Advisory Council

Jenny joined KPMG as a public sector audit graduate in 2007, qualifying as a chartered accountant in 2010. In 2011 she joined the KPMG Corporate Responsibility team taking on a variety of roles before moving into External Affairs in 2016 as Head of Social Mobility. As Head of Social Mobility, Jenny developed and executed KPMG’s social mobility strategy across the firm. Jenny is regularly consulted by Government and advises KPMG clients, suppliers and the wider business community on social mobility policy within a business context. In October 2018 Jenny became Co-Head of Inclusion, Diversity & Social Equality for KPMG. In 2016 KPMG was appointed by Government as one of the 11 founding Social Mobility Champions. In December 2016 KPMG was the first firm to publish comprehensive workforce data on the socio-economic background of its workforce.

In 2017 KPMG was an inaugural winner of The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise: Promoting Opportunity (through social mobility) and won the Leadership of the Year award at the first Social Mobility Awards and later in 2018 KPMG was awarded the number one spot in the Social Mobility Employer Index.

Jenny is a Board Trustee for the East London Business Alliance and a School Governor for Orleans Park School

I lead Linklaters work on responsible business globally, ensuring that our own ESG performance reflects the expectations of those around us and the advice we provide to clients on many related themes. I am active in a range of sustainability networks including as co-chair of the Legal Sustainability Alliance, as chair of Business for Societal Impact, as a Board Member of the UNGC-UK Network and, in my spare time, am proud to act as trustee and former chair of an east London employability charity. 

Karen qualified as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young, London in 1994 working within financial services, specialising in the insurance industry.  Following a two year secondment to Australia, she returned to London and worked in the Information Security and Assurance Practice where she was responsible for IT audit assurance activity within insurance market clients and managed the outsourced IT internal audit for the Corporation of Lloyds and Aon.

Karen joined Aviva (Norwich Union) in 2002 and has worked in a variety of roles within the organisation including financial reporting, risk, strategy, transformation & change delivery and finance business partnering across IT and non-IT shared services, RAC, UK General Insurance business (Sales & Service, Underwriting and Pricing and Claims).

In her current role she is responsible for property strategy & change across the group, and for ensuring that we provide safe and appropriate workspace for all colleagues.

Karen has lived in Norwich for 19 years with her husband and three sons.

Imran has held the role of Chief Procurement Officer for Nationwide Building Society since September 2020 and is responsible for the Society’s third party and procurement strategy. He has a passion for sustainability and has actively championed sustainable improvements via supply chains throughout his career. In 2021 Nationwide were proud award winners from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply for their Procurement for Mutual Good programme.   ​

Prior to Nationwide Imran has held supply chain leadership roles across a diverse range of global industries in aerospace & defence, and technology; most notably where he was CPO at BAE Systems and CPO for BT Openreach. He began his procurement and supply career at GlaxoSmithKline.​

Imran is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, holds an MBA for Imperial College London, and is a Future Leader of the WBCSD. He lives in London, UK with his wife and two young children.

Mubin is Chief Executive of abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, an independent funder which aims to improve living standards and address financial problems faced by those living on low-to-middle incomes in the UK. The Trust recently changed its name from Standard Life Foundation. 
 
Mubin has worked for a number of independent funders, including Trust for London and the South East London Community Foundation. He has been on the boards of a range of organisations including as Chair of London Funders and as a member of the London Strategic Migration Partnership and the Homelessness Transition Fund. He is currently a member of the Scottish Government’s Minimum Income Guarantee expert group and is a trustee of GambleAware. 

Afzal is Policy Officer at the TUC where he leads the TUC's work on pay, the Living Wage, the minimum wage and working time issues. The TUC exists to make the working world a better place for everyone. It brings together more than 5.5 million working people across 48 trade unions.  

Peter Kelly has been active in campaigns for social justice for more than 20 years, both as a worker and activist. He joined the Poverty Alliance as Policy Manager in overall day-to-day management of the organisation, as well as leading on the policy and campaigning goals of the network. Peter also represents the Alliance in a variety of forums and networks including Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector, the Scottish Drugs Forum, Energy Action Scotland and others. He is currently Vice President of the European Anti-Poverty Network.

He has been a member of a number of official advisory forums including the Scottish Government's Tackling Poverty Program Board and the DWP's Social Inclusion Advisory the Alliance.

Before joining the Alliance he worked at the Scottish Low Pay Unit, helping to campaign for the introduction of the National Minimum Wage.

The Poverty Alliance hosts Living Wage Scotland which awards the Living Wage Employer mark to employers in Scotland.

Jeff is Head of Total Rewards at IKEA currently focused on designing, delivering and embedding a Reward strategy, for a business, undergoing significant restructuring in a global retail marketplace, where emphasis is on brand realignment, digitalisation and product development. Jeff brings over 30 years of practical hands on reward expertise into play.

Career history includes in HR Operations and Reward Leader at Channel 4 Television in the UK, responsible for HR processes, rewards, benefits and wellbeing. Previously Global Reward Director at Willis Towers Watson and formally Global Reward Director at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. In both roles he was responsible for delivering a radical redesign of pay, bonus and benefits structures and global governance programmes. He was also previously Director of Rewards, in Mondelez International, responsible for reward and benefits strategy, covering 140,000 employees.

John is Chief Executive of People’s Health Trust. Through its funding and support, the Trust encourages resident-focused approaches as a means of addressing the underlying structural causes of health inequalities.

He is a member of the Advisory Board for NIHR’s School for Public Health Research and Chair of the Living Wage Friendly Funder Committee for the Living Wage Foundation.

John was previously the Deputy Head of Programmes for Big Lottery Fund's £500m health programme, ran his own business for several years and headed up V's £100m corporate match fund programmes. As well as leading operations planning at both Big and the Care Quality Commission, John also worked in learning disability/mental health services, where he set up and ran a community resource centre, and was once the CEO of Graeae Theatre Company.

Ben advises the Mayor of London on matters relating to business, science and technology, growth and economic fairness. In this role Ben chairs the Greater London Authority’s steering group on economic fairness, and works with the Mayor, Deputy Mayors and senior GLA officials to develop and implement policies to promote fair pay, good working conditions, financial inclusion and opportunity.

Before joining the Mayor’s team at City Hall, Ben worked on Sadiq Khan’s campaign to become Mayor of London, and prior to that as Head of Policy Development at The Labour Party. He has also served as a local councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth.

Matthew Bolton has pioneered community organising as a force for social change and democratic renewal. With 15 years experience as an Organiser and now Director at Citizens UK, he has helped build a nation-wide alliance of tens of thousands of active citizens and trained community leaders. Matthew was the lead Organiser for the UK Living Wage campaign, which has now accredited nearly 5,000 Living Wage Employers and won over £800m for low-paid workers. He has helped orchestrate successful campaigns to tackle payday lenders, increase genuinely affordable housing, change Government policy on refugees, as well as many neighbourhood changes. Matthew is the author of How to Resist, an internationally renowned book on organising and campaigning, and coaches senior leaders in civil society organisations on how to unlock the power of their membership and realise a more radical mission. Matthew is a Trustee of the London Community Land Trust affordable housing provider. He lives with his wife and two children in South London and is a black-belt in Wu Shu Kwan Chinese Boxing and an Advanced PADI scuba diver. He loves Spurs and is no stranger to defeat.

Sarah joined Cynnal Cymru – Sustain Wales in January 2020. Cynnal Cymru is the leading independent sustainable development charity in Wales and the accrediting body for the Living Wage in Wales. 

Sarah began her career as a lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills, later moving to the corporate responsibility team and implementing Community Investment and Social Mobility programmes.  In 2014, Sarah joined H&M Group as Sustainability Manager, leading the sustainability strategy for the supply chains in Cambodia and Vietnam. Whilst at H&M, Sarah worked with manufacturers, government and international trade unions on promoting a living wage for the garment sector through the Action Collaboration Transformation (ACT) initiative. 

With over 20 years reward and recognition experience gained from working across multiple industry sectors, Clare has built significant expertise in designing effective and affordable reward strategies, aligned to the strategic direction of the business.  Clare first came across Everton during her time at PwC whilst working with the Club to implement strong reward foundations.  Gaining the opportunity to work permanently for the Club has been a fantastic opportunity to continue to shape a holistic reward and recognition strategy under the vision of the Club’s People Director, Kim Healey.  With the reach and influence Everton Football Club has, supporting the Living Wage is a vital part of this strategy, as is supporting employees with their financial wellbeing, which will feature heavily in the Club’s agenda moving forward.

A founding member of Leeds Citizens, John has been involved with Citizens UK and contributing to our work for many years. In his professional life, John was a British Labour Party politician, serving as an MP for Leeds West for over 20 years. During this time, he also served as Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry and then for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 2002, he became a Member of the Privy Council and was the Prime Minister's envoy to all faith communities until May 2010.

Despite now being in retirement, John is still active in local politics, local community project work as well as working through the Roman Catholic Church Justice and Peace Commission both locally and nationally. He is Pro-Chancellor at Leeds Trinity University, a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall in Oxford and Chair of both Bramley Baths Social Enterprise and Leeds Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission. John is also trustee of several other organisations including St George’s Crypt, a Leeds charity working with the homeless, the vulnerable and those suffering from addiction.

John is based in Leeds West and is a proud father and grandfather to three grown up children and five grandchildren. In his spare time, he enjoys folk music, poetry and supporting local teams Leeds United and Leeds Rhinos.

Fraser works in the Principal’s Office at Queen Mary, where he supports the Vice-Principal (Policy & Strategic Partnerships) across a portfolio that includes degree apprenticeships, environmental sustainability, building new income streams, reputation management, and developing strategic and ambitions partnerships. Fraser takes a leadership role in the implementation of the External & International Engagement Enabling Plan and the Sustainability Action Plan, supporting the overall delivery of Queen Mary’s Strategy 2030. This includes oversight of Civic Engagement, Public Affairs, Strategic International Partnerships, and Arts & Culture activity.

Queen Mary was the first accredited university in the UK in 2006 to pay a real Living Wage, and is also a founding partner of the Living Wage Foundation.