CATCH22 CHARITY - Key Persons
Alison started her career at 17 as an advocate for children in care, as a child in care herself, and has acquired three and half decades of experience in managing and leading public services to change lives.
Alison served as a Director of Children's Services, Director of Adult and Health Services, and CEO at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Since retiring from public services, Alison has led, as CEO, the Cornerstone Partnership, and has become Director of Ethics at Metacampus.
Alison is passionate about using the tools of Web3 to bring greater equity, especially for women, and young people from lower social-economic groups.
Job Titles:
- Chief Development Officer
Andy oversees Catch22's Business Development, Partnerships, Evidence and Insight, Communication and External Affairs functions.
With over 10 years in the charitable sector, Andy has a strong track record of developing and implementing strategies for sustainable growth. Prior to joining Catch22, he was Commercial Director at Shaw Trust where he oversaw significant growth, robust commercial principles, and the development of innovative operating models to meet the changing need of people and place.
Andy believes positive impact is best achieved through partnership and has a wide range of experience in developing organisational strategies for engagement and relationship building with stakeholders, commissioners and third sector organisations alike.
Ben is an experienced technology and business leader who has built and led IT consulting and software businesses across the US, Asia and Europe. Most recently, he was a managing director at Accenture, the global technology consulting firm.
Ben is also a trustee, and volunteer van driver, at The Felix Project, one of the largest food re-distribution charities in the UK. He serves on their Operations committee, their People committee and Chairs their Technology Strategic Advisory & IT Governance committee. He has actively supported Felix's digital transformation as well as having worked as an interim member of their senior leadership team.
Caroline is a Partner at EY, a multinational professional services network with headquarters in London. She became Senior Partner for London in 2015, and has been a member of the Senior Leadership team since then, helping to manage a business with over 18,000 UK employees and a turnover in excess of £2bn.
She has also served on the Remco for three years with a focus on addressing diversity issues, in particular gender and BME pay gap challenges. She is committed to social mobility through education and employment, with particular interest in young people and how lives can be changed for the better.
As Chief People Officer, Christina, oversees both the People and Governance functions for the Catch22 group. Christina will play a leading role in supporting delivery of the business plan through the Catch22 People strategy, as well as fostering a culture of robust governance through the effective management of organisational compliance and mitigating risks.
Christina has over 10 years' experience working in a variety of sectors delivering HR expertise. She joined Catch22 in September 2015. Prior to joining Catch22, Christina worked in the higher education and professional services sectors, operating as a strategic business partner, providing commercial HR advice to senior leadership teams.
Job Titles:
- Head of Commercial Legal at Kin
- Trustee at the Advocacy Project
Claire has an extensive commercial, negotiation and dispute resolution background in the private and non-profit sectors.
Claire is the Head of Commercial Legal at Kin and Carta Plc (a digital transformation agency), where she leads the legal and contracting operations globally. She was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn specialising in commercial law and crime, and is a qualified mediator.
Claire is a trustee at The Advocacy Project and advisor to the Ethical Fundraising and Quality Assurance Committee for the British Red Cross. She supports charities with governance and engagement via her consultancy, Little Bee Community. She is also the UK Sherpa for the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance.
Dan is a believer in strong social purpose underpinned by robust, transparent commerciality. He has spent over 20 years in operational roles across the employability, justice and skills sectors, delivering services through direct, partnerships and community based delivery.
He spent 10 years with Working Links, designing and delivering large Employment, Skills and Justice services across the UK and Ireland.
More recently, Dan was part of the team which led our Joint venture company Jobs 22, working on the successful bid to deliver the Flagship DWP Restart programme before moving to lead all operational services as Chief Operating Officer.
Dan enjoys challenging, complex environments whilst bringing people and services together to deliver the best possible experience and outcomes for service users.
Gita North is a Partner with First Friday, a change management, training and consulting firm.
Prior to joining First Friday, Gita was an Executive at Dixons Group plc and subsequently, as an independent consultant, worked with the Boards of several leading UK retailers on transformative change programmes. She was also a Non-Executive Director of Center Parcs while it was publicly listed.
A leading expert on crime and justice policy, Harvey brings a wealth of experience from a decade spent working in government, academia and parliament. In addition to overall responsibility for Crest as CEO, Harvey oversees the organisation's work on strategy and insight and works with government and law enforcement organisations to build strategic capability.
Prior to this, Harvey spent four years advising on home affairs policy for the Labour Party and was a deputy director at the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit, where he led several major strategic reviews affecting policy reform. Harvey is dedicated to putting effective policy into practice for a safer society.
Irene began her career as an accountant in the financial services sector. An opportune meeting with the then CEO of the Disabilities Trust introduced her to an organisation whose work she greatly admired, which she soon joined as Director of Finance, before becoming CEO two years later. Since then, Irene has led the organisational and strategic transformation of the Disabilities Trust to ensure it remains the UK's leading not-for-profit provider of brain injury services. She is also a trustee with VODG.
Irene is passionate about opportunity and fairness and would like to help drive societal change and contribute a more equitable society for all.
Jeff Jacobs has held roles in central Government and the Greater London Authority across a long career in the public sector.
During his time in the Civil Service, where he rose from being a 16 year old filing clerk to Director General level, his jobs included Principal Private Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State, John Prescott, Head of Regeneration and Housing teams, and Chief Executive of the Government Olympic Executive. Jeff then joined the GLA in 2007, working in senior roles for Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan.
Jeff retired from full-time executive work in 2018 and has since taken on charitable roles.
Jonathan is a business development professional who has undertaken a variety of senior roles in support of the public sector during his career within Capita since 2005. He has been instrumental in designing innovative service delivery models, the development of public sector strategy and has secured numerous partnerships across Local Government, Health, Central Government and Education, delivering over £400m of savings to the public sector.
Jonathan is passionate about the impact of accessible and well-designed services and has driven innovation and value within the public sector. He has expertise in business transformation, service re-design, business case development, mobilisation, procurement, deal architecture, contract negotiation, commercialisation of services and sustainable growth.
Matt is a qualified Chartered Accountant, undertaking a part-time PhD in Quantum Chemistry. He has worked in CFO, COO and CEO roles across sectors including international development, digital technology, retail, education, property and corporate finance.
A common theme to all of Matt's work is empowerment. He runs a small consultancy, Noctis, offering commercial advisory services to non-profits and SMEs and investigation work focused on oil extraction in the Niger Delta. Matt is a trustee and co-creator of sidekick, a non-profit empowering people to support their own mental health.
Job Titles:
- Director of External Affairs and Partnerships
The Catch22 Press Office is available between 9.00am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday via the accompanying form or details below.
For out of hours enquiries that cannot wait, please call the mobile number listed below.
Please note that these contact details are for media enquiries only. For other enquiries, please visit our Contact page.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Chair of Bayes DEI Council and Part of the Youth Endowment Fund 's Governing Committee
Naomi is CEO of Catch22, leading the team of 1,500 staff and volunteers to support 160,000 people nationally every year.
Naomi has more than 23 years' experience in strategic and operational roles in the public and private sectors. She has been with Catch22 for over 20 years, and has held 14 different positions in that time, progressing from a volunteer to Chief Operating Officer in 2017.
Prior to joining Catch22, Naomi worked on projects delivering and managing youth work, early intervention and prevention services for young people at risk of social exclusion.
Naomi is a Co-Chair of Bayes DEI Council and part of the Youth Endowment Fund's Governing Committee.
Natasha has extensive leadership, policy and communications experience in the charity sector. She has been Chief Executive of Working Chance since 2019 and previously spent 11 years as Chief Executive of Become,.
Natasha was awarded an OBE for services to children and families in 2019 and has been a Fellow of the RSA since 2007. She has acted as an advisor to two Children's Commissioners, served five years as a trustee for Children England and has sat on the advisory boards of two national inquiries and on several government taskforces. She currently sits on the Ministry of Justice's expert group on female offenders.
Job Titles:
- Chief Finance Officer
- Fellow of the
Nigel is responsible for our corporate governance, risk and financial sustainability. He's the steady hand who ensures that we manage our resources effectively, and that we run a stable and well funded organisation.
Nigel joined Catch22 in 2012. He was previously at Working Links, where he was the Director for Financial Planning and Analysis.
Nigel is a Fellow of the ACCA, the global body for professional accountants, and a School Governor.
Pria is an organisational systems and change specialist and has led on organisation effectiveness, transformation, people and organisation development and communications portfolios in her current and previous positions. She has worked across different sectors in both New York and London.
Pria is committed to building capacity and improving governance in the social enterprise and third sector, having been a trustee or a non-executive director in that space for many years. She is passionate about creating organisations that thrive, and offer value to all their stakeholders. She is especially interested in working with senior leaders to increase the positive impact they have on the organisations they lead.
Terry is currently a Non-Executive Director of Majid Al Futtaim Properties LLC.
He stepped down from Debenhams in 2019, having served as Senior Independent Director from 2015 and latterly as Interim-Chair. Other recent NED roles include Senior Independent Director of Hammerson Plc, SID at Gems Menasa and Chair of the Retail Trust charity from 2014 until 2018.
Previously, Terry was Chief Executive of Argos Retail Group and an executive member of the GUS Plc board from 1998 until 2006, then Chief Executive of Home Retail Group Plc from 2006 until 2014.
I am a passionate advocate of the opportunities that a good education unlocks in young people - whatever their starting circumstances - and am delighted to join Catch22 as a trustee.