Our Founding Team
We are incredibly grateful to the founding team behind Right to Succeed, who saw the need for a more collective and systematic approach to overcoming inequity in left-behind communities.
Anthony Harte
Anthony is Senior Vice President (EMEA) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML). Anthony oversees the firm’s philanthropic programme and is part of the leadership team for Environment, Social and Governance in the EMEA region. Before joining BofAML, Anthony established the Community Affairs platform at Nomura and prior to this worked within the Philanthropy and Cultural Partnership team at Lehman Brothers.
Bethia McNeil
Bethia is Chief Executive of the Centre for Youth Impact, and has been with the Centre since its launch in 2014. Before this, Bethia worked at the Dartington Social Research Unit, the Young Foundation, the National Youth Agency and NIACE (now the Learning and Work Institute), in a variety of policy and research roles. She has also worked in further and higher education as a teacher and trainer. Bethia is a 2012 Clore Social Fellow and a Senior Visiting Fellow at Nottingham Trent University.
Bethia joined the Right to Succeed Board because she cares deeply about measurement and understanding of impact – both of which have been at the heart of the RtS model since the beginning.
Chris White
Chris is Co-Founder of ZING – a seed funder of early stage organisations focusing on young people realising their potential, often in the transition between education and the workplace. ZING also brings about scalable web and mobile technologies to the not-for-profit sector.
David Sheldon
David is the Head of Treasury Product Control (EMEA) at Nomura. He has built finance teams covering derivative and funding products across banking. David qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Acting as a Financial mentor as part of social entrepreneur incubation programme David met Graeme. An interest in Social Impact Bonds and the ability to scale educational solutions led to his support for Right to Succeed since 2014.
Gemma Roycn Jones
Gemma has spent the last 10 years specialising in financing and strengthening the organisational resilience of charities and social enterprises. Having left the financial sector to work full time in the charity sector she developed the Young Academy education incubator programme which resulted in her meeting Graeme. Their shared passion for improving outcomes for all children and young people led her to join Right to Succeed, first as a founding trustee, then as the second employee and Development Director. Gemma now works at the National Lottery Community Fund where as Head of Financial Resilience.
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.
Jo Owen - Chair
Jo is a co-founder of eight charities in education and re-offending including Teach First, the UK’s largest graduate recruiter. He is a top author and speaker on leadership: his books have reached over 50 editions globally and include How to Lead, Global Teams and Tribal Business School. He was a partner at Accenture; he started a bank, has been sued for $12 billion and was the best nappy salesman in Birmingham while working for P&G.
Sonia Blandford
Sonia is Professor of Social Mobility at Plymouth Marjon University. Sonia gave Graeme valuable insight into how Right to Succeed could operate in schools at the beginning of the Right to Succeed journey and joined the team as one of the first board members at Right to Succeed.
Sonia also acts as Professor of Education and Social Enterprise at UCL Institute of Education and is an Honorary Professor of Education, University of Warwick.
Sarah Evans Founder - Oxford Youth Lab
Sarah Evans founded Oxford Youth Lab (“OYL”) in 2016, as a social lab focused on today’s most complex problems around youth. OYL was created after 5 years of workshops and seminars with academics and practitioners whose work was concerned with youth in urban areas. OYL connected thought leaders and change-makers across sectors, drawing inspiration from a global network of innovators to promote evidence-based innovation:
OYL and Right to Succeed came together in 2017 with an agreed locally-focused social lab approach, and an initial focus on specific youth-related problems linked to educational inclusion, as well as access to sustainable employment.
Our Founding Team
We are incredibly grateful to the founding team behind Right to Succeed, who saw the need for a more collective and systematic approach to overcoming inequity in left behind communities.
Anthony is Senior Vice President (EMEA) at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML). Anthony oversees the firm’s philanthropic programme and is part of the leadership team for Environment, Social and Governance in the EMEA region. Before joining BofAML, Anthony established the Community Affairs platform at Nomura and prior to this worked within the Philanthropy and Cultural Partnership team at Lehman Brothers.
Bethia is Chief Executive of the Centre for Youth Impact, and has been with the Centre since its launch in 2014. Before this, Bethia worked at the Dartington Social Research Unit, the Young Foundation, the National Youth Agency and NIACE (now the Learning and Work Institute), in a variety of policy and research roles. She has also worked in further and higher education as a teacher and trainer. Bethia is a 2012 Clore Social Fellow and a Senior Visiting Fellow at Nottingham Trent University.
Bethia joined the Right to Succeed Board because she cares deeply about measurement and understanding of impact – both of which have been at the heart of the RtS model since the beginning.
Chris is Co-Founder of ZING – a seed funder of early stage organisations focusing on young people realising their potential, often in the transition between education and the workplace. ZING also brings about scalable web and mobile technologies to the not-for-profit sector.
David is the Head of Treasury Product Control (EMEA) at Nomura. He has built finance teams covering derivative and funding products across banking. David qualified as a Chartered Accountant with PwC and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Acting as a Financial mentor as part of social entrepreneur incubation programme David met Graeme. An interest in Social Impact Bonds and the ability to scale educational solutions led to his support for Right to Succeed since 2014.
Gemma has spent the last 10 years specialising in financing and strengthening the organisational resilience of charities and social enterprises. Having left the financial sector to work full time in the charity sector she developed the Young Academy education incubator programme which resulted in her meeting Graeme. Their shared passion for improving outcomes for all children and young people led her to join Right to Succeed, first as a founding trustee, then as the second employee and Development Director. Gemma now works at the National Lottery Community Fund where as Head of Financial Resilience.
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.
Jo is a co-founder of eight charities in education and re-offending including Teach First, the UK’s largest graduate recruiter. He is a top author and speaker on leadership: his books have reached over 50 editions globally and include How to Lead, Global Teams and Tribal Business School. He was a partner at Accenture; he started a bank, has been sued for $12 billion and was the best nappy salesman in Birmingham while working for P&G.
Sonia is the Founder and CEO of the international charity Achievement for All, which delivers high impact programmes that enhance the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged young people by raising aspirations, access and achievement. Sonia gave Graeme valuable insight into how Right to Succeed could operate in schools at the beginning of the Right to Succeed journey and joined the team as one of the first board members at Right to Succeed.
Sonia also acts as Professor of Education and Social Enterprise at UCL Institute of Education and is an Honorary Professor of Education, University of Warwick.
Sarah Evans founded Oxford Youth Lab (“OYL”) in 2016, as a social lab focused on today’s most complex problems around youth. OYL was created after 5 years of workshops and seminars with academics and practitioners whose work was concerned with youth in urban areas. OYL connected thought leaders and change-makers across sectors, drawing inspiration from a global network of innovators to promote evidence-based innovation:
OYL and Right to Succeed came together in 2017 with an agreed locally-focused social lab approach, and an initial focus on specific youth-related problems linked to educational inclusion, as well as access to sustainable employment.