Our people

We are made up of passionate individuals with a range of experience from the education and youth sectors, but we all have one thing in common, we want to see all children and young people in the UK getting an equal start in life.

Our Staff

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Abbie Maher

HR Director

Alexandra Osborn

Programme Manager

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Alishia Fitzsimmons

Programme Manager

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Alison Doyle

Programme Officer

Amy Simcox

Chief Development Officer

Annie Hinton

Programme Design Manager

Bridget Waters

Fundraising Manger

Charlotte Laidlaw

Programme Officer 

Charlie Ledley

Programme Director

David Ellis

Fundraising Manager

Graeme Duncan

CEO

Hannah Finney

Programme Director

Hannah Nguyen

Senior Programme Officer

Helen Hayes

Executive Assistant

Hope Draper

Communications Manager

Isaac Roberts

HR Coordinator

Jade Lyons

Communications Manager

Janice Bluett-Duncan

Programme Manager

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Jenna Anderson

Programme Officer

John Calvert

Finance Director

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Julia Everson

Programme Director

Kash Sunghuttee

Programme Manager

Laura Stridgeon

Programme Manager

Mary Randolph

Programme Director

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Natascha Gibson

Programme Director

Nayaab Sabir

Finance Officer

Patsy Davies

Senior Programme Officer

Paul O’Neill

Chief Programmes Officer

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Paul Semple

Programme Manager

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Phil Crandle

Programme Manager

Rekha Patel-Harrison

Chief Programmes Officer

Rita Pilkington

Senior Data & Insights

Manager

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Saffron Steele

Data and Insights Officer

Sarah Stockwell, Head of Fundraising

Sarah Stockwell

Head of Fundraising

Sara

Sarah Smith

Programme Director

Shannon Kaiser

Senior Programme Officer

Steff O'Keeffe

Programm Manager

Steff O'Keeffe

Programm Director

Tom Staples

Programme Officer

Our people

We are made up of passionate individuals with a range of experience from the education and youth sectors, but we all have one thing in common, we want to see all children and young people in the UK getting an equal start in life.

Our Staff

Graeme Duncan – Chief Executive

Graeme was the first graduate hired by Teach First in 2003, teaching for two years in a secondary school serving a highly disadvantaged community, where he led the Maths Faculty. He then joined London First, a business lobby group, as Executive Assistant to the CEO, Baroness Valentine, before focusing on education and immigration projects. From there he joined Teach First in 2008 to work on fundraising, policy and public affairs before, in 2010, becoming Director of Development at Greenhouse, a charity that uses sport to engage and develop young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In June 2014, he stepped out to set up Right to Succeed.

Alexandra Osborn – Programme Manager

Alexandra Osborn

Annie Hinton – Programme Design Manager

 Annie comes from a background in international development; she completed a Master’s in Global Studies at the University of Vienna and recently finished working as a Policy and Advocacy Advisor for the National Youth Council of Malawi. Most recently she was working as the Regional Fundraising Coordinator for Village Aid. Annie is a skilled researcher and consultant, volunteering her time with a number of organisations, including Raising Futures Kenya.

Beth Matheson – Chief Operations Officer

Beth is responsible for the finance, HR and governance functions within Right to Succeed.

Having qualified as an ACA at Deloitte, she has spent the last decade working in the not-for-profit field, heading up the finance function or part thereof of various international organisations, including Amnesty International International Secretariat. Prior to joining Right to Succeed, Beth had a short stint as a Finance and Resources Director for a London-based Ark Academy, which sparked her interest in getting involved in education improvement.

Cath Murray – Chief Development Officer

Cath Murray is Chief Development Officer for Right to Succeed, overseeing communications, policy and advocacy, fundraising, and development. Cath was previously the programme lead for IntegratED, a 19-partner programme working to improve outcomes for excluded children across England, and the policy lead on exclusions and alternative provision at the Centre for Social Justice. Prior to this, Cath worked as an education journalist at two education trade newspapers, Schools Week and FE Week, and as managing editor for the parenting website, Netmums.

In her early career, Cath lived in Spain and Costa Rica for over a decade, working as a translator and interpreter then managing study-abroad programmes for university students.

Charlie Ledley - Programme Director

Charlie Ledley – Programme Director

Charlotte Laidlaw - Programme Officer

Charlotte is responsible for providing administrative and strategic support to the Every Child Project in Manchester.
Charlotte recently graduated from the University of Liverpool with a  degree in Modern Languages and Education, where Charlotte’s work focussed on postcolonial theory and it’s effects on languages, cultures and communities. This worked  culminated in a dissertation that examined a, translated, psychoanalysis of the Qur’an, with the goal of creating an easily digestible text for an anglophone Judeo-Christian audience to gain a better insight into Islam.

Charlotte joins Right to Succeed after spending three years working in schools as a teacher, where she saw, firsthand, the  effects that poverty has on students’ education.

 

David Ellis - Fundraising Manager

David Ellis – Fundraising Manager

Hannah Nguyen - Programme Officer

Hannah provides administrative and strategic across a number of programmes, with an emphasis on the emerging programmes at Right to Succeed. Hannah studied Psychology at the University of Liverpool and conducted research on the causes of poor mental health in lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer students. After completing her degree, Hannah was elected to work at the students’ union for two years, where much of her campaign work focused on climate justice and ethical investment. Hannah briefly worked as a primary school tutor and support worker before joining Right To Succeed.

Hope Draper - Communications Manager

Hope Draper – Communications Manager

 

James Dewar – Programme Design Officer

James Dewar Programme Design Officer

 

Janice Bluett-Duncan – Programme Manager

Janice is the Programme Manager for our North Birkenhead programme, Cradle to Career. With a background in education and non-profit programme delivery, Janice is passionate about collective working and the VCSE sector. Before joining Right to Succeed, Janice spent 2 years in India, working on various NGO- and CSR-led social innovation programmes to improve educational outcomes for children living in poverty, whilst completing a qualification in International Development.

 

John Calvert - Finance Manager

John Calvert – Finance Manager

Kelly Fisher – Programme Officer

As a Programme Officer, Kelly is responsible for providing administrative and strategic support for the Cradle to Career Project in North Birkenhead.

Kelly initially trained as a secondary school English teacher but transitioned to work in fundraising and community engagement, Kelly now joins Right to Succeed with five years of experience in the charity and social sector. Kelly is passionate about mental health advocacy and the performing arts, in 2018 Kelly set up a performing arts community group with which she is still actively involved.

Kezia Harper – Operations Manager

Kezia supports the team with a range of administrative and communications coordination, including finance, HR and general office management. Kezia has a background in technical production and administration in the fashion industry and, after finding the industry to be lacking in potential for improvements in ethics and sustainability. Kezia’s Master’s research thesis was concerned with the underlying structures and codes in society which prevent equality and contribute to the exploitation of people in vulnerable situations.

Laura Stridgeon – Programme Manager, Manchester
Mary Randolph – Programme Manager

Mary is the manager of all our Manchester based programmes. She’s been involved in education in various capacities for the past ten years. She taught English as a Second Language in several countries around the world. More recently, she worked as primary school teacher in Istanbul, Turkey.

Michelle Kelsall - HR Manager

Michelle brings with her, to Right to Succeed, 18 years of HR experience from  the private, public and third sectors.Michelle enjoys taking a collaborative approach to her to role and finding creative ways to improvement staff engagement.
Being passionate about employee wellbeing, learning & development and organisational culture, Michelle is excited and proud to be working for an organisation that lives and breathes it’s values.

Molly Pugh-Jones Executive Assistant

Molly Pugh-Jones – Executive Assistant

Nayaab Sabir - Finance and Admin Assistant

Nayaab Sabir Finance and Admin Assistant

Paul O’Neill – Chief Programmes Officer

Paul leads on the strategic and operational delivery of our programmes, being responsible for quality assurance, partnerships and relationship management. He has managed numerous programmes and interventions in education and the third sector, joining Right to Succeed from The Children’s Society in 2015 where he led large multi-site teams through transformational change initiatives.

In addition to teaching at the University of Manchester since 2012 specialising in Psychology, Social Justice and Youth Intervention, Paul is a school governor at Abraham Moss Community School in Manchester and a member of the UK Policy and Practice Network for the UoM Promoting Youth Involvement and Social Engagement EU research project.

Phoebe Cavender - Programme Officer

Phoebe Cavender – Programme Officer

Rekha Patel-Harrison - Programme Director

Rekha has over 30 years of experience with young people and families in the public and charity sector, having worked in social care and educational & community settings. After completing an MA in community learning, Rekha has been successfully running and leading charities.
Rekha brings passion and commitment to the work she does to break cycles of deprivation and has a strong desire to address social inequalities.

Rekha continues her volunteer work which  involves the tutoring and mentoring of women and young people entering or departing university education by supporting in their academic journey and future professional journey.

Rita Pilkington – Senior Insights Analyst

Rita is responsible for the capture, analysis and presentation of data at Right to Succeed. She is passionate about using research and data to improve outcomes for those most in need and previously worked for Depaul UK, a youth homelessness charity. Prior to joining Right to Succeed, Rita was a Senior Research Executive at Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, an arts consultancy.

As well as having a background in research, Rita’s academic background is in science – she has a Batchelor’s degree in Biomedical Science and recently completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Global Health which looked at how social science approaches to research can help support policy change around the world. 

Sarah Chaudharry - HR Assistant

Sarah Chaudharry – HR Assistant

Sarah Harrison – Data and Insights Officer

Sarah Stockwell – Head of Fundraising

Sarah has worked in fundraising, in a range of different charities, for over 16 years. The thread linking all of her roles is her passionate commitment to supporting organisations which enable others to access the same opportunities that she has been privileged to be given. Sarah brings to the team her specialism in Trust, Statutory and Institutional fundraising and partnership working. She also brings her experience of working with corporates and a range of individual funders. Sarah is especially excited to be part of the Right to Succeed team as, having been born and raised in Blackpool, she can see the tremendous difference our collaborative approach is having in this and other areas.

Shannon Kaiser - Programme Design Officer

Shannon Kaiser – Programme Design Officer

Sonia White – Partnerships Manager

Sonia holds the responsibility of managing partnerships across Right to Succeed. Sonia has over 10 years’ experience working in the charity sector for substance misuse, criminal justice and youth services across a variety of communities; from small ex-mining towns in the North East to inner-city neighborhoods in Manchester and Leeds. Sonia is passionate and committed to supporting families, children and young people to achieve their potential and thrive.
From early in her career Sonia saw the advantage and challenge in bringing together organisations to provide the best opportunities for vulnerable adults, children and young people. She has since championed collaborative approaches which led her to the work of Right to Succeed.

Steff O'Keeffe - Project Manager

Steff O’Keeffe – Project Manager

Tom Staples – Programme Officer

Tom is responsible for assisting in the delivery of the Cradle to Career project in North Birkenhead. Providing both administrative and programme delivery support. Tom recently completed his masters in social research methods, specialising in local government & public policy. His research centred on re-configuring approaches to public-sector digital reform. After a brief stint working with a consultancy and volunteering for a local homeless night shelter project,
Tom began his search to find a charity that his skillset could support. It was then that he discovered Right to Succeed and the work we do to support citizens from areas in the UK with high levels of disadvantage.

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“Right to Succeed’s research-informed approach is made sustainable through their commitment to harness the power of the collective.”

Sir Harvey McGrath, British business and philanthropy Executive and Right to Succeed funder

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2019-03-14T14:50:34+00:00

Sir Harvey McGrath, British business and philanthropy Executive and Right to Succeed funder

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“Right to Succeed’s research-informed approach is made sustainable through their commitment to harness the power of the collective.”
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"They have challenged our thinking, provided tools to help us improve our outcomes for young people and remained consistent throughout the process to date."

Head SLT Ed Diversity

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2019-03-21T20:41:08+00:00

Head SLT Ed Diversity

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"They have challenged our thinking, provided tools to help us improve our outcomes for young people and remained consistent throughout the process to date."
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"It shows me that the work that you are doing is enormously important. You are acting as filters, brokers, and relationship-builders. You are nudging, monitoring and linking the work in the region. You are generating momentum, funding, and enthusiasm."

David Weston CEO at Teacher Development Trust

Right to Succeed
2019-03-21T20:45:45+00:00

David Weston CEO at Teacher Development Trust

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"It shows me that the work that you are doing is enormously important. You are acting as filters, brokers, and relationship-builders. You are nudging, monitoring and linking the work in the region. You are generating momentum, funding, and enthusiasm."
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"After 30 years in this profession and eight years as a Head Teacher I can honestly say that I have never before worked with such professional people who have been able to challenge my thinking and inspire my practice"

Wendy Casson, Headteacher, Educational Diversity Pupil Referral Unit, Blackpool

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2019-03-21T20:19:42+00:00

Wendy Casson, Headteacher, Educational Diversity Pupil Referral Unit, Blackpool

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"After 30 years in this profession and eight years as a Head Teacher I can honestly say that I have never before worked with such professional people who have been able to challenge my thinking and inspire my practice"
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