How we are managed

Turn2us management

Thomas Lawson - Chief Executive, Turn2us. Executive Chair, Elizabeth Finn Homes Ltd

Thomas Lawson has worked in the social sector since the early 90s in international development at UNICEF, HIV at Terrence Higgins Trust and NAM (the charity behind aidsmap.com), criminal justice at Prisoners Abroad and in youth work at the award-winning Leap Confronting Conflict.

Recently he has been challenging the sector to address the barriers to success in the sector for people from Black, Asian and other minoritised ethnic communities. Tom has served on the boards of the charities: Centre for Youth Impact, Heart ‘n Soul and the National Peace Council. Until summer 2023, Tom was non-executive chair of his family’s retail firm, Lawsons, and is the chair for Elizabeth Finn Homes Ltd, which is Turn2us’s wholly owned subsidiary care home business.

Thomas joined Turn2us as Chief Executive in March 2019. He became a member of the Elizabeth Finn Homes board in April 2019, before being appointed as its Chair in August 2021. Thomas is interested in how the social sector can work with, and challenge, state bodies and companies to create an inclusive society in which everyone can thrive. He is passionate about the role that people with lived expertise can play in the future of the leadership of the social sector and in addressing the complex problems we face.

Claire Atchia McMaster - Director Income and External Affairs

Claire has worked in Campaigns, Communications and Income Generation over the last 30 years - working with a number of UK NGOs and INGOs tackling social justice from the Anti-Apartheid Movement to the Green Alliance. 
 
She has worked across government at the Commission for Racial Equality, London Development Agency, DFID, the Legal Ombudsman and was Strategic Advisor to Gordon Brown, PM. She was the founding CEO of the Sheila McKechnie Foundation, established to connect, support and develop UK and international campaigners.
 
She led on the fundraising and launch of a commercial live music venue and education programme in Hackney, in partnership with a range of broadcasters reaching audiences of 40 million+. And led high value specialist teams and multi-portfolio fundraising operations at: Depaul UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Save the Children and the Terence Higgins Trust. 
 
She is passionate about working with social movements to create lasting change.

Jo Kerr - Director of Impact and Innovation

Jo Kerr has dedicated her career to the social sector, focusing on strategy, leadership and change through a digital lens. Jo joined Turn2us in January 2020 after two years as a freelance consultant and leadership coach. Jo is interested in innovating how we work as well as what we do, and is passionate about co-producing our products and programmes with people with lived experience of poverty.

Jo’s last in-house role was as Assistant Director of Digital for Breast Cancer Care. Before this, Jo was Girlguiding’s first Head of Digital Communications. Agency-side, Jo was managing director for London at Reason Digital, overseeing their work with national charities.

Jo is a Fellow of both the Intersticia Foundation and Newspeak House — the London College of Political Technologists. She is also Chair of the Board of Trajectory Theatre.

Thomas Mathew - Director of Finance and Resources

Tom Mathew joined Turn2us as Director of Finance and Resources in February 2020. He has held similar positions in the charity sector for over a dozen years, including at the City of Dublin YMCA and the award-winning youth charity Leap Confronting Conflict. In a previous life, Tom work professionally as a writer. He is an award-winning essayist and a grant recipient through the Irish Arts Council.

At Turn2us, Tom oversees the charity's finances, risk management, human resources and ICT. 

Sarah McLoughlin - Director of Programmes & Partnerships

Sarah joined Turn2Us in November 2021 after 4 1/2 years at Nesta, the innovation foundation, where she managed a range of national grant programmes focused on helping governments and communities reimagine public services.  These included the Savers Support Fund, utilising social action and community engagement approaches to increase financial resilience.  

With almost 20 years of experience in the charity sector, Sarah has worked as a practitioner, manager, and senior leader for a range of organisations focused on social change in London and across Greater Manchester.  Sarah volunteers at her local foodbank in North Paddington as well as providing phone support to women experiencing a breast cancer diagnosis for Breast Cancer Now. 

Sarah is passionate about shifting power and reducing the structural inequalities within the funding sector so that more people are involved in decision-making and ultimately able to thrive.  

Statement on Senior Salaries

Read our Statement on Senior Salaries 

Trustees

Carrie Stokes - Chair of the Board of Trustees at Turn2us, and Non-Executive Director of Elizabeth Finn Homes Ltd

Carrie Stokes joined both Turn2us as Chair of the board and Elizabeth Finn Homes as a Non-Executive Director, in April 2022. She also Chairs our Nominations & Remuneration Committee.

Carrie is an independent strategic brand consultant and executive facilitator with 30 years’ experience influencing and advising boards and executive teams in the private and non-for-profit sectors. Her clients have included The John Lewis Partnership, London 2012 Olympics, London Business School, Leap Confronting Conflict and Radar (now Disability Rights).

Passionate about addressing foundational issues that impact people’s potential to grow, broaden their horizons and succeed, she has balanced being a Director of a WPP owned agency and then her own business, with working pro bono for charities that focus on food security, financial insecurity, disability rights, adult literacy and youth issues.

Steven Hunter - Trustee and Hon. Treasurer

Steven Hunter is a chartered accountant with more than thirty years’ experience, the last twenty of which have been spent running and building small businesses in the publishing/marketing sectors.

After qualifying with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC), he spent 12 years there before heading up the financial reporting function at Mercury Communications, part of the Cable & Wireless group. He then co-founded a magazine publishing company (subsequently sold) and in 2005 set up a content marketing business which was sold in 2015 and which he left in 2019.

Steven is a keen golfer and skier and has two grown up children. He became a Trustee in June 2017 and is the Honorary Treasurer and Chairs the Finance & Investment Committee.

Helen Chambers - Trustee

Helen believes in challenging established thinking and has been instrumental in designing and delivering many ground breaking innovative and collaborative approaches within government and the voluntary sector tackling a wide range of social issues.

Both within her work in Scottish Government as Head of Child Poverty, and a founder of Inspiring Scotland, she has overseen the investment of over £200m into responses to alleviate Scotland’s ‘wicked’ issues. 

Her history is that of a serial social entrepreneur founding a number of organisations from the award winning Equality Network through to most recently, Inspiring Scotland; a funder and capacity builder of the voluntary sector in Scotland.

She has been a member of a number of academic groups on equality, social impact, research and evaluation including representing the UK in the European Union’s Social Impact Study Group and the School of Management Advisory Council for the University of St. Andrews.She was also a Steering Group member for  Collective Leadership Scotland.

Helen has held a number of Fellowships, including founding Fellow of Pioneers for Change, a Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and is a Fellow of the RSA.

Helen Chambers became a Trustee in 2019 and Chairs the Edinburgh Trust Committee.

Edwina Johnston - Trustee of Turn2us and Deputy Chair of Elizabeth Finn Homes Ltd 

Edwina joined the Board of Trustees for both Turn2us and Elizabeth Finn Homes in December 2020 as Lead Trustee for Safeguarding and Chair of the Audit, Risk and Governance Committee.

Edwina retired from Choice Care in August 2020 where she was CEO from 2009 and prior to that Finance Director from 2002. Choice Care provides residential care and supported living services to adults with learning disabilities and mental health disorders. Prior to Choice, Edwina was Finance Director of a listed import and distribution business, having previously qualified as an ACA with Price Waterhouse.

Edwina is based between Newbury and South Devon and is married with three grown up daughters and one grandson.

Philippe Lintern  - Trustee

Philippe spent twenty years working in investment banking as a trader, and then as head of a risk management division. He then took a career break, during which he volunteered for Shelter, the UK housing charity, working directly with clients. In 2020, Philippe joined the Bank of England as a banking regulator specialising in trading risk management. In 2022, he became Head of the Foreign Exchange Division overseeing the Bank’s foreign exchange balance sheet as well as the UK’s foreign exchange reserves. 

Philippe is passionate about social and financial inclusion. From an early age he was aware of inequalities and financial insecurity. When he was 21, he worked in a Job Centre in a post-industrial town in France, and saw first-hand the devastation wrought by long term unemployment. During his time volunteering for Shelter, he regularly used Turn2Us’ Benefit Calculator, and applied for grants from Turn2Us on behalf of clients, witnessing first hand the life changing impact Turn2Us has. Philippe is also a Trustee and Vice Chair of Shelter. 

In his spare time time he enjoys running, open water swimming, motorcycling, and flying trapeze both as a flyer and a catcher.

Philippe is a member of the Audit, Risk & Governance Committee and the Finance & Investment Committee.

Sandy MacDonald - Trustee

Sandy MacDonald has a professional background in Corporate Affairs, Responsible Business, Sustainability and Marketing. He has focused on working within and across sectors to drive social and environmental change, inclusion and wellbeing. Previously Global Head of Corporate Sustainability at Standard Life Aberdeen plc, where he was responsible for all aspects of sustainability strategy, reporting and community impact, Sandy was appointed as Director of Public Policy & Communications at Scottish Financial Enterprise in May 2021.  

Sandy’s strong, active interest in social justice and tackling inequalities is also reflected in his voluntary and non-Executive career. He is a former trustee of charities including Children 1st and Venture Scotland, a former Chair of the Living Wage Scotland leadership group and was an Independent Commissioner on the Edinburgh Poverty Commission. He is a founding trustee of Everyone’s Edinburgh and sits on the Nominations Committee of the National Trust for Scotland.

Sandy became a Trustee in April 2022.

Natasha Otero-Nevitt - Trustee

Natasha Otero-Nevitt joined the board in June 2021 and has a career history in school leadership and school improvement, having worked as part of senior management in schools and as a Specialist Leader of Education. After helping parents access special educational needs support, Natasha started volunteering for legal charities, something which she enjoys immensely and continues to do. From this pro bono legal experience of casework and advocacy, Natasha won scholarships and awards to undertake the Graduate Diploma in Law. She subsequently won further scholarships to study for the Bar, which she has just completed, and which confirmed her passion for equality and access to justice. Natasha had experience of working with Turn2us in co-production before becoming a trustee.

Denise Ramsey - Trustee 

Denise is Director for Social Entrepreneur Support for UnLtd. Having spent the past 5 years leading on delivering equitable funding and support, she has the ability to steer strategic direction whilst leading people to be operationally sound in deliverables. During 2020/21 this leadership enabled £11m to be distributed to social entrepreneurs, as well as a £10M partnership. She was instrumental in getting much-needed funds to 600+ people in communities during lockdown, whilst driving UnLtd’s equity audit and the organisation's response to it. For the past 20 years Denise has worked across entrepreneurship, business, education, safeguarding and VAWG within the public and private sector.

She has significant depths of both lived and learnt expertise and has the ability to challenge and ask great questions with real courage, generosity and empathy. She leads with equity in order to achieve justice.

Denise is a member of the Nominations & Remuneration Committee.

Holly Tippett Simpson - Trustee 

Holly works in the Fundraising Strategy Team at the British Red Cross, enabling the organisation to respond to change and emerging sector trends. She coordinates the business planning process, delivers fundraising research, and has experience managing the BRC’s largest emergency appeal - The Ukraine Crisis Appeal. 

Previously, she worked at The Salvation Army, in a Policy and Public Affairs role advocating for homelessness policy changes. Here, she developed a cross-sector emergency rough sleeping initiative, to help provide safe spaces for all during the pandemic.  

Holly’s passion for ensuring support is available for everyone in financial hardship developed through her voluntary work with people experiencing homelessness and in Women’s Refuge Services, alongside the completion of her MA in Human Rights in 2019. 

Jenny Cooke - Trustee

Jenny has a broad range of NHS leadership experience having worked in multiple NHS organisations in London, the Southeast, and Yorkshire. In her most recent role Jenny is the Director of Population Health Planning in Leeds where she has led a programme of work to redesign intermediate care services in the city as well as developed and implemented a new strategy for the Leeds Health and Care Partnership. 

The core purpose in each of these roles has been to drive improvements in population health and value. Through this experience Jenny witnessed the significant impact financial hardship has on health and wellbeing on both an individual and community level.  Jenny is passionate about involving people and communities in designing the solutions that support people to thrive. This role will be Jenny’s first trustee position. In her free time Jenny enjoys cycling, running, and hiking: anything that gets her outdoors and active, but balances this with a love of cooking and baking.

Jenny Oklikah - Trustee

Jenny’s experience spans central and local government, as well as the non-profit and community sectors. She spent over 12 years leading government policies, such as a national strategy on combatting serious youth violence, and work to protect victims of harassment and antisocial behaviour .
 
Jenny is currently Director of Strategic Growth at Dallaglio RugbyWorks, supporting young people excluded from mainstream education. This involves transformative work with young people in pupil referral units, in young offender institutions, and residential care settings, to develop physical and mental wellbeing and life skills, and to sustain education, training and employment.  Previously, Jenny was CEO of Fight for Peace, an international organisation working with young people in communities affected by inequality and violence. . She has also worked in local government community safety, and in equalities and human rights. 
 
She has facilitated community participation programmes, and is an active volunteer, including charity trustee, young people’s mentor, youth offending service panel member, and Samaritans’ prisons team volunteer.

Kaveed Ali - Trustee

Kaveed brings a wealth of experience to his trustee role with a career spanning the private, public, and voluntary sectors. Before starting in his current position at UK Community Foundations he led Dementia Friendly London on behalf of the Mayor of London. He has also worked in community engagement for the Alzheimer's Society and the Lifeline Nehemiah Project, a grassroots NGO based in Sierra Leone.

Much of his work has focussed on engaging audiences and decision makers to challenge and address health and social inequalities. His experience within the charity sector is anchored in nearly a decade of community development work in East London. He has worked as an EDI and strategy consultant for a range of charities and foundations. His diverse professional experience includes previous work in entertainment marketing. 

Richard Edgar - Trustee

Richard began his career in radio at the BBC, becoming business editor of its flagship Today programme and then a presenter for the BBC’s World Service. He spent three years in Germany as a correspondent for Reuters Television and n-tv, before moving to the Financial Times in 2007 as its first global head of video, with a front row seat as the Global Financial Crisis took hold.

In 2011 Richard was appointed economics editor for ITV News, appearing nightly on the nation’s screens. He has won awards for his journalism from the Webbys, Lovies, and the British Podcast Awards, amongst others. He joined Fidelity International in 2016 and oversees all thought leadership content, with a team of writers, producers and technical crew in London, Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai.