Our Leadership Team
This is a 100% volunteer organisation and we are so grateful to the team who make it possible for us to grant 100% of member donations to the selected charities each year.
Erica Wax, Co-Founder
Erica’s experience spans politics, the private sector and non-profit organizations. She has a life-long passion for providing skills and opportunities to young people so that they can realize their potential, and also for empowering women and girls. While at Merrill Lynch in New York, Erica co-founded and ran a charity called Girls Career Workshop, Ltd. For the last six years, she has been an active Governor at Ark Elvin Academy in Wembley, London. She is also on the UK Advisory Board of Room to Read, the Advisory Board of The Sutton Trust, and the Harvard Kennedy School Global Policy Council.
Lani Martin, Co-Founder
Lani has extensive experience in finance, including 12 years in investment banking with Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Securities, and, more recently, as an active private equity investor and advisor. Lani has had a consistent commitment to charities that support children’s health and education globally. Lani serves on the Global Leadership Council and UK Executive Team for Seeds of Peace. She is also on the Ivey Advisory Board for the Richard Ivey School of Business.
Aniela Shuckburgh, Membership Lead
Aniela has worked in the not-for-profit sector in the UK and US for over 20 years, primarily in the youth and education sector. Her experience has focussed on high-level strategic fundraising for organisations including the Harvard Business School, City Year UK and The University of Cambridge, where she was part of the senior management team responsible for delivering the University's £1 billion 800th Anniversary Campaign. Aniela is Chair of of Magic Breakfast, serves on the Board of British Youth Music Theatre and regularly volunteers for Little Village Camden.
EFROT WEISS, Member Engagement Lead
Efrot has coached and advised senior executives and their teams in navigating cultural differences for more than 15 years. In Tokyo, she facilitated board retreats for non-profit organisations focused on mental health, education and community volunteering. She also launched and ran a speaker series designed to help women thrive through life's challenges and opportunities. She began her career as a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers working in their London, Tokyo and NYC offices. She has also been involved in cultural groups where she organises events.
Elisabeth Ayvazian, Grants Lead
Elisabeth brings a mix of private, social enterprise and voluntary sector experience. After ten years in emerging markets corporate banking in New York with Citi, she has worked with several initiatives to raise and deploy funds to social enterprises and charities. Now settled in London, she has consulted with The Fore as a grant assessor and is an active volunteer with charities working with refugees.
Fancy Sinantha, Special Projects
Fancy is an experienced senior leader with a broad range of skills and experience spanning policy, research and practice in the UK and USA. She is currently an Advisor (previously Director of Development/Board Director) at TSIP, Founder/Director of a social impact start-up called The Dot & The Line, Angel Investor/Board Observer at PropElle Network, a Board Director/Governor at The Portal Trust. Fancy is interested in how social innovation, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and social investment (combined with continuous learning and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) principles) might facilitate positive social change; especially in education, health, and migration/refugee related areas.
Michele Campbell, Events Lead
Michele brings over 15 years of experience in senior roles managing events and hospitality in the UK and Canada with Harvey Nichols, Selfridges and The Marriott Group. Michele holds a degree in Art History and has most recently begun working in partnership with an established British painter managing his exhibitions. She has also worked with leading fashion brands coordinating events focused on sustainability and ethical sourcing and production.
Sabine Chatin, finance LEAD
Sabine has a broad range of experience in finance, starting with 15 years in Capital Markets as a fixed income trader, three years involved in the financing of renewable energy projects, and the past five years on venture investing for a Family Office. Since the Grenfell fire in 2017, Sabine has been dedicating her spare time to helping her London community through her work with the fundraising team at Rugby Portobello Trust Charity.
Staci Arnovitz, Impact LEAD
Staci began her career in finance in New York, before moving to London and joining American Express. There she held roles in business strategy, marketing and product management, and led Business Transformation and Strategy for the UK consumer market. Staci has been involved with several non-profit organizations in the US and UK, with particular focus on education, health and livelihood for children and young adults.
Impactship Programme Co-Leads
Lilly Ladjevardi
Lilly has experience in a diverse range of fields, from curating world music, building and running a talent studio for a fast growing new media start up and launching a UK based youth leadership program for an international charity. Lilly also created the YouTube ‘haulternatives’ campaign in 2016 promoting alternatives to fast fashion. More recently Lilly founded a small creative design studio while simultaneously taking a degree in Process Oriented Psychotherapy.
Zipporah Kissi
Zipporah has over 15 years of experience across the education, careers and youth charity sector. She has played an instrumental part in empowering young people to recognise their leadership capabilities via community engagement and driven innovative change to support long-term sustainability while creating environments that have solid foundations in their teams, skills and overall vision. Zipporah is currently completing her MBA with the intent of taking on a leadership role in the values-driven charity sector.
Impact Student Programme (powered by Big Give) Co-Leads
Isabelle Bourrette
Isabelle began a career in finance in Paris before moving to London. Isabelle shares her time between her family, consulting and her pro bono work. She is passionate about trends and technologies transforming society. Isabelle has been doing advisory work in EdTech (education and technology). She has worked pro bono at the Prince’s Trust and currently with Medecins du Monde UK.
Benedicte De Nonneville
Benedicte began her career in corporate finance before co-creating a private club in London focused on art, current affairs, business and luxury. She is a strong believer in education and has been for 5 years on the board of the literacy charity Room to Read and is an ambassador for The Royal Academy of Arts School.
Women & Girls Specialist
Alina Meyer
Alina is an independent consultant with over 21 years of experience in the area of human rights, gender, diversity and social inclusion. A former Canadian diplomat and development practitioner, she has consulted for clients including the World Bank, UK DFID, German GIZ, Australian DFAT, the UN, and a variety of NGOs. Prior to consulting, she worked for Global Affairs Canada as the Senior Policy Advisor on Women’s Rights and as a Gender Equality Specialist. She holds an MA from McGill, a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics and a Masters in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford.
Strategic Advisor
Stephanie Mills
With a post-graduate degree in not-for-profit management, Stephanie served not-for-profit organisations in various roles ranging from public relations to board member. Her strong organisational and project management skills compliment her ongoing interests in community, climate change and social entrepreneurship. Stephanie is passionate about exploring the power of the individual to engage impactful investment as a catalyst for change. She is a member of the Environmental Funders Network and granting partner of Groundwork London’s Our Space Awards. She has been a member of Impact100 London since 2023.
Team Members
Grants Team
Olivia Gillan-Bower
Olivia has spent most of her career in strategy consulting, notably at PwC where she was a Partner specialising in the retail/leisure/consumer sectors. She is now focused on the not-for-profit sector. She is currently the Chair of Little Village and Deputy Chair of Switchback and was previously a Trustee of the Mark Anthony Trust and an interview coach at Smart Works. Olivia also serves as a Magistrate in the adult criminal court in London.
Helene Soulanges
Helene began her career in Moscow and is an experienced leader in the financial services sector specialising in emerging payments. She has always committed time to support organisations focused on development in Africa and in the UK. Her curiosity to understand grass root issues has driven her to favour operational roles in the field, in contact with the beneficiaries.
Saloni Thakrar
Saloni is the co-founder of the charity LMK (Let Me Know), and currently serves the charities, Brook, as Trustee, and Magic Breakfast, as Development Advisor. Before that, Saloni served as Chair of Healthwatch Camden, a statutory health and social care charity and Co-Chaired the Camden Patient Public Engagement Group. She was also Lay Member for NHS England on two committees and served as Trustee for the charity Little Village. Saloni is passionate about making a difference to young people, especially through promoting and supporting youth participation in public life. Saloni is an accomplished pharmacist with a US Doctorate (Pharm D.), a Master of Public Health (MPH), a current UK pharmacy licence and extensive clinical experience.
Leadership Team Alumni
Vanessa Boz
Vanessa’s professional background is a mix of business and creative roles, ranging from the finance industry, covering emerging and European markets, to fashion and travel. She launched, and subsequently sold, a company organising trade shows in NY and London. Vanessa developed a digital platform to connect travellers with non-profit organisations and social enterprises doing good on the ground, called The Generous Traveler, and writes a blog - BozAround.
Liz Forgash
Liz’s professional background includes various roles in Human Resources in both the financial and charity sectors. Most recently, Liz was Head of Volunteer Development for Mental Health Innovations, a London non-profit tasked with creating digital solutions to help address the growing mental health crisis. Liz was involved in the recent launch of the UK crisis text line, Shout. Liz has been an active volunteer, including with the Crisis Text Line, Anna Freud Centre, Impetus and the American School in London’s Community Service group.
Joanna Riley
Joanna began her career in consulting in New York and then joined Goldman Sachs, where she worked in the Securities Division in New York and London. She was most recently the Interim Executive Director for Facing History and Ourselves UK, for which she is now on the UK Advisory Board. Joanna also served on the UK Advisory Board for Room to Read for the last three years.
PAST GRANTS TEAM MEMBERS
Isabelle Bourrette
See Impact Student Programme Co-Leads above for bio.
Diane Feeney
Diane Feeney is currently working with 9kitchens, a new catering social enterprise based in Northwest London employing and upskilling migrant women in the food industry. She is also co-chair of the Board of Equality Now, a global NGO that works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world. Diane was the founder and owner of a small social enterprise when she was based in San Jose, Costa Rica, that manufactured and sold healthy snacks and employed low-income women. Diane Feeney was also a Director of the French American Charitable Trust (FACT) a family charitable Trust that sunset in 2012 after distributing $59 million in grants over 18 years. She currently lives in London with her husband and two of her children.
Louisiana Lush
Louisiana brings 30 years experience working in international development and global health. She has a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and held senior roles at the UK Department for International Development. She has consulted widely for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organisation and the Global Fund, advising Boards/leadership teams on strategic impact and performance. She sits on the Boards of the Gladstone Library and Families for Children - two UK-based charities.
Diana Swartz
Diana has advised non-profit organizations and international charities for more than 20 years and has a background in anthropology, education and law. She started her career as a tax lawyer with a multinational firm, working in New York and London. Diana counsels charities on governance questions and international issues, focusing on educational and cultural institutions and humanitarian relief organisations in the UK, US and elsewhere. Since 2010 Diana has served as the Director of Governance for The Liger Charitable Foundation.
You can find out more about our mission, vision and model for collective philanthropy here.