OUR BOARD
James Barker
(Chair)
James Barker (Chair) is a barrister, practicing in London since 1987. He specialises in the areas of insolvency, company, partnership, commercial, banking and property, which gives him a wealth of expertise in commercial contractual matters. He has given lectures and seminars on legal issues and the art of advocacy. He has mentored junior barristers, and he has served on various of the committees responsible for the running of his chambers. He is the father of a young child.
Marie Cudennec
(Treasurer)
Marie Cudennec (Treasurer) has significant experience in running enterprises with a social mission. She has been CEO of Goldfinger Factory in North Kensington since 2017 and has led it to become a respected social enterprise that has won the support of Hermès, John Lewis and Tom Dixon and in 2019 was nominated by the Evening Standard for Social Enterprise Company of the Year. Marie has been recognised as one of the Natwest Wise 100 Women in Social Enterprise, Kensington & Chelsea Art Weekend Local Hero, and received awards to Harvard Business School’s Programme Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management and the Lloyds Scale Up Programme with School for Social Entrepreneurs. She started her career in luxury branding and product marketing at LVMH, Richemont and Estée Lauder.
Simon Hampel
(Trustee)
Simon Hampel spent between 1993-2001 as a serial entrepreneur, building companies in Europe, the US and Canada in the fields of financial services, leisure, consultancy and technology. In 2002 he lost everything. He joined an expedition to the Amazon and spent the next four years living with local communities in Bolivia, across the Himalayas, through Mongolia, and down Ethiopia’s Blue Nile. In 2006, he became the CEO of Right to Sight, an International NGO tackling needless blindness, and worked on developing sustainable eye care projects across Africa and India. Subsequently he returned to the UK and became co-Managing Partner of Leaders Quest, an international not-for-profit helping leaders align profit with purpose. Simon has recently launched Sarsen, exploring how consciousness, energy & technology can come together to create tipping points for change in the world.
Mandeep Rai
(Trustee)
Mandeep Rai is a global authority on values, working with companies, institutions, and individuals around the world. She has travelled to more that 150 countries and reported as a journalist for the BBC World Service and Reuters, amongst others. She began her career in private banking at JPMorgan, and later worked for the United Nations, the European Commission, and grassroots NGOs before setting up the UAE’s first media venture capital fund. Mandeep studied philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE), has an MSc in International Development from the London School of Economics, and completed an MBA at London Business School, with a year at Harvard Business School and MIT. She also holds a PhD in global values. She is the author of the Values Compass. Her conviction that we need to ensure that every child learns life skills for a connected world is as strong as her belief in her children’s future and the future of all the world’s children.
Eva Bishop
(Secretary)
Eva Bishop (Secretary) has been an international General Counsel for global corporations across a range of industries including Logistics, FMCG, and Energy. Eva has built and led legal teams all over the world and has helped businesses develop and navigate complex commercial and corporate projects, regulatory investigations and litigation and has guided organisations on business ethics, compliance, and governance. Eva is a non-executive Director of BP Europa SE. She is a trained coach and works with business leaders who are looking to transform their organisations and industries.
Cecilia Zheng
(Trustee)
Cecilia Zheng (Trustee) is a native Mandarin speaker and has worked in both the UK and Asia financial industry. Cecilia graduated from the Stanford Executive Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. With the desire to pursue a purpose-driven career, she has become the founding partner of the Reaction – W250 impact fund. She has experienced first-hand how education can change one’s life. With the ever-evolving digitalization of the world, she has focused on the importance of teaching relevant skills, values and mindfulness to the young children at an early age – skills which ultimately lead to a balanced and successful adult life.