Philanthropy Coffee Colloquy

Alderman Robert Hughes-Penney was born in Brazil and spent some of his childhood in South Africa before returning to the UK when he attended the Haberdashers’ Aske’s School.

After graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University and RMA Sandhurst Robert served in the army in Canada, Germany and the UK.

He started work in the City in 1993 and is an Investment Director at Rathbone Investment Management where he manages multi-asset risk adjusted investment portfolios for individuals, families, trusts and charities.

He has held a number of senior leadership roles within the business, including sitting on the Board and 12 years on the Executive and Management Committees.

He is also on the Boards of the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment and the Impact Investing Institute.

Prior to being elected as an Alderman, he spent eight years as a Common Councilman and during which time he was Chairman of both the Corporation’s Investment Committee and the Financial Investment Board.

Robert is on the Court of the Haberdashers’ Company and is Past Master of the Guild of Investment Managers.

He also has Honorary lifetime membership of the City & Guilds Institute and has served as a trustee of a number of charities including Trust for London and Mercy Ships.

He is currently churchwarden of St Lawrence Jewry and chair of the annual City of London Prayer Breakfast.

Alex Skailes, Director of the Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Bayes Business School, City St Georges, University of London

Alex is the Director of the Centre for Charity Effectiveness (CCE)at Bayes Business School (formerly Cass). The Centre is a leading centre for nonprofits, known in the UK and overseas for its charity management MSc and leadership development programmes, its research and advisory work with the charity sector.

Alexsits on the University senior leadership group for social responsibility and in 2022, was elected to the board of the international Nonprofit Academic Centers Council. She has long term trustee experience and is currently a director and trustee of Conserve Global.

She chairs the board of the Bayes Global Women’s Leadership Programme and is a member of the International Women’s Forum UK branch. She is a long-term mentor.

Alex has been awarded Fellowships from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA), the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS) and the Royal Society for Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce (FRSA) and is a Freeman of the City of London.

Bob Harris has spent most of his career at a senior level in two of the largest global management consultancies: EY and Accenture.

He was a founder member of the Management Consultants Livery Company in 1993 where he served in several senior positions and has been heavily involved in the Company’s pro-bono work in the not-for-profit sector.

He joined the Pan Livery Steering Group in 2019 and has led several Surveys of Philanthropic Giving by the Livery.

He also set up and chairs a thriving Pan Livery Pro Bono Interest Group.

Fozia is the Director of Impact and Influence at BBC Children in Need, specialising in equitable funding distribution and investment for young people.

She was previously awarded the national 'Rising Star CEO' award by the National Charity Times and voted one of the 25 Most Influential Charity Leaders in the sector.

Fozia set up the groundbreaking Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Coalition of foundations, leading fifteen major national foundations in the implementation of more effective and equitable grantmaking strategies.

She is Chair of 360giving and on the Board of Alliance magazine.

Fozia completed a Masters in Grantmaking, Philanthropy and Social Investment at Bayes Business School with Distinction, and is a keynote speaker at national conferences and specialist foundation events, covering topics such as leadership, equity and philanthropy.

She is also a NED of Fair4All Finance and a former Trustee of the Association of Charitable Foundations. She was appointed a Leadership Fellow in 2019 and Churchill Fellow in 2020.

Fozia is also a Visiting Lecturer at Bayes Business School on the Voluntary Sector Management Masters Programme.

James Banks is Chief Executive of London Funders, bringing funders together to build a better London by taking action on what matters to our city and our communities, through enabling members from across the public, private and philanthropic sectors to work collaboratively to achieve positive change.

He has led collaborative efforts including getting over 400 funders to sign the “We Stand With The Sector” pledges to support community action in 2020, bringing 67 funders together to distribute £58m through the London Community Response collaboration during the pandemic, and enabling funders and social justice organisations to deliver the new £100m ten-year Propel collaboration.

Alongside his role at London Funders, James also chairs Collaboration Circle, a new national organisation that provides a space for funders and partners to pool their people, power and pounds to achieve change.

He was recognised by Charity Times for his leadership through covid-19 as one of the sector’s 20 “Pandemic Pioneers”, and was made an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2022 for his services to charitable funding in London.

Lani Martin co-founded Impact 100 London in 2020. She currently co-leads the collective philanthropy which provides grants to charities working with women and girls in London. Impact 100 London has awarded £900,000 in grants to 18 charities since its inception.

Lani has had a consistent commitment to charities that support children’s health and education globally. Lani serves on the Global Leadership Council and UK Executive Team for Seeds of Peace.

She is also on the Ivey Advisory Board for the Richard Ivey School of Business and a founding member of the IWIL (Ivey Women Investing in Leadership – a collective fund investing in female Ivey students and graduates).

Lani has extensive experience in finance, including 12 years in investment banking with Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Securities, and, more recently, as an active private equity investor and advisor.

Louisa Mitchell MBE is the chief executive and one of the founding team of AllChild (formerly West London Zone), the charity which helps underserved children and young people build the social, emotional, and academic skills they need to flourish.

She led the launch of AllChild’s unique co-designed and community-led model of support in West London in 2015 and has overseen its successful expansion, reaching nearly 5,000 children together with a wide range of charity partners across 60 schools in four councils in west London, and extending to the Wigan area of Greater Manchester from September 2024.

Louisa was awarded an MBE in the 2024 New Year Honours List in recognition of her services to children and young people.

Sarah Grieves is the Community Partnerships Lead at Beam, an innovative tech platform supporting homeless people and refugees into stable jobs and homes.

Since launching in 2017, Beam has changed the lives of more than 4,000 people.

Sarah is passionate about tackling social injustice through impactful partnerships and innovative solutions.

She previously led strategic partnerships and philanthropy at Simprints, a UK-based non-profit developing technology for global health and development contexts.

Her current work builds on her past career in technology, including at Amazon, where she supported the development of Alexa.

Sayeh is a Partner at EY and an award-winning strategy and change consultant, focusing on transport and infrastructure sectors.

Sayeh usually works with clients who are facing new and significant challenges, helping them develop innovative strategies, new business models and transformation programmes.

At EY and beyond, Sayeh is deeply committed to social impact and diversity. She serves as a Trustee for the EY Foundation and was, until recently, a Non-Executive Director at the WISE campaign (Women in Science and Engineering).

She holds a MEng in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College, London, speaks multiple languages and is a martial artist.

Sonal Sachdev Patel is the CEO of GMSP Foundation, a family foundation, which practises trust based philanthropy in supporting strong frontline organisations working to improve the lives of some of the most marginalised people in India and the UK.

She is the first Philanthropist in Residence at LSE’s Marshall Institute.

Sonal is an experienced advisor and board member to organisations working on gender equality, education and rights-based advocacy. She serves on the board of Dasra that has unlocked £330M to 700 ngos and Global Fund for Children that works in 32 countries. She was awarded the 2019 Influencer Award by DSC Awards for her work in social change.

Sonal writes spiritual books for children - her first book Gita: The Battle of the Worlds published by HarperCollins, brings the messages of the ancient Hindu text the Bhagwad Gita to children everywhere. Her upcoming book, “Little Wave & Other Stories'' uses the power of storytelling to offer gentle guidance to understand death and navigate grief.

Sonal graduated with an MA in Economics with Management Studies and an award for academic excellence from Cambridge University. Her background before joining the foundation is strategy consulting with Bain & Company.