ACEVOFest 2026

Imran Ahmed is the founding CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate. He is a recognized authority on the social and psychological dynamics of social media, as well as what goes wrong in those spaces, such as trolling, identity-based hate, misinformation, conspiracy theories, modern extremism and fake news. He regularly features in the media as an expert in online malignant behaviour and how bad actors use digital spaces to harm others and benefit themselves.

Imran is a trustee of the UK charity, Victim Support. He advises politicians in the US, UK, Europe and elsewhere on policy and legislation. Imran was raised in Manchester, England. He holds an MA in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge. Imran lives in Washington, DC.

Saeed is a seasoned leader in the charitable sector and a passionate advocate for youth empowerment and social mobility. As the founder and CEO of Youth Leads UK, Saeed has been at the forefront of driving change for young people across Greater Manchester, providing more than 25,000 young people with opportunities to engage in volunteering, skills development and social action opportunities. 

With a career underpinned by personal experience of overcoming adversity, Saeed has dedicated over a decade to public service, influencing policy, and championing the potential of young generations. Recognised by Queen Elizabeth II with an MBE for services to young people, Saeed continues to contribute to the betterment of society through various leadership roles. 

Saeed holds the distinction of being the youngest person ever appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester. His expertise has been sought in capacities such as a UK Government Social Mobility Commissioner, and as a trustee and patron of youth-focused charities like Ormiston Families, Generation, Education & Employers, and Migrant Leaders. 

Saeed serves as a governor at Manchester Metropolitan University and Pikes Lane Primary School. 

Outside the boardroom, Saeed enjoys exploring new cultures through travel and is partial to a caramel latte.  

Derek is an author, philanthropy strategist and executive coach reshaping the future of giving. His debut book No Win Race (Mudlark, 2019), was named a Book of the Year by The Sunday Times and Financial Times. His follow-up, Giving Back (Dialogue Books, 2022) challenges traditional philanthropy through a reparative lens.

As co-CEO of Ten Years’ Time and chair of the Tudor Trust, Derek is a leading voice in reparative justice-centred funding. He was a preliminary founder of Resourcing Racial Justice and instrumental in the Church Commissioner for England’s £100 million Fund for Healing, Repair and Justice. He has led portfolios for major funders, distributing over £150 million to critical causes across 34 countries. Derek was also a trustee of Thirty Percy Foundation and Mission 44. A trauma-informed practitioner with ICF and EMCC credentials, Derek coaches wealth holders, writers, social entrepreneurs, charity and philanthropic leaders. He is a Knowledge Equity Fellow at Oxford University’s Said Business School, a Churchill Fellow, and a Spear’s 500 Recommended Advisor (2023, 2024, 2025).

Lena Bheeroo is a leader and activist working at the intersection of justice, equity, and transformation within the UK charity and international development sector. She is Head of Philanthropic Partnerships and Influencing at ADD International, where she leads on building decolonial, strategic partnerships and shaping influencing work rooted in disability justice, lived experience, and power-shifting.

Lena has extensive experience in anti-racism, decolonisation, and systemic change. Formerly with Bond, she co-authored the sector reports Racism, Power and Truth and Justice-Led Approaches to Global Development, and led This is the Work, a programme embedding anti-racist and decolonial practice in policy and advocacy. She works closely with CEOs, boards, and senior leaders to strengthen anti-racism commitments, transform organisational culture, and embed equity and accountability at a systemic level.

As Co-Chair of Board Racial Diversity UK, and through her activism with the UK grassroots movement CharitySoWhite and the global collective Racial Equity Index, Lena continues to advocate for justice-led leadership and representation across the sector. A #ShiftThePower Fellow, her practice is grounded in feminist leadership, centring care, collaboration, and lived experience, and in collective approaches to building a more equitable and transformative future.

Simon is an experienced CEO, writer, trainer and campaigner. He joined the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall as CEO in September 2024. Prior to Stonewall Simon worked at the social enterprise, Mental Health First Aid England.  

Simon is deputy chair of the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and a Board Director of Mental Health First Aid International. He is also a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute and was awarded an OBE for services to the voluntary sector and young people in 2011. 

Tim brings over a decade of applying AI technology to societal challenges within Government, and four years setting up the UK Government's Office for Artificial Intelligence as its Deputy Head. Here Tim was responsible for advising Ministers and Number 10 on AI policy and strategy, spanning AI skills, adoption and regulatory approaches to AI, as well as National Security risks.

With significant experience of leading teams through change in large organisations, Tim is a qualified leadership coach, and is most at home facilitating sessions and public speaking.

Inspired by the need to support leaders who are facing both internal and external change as a result of AI technologies, Tim set up AIConfident, which combines his extensive AI background with leadership coaching, workshop facilitation skills and passion for change.

Tim's own leadership experiences underpin the focus of AIConfident on supporting leaders to navigate substantial change with confidence.

Sarah Cox is the managing director of Ansvar Insurance, a specialist insurer of the Third Sector including faith and not-for-profit organisations, and charities. She is a Chartered Insurer and is passionate about using her experience and position, to support all community organisations with the best service and cover, but also by volunteering and giving.

As well as carving out a career in Financial Services spanning over 30 years in various organisations and roles, she is the mother of 3 adult women who are all at various stages of their education and careers.

With many challenges and joy in equal measure in the workplace and at home, when she has time for herself, she likes to be outdoors as much as possible walking her dogs and appreciating the wonder of our amazing planet.

Mita has over ten years’ experience in the youth sector and in advocating for youth voices. She has worked with numerous organisations, including Envision, the University of Birmingham, The Challenge Network, and The Social Change Agency. Mita holds a BA in Social Policy, has served as the Chair of the British Youth Council, sat on the Advisory Board for Step Up To Serve and as Chair of Community Action Redbridge. Currently, she is on maternity leave as CEO of the Young Trustees Movement, and is lucky enough to use her KIT days to stay connected to the movement and speak at ACEVOFest!

Imogen is a non-profit sector leader with 25 years’ experience

Imogen started her professional career with VSO in rural China leading teacher training and community development in a teacher training college. She then moved to Save the Children UK where she led regional education initiatives and award winning national anti-poverty work alongside young people.

Following a short stint in children’s services policy work for Children’s Workforce Development Council, Imogen moved to Australia. In Australia she held a range of roles and is proudest of her work as a senior manager for Australian Red Cross where she led multi-million dollar programmes for mental health, deep social exclusion and children at risk of entering the child protection system. First-hand experience of leading disaster and emergency work in her community also shaped her career and how she thinks about working with people in crisis.

On return to the UK Imogen stayed with Red Cross until she moved to Young Manchester, first as head of partnerships and then CEO - distributing over £10m to grassroots community organisations, embedding youth social action and raising the profile of youth work across Manchester. Whist in this role Imogen worked closely with the board to implement a co-CEO model, sharing her role with a young CEO, one of many tactics she used to ensure that the charity transitioned to becoming youth-led.

Imogen is now co-founder of a new LLP, Good Work With. Good Work With want to help great people, groups, organisations and communities to do more, better, together. The partnership provides interim leadership and sector support including: research and insights, strategy development and design, and partnerships and collaboration.

Imogen has an MSc in Violence, Conflict and Development from SOAS and is Chair of Trustees of Ormskirk District Scouts and in her spare time runs long distances (slowly).

Alex is the Deputy CEO at The Diana Award, a non-profit founded on the late Diana, Princess of Wales’ belief that young people have the power to change their community. He is also a Director at BBC's Children in Need, where he oversees a brand-new fund focused on empowering black children and young people and removing critical barriers they face.

He is the founder of national peer to peer bullying prevention programme, Anti-Bullying Ambassadors and sits on several of the social media companies trust and safety boards advising them on online harms. Before his work at charities, he worked in education for 7 years in various roles from a teaching assistant, learning mentor to Head of House/Year focusing on pastoral, behavioural and social and emotional needs, breaking down barriers to learning.

Alex was made a Queen's Young Leader by Her Majesty The Queen, and has been named on the Independent on Sunday's Happy List as one of the ‘100 people who make Britain a happier place to live’. He has recently joined The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Advisory Board, helping spearhead their Sustainable Development Goals ‘Goalkeeper programme.

Manny joined Trust for London in 2018 as director of policy and became chief executive in 2021.

Manny started his career as a community worker in the Welsh valleys, working to support the region’s small Black and minority ethnic population to get involved in local regeneration. He also worked as as a neighbourhood officer in the Queen’s Park area of London.

He went onto spend a decade working in the field of social innovation. He led the Young Foundation's work on communities, specialising in neighbourhood regeneration, community organising, and the rise of technology in mobilising social action.

His experience as a funder started when he joined Nesta, the UK's innovation Foundation. At Nesta he worked on programmes to help scale community involvement in public service reform in sectors such as health and education. Prior to joining Trust for London, he worked at the London Community Foundation making small grants to hundreds of community organisations across the city.

Ruth is the founder of The Roots Programme, an initiative born out of the Brexit vote of 2016 to bring those from vastly different communities together to connect across divides, embrace difference and increase compassion for others. The programme also supports state and private school pupils to meet, connect and build a more hopeful UK future.

Ruth is also the founder and CEO of Rekindle School, a supplementary school in Manchester, supporting young critical thinkers from working-class communities. Rekindle was shaped by the lived experiences of eight young people aged 17 to 25 who reimagined what a truly transformative education system could look and feel like. The school’s focus remains on empowering young people through a curriculum that builds confidence, sharpens critical thinking, boosts social mobility and supports them in creating safe, independent lives

After a successful teaching career in state schools in Bradford and Manchester; Ruth founded a number of programmes and organisations including RECLAIM, a Manchester-based charity supporting working-class young people into leadership positions. She worked alongside young survivors of CSE in Greater Manchester to start their own organisation, REIGN, to challenge the systems that horrifically failed when they needed them most.

Northern Soul was founded in 2019 to provide training, development and support to those seeking greater levels of social justice. 

A Clore Social Fellow and an Ashoka UK Fellow, Ruth was listed in The Sunday Times as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK, and by Virgin as one of the top six female changemakers internationally. She was awarded a doctorate in Education from Manchester Metropolitan University in 2017.

Ruth uses her platform to campaign nationally with young people across the UK for greater levels of equality and to challenge the negative labelling of many pressurised communities.

Jane joined ACEVO in May 2022. She previously headed up Creative and Cultural Skills, working to create fair and inclusive opportunities within the creative and cultural sectors. Before that, she spent four years as CEO of NAVCA, where she led the transformation of the national membership body for local voluntary sector infrastructure organisations in England.  She has leadership and communications experience in both the voluntary and public sectors and a genuine commitment to delivering a valuable and impactful experience for members.

Dr Sarabajaya Kumar is an Associate Professor (Teaching) in Voluntary & Non-Profit Sector Policy and Leadership at University College London (UCL).

Sarabajaya joined UCL’s Department of Political Science in January 2010 from the University of Oxford, having previously held a number of Fellowship and Faculty roles at the London School of Economics and Political Science and The Open University.

Sarabajaya leads her own research and advice consultancy, is equalities adviser to the Bar Standards Board, and is a director of Impatience Ltd, an organisation set up to support and host innovative public benefit projects. She is active in civil society and has founded and cofounded a number of non-profit organisations. Currently, she is a member of the Women’s Budget Group’s Policy Advisory Committee, a senior independent trustee of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), a steering committee member of Centenary Action, and a steering group member of the Women’s Equality Party.

Catherine McWilliam is the Nations Director for the IoD in Scotland. Joining the IoD Scotland team in 2021, Catherine has extensive experience in stakeholder engagement and relationship building across the third, private and public sector and is passionate about promoting good governance and diverse leadership. Catherine has recently been recognised as one of Management Today’s 35 Women Under 35 for 2024, and is co-chair of the Edinburgh Regional board of the Lifted Project. She was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from Dumfries and Galloway College in December 2023 and is a member of the Scottish Government’s National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group.

Mark is ACEVO's Chair and is Chief Executive of UNLtd, the UK’s leading supporter of social entrepreneurs. Mark has 20 years’ experience in social purpose organisations including running an NHS charity, directing INSEAD’s Executive MBA and as a Partner at Leaders’ Quest. Mark was previously Chair of The New School and Co-Chair for the UK Government’s Inclusive Economy Partnership.

Timi Okuwa has been the Black Equity Organisation’s CEO since December 2023. She has been involved with the charity since 2022, when she joined as its Director of Partnerships and Programmes, forging relationships with Sky, Mission 44, and Operation Black Vote and significant foundational fundraising.  

With a history of significant consulting roles at EY, Deloitte and the Department for Business and Trade she has collaborated with major institutions to drive impactful change initiatives. Timi was a magistrate for 11 years and applies this extensive experience to BEO’s critical mission, focusing on creating opportunities and fostering change.  

Prior to joining CCLA, Andrew was Head of Community Development Banking for RBS and NatWest, responsible for the not-for-profit and social enterprise sectors. Before joining NatWest, he was the founding Executive Director of the UK’s first community development finance institution to provide loan finance to voluntary and community sector organisations working in the most disadvantaged communities in England.

Prior to these roles he worked for the Royal Bank of Canada, the St Paul’s Hospital Foundation and the Canadian Arthritis Society. Currently Andrew is an Advisor to Switchback. Previously he was: Trustee - RBS Social & Community Captial; Chair - Community Development Foundation; Vice Chair - LankellyChase Foundation; Trustee - Local Trust; and Trustee - Locality, having been a trustee of both the Development Trusts Association and British Association of Settlements & Social Action Centres. Andrew is also a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and was awarded an MBE for services to social and community enterprise in 2003.

He was appointed as an Executive Director of CCLA in 2006.

Chris joined the NSPCC, the UK's leading children's charity in January 2025 from the RSPCA, the world's oldest and largest animal protection charity, where he had been CEO since 2018. Prior to joining the RSPCA, he was CEO of Relate, the UK's leading relationship charity – a role he was promoted into from the position of director of policy and sxternal affairs. He also led the ageing programme of work at Nesta, the UK's innovation agency, for three years and was director of innovation and development at the disability charity Scope.

Chris has more than 20 years of experience in the voluntary sector and is also a trustee of NCVO and is the chair of The Charity Awards.  Chris has previously served on a number of other boards including the World Federation for Animals, Eurogroup for Animals and the Centre for Ageing Better.  In 2025, he was named as one of 101 LGBTQ Trailblazers by Attitude magazine.

Mark is proud to be the CEO of P3 Charity and current interim chair for the Charity Commission for England and Wales; he has more than 25 years’ experience in the charity sector. Under his leadership, P3 has expanded its services to reach more people in need, providing them with shelter, support, and resources to help them rebuild their lives.

Born in Nottinghamshire, Mark grew up in a family that was actively involved in community work and at an early stage found that they needed the support of homelessness organisations. This early exposure to social issues motivated him to pursue a career in mental health nursing. After graduation, he worked in various roles within the charity sector, including fundraising, project management, and advocacy.

A passionate advocate for social justice and human rights, Mark is deeply committed to creating a more equitable and just society.

Mark has served for much of his career as a non-executive director or trustee of many independent charities, large and small.

In recognition of his contributions to P3 and the charity sector, Mark has received numerous awards and accolades throughout his career. He was awarded the OBE for services to Social Enterprise in the King’s birthday honours June 2024.

Sue Turner is dedicated to using her expertise in AI governance and ethics to inspire people and organisations to use AI with wisdom and integrity 

With both a Law degree and an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, she established AI Governance Limited in 2020 to advise businesses and policy makers on pragmatic AI, data ethics and governance issues, and making a positive societal impact.  Her Board development clients range from Fortune 100 and FTSE 350 businesses to small charities, and her reach is global through accredited training programmes and being a founder member of the United Nations AI Skills Coalition. She has been rated in the World's Top 100 Women in AI Ethics and was one of the first 14 people globally to be accredited in the Foundations of Independent Audit of AI systems. 

She is Professor in Practice for AI and Technologies at the University of Bristol Business School, Board Chair and Non-Executive Director for purpose-driven businesses in regulated industries and has been a Mentor on the Turing Institute’s Skills Policy Awards. Her career spans entrepreneurial private businesses and not-for-profit organisations where she has led significant organisational growth, raised £27 million for charity and collaborated to shift power to help people improve their prospects. She was awarded the OBE in 2021 for Services to Social Justice. 

Sandi has led Onvero as CEO since 2020, overseeing its transformation from enei and becoming the UK’s only blind female CEO with ADHD. A passionate human rights advocate, she is known for visionary leadership, driving meaningful change across Government, Industry, and the Third Sector.  

Her career spans commercial and charity sectors, including executive roles at SyFy UK and Copious. After registering as blind in 2008 and being diagnosed with ADHD in 2009, Sandi focused on accessibility, co-authoring the Government’s e-Accessibility Action Plan and creating the “Ten Principles of Inclusive Web Design” in 2011.  

She has held leadership roles at Jewish Care, served as a Trustee of RNIB, and as a Non-Executive Director at Mental Health First Aid England. In recognition of her contributions, Sandi received the Freedom of the City of London in 2021, and in 2022, she became a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers. Her work continues to shape a more inclusive society.

Alison is the chief executive of Actors’ Trust, the charity which supports actors and stage management across the UK. She joined Actors’ Trust in July 2023 when it was known as the Actors’ Benevolent Fund and was subject to a number of governance challenges, including a regulatory compliance case with the Charity Commission. She has led the charity through a period of transformation and modernisation since then, alongside a new Board of Trustees.

Prior to that, Alison had worked in the charity sector for 20 years, working in a number of senior leadership positions, most recently with the RAF Benevolent Fund. Having gained a Masters in Voluntary Sector Management from Bayes Business School, Alison has particular experience in organisational strategy, service development, governance and analysis.

Alison has experience working as part of the executive as well as trustee at various non profit organisations. She has been privileged to have developed and managed a wide range of projects, services and grants programmes. Most of all, she is passionate about making a difference and building positive connections to best enable this.