How our board supports our mission

The board guides our work, making sure we’re delivering change, spending every penny wisely, keeping our staff and work accountable to our mission and values. Made up of experts from multiple sectors, backgrounds and expertise, they make New Horizon stronger and more sustainable for decades to come.

Meet the board

NHYC team member

Matthew Reed

Chair

Matthew has been Chief Executive of Marie Curie since February 2019 having previously served as Chief Executive of the Children’s Society, Chief Executive of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and a Director at Christian Aid. Matthew is passionate about social justice and inclusion and ensuring that everyone has the very best chance to thrive and flourish in all aspects of their life. Matthew is also a lay Member of the Council (non-exec) at the University of Liverpool.

A photo of Daniel Jordan

Daniel Jourdan

Daniel brings extensive local knowledge, having been born and raised in Camden, and working professionally with young people and communities in the borough for 15 years. His knowledge of the funding landscape in London, as Head of Grant Programmes at a local placed based funder, brings relevant up-to-date insight to our fundraising and his experience of managing youth services brings added knowledge of risk assessment, safeguarding and trauma informed practice.

A photo of Ellie Roy

Ellie Roy

Ellie Roy has worked at senior level in public sector management and policy roles including Chief Probation Officer, Director of Crime Reduction for London, National Director for Crime Reduction, and Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board. Ellie has wide experience of the adult and juvenile criminal justice system from her work in the community and in prisons, and has a keen interest in taking positive action to prevent offending. She has been a Trustee at New Horizon since 2009.

A photo of Gemma Rocyn Jones

Gemma Rocyn Jones

Gemma has spent the last 10 years specialising in financing and strengthening the organisational resilience of charities and social enterprises. At The National Lottery Community Fund Gemma combines a focus on strategy with finding new ways for social investment to deliver positive outcomes for vulnerable people. Gemma's first volunteer role came as a new graduate working in the city when she became a governor of an inner-city primary school. This passion for helping children and young people realise their potential led her to join New Horizon in July 2019. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, a Clore Social Fellow and an accredited coach.

A photo of Gill Goodby

Gill Goodby

Gill joined the NHYC Board in Sept 2022 bringing expertise in strategic marketing, crisis communications, corporate partnerships and public policy influencing. She is currently Director of Campaigns at the Mayor's Fund for London, holding previous roles as Director of Engagement at London Youth (a membership body for youth clubs across London) and Head of Communications at the social justice charity INQUEST. A decade previously spent in advertising sparked Gill's passion to support charities to build brand profile, generate income and drive supporter engagement. Having worked in housing early in her career and growing up in London herself, where she's now raising her three teenagers, Gill joined NHYC to support the charity in pushing for long-overdue, decisive political action to tackle youth homelessness in the capital.

A photo of John Williams

John Williams

John is a senior financial services professional and currently heads up the wealth planning division at Citi Private Bank in the UK. Prior to this he held senior positions with UBS, Credit Suisse and Nedbank. He joined the Board of Trustees in September 2017 and has used his experience and passion for supporting disadvantaged young people in his role at New Horizon.

A photo of Kate Hawthorne

Kate Hawthorne

Kate is a senior financial services professional and chartered accountant currently working in Risk at Natwest having previously worked in Finance and at a start up digital bank within Natwest. Prior to Natwest Kate worked for Ernst & Young and Scottish Widows. Passionate about education, youth development and women’s issues Kate joined the Board of Trustees in 2017.

A photo of Martin Dibben

Martin Dibben

Martin has worked in a variety of high end, high volume establishments covering experience in restaurants, conference and banqueting, business in industry and outdoor catering. Having run his own restaurant Dibben's in Smithfield's market for six years, Martin is now General Manager of Searcy's at the Barbican.

A photo of Nana Owusu

Nana Owusu

Nana is a Mental Health leader, CAMHS Clinical Nurse Specialist and Therapist with 20 years of clinical and senior management experience, shaping evidence-based, culturally responsible and accessible services for vulnerable children and adolescents. Currently as Director & Clinical Lead for Children and Young Peoples Services at MIND (Hammersmith, Fulham, Ealing and Hounslow), she heads strategic development and clinical management of services, instilling best practices in service design and performance monitoring. Previously, she led the mobilization and delivery of MIND’s mental health support teams in West London as part of a national pilot to improve mental health outcomes for children and young people. Nana's passion and drive to supporting and advocating children and young people during their time of need and enable them to achieve positive outcomes, has led her take on the role as a trustee at New Horizon Youth Centre.

A photo of Paula McDonald

Paula McDonald CBE

Paula is a Judicial Appointments Panel Chair, a Board Trustee and a Non-Executive Director, working with a number of organisations in the youth, education and social care sectors. As a Senior Civil Servant, she led on Workforce, Leadership & Public Bodies Reform programmes in the Cabinet Office, coordinating major policy reviews across Whitehall and advising ministers and Prime Ministers. Paula has a background in social policy and economic development, employment promotion and HR planning. Prior to joining the Cabinet Office she had been a senior manager in local government, leading on quality reviews, strategy and resources. In her early career she established community initiatives to create employment opportunities and positive social change.

Dara de Burca

Dara was raised and educated in Ireland, graduating from University College Dublin. She qualified as a social worker at the University of North London and continues to be a registered social worker. Dara has post graduate qualifications in health and social care leadership and social work practice teaching, and she is an alumni of the Windsor Leadership Programme. Dara has over 30 years' experience of leading and managing health and social care services in both statutory and charity settings. She was Youth Impact Director at the Children’s Society where she secured £5m in National Lottery Funding, delivering the groundbreaking, and award-winning, Disrupting Child Exploitation Programme. Previously, Dara was Director of Services at Young Lives vs Cancer, where she worked with NHS hospital partners to oversee the development of social care services for young people with cancer.

Dr Pippa Goodfellow

Pippa’s wide-ranging experience in developing evidence-informed policy, communications and strategy spans several sectors, with a golden thread of specialism around children and young people. She has a particular focus on alliance-building and collective action, and a strong commitment to amplifying youth voice. Pippa is currently Director of Influence, Impact and Evidence at The Children’s Society and was previously the first Chief Executive of the Alliance for Youth Justice. She was formerly a Non-Executive Director of Abianda, a specialist girls and young women’s organisation, and a Trustee of the National Association for Youth Justice. She has also recently completed a Professional Doctorate in Children and Young People’s Services.

Dr Carole Easton OBE

Carole is Chief Executive at the Centre for Ageing Better. Her career began as a Child and Family Psychotherapist in the NHS. She has worked extensively in the voluntary sector including interim roles as Chief Executive of Refuge and British Lung Foundation and permanent roles at Young Women’s Trust, ChildLine and CLIC Sargent. She has been Chair of the Board at Young Minds and held trustee roles at Depaul UK and Advance (domestic abuse and criminal justice).

Kate Eisenstein

Kate is a senior public service leader with a particular focus on the health and social care sectors. She is currently Deputy Secretary and Director of Policy, Research and Legal for the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry. Kate has a background in policy, strategy and engagement. Kate is passionate about working in partnership to support young people and advocate on their behalf, to prevent young people falling through the gaps in public services that can leave young people unhoused and unsupported.

Daniel Morris

Daniel is an established senior leader in the voluntary sector with extensive experience in designing and delivering services to children and young people. Starting his career in youth work, Daniel has always been driven by a passion to amplify the experiences of children and young people. In particular supporting and advocating for those underrepresented and living in deprived communities. Previously, Daniel established a renowned Pan-London Harmful Sexual Behaviour programme, and supported service design for a national charity across several programmes of work; this includes homicide, domestic abuse and peer support services. He also was the Director of Programmes at Listen Up Research an organisation that specialised in anti-racist practice in child protection and safeguarding. Currently Daniel is the Assistant Director of Young People and Families at Catch22 where his portfolio consists of National County Lines, Missing & Child Exploitation services.

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