Martin was the Director of Housing and Community Care at the London Borough of Brent until April 2011. Martin’s knowledge of, and passion for, the housing sector is widely appreciated and he is currently part of the Housing Network Panel for The Guardian. Martin was awarded the OBE in 2001 for services to housing.
David had a 25 year career with Bass Brewers covering various management functions but went through a period of alcohol abuse and recovery. David is now an active volunteer with Turning Point, and in 2010 won two awards, Ealing Community Champion and Start of West London, in recognition of this work.
Wendy is Head of Income Collection and Community Safety at Places for People, ensuring effective services are delivered to over 60,000 homes in neighbourhoods across the country. She was previously Regional Housing Director at William Sutton Homes, and was also on the Board of Bolton Community Homes, a member of Leeds Renew, the Manchester RSL Forum, the Salford Strategic Partnership, and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Darrel grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, but now lives in Brent. He has experience of homelessness and using a variety of support services.
Paul is Business Development Director at Cosmur Construction, a building contractor based in Queen’s Park. Paul trained as a Quantity Surveyor with John Laing before joining Cosmur, becoming Managing Director in 1989. He stood down from this post in 2008 to concentrate on business development and corporate social responsibility.
John Coburn is project/policy manager for HACT, which is a national housing charity focused on the role that housing providers can play in building stronger, more resilient neighbourhoods. He is responsible for business development and managing HACT’s learning programmes and key areas of interest include welfare reform, social enterprise and localism. John is also an advisor to Enterprise Cube, a social enterprise offering business support to social housing residents. In his spare time, John is a community campaigner in North Westminster.
Nick and his wife run Protollo, a consultancy focusing on Finance and People within organisations. Nick trained as an Actuary with Prudential and after qualifying had a range of management roles in finance, customer service and sales. He worked in human resources at the internet bank Egg focusing on organisational development, ending up as HR Director. At Protollo he has supported organisations ranging from a technology start up to a mental health charity
Prakash’s first involvement with Lift was when through Community Research training which we delivered for Brent’s Supporting People. Prakash is passoionate about quality services to vulnerable people. He is also serving as Brent Mind Chair and can be found regularly working as a service users representative with Adult Social Care in Brent.
Robert (Bobbi) was employed as a Building Services Engineer overseeing several overseas construction projects. After being diagnosed with a Deep Vein Thrombosis in 1985 and being advised that he could not fly, he found it difficult settling in to living in the UK. Around that time Robert also lost a close family member and suffered from (at the time undiagnosed) nervous breakdown. He ended up living on the streets of London for 2 years. After moving into a hostel he was allocated a flat in Harlesden where he has lived for over 16 years. Since 2001 he has been a volunteer/ Trustee with a charity in the east end of London – during this time he has re-trained in computer networking as well as software and hardware. Bobbi is well known in the local community, he is the secretary of Friends of Harlesden Town Garden, as well as volunteering regularly with Brent Adult Social Care to improve services.
Richard specialises in quality assurance and business processes within the Welfare to Work sector. He has previously worked at Reed in Partnership as Risk Manager and Senior Quality Manager. Richard’s contribution to Lift will be around ensuring it has robust approach to ensuring best quality and effective service delivery.
Previously a Management Consultant at Ernest and Young, Donal has financial management responsibilities on multi-million pound corporate transformation programmes. Previous to this role Donal worked on various projects with a particular emphasis on business development, mergers and growth. Donal is a local resident.
Radha completed Lift’s DAAT (Drug and Alcohol Team) community research training in 2009 and subsequently volunteered and gained employment with drug and alcohol treatment charity Addaction.
Radha was key in setting up B-SAFE an entirely peer led and volunteer run weekend befriending service for people affected by addiction.