The Pilotlight Team
Our programmes transform charities into sustainable organisations. Meet our staff and trustees.

Ed Mayo
Chief Executive
Bio
Ed joined Pilotlight in 2020 after a distinguished track record of non-profit leadership in civil society, including as CEO of Co-operatives UK, New Economics Foundation and National Consumer Council and as Chair of the Jubilee 2000 coalition and Involve, the democratic participation charity. Ed has been recognised for his leadership in the field by the World Economic Forum and has been awarded an honorary degree by London Met University for services to ethical markets. He has written widely on values, the economy and society (as well as two short stories of fiction). His book ‘Values: how to bring values to life in your business’ is published by Routledge.

Bruce McCombie
Deputy Chief Executive
Bio
Bruce joined Pilotlight as a Project Manager in 2011. He became Senior Project Manager in 2013 and Head of Partnerships in 2016. Prior to joining Pilotlight, Bruce worked for a management consultancy delivering organisational development services for clients in the private and charitable sectors, with a specific focus on young people organisations. He has a Master's in Sociology and has lived in Canada and Japan. Bruce is former Chairman of CareTrade Charitable Trust, and is currently Chair of Advisory Board for the LMP group of social businesses focused on education, apprenticeships and social impact.
Charlie Medcalf
Head of Programmes
Bio
Before joining Pilotlight, Charlie worked for a London-based education charity, which aims to raise the aspirations of young people living in disadvantaged areas. Her work included setting up a new centre in Harringey and delivering the multi-stranded programme to young people aged seven to 19. She has a degree in Social Anthropology and has spent time volunteering in India with a community development charity promoting HIV awareness to young people in the city of Pune.

Mel Whitney-Long
Head of Operations
Bio
Mel joined Pilotlight in February 2019. Mel’s career was in International Development, working mainly on women’s and girls’ empowerment issues through health and education programmes in Asia and Africa. She holds a Master’s degree in Violence, Conflict & Development and has lived in Rwanda, Laos and Sierra Leone. Mel is a trustee of the Farkhunda Trust, an organisation which provides scholarships and mentoring support to disadvantaged and vulnerable female students in Afghanistan.

Caroline Fry
Senior Project Manager
Bio
Caroline joined Pilotlight in February 2018 as a Project Manager. This is her first role in the third sector, and she brings a wealth of experience of working in project and business management in the private sector; mostly from global digital brands (Yahoo! and MSN), but also from start-up level (Uuni). Caroline was drawn to Pilotlight as a way of using her professional skills to bring benefits to charities in the UK, and was attracted to the role by the simplicity and effectiveness of the Pilotlight model…much as many of our Pilotlighters are!

Richard Moore
Senior Project Manager
Bio
Prior to joining Pilotlight, Richard worked for 15 years with Waterstones Booksellers managing branches, events and other projects. He is currently a committee member of the Dunbar Science Festival and has previously worked as a volunteer E.S.O.L. teacher for East Lothian Council and Business Researcher for Barnardos, Scotland.

Katie Berwick
Project Manager
Bio
Katie joined Pilotlight in July 2019. She has three years’ experience working in the Non-for-Profit Sector. Prior to Pilotlight, Katie worked for a homeless charity which focused on homeless prevention in London. Firstly, Katie worked in youth homeless in Lewisham before moving to Islington where she focused on working with people at risk of domestic abuse. Katie has a MA from Edinburgh University in Social Anthropology and she has a passion for exploring new places around the world.

Jonas Fathy
Project Manager
Bio
Jonas joined Pilotlight in June 2018. Originally from Germany, he has a varied background: He studied Not-for-Profit Management in Hamburg, worked for one of Germany’s largest publicly funded theatres in Marketing and Development, ran a professional circus arts business (including performing on stage), led students and executives on educational tours through London, and started professional coaching training just before joining Pilotlight. One of his life’s passions is martial arts: He is involved in preserving a traditional Japanese jujutsu-style both as practitioner as well as teacher.

Lucy White
Project Manager
Bio
Lucy joined Pilotlight in February 2018. She has four years’ experience in the not for profit sector, working most recently for an international development organisation offering e-mentoring to women entrepreneurs based in over 100 countries. Prior to this she held a fundraising role at the University of Warwick and has also volunteered with several homelessness charities in London.

Liora Wulf
Project Manager
Bio
Liora joined Pilotlight in November 2016. She has ten years’ experience in the not for profit sector, with roles in project delivery, fundraising, operations, finance, senior management and consultancy. Most recently she was Operations Director for food waste campaigning organisation Feedback, and has also worked with charities and social enterprises in the international development, environmental and social welfare fields.

Breanne O'Brien
Partnerships Manager
Bio
Breanne joined Pilotlight in July 2019. She comes with a background in marketing and advertising with a focus on business development and relationship management. However, she has always had a keen interest to do more purposeful work and get involved with the third sector and she joined Pilotlight to use her professional skills in new ways. As someone who has travelled widely, she has previously lived in Amsterdam and Toronto.

Sima Patel
Partnerships Manager
Bio
Sima joined Pilotlight in March 2020 after spending ten years in the Finance industry working as a Fund Accountant across several London based Hedge Funds. This is Sima’s first role in the third sector pivoting her career into one with positive social impact.

Giulia Giuliani
Partnerships Executive
Bio
Giulia joined Pilotlight in November 2017. She studied Political Science and International relations in Rome. After graduating she moved to Berlin, where she started her career in marketing. She moved to London in 2011 and continued working in marketing and sales roles. This is her first position in the third sector.

Tom Leavesley-Matthews
Regional Partnerships Manager
Bio
Tom joined Pilotlight in August 2019 and is responsible for developing partnerships and raising our profile in the Midlands. Tom has had a varied career to date, spanning the public, private and third sectors. In his last role, Tom led a project to develop a new quality standard and assessment framework for services supporting victims/survivors of sexual violence. Outside of work, Tom is a keen runner and is taking part in the Brighton Marathon and Cardiff Half Marathon.

Elaine Mowat
Scotland Partnerships Manager
Bio
Elaine joined Pilotlight in February 2020. She has extensive experience of learning and development and capacity building roles in higher education and in the third sector and was drawn to Pilotlight for its strong coaching approach and exciting evidence of impact. Elaine is responsible for developing partnerships and growing Pilotlight's work in Scotland.

Lucy Avery
Marketing Communications Manager
Bio
Lucy joined Pilotlight in December 2016 to manage Marketing Communications for the whole organisation. She has ten years’ experience in marketing, previously working in leading publishing companies on B2B and B2C marketing campaigns in the UK and across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. This is her first position in the third sector.

Simona Bojāre
Communications Executive
Bio
Simona joined Pilotlight In October 2020. Before moving to London in 2019, Simona lived in Newcastle Upon Tyne where she completed her MA studies in journalism at Newcastle University. Simona comes to Pilotlight with a background in digital PR and event management with both inhouse and agency experience.

Kaitlin Marian
Charity Partnerships Manager
Bio
Kaitlin joined Pilotlight in August 2020. She previously worked at KPMG in Financial Due Diligence and Deal Origination roles. This is her first role in the third sector. She has a Master's in Law and Economics. Kaitlin also volunteers as a Childline counsellor and is deeply passionate about social justice and creating positive social impact.

Imogen Jefferies
Operations Executive
Bio
Imogen joined Pilotlight in July 2019. After having worked in admin at a London PR agency, she moved to Pilotlight to further her interest in Operations and the Charity Sector. Prior to this, Imogen graduated from Edinburgh University in 2018 with an Ancient History Degree. Upon moving to London, she undertook a temporary HR role within the property sector.

Cornish and Grey
Evaluation Services
Bio
Charlotte Cornish and Anna Grey are strategic research and evaluation consultants each with more than 25 years of practising market and social research for public, private and third sector organisations.
Since 2013, they have worked with Pilotlight to understand, measure and improve the effectiveness of its programmes. In addition, Cornish and Grey provide on-going support for Pilotlight’s internal monitoring of customer feedback and one off pieces off research to explore, for example, the needs of a stakeholder group, the effectiveness of a new programme, or the impact of a programme or systems change.
Our Trustees

Sally Bailey
Chair
Bio
After a long career in retail, latterly as CEO of White Stuff, Sally now works as a portfolio Non-Executive, board adviser and mentor. Sally is the Chair of Kin&Co, and is a trustee of The Eve Appeal. She is also a mentor for The Marketing Academy.

Tina Alexandrou
Vice Chair
Bio
Tina’s career has been within the financial services industry, both in the UK and internationally. She now works in the Social Sector and is currently a trustee of the Resolution Foundation, Clore Social Leadership Programme and a founding partner of an Ark Primary school in West London.

Chris Connelly
Chris works at ICG, an alternative asset manager where he is Director of Operations. Chris has been a Pilotlighter since 2004 and has worked on numerous projects across a range of social issues.

Gary Hale
Gary is a Chartered Surveyor and specialises in urban renewal development. Gary is a trustee of a small charity that provides overseas aid and he also sits on the Development Board of the Reading Real Estate Foundation. He became a Pilotlighter in 2009.

Ollie Lloyd
Ollie Lloyd is an experienced marketeer and entrepreneur. He started his career in Unilever working in marketing on brands like Persil, Cif, Dove, Axe and Lynx. He then worked in consultancy on a range of roles that spanned brand development and cultural change. In 2011, he founded Great British Chefs, a digital business focused on inspiring foodies and helping brands engage with this premium audience. He is now Head of Clients at Hearst, the publishing house that runs 26 brands including Good Housekeeping, Elle, Esquire and Women’s Health.

Peter Moss
Peter is a successful business and technology leader, and is currently CEO of a Fintech start up. A specialist in leading organisations through complex transformational change, he loves solving problems and delivering results. He's been a Pilotlighter since 2013 and believes that businesses and their managers get significant value from engaging with the charitable sector. He has personally been involved with a range of charities as a trustee, as a volunteer and as a Pilotlighter, and has found Pilotlight's engagement model is by far the most effective.

Fiona Rodford
Fiona has had many years’ experience as Chief People Officer working with large global businesses helping to transform business activity and create sustainable people and culture change. BAA, Alliance and Leicester, Thomas Cook and Booker were some of the companies she has worked with. More recently she works alongside Boards and CEO’s to help diagnose the business strategy requirements and to assist in the delivery. She has had advisory roles and is a past Chair of the CBI Employment and Skills group and was a committee member for over 3 years. She has advised the public sector in people and change strategy over a period of significant change and until recently was a Board member and NomCo member of KidsOut.