Executive Board of Serco Group plc – the FTSE 250 company employing 55,000 people, serving governments in more than 20 countries across the world. Until 2010, Kate was an adviser to senior politicians in the fields of Criminal Justice, Home Affairs, and Legal Affairs. She graduated from Cambridge University and was President of the Cambridge Union.
Sebastian Walker
Sebastian is the Washington Bureau Chief for VICE News, where he previously led the Middle East bureau and served as an international correspondent reporting from countries around the world. Sebastian’s career in journalism began in 2003 when he launched the Baghdad Bulletin in post-invasion Iraq, before moving to Mosul as a Reuters stringer. In 2006 he helped launch Al Jazeera English in Doha (Qatar), and his work has won a range of awards including multiple Emmys. Sebastian grew up between West London and Watership Down, and he studied History and French at Manchester university. Sebastian currently lives in Washington DC and enjoys spending time with his 6-year-old son Darius and playing jazz piano badly.
Andrew Jones
Andrew is a senior energy professional at KPMG advising clients on the transition to Net Zero and regulatory strategy. Outside of work he spends his time running, cycling and getting given the runaround by his two young sons.