Sabeena Akhtar (she/her) Head of Projects & Programmes

Colette Bailey (she/her) Executive Director

Ndi Ekanem (she/her) Development Relationship Manager

Helena Jacques-Morton (she/her) Senior Marketing & Communications Manager

Jude Kelly CBE (she/her) Founder

Charlie Marshall (she/her) Head of Communications & Marketing

Domino Pateman (she/her) Director of Festivals & Programmes

Jeannie Scott (she/her) Office Coordinator & Executive Assistant

Laura White (she/her) Trusts & Foundations Manager (part-time)

The WOW Foundation proudly works with WOW Festival curators and partners from across the globe. We also work with brilliant freelancers on projects across the year, without whom our work couldn't be possible.

Chair:

Sandie Okoro OBE (she/her)

Trustees:

Nazir Afzal OBE

Richard Collier-Keywood

Nusrath Hassan (she/her)

Shevaun Haviland

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon

Vanessa Ogden CBE

Barbara Reeves

Chair

Dr Sandie Okoro (she/her) is Group General Counsel at Standard Chartered Bank, where she oversees the Legal, Group Corporate Secretariat and Shared Investigative Services functions, and is a member of the Bank’s Management Team. Previously, Sandie served as General Counsel and Senior Vice President, and Vice President for Compliance, at the World Bank Group. Sandie is an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple in the United Kingdom (2018) and was named one of the Upstanding 100 Leading Ethnic Minority Executives (2016), Top 20 Global General Counsel (2019) by the Financial Times, and was recognised as Britain’s 5th most influential person of African and African Caribbean heritage by Powerlist (2018). Sandie was appointed inaugural Chair of The WOW Foundation in June 2021, and is a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Trustees

Nazir Afzal OBE was Chief Crown Prosecutor for NW England and formerly Director in London. Most recently, he was Chief Executive of the country’s Police & Crime Commissioners. During 24 year career, has prosecuted the most high profile cases in the country & advised on many others and led nationally on several legal topics including Violence against Women & Girls, child sexual abuse, and honour based violence. He had responsibility for more than 100,000 prosecutions each year. His prosecutions of the so called Rochdale grooming gang and hundreds of others were groundbreaking and changed the landscape of child protection.

Richard Collier-Keywood is the Chair of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, the Chair of Fair4All Finance (the new UK financial inclusion organisation funded by dormant assets), the Chair of Humentum (an NGO based in Washington DC focussed on supporting Operational Excellence in the NGO sector), the Chair of New Forest Care (a company that provides bespoke care and education to children with complex needs) and is a Partner in YGroup (a strategy consultancy). He is also on the Board of CoGo a social enterprise based in New Zealand, the Marshall Institute at the LSE and St George’s House in Windsor. Previously Richard was Global Vice-Chairman of PwC from November 2011 to February 2017 and served as Managing Partner of PwC UK from 2008 to 2011. Richard is a barrister and a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.

Nusrath Hassan is the first Head of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) at the National Theatre, responsible for driving forward cultural change in the workforce, on stages, and audience reach. Her career at an Inclusive Leadership consultancy has involved working closely with the C-suite of multinational and international organisations to accelerate a sustainable culture of Inclusion. She fundamentally believes ED&I is the right and smart thing to do to drive both high-performance and a values-led environment. Nusrath is also a champion of girls’ education. Prior, she was based at Mulberry School for Girls where she coordinated Global and Women’s Education programmes on local and global platforms. Most notably, there she launched the ‘Let Girls Learn’ campaign with former First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.

Nusrath is also a Trustee at Mulberry Schools Trust and Chair of Governors at Mulberry School for Girls, where she is a member of both the Standards Committee and Steering Board for the Mulberry STEM Academy in partnership with Mercedes Grand Prix. For her achievements and efforts, Nusrath has been awarded ‘Winner’ at the national Women of the Future Awards and is featured on the British-Bangladeshi Power 100 List.

Shevaun Haviland is Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce. Shevaun joined the BCC from the Cabinet Office where she lead Business Partnerships. She joined the Government in 2016 and also ran the Inclusive Economy Partnership for HMG.

Shevaun started her career in consultancy in London and New York. She then moved to the Walt Disney Company in strategic planning before joining Disneyland Paris, opening the second theme park. Shevaun then joined the agency world, running global accounts for Millward Brown, Mindshare and WPP. Following this, she became a partner in a start-up digital innovation agency and venture builder, Independents United, where she also became an Advisor for the Danson Foundation. Most recently, Shevaun was the New Ventures Director for Avado, building new businesses in Edtech and founding the Academy of Digital Business Leaders.

Shevaun has a passion for business as a force for good. She is a social impact investor, sits on the Ventures Advisory Board of UnLtd, and is Trustee of Barefoot College International.

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE is a prodigy in every sense of the word. Aged 11, she was the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing, and was just 20 years old when she received her Master’s Degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Oxford. Since then, she has forged an enviable CV, including positions at Goldman Sachs, Hewlett-Packard and Deutsche Bank. Then there are the Honorary Doctorates from Open University, Glasgow Caledonian University, Kent University, Bristol University, Coventry University, Royal Holloway, University of London and Bath University, and an Honorary Fellowship at Keble College, Oxford. She chairs UD Music Foundation, sits on the Council of Research England and served as the 2022-2023 President of the British Science Association. In 2021 she began a run as temporary Arithmetician on Channel 4’s longest running gameshow Countdown, as maternity cover for Rachel Riley. In 2024 she became Chancellor of Glasgow Caledonian University.

It is this wealth of experience and pioneering spirit that led her to co-found the Stemettes, an award-winning social initiative dedicated to inspiring and promoting the next generation of young women in the STEM sectors. Since its inception 11 years ago, it has exposed more than 65,000 young people across Europe to Anne-Marie’s vision for a more diverse and balanced science and tech community. In 2022 she released her book She’s in CTRL, a guidebook for women to take back tech.

Barbara Reeves is a Partner and Head of Mishcon de Reya's Family department. She is an accredited specialist in all aspects of divorce and family law, having led cases involving substantial wealth, complex multi-jurisdictional disputes and trust issues. She is renowned for her handling of the financial fall-out from divorce, with significant experience in cases with an element of non disclosure and enforcement issues. She is also adept in dealing with the wider issues affecting families, such as separation; property disputes; injunctions; marital agreements; cohabitation and all private children arrangements, including residence and contact arrangements, overseas relocation, surrogacy and adoption. Barbara has acted in a number of high profile cases in relation to divorce, matrimonial finance, and financial provision for the children of unmarried parents. Her clients include high net worth and international clients from a wide range of backgrounds, including entrepreneurs, owners of family businesses, City professionals and the independently wealthy. Barbara is a qualified mediator and is a member of the ADR Group, which is recognised for its cross disciplinary depth in the fields of family, civil, and commercial mediation. She is a member also of the Advisory Panel of Insuring Women's Futures, a programme established by the Chartered Insurance Institute, aimed at promoting and enhancing the insurance and financial planning profession’s role in relation to women and risk. She is also a member of the Development Board of the Young Vic.