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

Gillian Murray
Chief Executive
Bio
Gillian joined Pilotlight as a project manager in October 2005 and she became Deputy Chief Executive in 2007 and Chief Executive in 2013. Her long-term interest in the third sector was sparked by a three-year stint with Voluntary Service Overseas in Laos, during which she became VSO acting country director and advised the Laotian Ministry of Education. She holds a masters degree in Development Management from The Open University. Before entering the third sector she had a successful career teaching and managing a chain of language schools in Italy.

Alisa Hall
Head of Programmes (Charlie's Maternity Cover)
Bio
Alisa joined Pilotlight in May 2019 following her relocation to the UK from Australia. Alisa was the Chief Executive of a community agency delivering services and programmes, including social enterprise ventures, for vulnerable individuals and groups. Previously she has held roles as a Principal Consultant to health and community services organisations and an Executive of a large workforce planning and development agency. Alisa has a Bachelor of Social Work, Masters of International Public Health, Certificate of Company Directors and a Certificate in International Leadership and Organisational Behaviour. She is currently a member of the Ark Atwood Primary Academy Governance Group and has sat on a range of strategic advocacy committees and boards including the Community Services Industry Skills Reform Council (Australia).

Bruce McCombie
Head of Partnerships
Bio
Bruce joined Pilotlight as a Project Manager in September 2011. He became Senior Project Manager in 2013 and Head of Programmes 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, a charity supporting young Londoners with autism into employment.
Charlie Medcalf
Head of Programmes (On Maternity Leave)
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.

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.

Aimee Hesp
Partnerships Manager
Bio
Aimee has over 16 years' experience in the Not-for-Profit Sector working in areas such as business development, change management and relationship building as well as marketing and PR. Having an interest psychology, holistic healing techniques and self-development has seen Aimee attend workshops across the globe in areas such as Whole Body Mindfulness, Surrendered Leadership and alternative healing modalities.

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.
Alex Griffiths
Executive Assistant
Bio
Alex joined Pilotlight in June 2019. This is Alex’s first position within the Third Sector after having been initially attracted to Pilotlight because of the opportunity to engage with a wide range of social causes. Prior to joining Pilotlight, Alex was working in a number of different sectors including marketing and television production after obtaining an Anthropology degree from the University of Bristol.

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.

Georges Lebreton
Support Manager
Bio
Georges joined Pilotlight in September 2014 and provides support to both the charity recruitment and membership teams. Prior to this, he was developing his family’s translation and antiques-selling enterprises, expanding their French-based businesses to the UK. He has a Master’s degree in International Relations, and is particularly interested in how the business sector can work to help address social issues

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.

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.

Jose Salas
Jose is a Director of Strategic Alliances at IHS Markit, an information, software and analysis provider to businesses in industries such as financial services, energy, aerospace, defence and automotive. His career has focused on financial markets, having worked amongst others for 360 Trading Networks, Bloomberg LP and Deutsche Bank. Originally from Spain where he volunteered for many years at the Red Cross, Jose moved to the UK 19 years ago and has been a Pilotlighter since 2014.

Andrea Sinclair
Andrea Sinclair is an experienced internet entrepreneur and angel investor. Her background is originally in strategy consulting with McKinsey & Company. Since 1999, she has been working in internet start-up businesses. Andrea is now mainly focused on angel investments in technology start-ups, as well as in supporting social entrepreneurs, particularly as a member of the Ashoka Support Network and Pilotlight. She is a Non-Executive Director at Great British Chefs and Loco2.