Who we are 

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Our team

Legendary campaigner, Sheila McKechnie, believed in the importance of people being able to shape their world. This is the founding principle of SMK today. Since 2005, we have grown into a core team supported by a very active Board of Trustees and a team of Associates all bringing with them a wide and diverse range of skills and backgrounds.

Gillian Lazonby

Sue Tibballs

Chief Executive

Sue is a charity leader, campaigner and commentator who has worked in the social change sector for approaching thirty years.

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Previously she was CEO of Women in Sport, where she oversaw a spectrum of campaigns aimed at unlocking the potential of women’s sport. She worked for The Body Shop in the late 90’s where she was responsible for the global roll out of the pioneering Ruby campaign, which first made the connection between body image and self-esteem.

In her twenties, she devised the award-winning Bag ‘n’ Bin It campaign for the Women’s Environmental Network; co-founded the Women’s Communication Centre which hosted the high profile What Women Want campaign; and worked for the British Government supporting their role in the Fourth UN World Conference on Women.

She has an Honorary Degree from Liverpool John Moore’s University for her work in women’s health, and was awarded an OBE for “services to sport” in the 2013 New Years’ Honours list. Sue is a trustee of Grapevine, a charity based in the West Mids, that uses community power to help people thrive. She is a former Chair of 38 Degrees and The Fawcett Society, and a former Trustee of acevo.

Gillian Lazonby

Chloe Hardy

Director of Policy and Communications

Chloe has twenty years’ experience of campaigning, public affairs and policy influencing in both the not-for-profit and charity sectors.

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Before joining the team at SMK, Chloe worked for various charities and trade bodies including Action for Children and the National Housing Federation. She has campaigned on green energy, social housing, waste reduction, fuel poverty, child neglect and early-years development.

Chloe puts most of her energy into working for greater social justice, seeking clarity of purpose, travelling and Doctor Who – sometimes all at the same time. She will ask you a LOT of questions.

Gillian Lazonby

Lorna Massey

Operations and Systems Manager

Lorna joined SMK in October 2022 and focuses on the internal operations.

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Lorna began her career as a Town Planner in the Northeast and Edinburgh, working on housing policy, developing governance experience and project management qualifications. Lorna loves to travel and after a 2-year sabbatical, travelling and working her way around the world, Lorna moved into the travel industry where she managed large sales teams for a high-end tour operator for 7 years.

Lorna has always had a strong interest in project management and operations in her previous roles and was seeking a new challenge when she was offered the role of Operations Manager at SMK. Lorna is excited to learn more about campaigning, while supporting the team on their work on social change.

Gillian Lazonby

Emma Boyd

Head of Marketing and Communications

Emma has worked in the charity sector over the past 20 years, in the arts, human rights and more recently women’s rights sectors.

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Emma began her career in visual arts management and later campaigning and communication projects that focused on prevention, behaviour change and awareness raising in the UK and globally, specifically projects on gender-based violence. More recently, Emma’s consultancy work has focused on the communications, fundraising and campaigning needs of small to medium charities particularly digital asset development and strategic communications.

Emma is a Clore Foundation fellow from the Women and Girls Leadership Programme and works as a communications mentor. Emma is also a Trustee with Oxfordshire based charity Reducing the Risk of Domestic Abuse.

Gillian Lazonby

Megan Poyiadzis

Events and Programme Manager

Megan joined SMK in January 2015, whilst studying for a BSc in Community Development and Public Policy at Birkbeck University.

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Previously working in the NHS as a Diabetic Eye Screener, she wanted to pursue a career within the charity sector that aligned with her real passions – social justice and human rights. Megan has volunteered with children’s charities, facilitating half-term classes for primary school children, and helping to organise large-scale annual Christmas events for vulnerable children and families. At the end of 2019, Megan completed a part-time diploma in Events Management with Event Academy, the only UK events diploma endorsed by the Chartered Institute of Marketing. 

Gillian Lazonby

Rummena Begum

Digital Marketing and Projects Officer

Rummena joined SMK in 2018, after previously completing a voluntary placement undertaking market research.

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Rummena is a graduate from Queen Mary University, and has a degree in BA Geography. Rummena has long been interested in developmental and inequality issues and her experience comes from collaborating with Citizens UK by completing qualitative and quantitative research tasks. Rummena enjoys volunteering in her spare time, she was a long-term volunteer at a youth centre, and also worked with Active Communities Network, a charity that attempts to tackle social deprivation by inspiring young people, through grassroots sports. Currently, Rummena volunteers at a food bank called Charity Begins At Home.

At SMK, Rummena supports the communications and marketing activity, particularly overseeing social media, aimed at growing SMK’s profile and engagement.

Gillian Lazonby

Sarah Thomas

Head of Power and Participation

Sarah has twenty years’ experience in the charity sector, working in leadership roles at a range of community and educational projects.

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Passionate about inclusive, participatory approaches to social change, Sarah’s work has focused on co-creating services for children and families and for people with disabilities. Her intention is always to foster reflective, collaborative relationships in pursuit of a kinder, more just and sustainable world. Prior to joining SMK, Sarah completed an MA in Power, Participation and Social Change.

Gillian Lazonby

Seth Farsides

Policy and Research Officer 

Seth joined SMK in November 2021, having previously enjoyed roles working in human rights and as part of the policy team of his local Brighton MP.

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Seth traces his campaigning roots back to 2003, when he was nestled on his dad’s shoulders for the duration of the ‘Stop the War’ protest in London.

More recently, Seth achieved a First Class Degree from the University of Essex in Elections, Public Opinion and Political Parties, which he invariably shortens to ‘Politics’.

While passionate in his convictions, Seth loves nothing more than talking with – and attempting to understand – those who view the world differently.

For this reason, he often ponders the Abraham Lincoln quote included in SMK’s Social Power report:

‘I don’t like that man, I must get to know him better.’

Gillian Lazonby

Kathleen Christie

Head of Programmes

Kath is an award-winning campaigner with a solid track record in strategy development, high-level stakeholder relationship management, training and leading learning reviews. 

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Kath has more than two decades experience in the not-for-profit sector. At SMK, Kath heads up SMK’s training and consultancy programme supporting campaigners and social change across the UK. Before that she was course director for SMK’s Campaign Carousel programme providing oversight across 13 workshops. Kath convened the Police Bill Alliance – a civil society coalition of 350 organisations against the government’s policing bill (now the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act 2022). As a freelance consultant she worked with diverse organisations including Mencap, the Criminal Justice Alliance, Amnesty International UK, and the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

Kath is an RSA Fellow and a critical friend of Playing Out, a social enterprise championing street play. She coordinated the TUC campaign against the then Trade Union Bill. The campaign won PR Week 2016 Award for Public Affairs.

Who are SMK Associates?

SMK is supported by an extensive network of Associates – themselves some of the UK’s leading campaigners, organisers and commentators. Our Associates support the delivery of our training and consultancy according to their specific skills and experience.

Sheila McKechnie

Our Board

SMK is very lucky to have such a highly skilled and dedicated Board of Trustees that bring with them a rich and diverse variety of perspectives and experiences. Most are campaigners and social change experts in their own right working across civil society.

Gillian Lazonby

Pete Moorey (SMK Chair) 

Head of Campaigns and UK Advocacy at Christian Aid

Pete Moorey, recently joined Christian Aid and was previously Head of Digital Impact & Sustainability Campaigns at BT, responsible for BT’s Skills for Tomorrow campaign, which aims to help 10 million people to make the most of life in the digital world. Pete is acting interim Chair at SMK.

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Before joining BT, he was Director of Advocacy and Public Affairs at Which?, where he ran the consumer champion’s campaigns – securing changes to laws, regulation and consumer behaviour in the financial services, utilities, transport and retail markets. Pete was previously the Head of Public Affairs at the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Head of Campaigns & Communications at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. As a consultant, he has advised numerous organisations on their campaigns and comms strategies including Scope, Save the Children, the British Chambers of Commerce, the Royal College of Nursing and the Rail Ombudsman.

Gillian Lazonby

Kimberly Garande (SMK Deputy Chair)

Youth Development Lead, We Belong

Kimberly joined as Outreach Officer at We Belong in October 2019, now Youth Development Lead,  and is dedicated to changing how society relates to marginalised groups.

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Kimberly was born in Zimbabwe and migrated to the UK aged 9. She applied for student finance in 2015 and realised that her immigration status became the barrier to going to university because it meant she wasn’t eligible for a student loan.

In the same year, Kimberly attended a Leadership Academy, which provided support and importantly awareness that she was not alone. In 2018 she started university alongside work as a Culturosity Facilitator; promoting youth development through creative learning of equality and diversity principles. She recognises the importance of young people seeking out opportunities for further development and challenging societal constraints.

Gillian Lazonby

Alex Kent

Co-CEO of Restless Development

Restless Development, a global non-profit for youth-led change.  Restless Development runs youth-leadership programmes in 26 countries, as well advocating for, supporting and connecting young changemakers to strengthen youth civil society. 

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Alex has led the strategy development and transformation in recent years; shifting power and resources to the majority world, and developing a power shifting checklist.  She’s also been instrumental in the development of the Youth Collective and Youth Power initiatives. 

Alex is a feminist leader with over 20 years experience working on social justice issues and campaigns at WaterAid, Save the Children, Comic Relief and the Global Campaign for Education and led the 1GOAL: Education for All, campaign in South Africa during the 2010 World Cup. 

Alex is always on the lookout for new solutions and ways of addressing social injustices and weaving a web of changemakers.  Alex lives in north London with her wife and young twins. 

Gillian Lazonby

Stuart Davis

Director at Stuart Davis Consulting 

Stuart runs a consultancy that specialises in advising charities with finance and operations, and is qualified Management Accountant (CIMA).

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Previously Stuart has been Finance Director at ClientEarth, Head of Finance at Elrha and held finance roles at other international NGOs such as VSO and Amnesty International. He has extensive prior experience in the private sector.

Gillian Lazonby

Patrick Steen

Global Communications Director – Content, External Channels & Community 

With over a decade’s experience building powerful digital communities, Patrick has a passion for harnessing the voices of many to change the opinions and policies of companies, regulators and governments.

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At Which?, he built a digital innovation team that grew one of the largest supporter bases in the UK, and helped pioneer data-led engagement tools which influenced positive social change for UK consumers. Whether in mobilising half a million people to change the law on nuisance calls, or collecting evidence of the millions lost to bank scams, the consumer actions Patrick has led have resulted in high-profile media and tangible policy outcomes. In addition to advising The Law Society and FTSE 250 company Capita, Patrick most recently partnered with Purpose Union. At this social purpose agency, Patrick specialises in advising global clients on digital movement building. This includes leading the social media release of a global climate action song which engaged people in almost every country of the world.

Gillian Lazonby

Zainab Ali Khan

Documentaries at Netflix

Zainab joined Netflix in 2019, working in the commissioning team for Original Documentaries. Zainab has held several roles across non-profits, The World Wide Web Foundation and The ONE Campaign.

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As Chief of Staff at the Web Foundation, Zainab worked closely with the CEO and co-founders Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Rosemary Leith to manage global campaigns including the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web.

At ONE, Zainab worked across media, advocacy and project management – coordinating national, regional and global projects including ONE’s involvement in the G7 and G20 summits. She also worked closely with the Youth Ambassador programme, managing their 2017 annual gathering in Brussels.

Zainab began her career at ITV News as a researcher for current affairs programmes ‘Tonight’ and ‘On Assignment’.

Gillian Lazonby

Richard Lane 

External Affairs at StepChange

Richard leads the External Affairs department at StepChange, the UK’s largest debt charity, who help more than 600,000 people a year with their financial problems. His role oversees the charity’s policy, campaigning, marketing, communications and digital functions.

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Richard has worked across the charity sector in a number of roles, including leading the communications and campaigns teams at the national disability charity, Scope, and working on campaigns and public affairs at the LGBT charity Stonewall where he worked on the equal marriage campaign and the national Rainbow Laces campaign to tackle homophobia in sport. 

Prior to working in the charity sector Richard worked at the Fabian Society, a leading think tank on social justice issues, PoliticsHome supporting their US politics coverage, and spent time working on the 2008 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. 

Gillian Lazonby

Deborah Doane

Partner, Rights CoLab and Freelance Consultant

Deborah is a partner at RightsCoLab where she works on the future of civil society. She has appeared as a spokesperson across radio and television, and blogs for the Guardian.

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Prior to joining Rights CoLab, she was Director of the Funders’ Initiative for Civil Society (FICS), a private philanthropic collaborative working to create a more enabling environment for civil society. Earlier roles have included Director of the World Development Movement and founder/Director of the Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE) of 120 NGOs in the UK that achieved ground-breaking changes to UK Company law, to embed social and environmental accountability. She also held leadership roles at WWF and the New Economics Foundation.
She has been a trustee of numerous organisations, including the Fairtrade Foundation, and is currently a Director of Finance Uncovered.

Gillian Lazonby

Emilija Rudzinskaite

Learning & Engagement at Earthwatch Europe

Emilija is a qualified primary school teacher and has worked in environmental education, leading teacher training programmes and advocating for climate education and pathways to green and STEM careers across the UK.

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Emilija moved to the UK to study Politics and International Relations, and connected deeply with the issues of systemic inequity and barriers to social mobility. She chose to train as a primary school teacher with Teach First, and completed her training during the COVID pandemic.

After seeing the effects of the Fridays for Future protests on pupil awareness of the climate crisis, she joined the Earthwatch Education team to address key barriers to consistent climate education by applying an intersectional lens. In her free time, Emilija also works on diversifying opportunities in engineering and motorsport through her work with Espire Education, and volunteers for the Women’s Equality Party Basingstoke Branch.

Gillian Lazonby

Sami Gichki 

Co-chair of the #iWill movement

Sami co-chairs the #iWill Movement Assembly, Britain’s leading youth social action movement. 

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He is also a trustee for a number of charities including Young Roots, Intergenerational England, Manchester City of Sanctuary and Euro Youth Mental Health. He is also a governor for a secondary school. His spirit for campaigning lies in his lived experience of being an asylum seeker and often being excluded from the narrative of government policy.

Gillian Lazonby

Tony Burton CBE

Community activist and campaigner 

Tony works free range on community, design and environmental projects and is a community activist and campaigner on many fronts.

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He founded Civic Voice and is active in his own civic society in south London and as Chair of Wandle Valley Forum. Tony chairs CPRE’s national Policy & Campaigns Committee and is a former Vice Chair of Friends of the Earth. He is a neighbourhood planning examiner and convenes Neighbourhood Planners.London as a volunteer. 

Tony chaired National Lottery Community Fund during the pandemic and is currently Chair of Power to Change (supporting community business) and TCV Chestnut Fund (providing grants to community groups looking after local green space). He is also a trustee of Nationwide Foundation, advised the National Infrastructure Commission on design and is Vice Chair of HS2’s Independent Design Panel.

Gillian Lazonby

Juliet Can 

Director, Stour Trust 

The Stour Trust is a social enterprise developing models of community led regeneration that seeks to democratise access to land, building and spaces. 

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Stour Trust also influences policies to deliver racial, social and economic justice for under-represented communities.

Juliet’s career has focused on three core tenets of social justice, arts and culture, and entrepreneurship.  She is passionate about supporting local people and communities as they shape their neighbourhoods.

She co-founded the Hackney Wick and Fish Island Community Development Trust and is a mentor at Footwork Trust. Juliet sits on the boards of ACME Studios, London Community Land Trust and Ethical Property Company.

Gillian Lazonby

Gillian Lazonby 

General Counsel, 350.0rg

Gillian has over 10 years’ experience working in the charity sector. 350.org is a global climate movement organisation. 

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Prior to this she worked with the human rights charity, Reprieve and international development charity, Tearfund in her capacity as in-house legal counsel. Gillian is a dual qualified solicitor in England, Wales and Scotland and is based in Edinburgh. 

Patrons

Our founding five patrons all knew Sheila personally and have each played an important ambassadorial role for the Foundation over the years. .

Gillian Lazonby

Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP

Gordon Brown was a friend of Sheila McKechnie for over thirty years and became a patron of the Foundation at the time it was established in 2005. Gordon Brown hosted the Foundation’s reception for the Sheila McKechnie Awards 2007. He has emphasised the importance of campaigners contribution to democracy in Britain and continues to support the Foundation’s work to develop the next generation of campaigners.

“To fight for justice is not some abstract idea – it is far more important than that. It is a practical demand that real wrongs must be righted, that injustices be rectified, that abuses be removed and unfairness’s remedied. Let Sheila’s energy, Sheila’s unending courage and, Sheila’s lifetime dedication to justice, inspire us and drive us forward in the days and years ahead”.

Gillian Lazonby

Jon Snow

Broadcaster and writer

Jon Snow is an English journalist and television presenter. He is best known as the longest-running presenter of Channel 4 News, which he has presented since 1989. Snow has held numerous honorary appointments, including Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University from 2001 to 2008.

“We want to make it possible for another Sheila, another passionate informed campaigner, to break out and raise a voice from beyond organised politics on behalf of those denied rights and opportunities.”

Gillian Lazonby

Baroness Morgan of Drefelin

Delyth has over 20 years experience as a campaigner and was the first Chief Executive of Breakthrough Cancer responsible for orchestrating the high level of awareness and momentum behind the issue of breast cancer in the UK. Sheila was a hugely important role model for Delyth throughout her career.

“It’s time we recognised the campaigners out there whose efforts help create a better future for their communities – the people who can be bothered, who write that letter and ask that question, who organise that petition and who could do even more with support, help and recognition. The Sheila McKechnie Foundation hopes to support, empower and name these campaigners and thank them for what they do for us all.”

Gillian Lazonby

The Lord Rogers of Riverside CH (deceased) 

Richard Rogers was an award-winning architect and the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate. As chair of the Architecture Foundation, he worked with Sheila McKechnie and others to ‘put architecture on the political map’ as a force for urban improvement and social change. He was awarded the Légion d’Honneur in 1986, knighted in 1991, and made a life peer in 1996.

Gillian Lazonby

Alan Grant

Sheila’s partner and formerly champion of education at the Financial Services Authority.

“Sheila’s eye for an issue worth campaigning about may have been largely intuitive, but her campaigns were always based on careful research of the facts, identifying practical solutions, and absolute integrity.”

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