Innovation and Scale Booster 2024 - Our experts

We are excited to welcome experts across the sector to deliver interactive workshops and 1:1 clinics throughout the day. You can find the full agenda here.

Jack Reynolds, Co-Founder and Chief Executive | Football Beyond Borders

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Jack is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive of Football Beyond Borders (FBB). Jack has spent the past decade as a social entrepreneur, youth worker, and adolescent counsellor trying to answer FBB's founding question: 'What does it take for our most vulnerable young people to thrive in mainstream school?'. FBB began with 16 young people at a school in Croydon in 2014, and today works weekly with 3,000 young people at secondary schools across Greater Manchester, Liverpool, the West Midlands, and London.

Charly Young, Co Founder | The Girls’ Network

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Charly is a social entrepreneur and award-winning senior leader who founded The Girls’ Network and drove its growth as CEO for over ten years, for which she received an MBE for services to women and girls. She sits on the Let Girls' Thrive Fund committee and the Career Accelerator Advisory Board, and regularly speaks on gender, feminism and mentoring. Charly is an advisor and mentor for multiple senior leaders in the charity and private sectors and specialises in C-suite recruitment, governance and strategy. Charly is currently establishing a charity focusing on gender equity in the Early Years. She is also a fellow at the Royal Society of Arts, the Salzburg Global Seminar and the Centre for Synchronous Leadership.

Zulum Elumogo, MD | TC & Friends & Fair Education Alliance Trustee

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Zulum is Managing Director of TC & Friends, an international design agency based in London, UK specialising in branding, brand strategy and graphic design.   Zulum was previously Special Advisor at Freuds Communications working with clients such as Bolt, Comic Relief, Dior, Premier League and Vogue on their communications strategies and public presentation.   A passionate advocate for the Arts and high quality education for all, Zulum is currently on the Board of the Fair Education Alliance and the Barbican Centre, Europe’s largest multi-arts venue.

Joanne Meredith, Director of Tutoring Plus | The Tutor Trust

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Retired Secondary Headteacher and experienced in both mainstream and alternative provision,Jo joined Tutor Trust in January 2019 to lead on the DfE APIF project. The project , The Right Angle, focused on working in partnership with another charity to provide a combined intervention of both counselling and tutoring for young people. We grew this programme as winners of the FEA Scaling award and since have developed additional partnerships.

Gaby Sumner, CEO | Villiers Park

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Gaby Sumner is Chief Executive at social mobility charity Villiers Park Educational Trust, which develops personal and employability skills and raises academic outcomes of young people from under-represented backgrounds. Gaby's career spans 20 years in the voluntary sector, where she has championed partnerships through senior fundraising roles at Tate, the Royal Court Theatre and English National Ballet, and before joining Villiers Park at Cambridge Children's Hospital, a unique partnership between two NHS Trusts, two charities and the University of Cambridge. Gaby recently completed a Masters in Social Innovation at the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School.

Sam Broderick, Head of Fundraising | Power2

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Sam has spent over 15 years in the charity sector, first with The Sick Children's Trust, then at Barnardo's and since 2021 with Power2. His main expertise is in trusts and foundations, but he also has experience in fundraising from individuals, major donors, corporates and local authorities. Sam is passionate about the power of storytelling in connecting donors to causes they truly care about.

Matthew Shanks, CEO | Education South West (MAT)

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Connor Simpson, Strategy and Impact Director | The Access Project

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Connor is Strategy & Impact Director at The Access Project, a charity supporting under-resourced young people to access top universities for 15 years. Prior to joining The Access Project, Connor worked for Bain & Company, a global strategy consultancy, advising clients on topics including growth, technology, people and transformation. As The Access Project sets up for its next stage of growth, he has a strong interesting in using impact measurement to inform organisational decision making, and in defining the right metrics to drive strategy.

Iman Haji, Research and Impact Lead | Khulisa and Book Trust

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Now, Research and Impact Lead at BookTrust, Iman spent six years at Khulisa spearheading the organisation's research efforts, developing robust methodologies to assess the effectiveness of programmes in improving the life-long outcomes of young people facing social and school exclusion. From developing the organisation's Theory of Change, to testing it through a series of internal and external evaluations, Iman excels in translating complex data into actionable strategies and is deeply experienced in leveraging data to inform programme design and policy advocacy.

Natasha Armstrong, Head of Impact Strategy | NFER (formerly BookTrust and School-Home Support)

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Natasha Armstrong is Head of Impact Strategy at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), putting impact at the heart of NFER’s work to improve outcomes and support positive change across education systems. Previously, Natasha was Director of Programmes, Impact & Innovation at BookTrust and Director of Services at School-Home Support, leading teams to design and scale national and targeted programmes and services, generate income and develop strategy. Natasha started her career as a teacher and leaving care practitioner, before moving to the charity sector to develop programmes for organisations such as Shift which specialises in service design and impact.

Dana Saxon, Founder | Ancestors unKnown

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Dana Saxon, Founder & CEO of Ancestors unKnown, is an educator, researcher, writer, and family historian. With extensive education in the fields of history, public policy, and advocacy, Dana has spent nearly 20 years in the education nonprofit sector. She launched Ancestors to address global inequities in education that can negatively impact young people whose stories are most often left in the margins.

Sam Boulton, Director of Service Delivery | Magic Breakfast

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Sam is an advocate for ensuring that all children and young people have the ability to unlock their potential, with a recognition that so many opportunities come from education, this drives her belief that no child in the UK should be too hungry to learn. This passion is central to her role at Magic Breakfast, a national charity championing the impact of school breakfasts to remove hunger as a barrier to learning.

Tisha Verma, Head of Innovation Award | The Fair Education Alliance

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Tisha brings ten years of experience in quality and fair education. She completed Teach First and was an English teacher for five years in the UK and abroad. After this, Tisha moved to global education policy and advocacy at Save the Children UK and co-led the collective action of Send My Friend to School, the UK coalition on global education inequality. Tisha’s first-hand experience of the power of internal innovation spurred her to join the Fair Education Alliance to lead the Intrapreneurship Award. Tisha has Masters degrees in International Education Policy and in Education Leadership.

Rachel Tait, Director of Operations & Impact | The Fair Education Alliance

Delivering Session & 1:1 CLINICs

Rachel joined the FEA in 2021 and is Director of Operations and Impact. She leads the FEA's impact measurement strategy and supports our Award Winners with their research and evaluation. Starting her career as a programme manager for a small youth social action charity, she saw how good impact measurement can support all aspects of a charity’s work, from delivery to relationships, staff and volunteer motivation, communications, and fundraising. Before joining the FEA, she was a consultant at New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), supporting charities and funders of all sizes with strategy, research and impact measurement.

Daniel Rooney, Digital Project Manager | The Fair Education Alliance

Delivering Session

Daniel leads on our FEA Membership Tools, which foster connection and collaboration across the education sector and enable more effective targeting to benefit young people across England. His role involves managing backend development, leading member-facing workshops, and advocating for our Membership Tools to a variety of stakeholders. Prior to joining the FEA, Daniel worked at the music education charity, Voices Foundation, where he designed and managed a digital learning platform for classroom teachers and music practitioners throughout the UK.

Olivia Richards, current FEA Innovation Award Winner and Founder | The Story Project

1:1 clinics

Olivia’s passion for using stories to support children’s wellbeing comes from her experience of teaching English and working as a Wellbeing Lead Practitioner, and from her research into this topic through a PHD and internationally with a Churchill Fellowship. These experiences helped her to create The Story Project, a social enterprise that provides training and resources for teachers to support them to use stories as a tool to develop children’s wellbeing and literacy. She started developing the project alongside my work in schools, and the impact of this has been really positive with 90% of participating teachers saying they have seen an improvement in children’s wellbeing.

Jean Tsang, Head of Education | Bates Wells

1:1 clinics

Jean is Head of Education at Bates Wells. She gives legal and strategic advice to charities, social businesses and educational institutions on a variety of commercial, charity law, governance, education law and safeguarding issues. She is also aan experienced charity trustee and school governor – her passion lies in causes concerning children and young people and the Arts. Jean is currently a Trustee of The Unicorn Theatre and Opera Holland Park, and a governor of a maintained primary school in central London.

Hannah Bignell, Charity and Social Enterprise Solicitor | Bates Wells

1:1 clinics

Hannah advises charities, social businesses and educational institutions on a range of legal issues including structuring, governance, general charity matters and education law. She is also the Chair and a Trustee of The Matthew Hackney Foundation, a charity supporting children and young people with their mental well-being, and is a Governor of a primary maintained school in Surrey.

Andy Melia, freelance consultant and charity campaigner

1:1 clinics

Andy has over 15 years’ experience across the public, private and charity sectors, working predominantly to support businesses to understand their role in building thriving communities. He has led national and global campaigns, including galvanising business action to support LGBTQ+ inclusion in challenging countries, developing new approaches to local community collaboration and supporting small businesses to improve their social and environmental impact and do well by doing good. Andy has extensive experience as a charity leader, helping to establish and chairing Brighter Together, an intergenerational project bringing together care home residents and pre-school children, and as a volunteer manager and trustee in the Scout Association in South London.

Rachael Martin, Venture Partner | Purposeful Ventures

1:1 clinics

Rachael was previously a Senior Manager at Bain & Company, a strategic consultancy, where she worked with private, public and third sector organisations. She now works as a Venture Partner at Purposeful Ventures, a charity which has incubated, launched, and helped scale several organisations which support disadvantaged young people (including the Baby Bank Alliance, Frontline and Now Teach). The organisation is able to give grants, share their network and provide broader strategic, fundraising and operational support to the charities they support.

Felicity Halstead, current Innovation Award winner & Founder | Goodwork

1:1 clinics

Felicity's career began in the third sector before moving to PA Consulting, where she led work experience programmes in partnership with charities. The challenges she witnessed while managing these programmes inspired her to create GoodWork and focus on reshaping the education-to-employment journey. GoodWork aims to redefine success metrics and bridge the gap between young people from marginalised communities and employers.

Beth O’Brien, current Innovation Award winner & Education Content Specialist | Chartered College of Teaching

1:1 clinics

Beth O’Brien is an education specialist dedicated to reducing the educational inequality gap. As a recipient of the FEA Innovation Award, Beth is revolutionizing teaching for students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Her internal innovation at the CCoT is a series of journal clubs to unite teachers and support staff, is reshaping the landscape of SEND education.