Our people
Employees
Trustees and Independent Members
Advisers
We have a small but committed core staff team dedicated to our mission who manage our portfolio of funding and support our partners on a day-to-day basis.
Amatullah Blain (she/her)
Amatullah Blain (she/her)
Amatullah joined Blagrave as Grants Officer in November 2023. Her main role will be to support the grants team in all stages of the grants making cycle, including support for administration and Blagrave’s programme of events.
Amatullah’s background includes managing an inclusive careers education programme at her university and volunteering for various charities and arts and culture institutions.
Amatullah has a passion for history, particularly in the history of colonialism and how this has impacted societies and institutions today. She is motivated by the significant potential young people have in creating change when their voices are amplified and centred.
Email: amatullah@blagravetrust.org
Amrita Patel (she/her)
Amrita Patel (she/her)
Amrita Patel joined Blagrave in May 2025 as Executive Assistant to the CEO and Team Manager. She plays a pivotal role in supporting strategic priorities at the executive level while ensuring effective coordination and communication across the organisation.
Amrita brings a strong organisational background, with experience supporting senior leadership in fast-paced, mission-driven environments. Before joining Blagrave, she worked at a global non-profit focused on women’s reproductive health, where she developed expertise in project management, stakeholder coordination, and team operations. Prior to her work in the charity sector, she worked as a paralegal with a focus on medical negligence, immigration, and human rights law - work that deepened her commitment to social justice and advocacy.
At Blagrave, she manages the CEO’s schedule, coordinates key projects and meetings, and serves as a vital link between the CEO and the wider team. She combines her legal and non-profit experience to help create a well-run, inclusive organisation that champions youth-led change.
Email: amrita@blagravetrust.org
Callum Pethick (he/they)
Callum Pethick (he/they)
Callum joined Blagrave in April 2021 and co-leads our second strategic objective: investing in young people to create change. This includes managing the Pathways Fund and having strategic oversight for all of our work related to investing in youth organising.
Callum has worked for a variety of civic youth organisations across the UK and is a qualified facilitator. He grew up in the East Midlands and Aberdeenshire and is based at our London offices.
Callum is passionate about changing the power dynamics and systems that currently exist in society to ensure young people, especially those facing injustice, are given the tools, resources and power to lead transformative change.
Daniel Newton (he/him)
Daniel Newton (he/him)
Daniel joined The Blagrave Trust in April 2024 as Policy and Climate manager and oversees our third strategic objective; investing in better youth policy as well as providing a specific funding focus to our commitment to climate justice.
Daniel has previously worked in the funding sector at the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation where he joined on placement from the 2027 programme, and was previously a youth worker in Oldham, Rochdale, and Manchester.
Daniel is passionate about supporting the development of youth movements in the climate justice space, and wants to see children and young people listened to by decision makers.
Email: daniel@blagravetrust.org
Eli Manderson Evans (he/him)
Eli Manderson Evans (he/him)
Eli joined Blagrave as CEO in 2022. Eli has overall oversight over all funding partnerships and sets our strategic direction, ensuring we are true to our mission and living our values.
He joined us from the philanthropy advisory and social change organisation Ten Years’ Time where he served as the Head of Social Justice and led on several powerful research reports focused on the need for the British funding landscape to be honest, ambitious, and authentic in their commitments to address racial injustice and the climate crisis among many other publications. He also worked to connect a new generation of philanthropists to ambitious changemakers transforming the world.
Eli has over 10 years’ experience in policy, research and strategy roles covering connecting issue areas such as the empowerment of young campaigners, LGBTQIA+ rights, climate justice, racial justice and much more. A running commitment in all of Eli’s work is to listen deeply to people with experience of an issue and enable them to lead when it comes to decisions on how to address an issue.
He is deeply passionate about disrupting traditional power dynamics between funders and the communities they wish to serve as well as seeking to transform the relationship between charitable giving and the investment practices behind the scenes. Eli is also extremely passionate about how we develop working cultures of care and centre joy in work that can often be hard to sustain ourselves through.
Eli now makes London his home but wants everyone to know he is a very proud Northerner and is not afraid to say that he thinks Manchester is (one of) the best cities in the world.
Email: ea@blagravetrust.org
Geraldine Warren (she/her)
Geraldine Warren (she/her)
Geraldine joined Blagrave in October 2020, she leads on our finance and provides governance support to the CEO and Board of Trustees.
Geraldine has spent twelve years working in the non-profit sector. Most recently as the Coordinator of the Forest Team at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), before which she worked in finance and coordination roles for UK charities. Geraldine was previously a Trustee for the St Albans and District Foodbank and is now a Governor at her local primary school. Geraldine is currently based between our London offices and her home in Bedfordshire.
Geraldine is passionate about addressing and tackling barriers to social inclusion and access to education.
Hannah Ogundana (she/her)
Hannah Ogundana (she/her)
Hannah joined The Blagrave Trust in September 2024 as a Communications Officer and
oversees the day to day management of our social media channels, website, and
newsletters to raise the profile of Blagrave and its partners.
Hannah’s background includes working in social media and being a video editor. She has
worked within a youth organisation helping young people develop media skills and training
them to effectively communicate their stories and experiences. Through this role, she has
gained valuable insights into the challenges faced by young people and has been
instrumental in creating platforms for them to express themselves. Hannah's experience has
equipped her with the ability to craft impactful narratives that resonate with both young
audiences and wider communities.
She is passionate about young people and is dedicated to amplifying their voices, ensuring
that their perspectives are heard and valued. Hannah believes in the power of storytelling to
drive social change and is committed to using her skills to highlight the impact of youth-led
initiatives to bring lasting change to the lives of young people.
Email: hannah@blagravetrust.org
Jhemar (he/him)
Jhemar (he/him)
Jhemar joined Blagrave in April 2025 to assist in the overseeing of the Trust's Challenge and Change fund investing in young people directly to enable youth led lasting change in areas that directly impact them.
Jhemar has a background in youth work with a range of grassroots and statutory organisations alongside nearly a decade of experience in youth led activism on a local and national level. He has also advised stakeholders on youth engagement whilst working on the frontline working with young people facing some of the most social injustice within society.
Jhemar is passionate about using his lived experience as a young South Londoner that overcame many challenges to equip young people with the skills and resources to empower them to be the changes they want to see.
Email: Jhemar@blagravetrust.org
Marie Benton (she/her)
Marie Benton (she/her)
Marie joined Blagrave in April 2025 and is our Regional Programme Manager, overseeing our work under our first strategic objective: investing in youth organisations. She manages all our regional funding partnerships with organisations in the South East region.
Marie’s career spans many areas of social justice in the voluntary sector, including spells at the Down’s Syndrome Association, St Mungo’s, and Trust for Developing Communities. She was also the Founder and first CEO of The Choir with No Name, an organisation seeking to build community and challenge the stigma often attached to homelessness through the arts. She is home based, and lives in Brighton.
She is excited to work alongside Blagrave partners and learn from their inspiring work and feels uplifted by the hope and dynamism that many young people bring to the voluntary sector and wider society.
Email: marie@blagravetrust.org
Rochell Rowe (she/her)
Rochell Rowe (she/her)
Rochell joined Blagrave in March 2021 and co-leads our second strategic objective: investing in young people directly. She also leads on our youth engagement work, reviewing how we work with young people and listen to their needs. Rochell is the Trust’s Designated Safeguarding Officer.
Rochell has 10 years of experience as a youth worker, working in a range of roles in grassroots youth organisations to larger youth facing charities and is based at our London offices. She is inspired by youth empowerment, accessibility and inclusion and feels passionate about supporting young people to use their voices to create change on issues that directly affect them.
Tessa Hibbert (she/her)
Tessa Hibbert (she/her)
Tessa joined Blagrave in 2016 and is our Head of Grants. She oversees all our funding and has a particular responsibility for our first strategic objective: investing in youth organisations. She manages all our regional funding partnerships with organisations in the South East region.
Tessa’s career has been in the voluntary youth sector, including spells at the National Youth Agency, the Young Foundation and the Regional Youth Work Unit in the South West. She is home based, and lives in Frome. She loves working alongside Blagrave partners to learn from their work with young people and support successful grants. Tessa is a trustee of Off the Record, a youth counselling charity in Bath.
Tessa is motivated and moved by the opportunity to bring lasting change to young people’s lives.
Valeria Tavares (she/her)
Valeria Tavares (she/her)
Valeria joined Blagrave as Head of Operations in June 2023 and leads on HR, safeguarding and general operations, with a focus on putting processes and systems in place to support Blagrave in achieving its mission.
Originally from Brazil, Valeria has had a varied career spanning three continents in areas ranging from video production to innovation consultancy, but for the past 10 years her focus has been on operational and HR roles in the not-for-profit sector, particularly in organisations that work with children and young people.
Valeria is passionate about supporting young people to use their voices to influence and bring lasting change on issues that matter to them.
Email: valeria@blagravetrust.org
We are governed by our Board of Trustees who have a diverse breadth of professional knowledge and lived experience committed to ensuring we are living our values and achieving our mission.
Barbara Ojei Agwaziam
Barbara Ojei Agwaziam
Barbara joined Blagrave Trustee Board in March 2021 with hopes of making a difference in people’s lives.
She joined the Civil Service Fast Stream and has been able to do so in a range of roles, including working as a policy advisor at BEIS, Private Secretary to the Chief Medical Officer, Head of Incident Management working on COVID-19, Head of Parliamentary and Public Engagement and presently the Head of Workforce – Charging Reform Implementation. Barbara’s passion for diversity and inclusion lead to the founding of A Touch of Colour (ATOC) an organisation which seeks to drive racial equality in the workplace for which she has been selected as a Laureate of the Future by the PeaceJam Foundation.
In her spare time, Barbara enjoys travelling, photography and videography – the latter of which she developed as a Barbican Young Reviewer.
Boudicca Pepper
Boudicca Pepper
Boudicca joined Blagrave Trustee Board in March 2020. She graduated with a degree in music, started a live band and is a Songwriter for independent music company Good Soldier.
Her previous roles include Music Programmer at International Youth Arts Festival, hosted by Creative Youth and Creative Director at Brighton Youth Fest in 2019. Boudicca also campaigned to protect youth services in her teens and raised awareness and funds for Audio Active – a youth charity in Brighton for their first all-female production workshops to encourage other young women to study technology in music.
She also continues to make music for social change, performing her own songs and poems, and supporting grassroots organisations to bring other like-minded artists to the frontline.
Daze Aghaji
Daze Aghaji
Daze joined Blagrave Trustee Board in March 2020. She is a climate change activist and works as a freelance consultant on environment, climate, intersectionality and youth engagement and was previously the Regenerative Cultures Coordinator at Extinction Rebellion Youth UK.
Previously Daze was the Creative Director at Earthrise Studios, a digital media company dedicated to communicating the climate crisis through research, design and filmmaking. Daze also has a degree in History and Politics from Goldsmiths University.
Eddie Jacobs
Eddie Jacobs
Eddie joined Blagrave Trustee Board in March 2021. He is a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Welcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, Eddie is also a PhD student at the Department of Psychiatry, where he previously supported the Young People’s Advisory Group, a team of adolescents that co-produce research on mental health issues that matter to them.
In March 2020 he co-founded Help Your High Street, an initiative to support independent shops during the COVID-19 lockdown. Having been homeless during his school years, he deeply appreciates the importance of supporting young people in the transition to adulthood.
Hannah Paterson
Hannah Paterson
Hannah joined Blagrave Trustee Board in November 2023 and has worked within philanthropy and funding for 8 years across a variety of roles. Most recently at the UK National Lottery Community Fund as Head of UK Portfolio where she has designed and developed a wide range of funding programmes and managed an extensive portfolio of complex and systemic grants.
Hannah is also the founder of the Participatory Grantmaking Community, which has grown to include over 1,800 funders worldwide who seek to devolve decision-making power to the communities they aim to serve. She currently works for TransCap Initiative as Head of Community Activation, supporting the growth of the systemic investment field to tackle some of the world's most complex problems. She started her career in the social sector, with a particular focus on disability justice.
She lives in Manchester with her wife and loves frogs.
Naomi Ambrose
Naomi Ambrose
Naomi joined Blagrave Trustee Board in February 2021 and is currently CEO of The Talent Tap, a social mobility charity supporting aspiring students from 18-24 to gain equal access to the workplace. Prior to this Naomi spent 20 years in Corporate Communications and Event Production working as a Director at Fisher Productions and at mcm Creative Group.
Naomi is a director of Dust Architecture which she set up with her husband in 2010, and is no stranger to running SMEs and small charity management which will help in her role as trustee. Naomi is also an Enterprise Advisor for the Careers Enterprise Company / Solent LEP.
Naomi is passionate about tackling social inequality with a focus on young people. Naomi is based in Hampshire.
Nasra Ayub
Nasra Ayub
Nasra joined Blagrave Trustee Board in November 2023 and is a multi-award-winning women and girl’s rights campaigner, TEDx speaker and writer from Bristol, UK. She has recently delivered a TEDx talk called ‘What If Young People Ran the World?’, exploring the power shift of philanthropy decision-making away from traditional donors to young people. Nasra works in Programs at Global Fund for Children focusing on the youth-led participatory grantmaking streams, most notably the youth-led program Spark Fund. She was a recipient of the Diana Award for her efforts to end female genital mutilation since the age of 15.
Nasra envisions a funding sector that will resource young people to create change and make decisions on what their community needs. Blagrave Trust's focus on empowering and supporting young people resonated strongly with Nasra and saw joining their Board as an opportunity to contribute to an organization whose values and initiatives resonate with her philanthropic values.
Reema Desai
Reema Desai
Reema joined Blagrave in February 2024 as an Independent Member of the Finance and Investment Committee. Reema is passionate about supporting charities focused on serving the needs of underserved and marginalised communities. She has served as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for Henna Asia Women’s Group (2015 - 2019) and is currently a volunteer at Jeevika Trust (since 2023).
Reema has 18 years of business and product marketing experience. Reema left the investment management industry in 2023 and joined Impact Boards EM, where she is a Co-Founder and Member of the Executive Committee. Reema is also part of HERmesa, supporting the growth of early stage, female-founded businesses since 2023. She is an advisor to an impact data start-up, Fidata Limited, who aim to accelerate the path towards Net Zero by improving the accountability and quality of ESG data reporting.
Sam Tarff
Sam Tarff
Sam has joined Blagrave in January 2024 as a Finance Lead Trustee. With extensive experience in charity finance, he has served as a professional funding advisor, project manager, and participated in grants and investment panels for various UK, EU, philanthropic grant, and social investment programs. Sam brings to Blagrave a wide range of experience, having had a career that includes 14 years in local government and over 20 years working in a wide range of charities, development trusts, youth and community enterprises, as well as social investment houses.
Sam’s focus has always been working in and with communities facing financial, social, environmental, and economic exclusion, his passion lies in empowering individuals and communities to overcome barriers and injustices, which aligns perfectly with the mission of the Blagrave Trust.
Now retired from full-time commitments, Sam remains active as the lead finance trustee for a local Development Trust. In his leisure time, he enjoys outdoor activities like hill walking and mountain biking, as well as spending quality time with family and friends.
Segun Olowookere
Segun Olowookere
Segun joined Blagrave Trustee Board in November 2022 and is a qualified management accountant and currently works for the Children’s Society as their Finance Director. Previously he worked for the youth charity Restless Development as Finance Director and Comic Relief as a Senior Finance Business Partner working closely with the grants team.
Segun’s passionate about helping to make finance fun and easy to understand. He spent over 5 years working for Humentum as a financial management specialist training over a thousand NGO professionals in good practice financial management, strategic financial management and grant management. Outside of his professional work he is also a social entrepreneur and mentor.
Passionate about inspiring young people, he is the author of a motivational book called, You Might As Well.
Victor Azubuike
Victor Azubuike
Victor is an Independent Member of the Finance and Investment Committee after serving as a Blagrave Trustee from February 2021 to June 2024. Victor works in Business Development for ClayStack previously with Figment, one of the world’s leading providers of blockchain infrastructure. He was previously an Associate at J.P. Morgan Chase working in the Platform Sales division. He has also dedicated his time to supporting philanthropic causes including mental health, improving educational attainment of children from working class backgrounds and youth justice.
In his final year of university, he partnered with DebateMate, and taught an after-school debating club in a Birmingham inner-city primary school. As a result of this experience, he co-founded My Brothers Keepers’ Bookclub. A series of book clubs with the aim of turning boys from low socioeconomic backgrounds into the most active readership group in the U.K. He is also passionate about reforming the youth justice system and expanding the conversation about mental health to young people.
In April 2018, Victor travelled as part of the British delegation to Strasbourg to report to the Council of Europe on the state of Children’s Mental Health and Child-Friendly Justice. He hopes to continue to contribute to these issues in the future.
We centre the views of young people and people with lived experience of the issues we are trying to address through advisers acting on our programmes. The input and role of our advisers differs depending on their respective programmes.
Demetri (he/him)
Demetri (he/him)
Demetri has an eight-year background in mentoring and workshop facilitation in and around London ranging from mainstream schools to young offenders institutions. He is dedicated to educating and empowering young people who face unique challenges. Demetri is passionate about combating societies inequalities and believes the youth are the conduit for much needed change.
He became a Challenge & Change advisor because as a mentee in his early teens he discovered the importance of empowering young people; Challenge & Change empowers young people in a profound way and ensuring this process is as beneficial as possible to as many as possible resonates with Demetri.
Ryan (he/him)
Ryan (he/him)
Ryan Dube is a 27-year-old Zimbabwean-born social entrepreneur from the northeast of England. He runs TRYBE—the Tees Republic of Young Black Empowerment—which supports young people from racially marginalized backgrounds in developing themselves through sports and the arts.
He became a Challenge & Change adviser to contribute to the groundbreaking work that Blagrave is doing—placing young people at the centre of decision-making in the pursuit of sustainable change. Too often, young people feel they have little autonomy over their own future, but Blagrave is demonstrating that this does not have to be the case. The organization is not only changing the game but also proving to others that what was once considered impossible is entirely achievable.
Blagrave has enabled a young Black, neurodivergent refugee care leaver like Ryan to make a meaningful impact in his community. He expresses gratitude to Blagrave and the Centre for Knowledge Equity for their commitment to empowering young people.
Ava (she/her)
Ava (she/her)
Ava is the founder of Not A Trend, a youth-led anti-racist campaign, that works primarily with schools to help transform their environments by implementing decolonial and anti-racist principles. The campaign’s first funding came from the Challenge and Change Programme, which not only provided financial support to advance its work but also helped shape it into a fully-fledged organization.
Alongside this, Ava is in her final year at the University of Leeds, where she has been involved in policy research and has contributed to running an alternative journalism magazine.
Chrissie (she/her)
Chrissie (she/her)
Chrissie is a decolonial practitioner with specialisms in Race, Social Justice and decolonial practices. Over the last five years, she has worked with Maokwo to produce a multitude of projects, programmes and events centring on migrant justice.
She also supports organisations to work with marginalised communities in holistic and creative ways using indigenous and decolonial practices that draw heavily on anti-oppressive principles. She is also a writer, performer and producer who creates work that explores racial justice through her creative practice. As an artist, she has been commissioned by BBC Arts, City of Culture 2021, Renaissance One and many more. As a producer she has worked for Maokwo arts, Theatre Peckham and Renaissance One.
Ali (he/him)
Ali (he/him)
Ali is a facilitator, activist and founder and director of Babylon Migrants Project. He came to the UK in 2018 and since then have been working in the refugee sector. He has worked with various organisations such as Our Second Home, Safe Passage, Counterpoints Arts and British Red Cross.
Ali became a Challenge and Change adviser because he believes in the power of the youth, as they are the future and shape our world. He wants like to be part of their Journey to make positive changes and support them as much as he can.
Zamy (they/them)
Zamy (they/them)
Zamy is a multidisciplinary artist, youth support worker and art facilitator working across London, Brighton and wider Sussex. They have over 4 years of experience working in youth support and advocacy roles specialising in supporting LGBTQI+ people around mental health and health issues, neurodiversity, homelessness and domestic violence. They have also continuously practised anti-racism work in their various roles.
They are an advocate for racial justice and for disabled and neurodivergent people and trans & gender non-conforming people to be treated with respect and dignity. As a Blagrave adviser, they wish to bring their knowledge and dedication in uplifting young people and supporting them to lead fulfilling lives.
Zamy is also a musician spending their spare time playing the harp and the percussion instruments the caxixi & the Juju shaker.
Megan (she/her)
Megan (she/her)
Megan is the Creative Projects Manager for an arts organisation on the Isle of Wight, as part of her role she runs a youth programme offering creative opportunities for 14–25-year-olds living on the Isle of Wight. Having grown up there herself and experienced first-hand the lack of opportunities for young people, she's really excited to be part of a team that contributes towards changing that.
Eli (she/they)
Eli (she/they)
Eli has 15 years of experience as a youth and community worker, working in a wide range of frontline delivery and project management roles in not-for-profit youth organisations across Sussex and the wider UK. As a former Youth Board Member with Time to Change and now as a Patient Leader with Just Treatment, Eli works to reduce stigma and discrimination about mental health, whilst actively campaigning and striving for equitable and accessible mental health care for all.
Currently unable to work full-time due to chronic health conditions, Eli is excited to be able to work with The Blagrave Trust in this capacity as a Regional Adviser and put her lived and professional experience of youth and community services in Sussex to good use.
Karen (she/her)
Karen (she/her)
Karen is a social entrepreneur having founded several businesses including Absolute Alchemy, an events business that hosts and produces change maker events for planet and communities. She runs a speaker agency with a mission to amplify underrepresented voices and help to foster innovation and drive change. She is the founding Director of Wild Purpose that brings young people into nature through nature based immersive learning programmes.
Karen has a background in working for both a youth and prison charity in London and since leaving those organisations she has moved to Brighton and Hove and enjoys being near to the sea and the Downs and being able to spend time in Nature with family and friends.
Helen (she/her)
Helen (she/her)
Helen is an employment law solicitor and Founder of Wiltshire-based charity, Doing it for Dan. The charity was set up in memory of her son and it raises money to provide grants to young people for sports equipment, kit and other associated costs. Helen has also worked in a volunteer capacity for a number of organisations in the youth sector.
Helen applied for the role of regional adviser as she wanted to use her skills and experience to actively make a difference to young people in Wiltshire and the other regions that Blagrave supports.
Gray (they/them)
Gray (they/them)
Based in Sussex, Gray has a background in both community, and third sector business development. They are currently CEO of a small community-led charity, The Clare Project, alongside some freelancing on a variety of projects rooted in activism.
Having spent the last 15 years working alongside developing groups supporting under-represented communities, Gray joined the advisory programme to support insight with regard to sustainability, equity and inclusion.
Louise (she/her)
Louise (she/her)
Louise is an Executive Director for a music charity based in Reading. With a passion for breaking down barriers and creating equal opportunities, Louise is dedicated to ensuring that young people, especially those who often face systemic challenges, can access the support they need to thrive.
Bringing both lived and learned experience in youth work and the charity sector, Louise is proud to serve as an advisor for Blagrave. She sees this role as an opportunity to amplify her mission - driving meaningful change and making a lasting difference in the lives of as many young people as possible.
Alec (he/him)
Alec (he/him)
Alec - a full-time videographer and photographer as well as a youth worker in Portsmouth. He is passionate about helping others and making sure people from low-socioeconomic and disadvantaged backgrounds are heard.
Alec applied to be an adviser at Blagrave because the youth work and partnerships coordinator work he does for a charity has exposed him to the people and organisations the foundation aims to help through funding.
